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THE DOCTRINE OF THE PROPHETS
EA LoquuNTUR PROPHETAE DEL QUAE AUDIUNT AB EO,
NIHILQUE ALIUD EST PROPHETA DEI, NISI ENUNTIATOR VERBORUM
DEI HOMINIBUS.

QuID ERGO? CUM LEGIMUS, OBLIVISCIMUR QUEMADMODUM
LOQUI SOLEAMUS? AN SCRIPTURA DEI ALITER NOBISCUM FUERAT

QUAM NOSTRO MORE LOCUTURA ?
8S. AUGUSTINUS.
THE DOCTRINE OF THE
PROPHETS

THE WARBURTONIAN LECTURES

For 1886-1890

BY

A. F. KIRKPATRICK, D.D.

REGIUS PROFESSOR OF HEBREW AND FELLOW OF TRINITY COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE
CANON OF ELY CATHEDRAL

London
MACMILLAN AND CO.

AND NEW YORK
1892

All rights reserved
TO THE
Reverenp ARTHUR GRAY BUTLER, M.A.,

FELLOW AND TUTOR OF ORIEL COLLEGE, OXFORD,
AND FIRST HEAD MASTER OF HAILEYBURY COLLEGE,
THIS BOOK IS INSCRIBED BY HIS OLD PUPIL,

AS A SLIGHT TRIBUTE OF REGARD AND AFFECTION
AND IN GRATEFUL ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF
STIMULATIVE TEACHING, WISE COUNSEL,

AND UNVARYING KINDNESS,

MDCCCLXIII.—MDCCCLXVII.
HE
Sursum Corda.

HH
PREFACE

THis volume contains the Lectures delivered upon
the foundation of Bishop Warburton in the Chapel
of Lincoln’s Inn during the years 1886-1890, by
the kind permission of the Benchers given in accord-
ance with the desire of the Founder. The original
Lectures have been in some cases re-written and
expanded, and the series has been completed by the
addition of Lectures not actually delivered. But it
has seemed best to allow the book to retain the
style and character given to it by the circumstances
of its origin, rather than to recast it into a more
formal shape. I had at one time intended to add
some critical and exegetical notes to the Lectures ;
but with a few exceptions this plan has been
abandoned, partly because the volume had already
grown to its full limits, and partly because I now
hope that, for a portion of the field traversed, such
notes may find a more suitable resting-place else-

where.
vill PREFACE

I desire to acknowledge most fully my obligations,
direct and indirect, to the many authors whose works
have been consulted during a long course of study.
These Lectures lay no claim to originality, save in so
far as I have endeavoured to make the statements
contained in them my own by careful study of the
prophetic writings themselves, with all the helps at
my disposal so far as time allowed. But no critic
can well be more sensible of the many defects of the
volume than its author. He lays down his pen
with the consciousness that the words of the son of
Sirach, applied by St. Augustine to the study of the
Psalter, are even more applicable to the study
of the Prophets. When a man hath done, then he
beginneth, and when he leaveth off, then he shall be
doubtful.)

It is perhaps hardly necessary to say that refer-
ence is throughout intended to be made to the
Revised Version. In some cases, where the differ-
ence of rendering is important, I have called attention
to it by adding #.V. to the reference. In actual
quotations I have not scrupled to introduce fresh
renderings where it seemed possible to express the
meaning of the original more closely. I have, as a

1 Eeclesiasticus xviii. 7.
PREFACE ix

tule, restored JEHOVAH in place of Lorp or Gop,
which, in accordance with the Jewish tradition, our
Versions generally substitute for the Sacred Name.
The pronunciation of that Name as JEHOVAH,
although not philologically defensible, is so far
naturalised in our language that it cannot easily be
displaced in favour of the presumably correct pro-
nuneiation Yahweh. But the correct pronunciation
is a matter of small importance, compared with the
recognition that it is a proper name, the sum-
mary expression of God’s revelation of Himself to
Israel.

The object of these Lectures is to give some
account of the work of the Prophets in relation to
their own times ; to shew, letting each of them, as
far as possible, speak for himself, the contribution
made by each to the progress of revelation ; to point
out the unity in variety, and variety in unity, of
their teaching, testifying alike to the one divine
Source from which their inspiration was derived,
and to the diversity in the human instruments
through which He willed to communicate His
message. It may seem to some that the human,
personal, circumstantial elements of prophecy have
been unduly exaggerated, but I have desired always
x PREFACE

to remember that while “Scripture speaks to men in
their own language,’! “the prophets of God speak
what they hear from Him, and the prophet of God
is nothing else but the enunciator of the words of
God to men.” ”

It may seem further that, especially in view of
the purpose of the Warburtonian Lecture as defined
by its Founder, I have devoted too little attention
to the consideration of special fulfilments of Prophecy.
But if it be true, as I have lately endeavoured to
shew elsewhere,® that the evidential value of the
Old Testament to the mind of the present day rests
not merely or mainly on the fulfilment of specific
and circumstantial prophecies, but on the whole
drift and tendency of a manifold and complex pre-
paration, in history, in life, in thought, pointing to
an end which it foreshadowed, but could not describe,
for which it prepared, but which it could not pro-
duce, then the attempt to exhibit the distinctive
characteristics of the teaching of the Prophets in
relation to their own times may legitimately be
regarded as a contribution towards the elucidation
of the evidential value of the Old Testament. It

1 Op. St. Aug. c. Faustum, xxxiii. 7.

2 St. Aug. Quaest. in Exod. v. 17.

3-In a paper on The Evidentiul Value of the O0.T., vead at the
Church Congress at Folkestone, 1892.
PREFACE xi

was the function of the Prophets to prepare for the
coming of Christ not less than to predict it; and
nothing can produce a firmer conviction of their
divine mission, than the consideration of the way
in which they were raised up from time to time to
meet the actual needs of great crises in the history
of Israel, as well as to point forward to the great
purpose of the ages. If thereby we gain an increased
conviction of the naturalness of Prophecy, we gain
at the same time an increasing conviction of its
supernaturalness. Adaptation not less than marvel
is a characteristic of divine working; and it is by
studying the ways of God in history that we come
to recognise His footprints.

It has been said by an acute observer of move-
ments of theological thought and Biblical study,
that “the full rediscovering and full appropriating
of the Old Testament are the special problem of our
own day.... The fashioning of the methods by
which the secret of the Old Testament is to be
approached and elicited has taken many centuries.
We are not yet agreed about it; but I do not think
that it is being too sanguine to feel that we are draw-
ing nearer to it. We are beginning to feel the warmth
and the life and the reality come back to those
pale and shadowy figures. Isaiah and Hosea and
xii PREFACE

Jeremiah no longer walk in a limbus Patrum, but
we see them as they were among the forces by which
they were actually surrounded. We see what they
were as men; we see what they were as exponents
of a message from God; we see the grand and
glorious ideas which stirred within them in all their
richness and fulness, conditioned, yet not wholly
conditioned, by the world of thought and action in
which they moved. We see these ideas linking
themselves together, stretching hands as it were
across the ages, the root-principles of the Old Testa-
ment running on into the New, and there attaining
developments which may have been present to the
Divine Mind—though they cannot have been present
to the human instruments whose words went and
came at its prompting.” ?

The words are bold; but at least they express the
aim and desire of those who, while they advocate the
most searching critical and historical study of the
Old Testament, retain a firm belief that it is the
inspired record of a unique divine revelation to the
world. The interpretation of the Bible is not
stationary but progressive. As successive centuries
contributed to the construction of the Divine
Library, so successive centuries must contribute to

1 Sanday, Zhe Oracles of (od, pp. 118, 120.
PREFACE xiii

its interpretation. It must not be supposed that
modern students of the Old Testament wish to
depreciate the students of past generations, or to
regard their own work as final. The answer of
Jerome to the charges of innovation so fiercely hurled
at him will be theirs. Quid igitur? damnamus
veteres? minime: sed post priorum studia in domo

Domini quid possumus laboramus?

“Tt is no less true now than ever it has been,
that the surest means of religious advance is to be
sought in renewed study of the Bible. What we
need especially at this moment is freshness, a real
getting at the heart of the matter instead of dally-
ing with the outside. And I question if we shall
get this in any better way than by approaching our
task under the guidance of Criticism and History—
of Criticism and History not, as too often, dissevered
from, but united with, Religion.” ”

May these Lectures offer some help towards such
a more real understanding of the Prophets; and better
still, may they direct their readers, if they shall find
any, to such a diligent and attentive study of the
Prophetic Books themselves, that, in the words of

1 Prologus in Genesin (Tom. ix. p. 6).
* Sanday, p. 126.
xiv PREFACE

Origen, they may feel, as they read, the traces of
their inspiration, and gain a firmer conviction that
they are in very truth no mere writings of men, but
the words of God.

CAMBRIDGE, November 15, 1892.
InrRODUCTION

OBADIAH

JOEL .

Amos.

HosEa

CONTENTS

LECTURE I

LECTURE II

LECTURE III

LECTURE IV

LECTURE V

PAGE

33

46

81

107
xvi CONTENTS

LECTURE VI

IsAIAH THE SON OF AMOZ .

LECTURE VII

Mica

LECTURE VIII
NAHUM

LECTURE IX
ZEPHANIAH

LECTURE X
HABAKKUK .

LECTURE XI
JEREMIAH

LECTURE XII
EZEKIEL

LECTURE XIII

ISAIAH OF THE EXILE

PAGE

141

201

235

253

264

286

321

349
CONTENTS xvii

LECTURE XIV

PAGE
HAGGAI AND ZECHARIAH . 5 409

LECTURE XV

ZECHARIAH IX.-XIV. » 4388

LECTURE XVI

IsAIAH XXIV.-XXVII. é 475

LECTURE XVII

MALacui » 490

LECTURE XVIII

CHRIST THE GOAL OF PROPHECY . ¥ « 68
CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE 528
INDEX oF SoME PassAGES COMMENTED ON 535

GENERAL INDEX . 2 537
INTRODUCTION
otdé yap 6a Tovdalous udvous of mpopjra: éréumovto . . maons
6é ris olxoupévns Foav didacKddov lepdy ris wept Ocod yvadcews Kal
Ths Kara Wuxnv todirelas.
8. ATHANASIUS.
LECTURE I

INTRODUCTION

Gop, having of old time spoken unto the fathers in the prophets by
divers portions and in divers manners, hath at the end of these days
spoken wnto us in His Son.—Hrsrews i. 1, 2.

I
THE opening words of the Epistle to the Hebrews connexion
c é and contrast
affirm the connexion, while they contrast the el ie ase
ris-
1 thristi 7 _ tian dis-
character, of the Jewish and the Christian dispensa. is

tions. It was the same God who spoke in both,
though the mode and the instruments of His com-
munication with men in the two periods were widely
different. Of old time, in the long period which pre-
ceded the Incarnation, He spoke to the fathers in the
prophets. The voices of that long succession of men
whom He raised up from time to time through a
period of more than a thousand years were the voice
of God. In them He spoke by divers portions and in
divers manners; or, as the inimitable words of the
original’ may be otherwise rendered, in many frag-

1 rrodumepa@s kal modurporws.
The one a
preparation
Sor the other.

4 THE PREPARATION LECT.

ments and in many fashions. The revelation was
diversified, fragmentary, imperfect ; here a little and
there a little, line upon line, and precept upon pre-
cept, as men needed and as they were able to bear it.
But in these latter days He has spoken to us in a Son?
Unity is contrasted with variety. In Him the many
partial and fragmentary utterances are reconciled
and united. He is the one supreme and final revela-
tion of God. The Messenger is Himself the message.
The whole of the New Testament is the delineation
and interpretation of His Person and His Work.
There was an intimate and organic connexion be-
tween the two revelations. God, hurting spoken in the
prophets spoke in His Son. The first revelation
was the necessary preparation for the second. The
second revelation was the fore-ordained sequel of
the first. This is not the peculiar doctrine of the
author of the Epistle to the Helnews. It is the
unanimous teaching of the whole New Testament.
Our Lord Himself repeatedly declared that the old
dispensation looked forward to Him. Evangelists
and Apostles were but following His example when
they taught that in all its parts it was the manifold
preparation fur His Coming. If the Incarnation is
indeed a fact, if God has indeed spoken to us in His
Son, if the New Testament is in any degree a faithful

1 This is the literal rendering of the Greek, in which the pronoun
His is not expressed. It lays stress on the nature and quality of
Christ, not upon His personality. The one who is a son is con-
trasted with the many who were servants.
I FOR THE INCARNATION 5

record of His teaching and of the teaching of those
who received their instruction from His lips, then
the divine choice of the nation of Israel to be the
object of a special discipline and the recipient of an
unique revelation cannot possibly be called in ques-
tion. The view which regards the religion of Israel
as only “ one of the principal religions of the world,”
maintaining that between it and all the other forms
of religion “there exists no specific difference,” ?
to the believing Christian, absolutely untenable.
For it assumes that all religions alike are but “ so
many manifestations of the religious spirit of man-
kind,” and that there is no such thing as a special
divine revelation. Let us fully admit that God Je/t
not Himself without witness among the heathen

is,

nations of antiquity ; that many strivings, and very
noble strivings, after truth are to be found in other
religions than that of Israel; that these too in their
appointed way formed part of the divine preparation
for the Incarnation; yet from the Christian point of
view it is impossible to class them together. Chris-
tianity stands apart from all other religions as the
final revelation of God to man, and the religion of
Israel stands apart from all other pre-Christian re-
ligions as the special preparation for that unique
event which is the fundamental fact of Christianity.
The nation of Israel was the organ of a special rne 0. 7.

se a A the inspired

divine revelation, and the Old Testament is the record of
this prepar-
ation.

1 Kuenen, Religion of Israel, vol. i. p. 5.
6 THE PURPOSE OF LECT.

divinely ordered record of that revelation. It can
only be rightly understood when it is studied in the
light of this specific purpose. Viewed as a history
of the nation of Israel, it tantalises by its disap-
pointing fragmentariness. It gives little or no
account of many of the most important periods of
national development. It affords little or no insight
into many of the most instructive features of national
life. Viewed as a literature, it is, as a whole, in-
ferior to the literature of Greece and Rome. But
when it is viewed as the record of the divine training
of the nation which was chosen to be the recipient of
a special revelation, its peculiar characteristics
receive their explanation. When it is viewed as the
record of the revelation made to Israel and through
Israel, in itself preparatory and imperfect, but ever
looking forward to some future fuller manifestation
of God to men, ever yearning for a real ‘fulfilment,
its many voices are found to combine in a true har-
mony. The Old Testament is unique as a national
literature in virtue of the essential unity of spirit
and purpose which characterises it notwithstanding
the wide diversity of date and variety of form of its
different elements; in virtue of the progressiveness
with which its teaching advances, not indeed uni-
formly or without any check or retrogression, but in
the main and on the whole, from an outward and
material to an inward and spiritual conception of
religion ; in virtue of its steady outlook, in spite of
I THE OLD TESTAMENT it

manifold disappointments, towards an age to come,
which forms the goal of divine purpose for Israel
and for the world. This unity, this progressiveness,
this hope, are rightly regarded as marks of its divine
origin, and proofs of the inspiration of its authors.

It was the office of Israel to prepare for Christ,
and it is the function of the Old Testament to bear
witness to Christ. But its message to the Christian
Church is not exhausted in this its prophetic and
propeedeutic character. It is placed in the hands of
the Christian Church as still profitable for teaching,
for reproof, for correction, for instruction which rs in
righteousness, It has an abiding moral and spiritual
value. We read it now with the light of fuller revela-
tion reflected back upon it, in a richer and fuller
sense than that which those to whom its words were
originally addressed could possibly have recognised.

II

When this lecture was founded by Bishop War- Present
burton more than a century ago,’ with the object thea!
of elucidating the evidential value of prophecy, the ?”?/ry-
argument from prophecy and the argument from
miracles were regarded as two of the most con-
vincing- proofs of the truth of Christianity.” In the
previous century Pascal could say, “La plus grande

1 Jn 1768.
” See e.g. Butler’s Analogy, part ii. ch. 7.
8 THE ARGUMENTS FROM LECT.

des preuves de Jésus-Christ, ce sont les prophéties.”?
But in the present day miracles which were once
appealed to as a ground of belief, are in many quarters
treated as a hindrance to belief. It is denied by many
that there is any such clear correspondence between
prophecy and its alleged fulfilment as to constitute a
proof of the divine origin of Christianity.

It is not my purpose to discuss the causes of this
change of view at length. Scientific research has
“placed in a clearer light the symmetry and order
of external nature, and invested the idea of law with
an absolute majesty inconceivable at an earlier time.”
A naturalistic theory of the world banishes God
from the pages of history. Historical criticism chal-
lenges the accuracy of ancient records. Deeply as
the extreme results of these tendencies of modern
thought are to be deplored, they have not been with-
out a wholesome influence upon Christian thought.
They have taught us to look for God’s revelation of
Himself in His ordinary not less than in His extra-
ordinary modes of working. The fixed laws of Nature,
unknown to an earlier age, are in a true sense powers
which testify to the majesty of Him who ordained
them and maintains them in operation. The pheno-
mena of Nature are signs which manifest His glory
to the eye of faith, and there is no other faculty but
faith by which He can be seen. We have learnt to
look for the proofs of God’s shaping of the history of

1 Pensées, ti. 11, 1.
1 PROPHECY AND MIRACLES 9

the world in the continuous discipline in which we
believe His hand can be traced, and in the pro-
gressive teaching which we believe reflects His mind,
rather than in isolated interpositions and special
predictions.

It cannot be denied that in former times a dis-
proportionate value was attached to the arguments
from miracles and prophecy, and that an undue
stress was laid upon the least important aspects of
them. The more astounding to the senses a miracle
appeared to be, the more convincing an exhibition of
divine omnipotence was it thought to offer. “The
particular details, inaccessible by inference from
general principles or other rational means, seemed
to apologists of special importance in proving the
supernatural origin of prophecy. The predictions of
single incidental circumstances seemed the most
striking.”?

But now these arguments are recognised as taking
a subordinate though real place among the evidences
of Christianity, and the nature of their evidence has
been placed in a truer light. Miracles are regarded
as vehicles rather than as proofs of revelation ; as the
manifestation of a higher law, or the promise of the
restoration of the true order which has been inter-
rupted by sin. While circumstantial predictions are
not to be denied, comparatively little stress is to be
laid upon them. They cannot always be authenti-

1 Orelli, Old Testament Prophecy, p. 27 (H.T.).
10 PRESENT POSITION OF LECT.

cated. For example, the prediction of a Josiah or a
Cyrus by name centuries before they were born was
at one time regarded as an irrefragable proof of the
inspiration of the record. Such predictions would
no doubt be a very remarkable proof that the
prophets who delivered them were the agents of
an omniscient Being, if we could be sure that they
were really predictions. But the Book of Kings did
not take its present form till after the reign of
Josiah, and the name of Josiah may easily have
been an addition to the original narrative; while
many arguments combine to prove that the later
chapters of the Book of Isaiah were not written
until the lifetime of Cyrus.

But even when circumstantial predictions can be
authenticated, they cannot be held to possess the
importance which was once attached to them.
Isolated predictions of this kind give little informa-
tion as to the character and purposes of God. They
may serve to attract attention and appeal to the
temper of mind which seeks for a sign, but they will
not satisfy the more thoughtful student. For him
the contemplation of the wider characteristics of
prophecy as a whole will furnish a more solid if less
startling proof of its divine origin.

The ‘argument from prophecy’ must be based
upon the broadest possible foundation. Appeal must
be made to the whole of the Old Testament as the
record of the preparation for Christ's coming. For
I THE ARGUMENT FROM PROPHECY i

as it has well been said, the Old Testament does not
merely contain prophecies, but is in itself throughout
a prophecy. And in dealing with those parts of the
Old Testament which contain the teaching of the
prophets, appeal must be made not to the predictive
elements of prophecy only, but to the work of the
prophets as a whole. That work must be regarded
in its entirety as one great factor in God’s revelation
of Himself to Israel, preparing the way for the fuller
revelation to come, not less than as the fore-announce-
ment of His purpose to make that revelation, and of
the mode in which it was to be made. We shall
claim to find in Christ, not the fulfilment of the
predictions of the prophets only, but the consumma-
tion and realisation of the whole of their teaching.
In the harmony of the two revelations we shall hear
the voice of God speaking to men, not the voices of
men striving to express their aspirations after God.
The prophecies are not human ideals, but divine ideas.

But the argument is only one among many
arguments for the truth of Christianity; and it is
more properly addressed to believers for the support
and confirmation of their faith than to unbelievers
for the removal of their doubts. What has been
said of miracles is true of prophecy. It “belongs
properly to the believer and not to the doubter. It
is a treasure rather than a bulwark. It is in its

inmost sense instruction, and not evidence.”!

1 Bishop Westcott, Characteristics of the Gospel Miracles, p. 7.
Gains from
hostile
criticism.

12 CRITICAL AND HISTORICAL LECT.

Ill

Christian students of the Old Testament, who
start from the premiss that it is the divinely inspired
record of a divinely ordered preparation for a divinely
purposed end, and who retain their belief that the
Holy Ghost “spake by the prophets,” need not
hesitate to acknowledge that they owe a delt to
hostile criticism. There are three points in particular
in which they have made a decided advance in recent
years towards the general adoption of sounder methods
of interpretation, and the use of safer if less startling
arguments. They have learnt to study the Old Testa-
ment critically and historically ; to take account of a
wider view of prophecy; to offer a more reasonable
conception of the fulfilment of prophecy.

1. Christian students have come to recognise
that the Old Testament must be studied critically
and historically. It is their duty to examine,
frankly and fearlessly, all that can be ascertained
with regard to the origin and date of the several
books, the genuineness of the text, the character of
the record, and all the problems which necessarily
arise in the examination and interpretation of ancient
documents. They will not dissect the volume with
irreverent hands as though anxious to demonstrate
that it never had or could have a living unity, but
they will seek to exhibit more fully the nature and
the correlation of the complex parts which constitute
I STUDY OF THE OLD TESTAMENT 13

the organism in which the life is manifested. It is
no less their duty to study the Old Testament. his-
torically; to endeavour to realise the relation of
each book to the conditions and ideas of the age in
which it was produced, and to the whole history and
revelation of which it forms a part. This is especially
important in the study of the prophets. The Pro-
phecies of the Old Testament, like the Epistles of
the New Testament, had what may be called a
circumstantial origin. Each prophecy, as a rule,
bears the stamp of its own age; it is couched in the
terms of its own particular epoch; it is shaped to
meet the special needs of those to whom it was first
addressed ; it bears the impress of the character and
the training of the individual through whom it was
given.

For every fiery prophet in old times,

And all the sacred madness of the bard,

When God made music thro’ them, could but speak
His music by the framework and the chord.!

2. Christian students have learnt to take a larger
view of the prophet’s work. The prophet was not
merely, I might even say he was not chiefly, a pre-
dictor. He was not so much a foreteller as a forth-
teller. Insight not less than foresight was the gift
of the seer. The precise original meaning of the
Hebrew word for prophet is much disputed. But it

1 Tennyson, The Holy Grail, p. 85.
i4 COMPLEX CHARACTER OF LECT.

does not in itself contain the idea of prediction. In
usage it denotes one who is the spokesman or
interpreter of God to men, one who is the medium
through which divine revelations are conveyed,
rather than one who is endowed with the power
of foreknowledge, though this may be one of his
gifts.

The prophet’s work concerned the past, the pre-
sent, and the future. The prophets were the historians
of Israel? They regarded the history of the nation
from a religious standpoint. They traced the direct
control of Jehovah over the fortunes of His people,
in mercy and in judgement. It was their function to
record and interpret the lessons of the past for the
warning and encouragement of the present and the
future.

Their work was concerned with the present. They
were preachers of righteousness. They summoned
men to repentance, setting before them the good-
ness and the severity of Gud. The relation of Jehovah
to His people, and the consequent duty of Jehovah's
people to Him, side by side with the duty of man to
his neighbour, arising out of that mutual relation-

1 Comp. Ex. vii. 1: ‘See, I have made thee a god to Pharaoh :
and Aaron thy brother shall be thy prophet,” with Ex. iv. 16:
“Ie shall be thy spokesman unto the people: and it shall come

to pass, that he shall be to thee a mouth, and thou shalt be to him
as God.”

2 It will be remembered that the Books of Joshua, Judges,
Samuel, and Kings are classed in the Jewish Canon as ‘ the
former prophets.”
I THE WORK OF THE PROPHETS 15

ship, were the constant themes of their teaching. It
was their work to make known the Will of God,
and to urge men to bring their lives into harmony
with that Will. They were unceasingly engaged in
advancing’ the knowledge of His character and
requirements.

Yet none the less were they concerned with the
future; and that not merely by way of general
promises of reward and threatenings of punishment,
but with the full conviction that they were the
appointed heralds of the divine purpose for Israel,
and through Israel for the world. The manifestation
of salvation in the fullest sense; the advent of
Jehovah Himself to be the Redeemer of His people;
the establishment of His kingdom upon earth; these
were the lofty hopes which they were commissioned
to proclaim. But it was their task not only to
announce the divine purpose, but to prepare the way
for its realisation.

3. Christian students have learnt a truer concep-
tion of what is meant by the fulfilment of prophecy.
Prophecy and fulfilment were once supposed to be
related as the reflection in a mirror to the object
reflected. The complete course of future events was
thought to have been mapped out in a way intelligible
to the prophet and his contemporaries. Prophecy
was considered as being throughout “inverted
history.” Even Bishop Butler could say that “ pro-
phecy is nothing but the history of events before
16 FULFILMENT OF PROPHECY LECT.

they come to pass.”' It was expected that the ful-
filment would correspond exactly to the prediction.
Many of the objections which have been levelled
against the Christian view of the relation of the Old
Testament to the New Testament rest in great
measure upon the erroneous assumption that this
mechanical view of prophecy and fulfilment is what
the defenders of the faith are pledged to maintain.
But fulfilment is related to prophecy rather as the
plant with all its beauty of leaf and flower and fruit
is related to the seed from which it has sprung. The
connexion can be traced: the microscope can detect
the parts of the future plant wrapped up in the
envelope of the seed; but it could not foretell, apart
from experience, what the full growth will bring, or
how the minute and colourless rudiments will de-
velop into rich variety of form and colour. The
envelope is necessary to contain and protect the
germ; but it is not itself the life-principle of the
future plant. And so, prophecy contains the germ
which is to spring up in a new form in the fulfilment ;
the principle which will in due time receive its
legitimate development. Itis the outline which will
be filled in and take definite shape. The inner idea,
and not the form in which that idea is conveyed, is
the essential part of a prophecy. The form in which
the idea is embodied is largely human, determined
by the conditions of the prophet’s age and varying

1 4dnalogy, part ii. ch. vii.
I FULFILMENT OF PROPHECY 17

from time to time accordingly. The fulfilment, which
is the evolution of the essential idea, is greater than
the prophecy. It drops the envelope which served
‘to contain it. It grows up out of it. It unites
elements which existed separately, the combination
of which, apart from the fulfilment, could not have
been foreseen. That it is a true realisation of what
was fore-designed in the divine purpose, and foretold
by inspired prophets, will be recognised without
hesitation by the believer. It will not compel belief,
any more than any other spiritual truth, but it will
confirm belief.

IV

I propose in this Course of Lectures to approach eg
the prophecies of the Old Testament from the point
of view of their delivery rather than of their fulfil-
ment. I propose to limit the inquiry to the teaching
of those prophets whose writings have come down to
us. Ido not propose to carry it further back into
the age which preceded the age of written prophecy,
or to continue it into New Testament times. I pro-
pose to examine the teaching of each prophet in
relation to the circumstances and the needs of his
own time; to endeavour to estimate the special
contribution made by each to the progress of revela-
tion and the development of the Messianic hope; to
sketch out, so far as it may be possible to do so in a
short compass, the doctrine of the prophets in its

c
The wrder
of the
prophets,

18 ORDER OF THE PROPHETS LECT.

historical development as the message of Jehovah to
Israel in successive periods, and the preparation for
the fuller revelation of the kingdom of God in Christ.
The plan will involve some repetition. But it is
worth while to treat each prophet separately, even at
the expense of some repetition, if by so doing we may
realise better the unity in variety which character-
ises their message. Each prophet has his own marked
individuality of style, of thought, of teaching; but
they all combine to promote one common end, the
furtherance and the establishment of the kingdom
of God. At the same time it is necessary to beware
of generalising too rigidly, and “ making particular
prophets the exponents of merely a single concep-
tion,” to the exclusion of “other conceptions, which,
though less prominent, are present, either expressed
or suggested. Broad distinctions are rare in the Old
Testament. The course of revelation is like a river,
which cannot be cut up into sections.” !

Vv

It will be convenient at once to take a rapid
survey of the chronological order of the canonical
prophets, distinguishing those whose dates are certain,
from those whose dates rest wpon internal evidence,
and can only be determined with more or less prob-

TA, B, Davidson in The Expositor, 3rd Ser, vol. vi. p. 163,
I ORDER OF THE PROPHETS 19

ability. Those of the former class may be arranged
in three groups.

1. The prophets of the eighth century or the
Assyrian period (B.c. 760-700), in which Assyria first
began seriously to interfere in the affairs of Palestine,
and the kingdom of Israel finally succumbed to its
power. To this period belong Amos and Hosea,
IsalAn and Mican. The two former exercised their
ministry in Israel, and foretold the downfall of the
Northern kingdom ; the two latter prophesied in
Judah, in the momentous crisis when it seemed that
it must share a similar fate,

2. The prophets of the seventh century, or the
Chaldean period (B.c. 640-570), in which Babylon
took the place of Nineveh as the mistress of the
world, and Jerusalem fell before the Chaldean in-
vader. First in this period comes Nauum, who
raises a triumphant pean over the impending fall
of Nineveh : next to him ZEPHANIAH, with his message
of the day of judgement at hand for Jerusalem: and
after him HABAKKUK, with his bold questionings of
the ways of Providence. The long ministry of JERE-
MIAH, to whom was assigned the bitter task of de-
livering an unheeded message of admonition, and
watching the agony of his nation’s dissolution, covered
the period in which the two last-named prophets
flourished, and was continued for many years subse-
quently. Contemporaneously with the latter part of
it EZEKIEL was prophesying to the exiles in Babylonia.
20 ORDER OF THE PROPHETS LECT.

3. To the period after the Return from Babylon
belong Haccat, ZEcHARIA, and Manacnt, The two
former encouraged the fainting spirits of the returned
exiles to rebuild the Temple; the latter probably
supported the reforms of Nehemiah nearly a century
later, and closed the series of canonical prophets.

With regard to the dates of these prophets there
is but little variation of opinion. But where shall
we place Obadiah, Joel, Isaiah xxiv.-xxvil. and xl.-
lxvi., Zechariah ix.-xiv.? Should Opap1aH be dated
as early as the reign of Jehoram (B.C, 848-S44);
or shortly after the Fall of Jerusalem? Should JozL
be placed in the early part of the reign of Joash (B.c,
837-817), or in the period after the Return from
Babylon? Not without some hesitation I have come
to the conclusion that the evidence is in favour of the
earlier dates, and treated these prophets as belonging
to the pre-Assyrian period. That the Book of Con-
solation now attached to the Book of Isaiah (chaps.
xL-lxvi.) was the work not of Isaiah but (in the main
at least) of a prophet towards the close of the Baby-
lonian Exile seems to me a certain conclusion from
internal evidence. The closing chapters of the Book
of Zechariah present a difficult problem, but I am in-
clined to think that although they are probably not
the work of Zechariah, but of one or possibly two
other prophets, they stand in their right position
among the post-exilie prophets, and in all probability
belong to the period between Zechariah and Malachi.
-! ORDER OF THE PROPHETS 21

To the same period I am disposed to refer the re-
markable prophecy in chapters xxiv.-xxvii. of the
Book of Isaiah.

I have excluded the Book of Jonah and the Book
of Daniel from consideration. The former is not the
record of a prophet’s teaching but the account of a
prophet’s work. Though it stands among the Twelve
Minor Prophets it is wholly unlike the remaining
eleven. It is emphatically, as a Jewish tradition calls
it, “a book by itself,’! and important as are the
lessons which it conveys, it has no claim to be in-
cluded in a study of prophetic teaching. The Book
of Daniel is not reckoned among the prophets in the
Jewish Canon, and belongs to the study of apo-
calyptic rather than of prophetic literature. Some
minor fragments embedded in larger books have also
been passed over.

VI

In this sketch of the succession of the prophets the Tha viantof
right of literary criticism to set aside the tradition of
the Jewish Church concerning the authorship and
date of books or portions of books has been assumed.
A few words must be said in justification of that
right.2 The conclusions of criticism rest upon such
1 Midrash Bemidbar (c. 18), quoted in Ryle, Canon of the Old
Testament, p. 194. See Wiinsche, Bibliotheca Rabbinica, p. 451.
2 See further my Divine Library of the Old Testament, Lectures

i, and ii, It is perhaps worth while observing that the principle of
literary criticism is fully admitted by one of my most distinguished
22 THE LEGITIMACY OF CRITICISM LECT,

grounds as those of historical allusions, literary style,
characteristic doctrines. They are probable, not
demonstrative, and in different cases reach very
different degrees of probability. A prejudice is
sometimes raised against the conclusions of criticism,
by the allegation that it springs ultimately from a
desire to deny the predictive character of prophecy.
It is possible that this may have been a motive with
some of its advocates. But it is not so with others.
They do not start with any theory of the impossibility
of prediction. For them—to take a concrete example
—the question with regard to the last twenty-seven
chapters of Isaiah is not whether Isaiah could have
uttered the predictions they contain, but whether the
historical situation presumed is that of Isaiah’s life-
time; whether the style is such that these chapters can
reasonably be supposed to have proceeded from the
same pen as the acknowledged prophecies of Isaiah ;
whether the characteristic doctrines differ from those
of the earlier part in a way which can only be ac-
counted for by a considerable interval of time, and
the occurrence in that interval of an unparalleled
catastrophe.

It is sometimes urged that such questions ought
to be regarded as settled by the authority of the New
predecessors in the Warburtonian Lectureship, whose orthodoxy
has been generally regarded as unimpeachable ; and its application
to the later chapters of Zechariah is accepted as proving that they

cannot be ascribed to Zechariah or his age. I refer to Davison,
On Prophecy, pp. 277, 230 (ed. 1856).
I THE LEGITIMACY OF CRITICISM 23

Testament. On this point I may be allowed to refer
to what I have said elsewhere! I can only repeat
that it is difficult to see how our Lord and His
Apostles (with reverence be it said) could have done
otherwise than accept the current nomenclature of
the time. The critical questions and the issues
which they raise were not before them; and their
acceptance of what was then universally believed
cannot be legitimately regarded as precluding critical
inquiry, any more than their acceptance of current
ideas upon physical questions is regarded as a bar to
scientific research.

VII

Two questions of no slight interest and importance cnaracter
arise in regard to the contents and arrangement of Paperont
the prophetic books. They have an important bear- phetic books.
ing upon their interpretation, and a few general
remarks must be made here, which will receive de-
tailed illustration as we proceed. What is the
character of the records of prophecy which have been
preserved to us? and what is the principle upon
which they have been arranged in the different books?

The answers to these questions will naturally
vary in different cases. Some prophecies appear to
have been committed immediately to writing without

ever having been orally delivered. Other prophecies

l Divine Library of the Old Testament, pp. 8 tf.
24 CHARACTER OF THE PROPHETIC BOOKS — cecr.

were first orally delivered and then committed to
writing. Sometimes this was done by the prophet
himself; sometimes little more than reminiscences
preserved by the prophet’s disciples appear to have
come down to us.

In some cases a prophecy was committed to
writing immediately after its delivery. In other
cases a long period of oral teaching preceded the
committal to writing, and we possess only a con-
densed report giving the substance of teaching
spread over months or even years, and fusing together
discourses delivered upon different occasions. A most
instructive account of a prophet’s method of working
is preserved in the Book of Jeremiah (ch. xxxvi.). He
prophesied for more than twenty years before he com-
mitted anything to writing; and the roll which he
then dictated to Baruch can obviously have contained
only a summary of his teaching during that period.
When he re-wrote it after its destruction by Jehoi-
akim, he made many additions to it, and this enlarged
roll forms only the basis of our present book, which
contains many later prophecies. Upon another
occasion he received a command to commit a
prophecy to writing without delay as a witness to
future ages (xxx. 1 ff).

Tt would vastly simplify the student’s task if
it could be assumed that the prophecies in each
book were arranged in chronological order. But
it is certain that this is not always the case.
1 CHARACTER OF THE PROPHETIC BOOKS 25

While the principle of arrangement is generally in
the main chronological, this principle is to some extent
traversed and obscured by arrangement according to
subject matter. Prophecies of cognate character in
style or thought have been grouped together. In
some instances collections of portions of the prophet’s
works, published by himself or his disciples, preceded
the complete collection, and to some extent in-
fluenced its arrangement. Consequently we may
have to turn to different parts of a book for illustra-
tion of the prophet’s teaching in a particular period,
and we cannot assume that the book as it stands
will present his teaching in an orderly progress and
development.

Thus a wide variety of possibilities with regard
to the character and arrangement of the prophetic
books must be constantly taken into account. And
further, as has been already observed, some of the
prophetic books undoubtedly contain prophecies by
other prophets than those whose names they bear.
But that they have been altered and interpolated to
the extent which is maintained by some modern
critics is wholly improbable, and the arguments by
which these critics support their theories are often
based upon unproved hypotheses, and are of an ex-
tremely arbitrary and subjective character.
Tinportance
of the pro-
phets in
relation to
modern
theories.

26 IMPORTANCE OF THE LECT.

VIL

The importance of the study of the prophets, and
especially of the prophets of the earliest period, in
relation to the questions which are now being
debated with regard to the origin of the religion of
Israel, can hardly be exaggerated. In Amos, Hosea,
and the acknowledged parts of Isaiah, we are dealing
with documents the age of which is not disputed.
They occupy a position in the Old Testament analog-
ous to the position which is occupied in the New
Testament by the acknowledged Epistles of St. Paul.
It is maintained by the school of critics which
regards the religion of Israel as a natural develop-
ment and not as a divine revelation that the
prophets of the eighth century were “the founders
of ethical Monotheism,” in other words that they
were the first teachers of the moral character
and requirements of Jehovah. The careful study of
their writings affords the most convincing refutation
of this theory. If anythine is clear from their
writings, it is that they do not regard themselves as
innovators but as reformers. They are striving to
recall the people to their allegiance to Jehovah, and
to raise practice to the level of belief. The standard
and the motive of right conduct is the knowledge of
God, which the people might have possessed, but
for their own carelessness and the neglect of their
I STUDY OF THE PROPHETS 27

teachers. Jehovah’s word and His law have been
declared to them; but they have despised His word
and transgressed His law. These prophets are con-
scious of no discontinuity with the past. Amos
speaks of the prophets who had preceded him, with-
out any doubt that he is their legitimate successor.
“ The springs at least of all prophecy can be seen in
the. two prophets of northern Israel [Amos and
Hosea]; but the rains which fed those fountains fell
in the often unrecorded past.”? The simple fact that
Amos, who went from Judah to prophesy to Israel,
and Hosea, who was a born Israelite, are agreed
in the fundamental principles of their teaching,
proves that the foundations of the religion of
Israel were firmly established before the Division
of the Kingdoms. Nor can there be any doubt
to what period the prophets referred the origin
of Israel’s religion. It was to the Mosaic age, when
Jehovah entered into covenant with the nation
which He brought out of Egypt; though even in
the patriarchal period He had revealed Himself to
their ancestors.

But while on the one hand the earliest prophets
bear testimony to the antiquity of Jehovah’s revela-
tion of Himself to Israel, on the other hand they
cannot be held to afford proof of the existence of the
Pentateuch in its present form. They do not appeal
to a written law as the recognised standard of

1 A. B. Davidson, The Expositor, 3rd Ser. vol. vi. p. 163.
28 THE PROPHETS AND THE LAW LECT.

conduct.’ The ‘law’ or ‘instruction’ of Jehovah of
which they speak is the equivalent of His ‘ word.’
It is oral and not written. It deals with morality,
not with ceremonial. No doubt a sacrificial system
was in full operation. The prophets repeatedly
condemn the popular idea that Jehovah could
be propitiated by sacrifice without reyard to the
moral condition of the worshipper. Festivals such
as the new moon and Sabbath were observed. There
are allusions to the celebration of the Passover and
the Feast of Tabernacles. A body of priests existed
whose duty it was not merely to maintain the
established ritual of sacrifice, but to instruct the
people in their religious duties. Not a few parallels
to the language of Deuteronomy and even of the
priestly legislation may be collected. But the whole
drift of the teaching of the earlier prophets indicates
that the law, both moral and ceremonial, was still
in process of growth, and though portions both of
the legal and historical elements of the Hexateuch
probably already existed in writing, other portions
were still preserved by oral tradition. In fact we
must think of ‘the Law’ and ‘the Prophets’ as
concomitant rather than suecessive disciplines.
Prophecy reached back to the foundation of the
law; and the law went on growing side by side with

1 No such phrase as “the book of the law” oceurs in them.
Hos. viii. 12 may imply the existence of written laws, but its
meaning is uncertain.
I THE PROPHETS AND THE LAW 29

prophecy. “It cannot be doubted that Moses was
the ultimate founder of both the national and the
religious life of Israel; and that he provided his
people not only with at least the nucleus of a system
of civil ordinances (such as would, in fact, arise
directly out of his judicial functions, as described in
Exod. xviil.), but also (as the necessary correlative of
the primary truth that Jehovah was the God of
Israel) with some system of ceremonial observances,
designed as the expression and concomitant of the
religious and ethical duties involved in the people’s
relation to its national God.” But “in process of
time, as national life grew more complex, and fresh
cases requiring to be dealt with arose,” the original
principles “ would be found no longer to suffice, and
their extension would become a necessity.”’ To
the end, however, the law built up wpon the Mosaic
foundation remained the Mosaic law, and was
revered as possessing the sanction of its founder's
authority.

TX

The historical study of the prophets in relation to vatueof the

istorical
their own age may seem to some readers to be less method of a
fruitful and less necessary than the study of them in ?”PHes
the light of their fulfilment. But I am confident

that there is no other method by which so firm a

1 Driver, Introduction to the Literature of the Old Testament,
p. 144 f,
30 METHOD OF STUDY LECT. I

conviction can be gained that they were in very
truth what they claimed to be, the inspired mes-
sengers of God; no better means by which an insight
may be obtained into the variety and vitality of their
message; no more certain way of attaining to an
assurance that by their agency God was training His
people for that greater revelation which was to be at
once the consummation of the past and the starting-
point of the future.

It has been well said that “at the present
stage in the progress of religious thought we
seem to need above all things to enter with a
living sympathy into the whole teaching of the
Bible, in its many parts and many forms; to realise
with a historical, no less than with a spiritual
insight, what lessons it conveys and in what shape;
in order that so we may be trained to recognise and
to interpret the fresh lessons which the One
Spirit is offering to us in other ways.”! Towards
such a study of an important part of Holy Scripture
it is the aim of these Lectures to offer some con-
tribution however small.

" Bishop Westcott, The Revelation of the Risen Lord, p. xv.
PROPHETS OF THE NINTH CENTURY
OR PRE-ASSYRIAN PERIOD

OBADIAH—JOEL
GG Kal al mpopyretar Tots ph Tapépyws evtvyxdvover TH &v
avrats mpoyviocer ikaval wor elvar Soxobcr mpos TO metcae Tov auvETas
dua cal evyvwudvus dvayyvickovta br. Ocod mvedua Fv €v Tots
dvdpaow éxelvos.

ORIGENES.
LECTURE II

OBADIAH

The kingdom shall be Jehovah's. -OBADIAH 21.
I

THE brief prophecy which bears the name of Obadiah contents of
is directed against Edom. The nations are summoned ee
by Jehovah’s messengers to make war upon Edom.
He has determined to humble Edom’s pride; Edom’s
arrogant confidence in the impregnability of his rock
fortress will be undeceived. Edom will be plundered
by enemies and deserted by allies. His wise coun-
sellors will become fools, his heroes cowards; he is
doomed to utter destruction. It is for his inhuman
behaviour towards his brother Jacob that this sentence
is pronounced (1-10).

For in the day of Judah’s humiliation and calamity,
when Jerusalem was taken and sacked by foreign
enemies, Edom was as one of them, rejoicing mali-
ciously at Judah’s disaster, sharing the plunder,
cutting off the fugitives from escape (11-14).

D
Oceasion
and date,

34 OCCASION AND DATE OF OBADIAH LECT.

But Jehovah's day of judgement for all the nations
is at hand, and Edom will not escupe a just retribu-
tion. A remnant will remain in Jerusalem, and
Jerusalem will no more be desecrated by invaders :
but Edom will be utterly destroyed ly the reunited
forces of Judah and Israel, who will take possession
not only of their own land, but of Edom on the east,
and Philistia on the west; and Jehovah’s kingdom
will be established securely (15-21).

II

Of the prophet himself nothing is known. All
that can be inferred from his prophecy is that he
was a native of Judah. Widely different opinions
are held as to the date at which he prophesied, some
placing him in the ninth century, others at the time
of the destruction of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar,
others much later still. But the choice really lies
between the two first-named dates, the relative
claims of which we will proceed to consider.

The occasion of the prophecy is obvious. It was
some recent capture of Jerusalem, in which the Edom-
ites had been guilty of the grossest insult and injury
to Judah. They were not themselves the principal
assailants ; indeed it is not clear that they took part
in the attack; but they had displayed an un-
brotherly spirit by their malignant delight at
Judah’s calamity, by sharing in the plunder of the
II OCCASION AND DATE OF OBADIAH 35

city, by intercepting the fugitives, and butchering
them or surrendering them to be sold as slaves.
It is generally assumed that this sack of Jerusalem 1s it the ae-

struction of

can be no other than the capture and destruction of serusalein,
the city by Nebuchadnezzar in B.c. 586. In support
of this view it is argued that the terms in which
the catastrophe which has befallen Jehovah’s people
is described can refer to no less disastrous event.
It is spoken of as the day of distress, the day of their
calamity, the day of their destruction. Moreover the
spirit of bitter hostility to Edom which the prophecy
breathes is said to date from this time. It is
in the prophets of the exilic and the post-exilic
periods that we must look for the closest parallels
to Obadiah."

But this view is traversed by a serious difficulty. retation to
Jeremiah’s prophecy against Edom (xlix. 7-22) con- pore
tains much that is found in Obadiah. It is impossible
to regard Jeremiah as the original which Obadiah has
copied. Jeremiah’s frequent practice of borrowing
from earlier prophets? makes it @ priori probable
that he is borrowing here: the passages common to
both prophets do not contain expressions which are
characteristic of Jeremiah, whereas the other parts
of the prophecy against Edom in Jer. xlix. do con-
tain such expressions: the prophecy in Obadiah is a

1 See Lam. iv. 21 f. ; Ezek. xxv. 12 ff. ; xxxv. 5 ff. ; Isa. xxxiv.
5 ff. ; lxiii. 1; Ps. exxxvii. 7; 1 Esdras iv. 45, 50.

2 E.g. the prophecy against Moab in Jer, xlviii. is largely de-
pendent on Isa. xv., xvi.
Did both
borrow from
an older
prophet ?

36 RELATION OF OBADIAH TO JEREMIAH _ xect.

well-arranged whole, whereas in Jeremiah the same
matter is broken up and given in a far less forcible
and obvious order.

Now Jeremiah’s prophecy against Edom appears
to have been delivered in the fourth year of Jehoiakim
(xlvi. 1 f.); at any rate before the destruction of
Jerusalem, for the judgement upon Judah is still
future (xlix. 12, R.V.). Either then Jeremiah is
not borrowing from the Book of Obadiah in its
present form, or Obadiah does not refer to the
capture of Jerusalem in Bc. 586. If the view is
maintained that Obadiah refers to that capture of
Jerusalem, the relation between his prophecy and
that of Jeremiah can only be explained by the
hypothesis that they are both borrowing from some
older prophecy against Edom. Jeremiah has treated
it freely and broken it up, while Obadiah has taken
it as a whole, and supplemented it by the addition
of the promise of Judah’s restoration. In support of
this view it is urged that as the common matter
extends to the first nine verses of Obadiah only, it is
clear that this was all that Jeremiah had before
him; and that the inconsistencies, want of con-
nexion, and difference of style, between these verses
and the later verses, point to a difference of auther-
ship.

But it is by no means certain that Jeremiah had
only vv. 1-9 before him. The resemblance between
Jer, xlix. 12 and Obadiah 16 can hardly be accidental,
II RELATION OF OBADIAH TO JEREMIAH 37

and suggests the probability that Jeremiah had the
conclusion of the prophecy before him, though he
made little use of it. It would be quite natural for
him to adopt the verses which describe the doom of
Edom, and to neglect those which describe Edom’s
offence, if that offence lay in the remote past; while
the latter part of the prophecy, which predicts the
restoration of Judah, lay entirely outside of his plan.
In view of the variety of representation which meets
us in almost every prophet it can hardly be seriously
argued that because the nations are summoned to
muster against Edom in v. 1, while in v. 18 the final
destruction of Edom is spoken of as the work of
reunited Israel, therefore these later verses cannot
be by the same author as the earlier ones. The
want of connexion and the difference of style
between the earlier and later verses are not so
pronounced that any stress can be laid upon
them.

The hypothesis of a common original is no doubt
possible; but it is only a hypothesis, and there is
much to be said in favour of the unity of the Book
of Obadiah. It forms a symmetrical whole. The
doom of Edom is naturally followed by the reason
for that doom, while the promise of the restoration
of Judah forms the natural counterfoil to the fate of
Edom, and an appropriate conclusion to the pro-
phecy.

There are links of connexion between the parts.
Or is an
earlier sack
of Jerusa-
lem referred
to?

38 PROBABILITY OF AN EARLY DATE LECT.

In both Edom is spoken of as sau ;' in both Esau’s
pride is condemned (vv. 3,12); and the retribution
(v. 6) gains point when it is seen that it is like
for like (ve. 11, 13, 15). No doubt such links of
connexion might be due to a continuator, but they
are certainly in favour of the unity of the prophecy.

When once however the assumption, that the
calamity described must be the destruction of Jeru-
salera in B.C. 586, is abandoned, it becomes unnecessary
to retain the theory of composite authorship. Anda
careful examination of the prophecy favours the view
that it is not the final destruction of Jerusalem which
is here referred to.

There is not the slightest hint that the Temple
and the city have been destroyed; there is no
allusion, such as we find in Ezekiel (xxxv. 10 ff.), to
the Edomites taking possession of the south country;
there is no explicit reference to the Chaldeans, or to
Nebuchadnezzar,’ or to the wholesale deportation of
the nation to Babylon The attempt to account for

1 Esau, v. 6; the mount of Esau, vv. 8, 9, 19, 213; the house of
Esau, v. 18. Edom only occurs in the title, and in v. 8, where the
parallelism requires an alternative name. But Esau=Edom is
rare. Jer. xlix. 8, 10 are influenced by Obadiah. In Mal. i. 2, 3 Esau
and Jacob are the ancestors of the nations. Children of Esau
occurs in Deut. ii. 4, 8, 12, 22, 29.

* Contrast Jer. xlix. 19, 22.

* Obad. 20 is very obscure ; but, hy the help of a slight emenda-
tion, we may perhaps adopt the rendering of R.V.; The captivity
of this host of the children of Isracl, which are among the Canaanites,
shall possess even unto Zarephath ; and the captivity of Jerusalem
which is in Sepharad, shall possess the citics of the South. The
IL PROBABILITY OF AN EARLY DATE 39

this silence by assigning the prophecy in its com-
pleted form to a date long after the destruction of the
city is extremely unsatisfactory. The calamity, what-
ever it was, was certainly recent; and the language
of v, 12 perhaps implies that a repetition of Edom’s
offence was possible, which would not have been
the case after the final destruction of the city.

But if the destruction of Jerusalem by the
Chaldeans was not the occasion of the prophecy,
what calamity was it that is referred to? Certainly
not the sack of Jerusalem by Shishak (1 Kings xiv.
25, 26), for Edom was then subject to Judah; nor
the capture of the city by Joash in the reign of
Amaziah (2 Kings xiv. 13, 14), for the Israelites
could not be described as strangers and foreigners
(v. 11). There remains the capture and plundering
of the city by the Philistines and Arabians in the
reign of Jehoram, B.c. 848-844. To this it seems
most probable that Obadiah refers, It is true that
the brief account in 2 Chron. xxi. 16,17 does not
mention the Edomites; but the historical books are
first-mentioned captives will be those amoung the Pheenicians, who

trafficked in Israelite slaves (cp. Amos i. 9): the second possibly
those to whom Joel refers as having been sold away to Ionia. See
p. 70.

1 The literal rendering of vv. 12 ff. is that of the R.V., Look not
thou, etc. Either the prophet throws himself back to the time of
the offence, and reproves the Edomites as if they were actually com-
mitting it ; in which case the rendering of the R.V. (thou shouldest
not have looked, etc.) will be virtually, though not grammatically,
correct ; or he throws his reproof into the form of an admonition
because a repetition of the offence is still possible.
40 RELATION OF OBADIAH LECT.

equally silent about the part which the Edomites
played at the destruction of Jerusalem by Nebuchad-
nezzar. Evidently they were not the chief actors;
but it was natural that just at this time they should
have joined in the raid with a view to plunder, for
they had recently revolted from Judah (2 Kings viii.
20 ff.). The condemnation of Edom’s pride (vv. 3 ff.)
is specially appropriate, if they had but lately asserted
their independence.

Relation of This early date for Obadiah falls in with the

Jecland allusions to his prophecy in Joel, and with the
references to Edom in Amos. Joel,as I hope to shuw
presently, prophesied during the early part of the
reign of Joash (B.c. 837-7972). He was familiar
with the words, or the writings, of Obadiah. Jn
Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be those that
escape, as Jehovah hath said (Joel ii, 32), appears to
be a distinct reference to Obad. 17; and the last
chapter of Joel contains several allusions to
Obadiah.

Amos condemns Edom for unbrotherly conduct
towards Israel G. 11), singling out precisely the
same point in Edom’s guilt as Obadiah (vv. 10, 12),
and for trafficking in Israelite slaves, an offence
closely akin to the behaviour condemned hy Obadiah
(v. 14). Many years had elapsed since the events to

1 Comp. Joel iii. 3 with Obad. 11 ; iii. 7, 8 with Obad. 15 ; iii. 17
with Obad. 11, 17; iii, 19 with Obad. 10, observing that both
passages refer to Edom,
IL TO JOEL AND AMOS 41

which Obadiah refers, and the bitterness of feeling
which was natural while the memory of Edom’s
revolt and insolence was still fresh, had been some-
what softened. The brevity of the oracle of Amos
against Edom does not admit of detail, but the
relation of the two peoples is essentially the same,
and the words of Amos are best explained if Obadiah’s
prophecy had preceded. But once more; Amos looks
forward to the restoration of a united Israel under
the house of David, which will possess the remnant of
Edom (ix. 11, 12), and herein he repeats the prophecy
of Obadiah, who foretells that the house of Jacob and
the house of Joseph will consume the house of Esau,
and the dwellers in the south of Judah will spread
over the mount of Esau.t

III
The teaching of the Book of Obadiah is extremely Teaching of

badiah.

simple. Edom’s pride is to be humbled; Edom is
to be judged for his conduct toward the people of
Jehovah, which is the more heinous because of the
relationship between them.

But the judgement of Edom is only one item in a

1 The meaning of Sepharad in Obad. 20 is much too uncertain
to be made the basis of an argument. But the Persian inscriptions
of Darius repeatedly name (parda in close connexion with Jaund
or the Ionians (Schrader, Cwneif. Jnscr. p. 446). It has been sug-
gested that Qparda is probably Sardis ; and if Sepharad = Sardis,
the passage may refer to the sale of Israelite slaves to the Ionian
Greeks of which Joel speaks (iii. 6).
42 TEACHING OF OBADIAH LECT.

larger judgement; for the duy of Jehovah is near
upon all the nations, That day will be a day
of reckoning and retribution. In the great conflict
between good and evil, represented by Jehovah’s
people on the one side, and the nations which con-
spire to destroy them on the other, the cause of
Jehovah’s people must prevail. The enemies of
Jehovah’s kingdom must be defeated. While the
mount of Esau lies desolate, the mount of Zion will
no more be profaned by the foot of the invading
stranger. The captive exiles will be restored to
their home; Judah and Israel will be reunited; and
the final result reached in the closing words of the
prophecy is that to which all Israel’s history pointed,
the kingdom shall be Jehovah’s.

But we are still within the narrow limits of
Palestine. No larger hope is expressed of the in-
clusion of the nations in that kingdom. This agrees
with the early date of the prophecy. The nations,
as in Joel, are the objects of judgement, not of grace.
Not until Isracl comes into actual contact with
Assyria and Egypt in the days of Isaiah and
Micah does the truth shine forth that Israel’s
mission is to achieve a spiritual conquest of all
the nations.

As in Ainos, this picture of the future is a picture
of temporal prosperity. Israel will possess its own
land in undisturbed security, and Jehovah will reign
over them there; but the moral renewal of the people
II TEACHING OF OBADIAH 43

under His rule is not mentioned either as a necessity
or asa hope. As in Amos, there is no reference to
one special deliverer, the Messianic King. Deliverers
are spoken of, who will come up on mount Zion to
judge the mount of Hsaw; and the term recalls the
days of the Judges who were raised up from time
to time to fulfil a special work (Jud. iii. 9, 15;
Neh. ix. 27).

IV

If Obadiah prophesied in the reign of Jehoram,
no long interval elapsed before Edom was chastised,
and Obadiah’s prophecy in part fulfilled. Amaziah
captured Sela, the rock-fortress in which the Edom-
ites trusted, and inflicted a terrible vengeance upon
them (2 Kings xiv. 7; 2 Chron. xxv, 11, 12).
But they were not completely crushed. They
were again making raids upon Judah in the reign
of Ahaz (2 Chron. xxvii. 17), and at the destruc-
tion of Jerusalem they filled up the measure of
their iniquity by conduct which aroused feelings
of the most bitter indignation. They spread over
the south country as far as Hebron (Ezek. xxxv,
10; 1 Mace. v.65). Whether along with the neigh-
bouring nations they were conquered by Nebuchad-
nezzar is uncertain. But Malachi (i. 3) presupposes
that Edom had suffered heavily from invasion ; and
before the end of the fourth century B.c. their old

Fulfilment.
44 FULFILMENT OF OBADIAH'S PROPHECY | tect.

capital Petra had passed into the hands of the Nabath-
eans, who founded the kingdom of Arabia Petraea.
The Maccabees waged successful wars against them.
Judas Maccabaeus defeated them at Arabattine
(1 Mace. v. 3), recovered the south country, and
recaptured Hebron. John Hyrcanus compelled the
Edomites who were settled there to accept circum-
cision and to conform to the law. The Edomites
appear for the last time during the great struggle of
the Jews with Rome. After the destruction of
Jerusalem by Titus their name disappears from
history.

Edom perished but Israel survived. The succes-
sive crises of its history were successive steps towards
the establishment of that kingdom which is the final
goal to which Obadiah’s prophecy looks forward.
But the idea which he expressed under limitations
of time and space and the conceptions of his own
age has been expanded and spiritualised. The closing
words of his prophecy are still the end upon which
the eye of hope is fixed. But the kingdom for which
we look and pray is not limited, material, temporal,
but universal, spiritual, eternal.

Thus when we claim fulfilment for the prophecies
of Obadiah, we do not mean that the course of history,
either for Edom or for Israel, corresponded step hy
step with his anticipations. He combines into one
picture a process which was to be the work of aves.
But we do claim that the principles which find
Ir FULFILMENT OF OBADIAH’S PROPHECY 45

expression in his prophecy in a limited and relative
form have been verified by the course of history, and
we await with confidence that complete fulfilment of
them to which the New Testament still points us
forward.
LECTURE III

JOEL
Z will pour vut My spirit upon ail flesh. —JoEL ii, 28.

I

ithe erdphet: Chr oel the son of Pethuel nothing is known but the
oe

a native of
Judah.

meagre hints which may be gathered from his pro-
phecy. The name was not an uncommon one. It
appears as early as the time of Samuel (1 Sam.
viii. 2), and survives as late as the time of Nehemiah
(Neh. xi. 9), but there is no ground whatever for
identifying the prophet with any one of the name
mentioned elsewhere. The name is significant. It
means Jehovah is God. Like the name Micah, it
contains a brief confession of faith.

Joel was a native of Judah. His home was in
Jerusalem or its immediate neighbourhood. He
speaks repeatedly of Zion (11. 1, 15, 52; iii, 16,
17, 21), and the children of Zion (ii. 23); of Judah
and Jerusalem (ii. 32; iii. 1, 16, 17, 18, 20);
and the children of Judah and Serusulem (ii. 6, 8,
19) in a way which leaves no doubt upon this point.
LECT, IIT PROBLEMS OF JOEL 47

He was familiar with the Temple and its services,
with the priests and their ministrations (i. 9, 13, 14,
16; ii. 14,17; iii. 18). When he uses the name Jsrael
(ii. 27 ; iii. 2, 16) it is as the covenant name of God’s
chosen people, not as the distinctive name of the
Northern Kingdom, to which he makes no allusion
whatsoever.

The frequent references to the Temple and its Was he a
priest ?

worship, and the importance attached to the inter-
cessory functions of the priests, have been supposed
to indicate that, like Jeremiah and Ezekiel, he was
himself priest as well as prophet. But this is at
least doubtful. In more than one passage he seems
to summon the priests to their duties as though he
were not himself one of them (i. 13, 14; ii. 17).

Not only however is the personality of the

blems of

date and in-

prophet shrouded in obscurity. Opinions differ terpretation.

most widely as to the time at which he flourished,
and the character of the book which bears his name.
Was he among the earliest of the prophets, in the
period before Assyria had even begun to loom like
a threatening storm-cloud on the horizon? or is he
to be placed among the very latest of the prophets,
in a time when even the memory of Babylon’s cruel
tyranny had been blunted into vague generalities?
Did he first originate, or at least first commit to
writing, thoughts and ideas which were to be taken
up and expanded by his successors? or did he merely
resume and summarise the writings of his long-past
Contents of
the book.

48 CONTENTS OF THE BOOK OF JOEL LECT.

predecessors, with which he was acquainted from
diligent literary study? Is the description of the
locust plague narrative or prediction? Is it to be
understood literally or allegorically ? or may not the
whole book be rather apocalyptic in its character
not resting upon a foundation of present facts, or
addressed to any particular audience, but idealising
natural phenomena with a view to delineate for its
readers the terrors and the glories of the age to
come ?

II

All fruitful discussion of these problems must, it
is obvious, start from a careful examination of the
book itself. It consists of two parts. In the first
part (i. 2-ii. 17) the prophet speaks. According to
the view which will be adopted here, he is describing
an actual calamity which has befallen the people,
and exhorting them to penitence and prayer. In
the second part (ii, 18-111, 21) Jehovah speaks,
promising the removal of the calamity in the im-
mediate future, and foretelling the issues of judgement
and blessing which are in store for the remoter
future. It is important to remember that although
these two parts of the book are now combined in
close juxtaposition without any marked break, they
did not necessarily form one continuous discourse.
In reducing his book to writing Joel has probably
combined addresses delivered on various occasions,
I CONTENTS OF THE BOOK OF JOEL 49

and possibly supplemented them by additional pro-
phecies not orally delivered.

The general theme of the first division of the (A) Oh. 3. 8
book is the call to national humiliation and repent-
ance in view of the visitation of drought and locusts
by which the land has been devastated. In his first
discourse (ch. i.) the prophet describes this calamity, «o cn. i.
unparalleled in past times, and destined to be long
memorable in the future. Successive swarms of
locusts have stripped the land and left it bare (i. 2-4).
The careless drunkards must rouse themselves from
their debauch, for they can no longer drug them-
selves into insensibility to the sufferings of the land
(5-7). Zion must mourn, for so terrible is the
scarcity that meal and wine can no longer be provided
for the accustomed offerings in the Temple (8-10).
The tillers of the soil must mourn for the loss of
their labours (11, 12). The priests are bidden to
humble themselves in penitence for the intermission
of their due ministrations, and, proclaiming a fast, to
gather the people for solemn humiliation and prayer
(13, 14); and the prophet puts into their mouths a
supplication which pathetically describes the suffer-
ings of animals as well as men in the drought which
has burnt up and desolated the whole country
(15-20).

In ch. ii a fresh address commences. The © cn. it.
thought already suggested (i. 15) that the present

visitation is the harbinger of the day of Jehovah is
LE
50 CONTENTS OF THE BOOK OF JOEL LECT.

taken up and pressed home. The locust plague is
described as the army of Jehovah, innumerable and
irresistible, at the head of which He is Himself
advancing to judgement (ii. 1-11). Yet even now,
heartfelt repentance may avail to avert the judgement,
and restore the people to His favour (12-14).

® onii.is- Then, in a brief exhortation, the prophet once more
bids proclaim the fast, prescribes the manner of it, and
dictates to the priests the solemn litany of intercession
which they are to offer in the Temple court (15-17).

()ch.ii.48- The second part of the book contains Jehovah’s
answer to His people’s prayer.’ An interval must be
assumed, in which the prophet’s call to repentance
was obeyed. Then the prophet, speaking directly in
Jehovah’s name and as His mouthpiece, conveys the
promise of the removal of the temporal judgement in
the immediate future, and of the bestowal of spiritual
blessing in the remoter future; and expands the
thought of the day of Jehovah in its double aspect
of judgement and salvation.

() Oh. it. 18- The locust army will be banished and destroyed ;
land, cattle, and people will again rejoice in abundant
rain and the restored fertility of the soil; and in
their deliverance they will recognise a fresh proof
that Jehovah is their God (18-27).

(2) Ch. ti, 28- But these temporal judgements and temporal

1 It must be noticed that vv. 18, 19 are certainly to be rendered
in the past tense: dnd Jchoruh was jealous for His land, and had

pity on His people, and Jehovah answered and said unto His people,
Behold, ete.
II CONTENTS OF THE BOOK OF JOEL 51

blessings are the type of spiritual blessings and
greater judgements in the future. Hereafter Jehovah
will pour out His spirit upon all flesh; awful signs
will precede the great and terrible day of Jehovah;
but in the midst of them all will be deliverance in
Jerusalem for those who call upon the name of
Jehovah (28-32).

In that distant future the nations will be sum- (3) Oh. tit 1-

moned to Jehovah’s tribunal to answer for the wrongs
they have done to His people (iii. 1-8). They are
challenged to muster their forces and do their worst.

It is in vain. They do but gather themselves to meet ) Ch. ti 9

their doom (9-15). But in that day of terror Jehovah 7
will be His people’s refuge. Foreigners will no more
overrun the holy land. Judah will be blessed with
a marvellous fertility, while Egypt and Edom lie
desolate for the punishment of their sins. Jehovah’s
presence will be manifested in the midst of a pardoned
people (16-21).

Ill

Such is a brief outline of the Book of Joel, if we Cope
€ pro-

adopt the literal interpretation, which is, I believe, at phecy with

once the most natural and the most satisfactory. The }
prophet’s teaching springs throughout from the needs
and the circumstances of his own time. The drought
and the locusts were an actual, present visitation. So
terrible was it, that the great day of Jehovah, the final
day of judgement, seemed to be close at hand. But the

the cireum-
San of the
time.
The locust
plague de-
serthed not
preticted,

52 INTERPRETATION OF THE BOOK OF JOEL Lecr.

prophet’s message for his countrymen is that repent-
ance may avert that judgement. They repent, and he
is commissioned to announce the removal of the
plague. But they must not fancy that because it is
postponed, the day of Jehovah will never come. It
will come, in blessing and in judgement. The locust
army which has invaded Judah is but a type of the
army of the nations which will muster to battle
against Jehovah and His people. The destruction of
the locusts is the type of the destruction of the
nations. The outpouring of abundant rain upon the
parched land is the type of the outpouring of the spirit
of God in the latter days. The deliverance of those
who call unto Jehovah in their present distress
(i. 19) is the pledge of the deliverance of those who
call upon His name in the great day of judgement
(ii. 32). The restored fertility of the land is an
anticipation of the marvellous fertility of the future.
The present deliverance is a proof of the Presence of
Jehovah among His people (ii. 27); that Presence
is the supreme blessing of the redeemed nation when
the final judgement is past (iii, 21),

The literal interpretation of the first part of the
book as the description of an actual calamity has,
however, been warmly disputed.

Two questions have been raised—(1) whether this
part of the book is descriptive or predictive; (2)
whether it is literal or allegorical. To the first
question I believe a decisive answer may con-
IIL INTERPRETATION OF THE BOOK OF JOEL 53

fidently be given, that the prophet describes a
calamity from which the land was actually suffering.
This is clear, whether the locusts are regarded as
literal and actual locusts, or interpreted allegorically
of an invading army. The appeal to the experience
of the old men and their fathers (i. 2); the charge to
hand on the memory of the visitation to future
generations (i. 3); the detailed and graphic picture
of the calamity in all its consequences ; in fact, almost
every feature and every verse of the passage, condemn
the theory that the prophet is predicting the future
while he seems to describe the present.

To the second question I believe that an equally a
decisive answer may be given. It is argued that the
description of the locust plague far exceeds the
bounds of possible reality, and in several of its
features is applicable only to an invading army of
human beings, and not to irrational insects ; that “the
northern army,” literally the northerner (ii. 20)
must refer not to locusts, which never come from
the north, but to some enemy advancing from that
quarter (cp. Jer. i. 13 ff.) ; that the prayer, “ Give
not Thine heritage to reproach, that the nations
should rule over them” (ii. 17), clearly points to the
fear of subjugation by a foreign invader. It is even
supposed that the four kinds of locusts (i. 4; 11. 25)
represent the four great powers from which Israel
successively suffered—the Assyrio- Babylonian, the
Medo-Persian, the Greek, and the Roman empires ;
54 INTERPRETATION OF THE BOOK OF JOEL Lect.

or four successive invading armies at some period of
its history.

To these arguments it may be answered that Joel’s
language is not to be regarded as plain bare prose,
though in fact the devastation wrought by locusts
can scarcely be exaggerated. It has in it a touch of
poetical imagination and Oriental hyperbole. His
description of the locusts is perhaps coloured by the
thought constantly present to his mind that they
were a Divine visitation, the prototype and the har-
binger of the great day of J ehovah, with its attendant
terrors. “The northerner” is a term of too uncertain
meaning to count for much. While locusts undoubt-
edly for the most part enter Dalestine from the south
or south-east, it does not seem certain that they never
came from the north. Possibly the word may have
denoted what is destructive, ill-omened, and calam-
itous. In ch. ii 17 the right rendering unquestion-
ably is, “ Give not Thine heritage to reproach, that the
nations should use a byword against them.’ The
calamity which had befallen Israel would seem to be
due to the unwillingness or inability of Jehovah to
protect them, so that the heathen would mockingly
ask, Where ts their God ?

But the final and conclusive argument against the
allegorical interpretation is that the locust plague is
itself compared to an army (ii. 2 ff.). It would be
strange indeed to compare a symbol with the reality
of which it is intended to be a symbol. And when
Ur INTERPRETATION OF THE BOOK OF JOEL 55

Jehovah promises to restore the damage which has
been wrought, it is exclusively of the produce of the
earth that He speaks (ii. 21 ff.). Here, at any rate, if
the language had been allegorical, it would have
been natural to look for some hint of the actual
disasters to which it was intended to refer, for some
allusion to the restoration of plunder carried off and
captives torn from their homes. But there is none ;
and we are driven back upou the simple and natural
explanation that Joel is describing the disaster which
had actually befallen the land at the time when he
spoke or wrote, from an unprecedentedly terrible
plague of locusts, combined with a severe drought.
There is, however, a modification of the allegorical oe eee

theory which has found considerable favour in recent wntenabie.
times. According to this view, the book is an escha-
tological or apocalyptic work, describing the terrors
of the last days, which will precede the final day of
judgement. It was never orally delivered to an
audience, but composed for study. It is addressed
not to the prophet’s contemporaries, but to those
upon whom that awful day will dawn. The locusts
of ch. 1. are not common locusts, but weird super-
natural creatures. The army described in ch. ii.
under the figure of locusts is no ordinary army, but
a mysterious host of unearthly warriors. These
strange terrors and supernatural portents precede
and usher in the day of Jehovah, which is then
described in its double aspect of judgement and
56 DATE OF JOEL LECT,

blessing. “The northerner” is a ‘term borrowed
from Ezek. xxxviii. 6, 15 to designate the army
of Gog, issuing from the remote recesses of the
north for a final conflict against the people of
God.

This view is open to the objections already urged
against the older form of the allegorical theory. And
further, there is no hint that Joel’s words are not
addressed to his immediate contemporaries, but to
some imaginary readers in a distant future. He
includes himself along with his audience as a spec-
tator of the sufferings of the land (i. 16). Moreover,
there is no ground for distinguishing the locusts of
ch. i. from the locust army of ch. 1. In the first
discourse the devastation which they have wrought,
in the second the irresistibleness of their advance, is
in the foreground; but in both discourses they are
connected with the day of Jehovah (i. 15; 11. 1, 11),
and throughout the damage wrought is simply that
of the locust plague, which is designated alike in the
description of its march (ii. 11) and in the promise
of restoration (11. 25) as Jehoreh’sarmy. This theory,
moreover, is closely bound up with a view of the
date of the book which we shall find good grounds
for rejecting.

We conclude, tien, that Joel describes an actual
plague of locusts, accompanied by a severe drought.
This visitation formed the occasion of his prophecy,
and gave shape to his predictions for the future.
IIT DATE OF JOEL 57

But it may freely be admitted that his picture of
the present calamity is drawn with bolder lines and
stronger colouring in view of the more awful realities
in the distant future which it prefigured. The de-
scription of natural phenomena must always be
largely influenced by the ideas which they represent
to the beholder.

IV

The date of Joel’s prophecy is one of the most
keenly-debated problems of Biblical criticism. It is
generally acknowledged that he must either have been
one of the very earliest of the prophets, or have lived
after the Return from the Captivity, and have been,
in all probability, one of the very latest of them. The
absence of any mention of Syria, Assyria, and Babylon
among the enemies of Judah points to a time when
these nations had not yet come into conflict with
Judah, or had long disappeared from the stage of
history. For the earlier date we must go back beyond
the time of Amos, who threatens the Syrians with
punishment, and already foresees that Israel will fall
a prey to Assyria, to the earlier part of the reign of
Joash, before Hazael invaded Judah, and only retired
from Jerusalem on the payment of a heavy indemnity
(2 Kings xii. 18 ff). Most of the critics who adopt
the earlier date agree in placing Joel in this period,
ie. according to the revised chronology, between about

Date of Joel.
58 DATE OF JOEL LECT,

837 and 817 B.c. No other date has been suggested
in the regal period which has at all an equal degree
of probability.

Prenump- The position of Joel in the series of the Minor

tion raised
by position Py, 7 i 1
op gee’ Prophets raises a presumption in favour of an early

date. It is the fashion to set aside this considera-
tion as entirely worthless; but it cannot be denied
that the arrangement of the collection is in the
main intended to be chronological. Hosea, Amos,
Micah stand first as prophets of the Assyrian period ;
Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah form a middle group
in the half-century before the exile; Haggai, Zechar-
iah, and Malachi stand last as belonging to the
period of the Restoration. The chronological inten-
tion in this grouping cannot be mistaken. But if Joel
belonged to the later period, why was he not placed
along with the prophets of that period? If he lived
late on in it—and the arguments which make for
placing him in that period make for placing him
decidedly late in it—it is hard to suppose that all
tradition of his date could have been lost at the time
when the collection was made, at the latest in
the third century B.c., and very probably at an
earlier date.

The position of Joel in the collection of the
Minor Prophets does no more than create a pre-
sumption that, at the time when that collection was
made, he was thought to have lived at an early
period. But it may justify us in considering first
Il DATE OF JOEL 59

whether the indications which can be gathered from
his prophecy do not confirm that presumption.

At the time when Joel prophesied the priests Cae

were held in high esteem. The Temple services were time,
regularly maintained, and were regarded as of great
importance. The intermission of the daily meal-
offering and drink-offering is regarded as the culi.in-
ating point of the calamity caused by the drought
and the locusts, for it seems to signify nothing less
than a rupture of the fellowship between Jehovah
and His people. But religion was no mere outward
formalism. The need of repentance, deep and
thorough, is fully recognised, and pressed upon the
people in words that are true for all time (ii. 12 ff).
To judge from the absence of any denunciation
of particular sins, such as injustice, immorality, or
idolatry, the standard of morals and religion was
high. Further, there is no reference to a king or
court; and the prophet’s view is limited entirely
to Judah; there is no allusion to the northern
kingdom.

There is one period, and one only, in the history correspond

the cir-

of Judah before the exile to which these indications romances
can point. That period is, as has already been said, arto the
the earlier part of the reign of Joash. After Ahaziah 7"
had been slain by Jehu, the throne of Judah was

seized by the queen-mother Athaliah, the worthy
daughter of Ahab and Jezebel (2 Kings xi. 1 ff).

Tn oriental fashion she murdered all the male mem-
60 DATE OF JOEL LECT.

bers of the royal family, with the exception of Joash,
who was saved from the massacre by his aunt
Jehosheba, the wife of the high priest Jehoiada.
For six years he was concealed in the Temple.
Athaliah reigned with undisputed sway. Under her
auspices Baal worship was publicly carried on in
Jerusalem.

When Joash had entered on his seventh year,
Jehoiada planned an insurrection, deposed Athaliah,
who was put to death, and crowned and anointed
Joash. A religious reformation followed. Baal
worship was put down, and the Temple worship was
reorganised. The change was evidently welcomed
by the people, who hated Athaliah, and it was
effected without serious opposition. -A// the people
of the land, we are told, rejviced, and the city was
quiet (2 Kings xi. 20). Jehoiada became the young
king’s guardian. During his lifetime all went
well. The worship of Jehovah was maintained,
and the Temple was restored. It was not until
after his death that the princes, jealous, no doubt,
of the priestly influence at court, succeeded in mis-
persuading the king, and a relapse into idolatry
followed (2 Chron. xxiv. 17).

During the minority of Joash a condition of affairs
such as that indicated in Joel may well have existed.
Priestly influence was in the ascendant. The person
and authority of the king were in the background.
There had been a popular reaction against the
ll DATE OF JOEL 61

Baal worship of Athaliah’s reign. The worship of
Jehovah was, for the time at any rate, generally
practised.

In this period, then, we find at any rate a possible 7nis date

agrees with

place for the prophecy of Joel; and the possibility ee
that he flourished then is raised to a strong proba- "0"
bility by the references in his book to foreign nations.

We have already seen that this date will account

for the absence of all mention of Syria, Assyria, and
Babylon; they had not yet come into conflict with
Judah. But we have not only an argument from
silence. The nations which are actually mentioned

are nations which we know to have been enemies

of Judah before the time of Joash. In ch. ili. we
have a prophecy of the judgement upon the heathen ;

and the nations which are singled out for special
mention as enemies of Judah are the Phcenicians

and Philistines (vv. 4 ff.), the Egyptians and Edom-

ites (v. 19). The Pheenicians and Philistines are
charged with carrying off the spoils of Jehovah’s
people to decorate their temples, and with trafficking

in Israelite slaves. The Egyptians and the Edomites

are charged with the gratuitous murder of unoffend-

ing Israelites in their land. Much stress can hardly xgype.
be laid upon the mention of Judah’s hereditary
enemy, Egypt. Still, in the time of Joash not more
than a century had elapsed since Shishak invaded
Judah and captured and plundered Jerusalem

(1 Kings xiv. 25 f). The memory of that disaster
Edom.

Philistia,

Phanicia.

62 DATE OF JOEL LECT.

must still have survived. But Judah was smarting
yet more keenly under the sense of recent injury from
Edom. From the time of David, Edom had been
subject to Judah. Jehoshaphat exercised the rights
of an overlord, summoned the king of Edom to
follow him to battle, and marched through his
country (1 Kings xxii. 47; 2 Kings iii, 9). But
under his weak son and successor Jehoram, Edom
revolted, probably, according to the revised chron-
ology, about B.c, 848 (2 Kings vin. 20-22). What
more probable than that the revolt was accompanied
by a massacre of Israelites resident in Edom—the
shedding of innocent blood to which Joel refers ?

From the Philistines, too, Judah suffered heavily
about the same time. In conjunction with the
Arabians they invaded Judah, took and plundered
Jerusalem, and carried away the treasures of
Jehoram’s palace, together with his sons and _ his
wives (2 Chron. xxi. 16 ff.). It is not recorded that
the Phcenicians took any share in the attack. But
they were the great slave-traders of the East. As we
learn from Amos, they sold their captives for the
Philistines (Amos i. 6, 9); and to the Israelite, with
his keen love of freedom and attachment to his
country, this was almost, if not quite, as great an
injury as open hostility. Thus the mention of these
four nations and no others as hostile to Judah
strikingly supports the view that Joel prophesied
in the early part of the reign of Joash.
mm DATE OF JOEL 63

There is one possible historical allusion which 4 possivie
may be mentioned here. Though but little stress auction,
can be laid upon it, it points in the same direction
as the references to foreign nations. The scene of the
final overthrow of the heathen is laid in the Valley
of Jchoshaphat (iii. 2, 12). The significance of the
name Jehovah judgeth may be sufficient to account
for its use; but it undoubtedly gains in point if
we may assume that there is in it an allusion to
Jehoshaphat’s great victory over the confederate
forces of Moab, Ammon, and Edom, in which Jehovah
fought for His people and judged their enemies, who
had mustered their forces with the intention of anni-
hilating Judah (2 Chron. xx.). It is at least possible
that this great triumph over the nations, still fresh
in the recollection of the people, for it happened only
a quarter of a century before the time of Joash,
supplied the prophet with his imagery and suggested
his language.’

The probability of the early date of Joel is still Relation of
further confirmed by the consideration of the relation Amos
of Amos to Joel. Clearly either Amos is quoting
Joel, or Joel is referring to Amos; and, in spite of all
that has been said to the contrary, I cannot but

1 The locality of Jehoshaphat’s victory was in the neighbourhood
of Engedi, in the wilderness of Tekoa. The tradition which
assigns the name Valley of Jehoshaphat to the valley of the
Kidron, between Jerusalem and the Mount of Olives, cannot be
traced beyond the time of Eusebius and Jerome. That valley can-
not be meant here. The term used, denoting a broad open vale,
would be quite inapplicable to the narrow ravine of the Kidron.
64 DATE OF JOEL LECT.

think that it is Amos who is dependent on Joel.
He opens his prophecy (Amos i. 2) by repeating the
words of his predecessor (Joel ili. 16), Jehovah shall
roar from Zion, as if to show that he is continuing
Joel’s work, and that they are both alike messengers
of the same God, Who will arise to judge the heathen.
The connexion les deeper than an external coinci-
dence of language. The Book of Joel closes with a
vision of judgement on the nations, and a promise of
prosperity for Judah. Amos takes up the thought of
judgement, develops it in detail with specific threat-
enings, and warns Judah and Israel that they will
not escape. Amos closes his prophecy (ix. 13)
with a repetition of Joel’s promise of marvellous
fertility for the land of Judah (Joel iii. 18), as though
he would declare that, although the promise has not
yet been realised, God’s word cannot fail of fulfil-
ment. In respect both of threatening and of promise
he confirms the message of his predecessor.

It has been maintained that Joel is borrowing the
language of Amos. But both quotations are firmly
embedded in the context of Joel, and belong to his
circle of ideas. How natural to the prophet for
whom Zion is the centre of thought is the phrase,
Jehovah shall roar from Zion; how appropriate the
promise of fertility in contrast to the scarcity caused
by the locusts and the drought; and Amos follows
up his first quotation (@. 2) with words which are a
reminiscence of the circumstances of the Book of
I DATE OF JOEL 65

Joel: The pastures of the shepherds shall mourn, and
the top of Carmel shall wither.

Again, Amos seems to refer to the circumstances
described by Joel when he reminds the Israelites
of the judgements by which Jehovah had called them
to repentance (iv. 6 ff.).'| The reproof, Yet have ye
not returned unto Me, corresponds exactly to Joel’s
summons, Return unto Me with all your heart (ii. 12).

Once more, it is plain that the day of Jehovah was
a familiar idea to the people in the time of Amos

“(v. 18 ff). But they misinterpreted its significance,

claiming its blessings for themselves, and assigning
its threatenings exclusively to their enemies. Such
a misconception might easily have arisen from a one-
sided and partial interpretation of the prophecy of
Joel.

It is, of course, impossible positively to affirm
that the prophecy of Joel is referred to by Ezekiel
(xxxvili, 17; xxxix. 8), when he speaks of ancient
prophecies which had predicted the great final
assault of the powers of the world upon Israel,
but it is at least important to observe that the con-
ception of a conflict between the confederate nations
and Israel, and the supernatural destruction of the
nations who defy Jehovah in defying His people, is
no new idea in Ezekiel’s time. Ezekiel’s emphatic

1 Amos (iv. 9) uses the word g&:am, A.V. palmer-worm, lit.
biter, for some kind of locust. It is found in Joel i. 4; ii, 25, and
nowhere else.

F

and Ezekiel
66 DATE OF JOEL LECT.

language im ancient days scarcely allows us to sup-
pose that he is referring to the quite recent utterances
of Zephaniah and Jeremiah ; but it would be natural
if he had Joel in mind, and Joel had prophesied
more than two centuries before.

Arguments Such are some of the principal reasons for

gzilic date, regarding Joel as one of the earliest of the prophets.
We must, however, examine the arguments urged
with equal confidence for placing him after the return
from the Captivity. It is alleged that the language of
ch. ili. 1, 17 is decisive for a date after the destruc-
tion of Jerusalem in B.C. 586 ; that the absence of all
allusion to the Northern Kingdom, or to a king and
princes, points to a time when that kingdom had
passed away, and even Judah had no longer a king
or court, but was governed by priests and elders;
that the sale of Israelite slaves to the sons of Javan,
or Jonian Greeks (iii. 6), indicates a late date, for
down to the time of Ezekiel the Ionians were
bringing slaves to Tyre (Ezek. xxvii. 13); that the
ideas of the book are hierarchical and ceremonial,
and only conceivable in the period of the Restoration,
and in the small community of the returned exiles ;
that the absence of reproof for special sins, and in
particular for idolatry, cannot be reconciled with all
that we know of pre-exilic times ; that the attitude of
the prophet towards the heathen nations shows an
approximation towards the narrow exelusiveness of
later Judaism. The general tendency of recent criti-
II DATE OF JOEL 67

cism has been in favour of a post-exilic date; but to
what precise epoch of the post-exilic period the book
should be assigned is a much disputed point. It
cannot well be earlier than B.c. 500, for the Temple
is standing, and its services are regularly performed.
To adate about this time some critics would assign
it, but according to others it is later than the reforms
of Ezra and Nehemiah, and must be placed about
B.c. 400, or even later. Those who adopt the later
date for the most part regard Joel as a kind of com-
pendium of Jewish eschatology, and the forerunner
of the later apocalyptic literature.

The arguments seem formidable, but their force
diminishes upon closer examination. The phrase
in ch. iii. 1, rendered in our English Versions bring
again the captivity, probably means, restore the
fortune, and does not necessarily refer to exile. In
any case it is no proof of a post-exilic date, for it
occurs in Amos (ix. 14) and Hosea (vi. 11). These
prophets look beyond the disasters which they fore-
see are in store for Israel, to the restoration of the
people to their own land in the distant future. But
the dispersion of Israel among the nations of which
Joel speaks is not the deportation of the people
en masse by its Assyrian or Babylonian conquerors,
but, as the context shows, the sale of captives as
slaves to distant nations (vv. 6, 7), for which Amos
condemns Gaza and Tyre with stern severity (i. 6, 9).
The division of Jehovah’s land is not the conquest of

of doubtful
cogency.
68 DATE OF JOEL LECT.

the whole country by the Chaldeans (in what sense
was that a division of the land among the nations ?),
but the seizure or reconquest of territory which had
once belonged to Judah, by Philistines, Edomites,
and other neighbouring nations, which, as we have
seen, took place in the reign of Jehoram.

The silence of Joel about the Northern Kingdom
may be due not to the fact that this kingdom had
ceased to exist, but to the limited circle of Joel’s
interests. His silence, moreover, admits of a very
natural explanation, if he was writing at a time
when Judah was still smarting from the recollection
of the cruel tyranny of Athaliah. It is easy to
understand how the hopes of reunion which appear
in almost all the other prophets might, under these
circumstances, fall into the background.

The absence of all mention of the king and court
is sufficiently accounted for by the peculiar circum-
stances of the minority of Joash. Too much stress
must not be laid upon it. The Book of Micah contains
no reference to Hezekiah, except in the title, though,
as we know from the Book of Jeremiah (xxvi. 18),
he prophesied before him.

The predominant influence of the priesthood, and
the importance attached to ceremonial, have been
somewhat exaggerated. But Jehoiada could not
have occupied the position which he did without
increasing the influence of his class. Devotion to
ceremonial was by no means limited to post-exilic
II DATE OF JOEL 69

times. Isaiah’s complaint is that it was regarded as
the sum and substance of religion,

Elders, if indeed magistrates are denoted by the
term at all in Joel,’ were not an institution peculiar
to post-exilic times. On the contrary, they are
more often mentioned before the exile than
after it.

The absence of rebuke for particular sins, and the
attitude of the prophet towards the nations, are at
least as difficult to explain on the hypothesis of the
late date as on that of the early date. In the first
quarter of a century after the Return, Haggai and
Zechariah have abundant fault to find with the
people. Ezra, Nehemiah, and Malachi find even
graver offences to rebuke. The circumstances of
the Book of Joel do not agree with what we know of
either of these periods ; and in fact the advocates of
the post-exilic date generally avoid the difficulty by
placing the book in the interval between Zechariah
and Ezra, or some considerable time after Malachi—
two periods of which we know practically nothing.
All the later prophets look forward to the conversion
of at least a remnant of the nations. Joel’s
“particularism” may be due to his early date rather
than to the advance of a spirit of Judaism. Hosea
is wholly silent about the destiny of the nations.

1 In ch. i. 14 the right rendering may possibly be Gather, ye
elders, the inhabitants, etc., but it is not certain. In ch. i. 2;
ii. 16 the context shows that old men are meant.
70 DATE OF JOEL LECT.

Amos looks forward to their conquest, not their
conversion (ix. 12).

The argument from the course of the slave trade
between Pheenicia and Ionia can hardly be pressed.
The Pheenicians maintained intercourse with the
Tonian Greeks from the earliest times. Syrian
slaves may have been transported to Asia Minor
then as they were afterwards; and Joel would
select the Ionians for mention as the remotest
region to which his countrymen had been carried
away.

The positive arguments for the early date of Joel
seem to me decidedly to preponderate, and the force
of those for the late date diminishes upon examina-
tion. It is extremely difficult to see how Joel can be
fitted into any part of the period after the Return
without considerable assumptions ; and it is admitted
that we are not in a position to explain his refer-
ences to surrounding nations from the circumstances
of that period. There is an entire absence of indica-
tions that the prophet is living-in a small, struggling,
despised community. The Temple worship is firmly
established and regularly organised. There is no
sign of the apathy and neglect which Haveai and

1 Homer (JZ, xxiii. 740) speaks of—
‘CA silver bow] well wrought,

By Sidon’s artists cunningly adorned,
Borne by Pheenicians o'er the dark blue sea ;"

and the Tell-el-Amarna tablets (? fifteenth century B.c.) mention
Ionians in connexion with Tyre. See Sayce in The Academy,
17th Oct. 1891, p. 340.
IIL DATE OF JOEL 71

Zechariah rebuke, or of the contemptuous careless-
ness which Malachi censures.

Attention has been called to the resemblance comparison

between Joel and Zechariah xii.-xiv., and they have Zech
been assigned approximately to the same period.!
The comparison is instructive, for there are certain
resemblances, but the contrasts are greater than the
resemblances. Joel's prophecy springs out of the
actual circumstances of his time. It is emphatically
a message to his contemporaries. It summons them
to humiliation and penitence. It promises the
removal of the plague from which they had been
suffering. When he goes on to speak of the more
distant future, it is in terms suggested by, and closely
related to, the circumstances of the present. Zechariah
xii.-xiv., on the other hand, is not based upon present
circumstances. It is apocalyptic and eschatological,
rather than prophetic and didactic. It deals simply
with the distant future. The difference between
the two works seems to me so marked that if, as I
hope to shew, Zechariah xii.-xiv. belongs to the post-
exilic period, a strong presumption is raised against
the probability that Joel can be referred to the same
period.

The question may naturally be asked, how it can aaraninest
be that style and language do not at once enable us
to decide between dates so far apart as the ninth
and fifth, or even fourth, centuries B.c.? The most

1 See Cheyne’s Bampton Lectures, p. Xx.
Leaching of
vel —

The day of

Jehovah,

72 TEACHING OF JOEL LECT.

opposite conclusions have been drawn from the style
of Joel. To one critic its smooth, flowing simplicity
appears to be a certain indication of high antiquity ;
another regards it as the result of art and familiarity
with the older literature. But style, if we may judge
from modern instances, depends at least as much
upon the individual as upon the age; and in the
case of the prophets it probably depends largely
upon the way in which the books were committed
to writing. The remains of Hebrew literature
are too scanty for us to decide with certainty
what was and what was not possible in a particular
period. The uniformity of the Massoretic punctuation
has obliterated many distinctions of pronunciation
which would have served as landmarks. For these
reasons it is doubtful if the argument from Joel’s
style and language can be laid in the scale on either
side. But it is a strange misrepresentation to say
that “the language of Joel plainly bears the char-
acter of the latest period of Hebrew literature.” If
any argument can be drawn from it, it is in favour
of the early date.

Vy

Joel, if we are right in assigning him to the ninth
century B.c., leads the way in the series of prophecies
which culminate in the Apocalypse. In the plague
of locusts and drought, which was the occasion of
II TEACHING OF JOEL 73

his prophecy, he saw a sign and presage of the great
day of judgement and redemption—the day of Jehovah.
It seems to be close at hand. Woe worth the day!
Jor the day of Jehovah is at hand, and as destruction
Srom the Almighty shall ut come... . Great is the day
of Jehovah and very terrible! and who can abide it?
But repentance may avert the final catastrophe.
Jehovah is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and
plenteous in lovingkindness, and repenting Him of the
evil. If the visitation bears its fruit in penitence, He
may send blessing to take the place of judgement.

The people obeyed the prophet’s warning and
repented, and he was commissioned to assure them
of the speedy removal of the scourge from which
they had suffered, and of the complete restoration of
the fertility of their land.

But he would not have them rest contented with
this immediate and temporal blessing. This present
experience is intended as a presage of spiritual bless-
ing, a warning of decisive judgement. The great
day of Jehovah is still to come, heralded by terrible
signs in nature, wonders in the heavens and in the earth,
blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke, While for the
nations who have misused the people of Jehovah and
defied Him it will be a time of judgement and retribu-
tion, for Israel it will be a time of the outpouring of
the Spirit, of deliverance in the midst of judgement.

And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will rhe outpour-

Ste ing of the
pour out My spirit upon all flesh ; and your sons and spirit.
74 TEACHING OF JOEL LECT,

your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall
dream dreams, your young men shall sce visions : and
even upon the slaves and upon the handmaids in those
days will I pour out My spirit (ii. 28, 29).

Universal as the promise to «l/l flesh seems at
first sight to be, the context and the explanation,
upon your sons and upon your daughters, show that in
its first and original intention it is limited to Isracl.
The words admit of the larger meaning which was
given them on the day of Pentecost, but it does not
appear to be as yet explicitly present to the prophet’s
mind. He foretells the realisation of Moses’ wish,
Would God that all the Lord’s people were prophets,
that He would put His spirit upon them (Num. xi. 29).
In the new age the whole nation will receive the
eift of the divine spirit, and participate in that
prophetic illumination which as yet is granted only
to a few select individuals. Inferiority of position
will be no bar to privilege. Even slaves will share
the blessing.

aig The promise of the outpouring of the spirit was
miseat | fulfilled on the day of Pentecost (.\cts ii, 14 ff).
The prophecy did not, indeed, refer solely to the
Pentecostal gift, nor was it exhausted in it. But the
miracle of Pentecost ushered in the new dispensation
to which Joel had pointed, and in which his words
are to receive an ever-increasing fulfilment. It is
noteworthy that a larger meaning is attached to
the words, All flesh is extended to include Gentile
III TEACHING OF JOEL 75

as well as Jew. And that which Joel speaks of as
the action of Jehovah Himself is attributed to the
Risen and Ascended Lord (Acts ii. 33). Nor does
St. Peter omit the words which tell of the approach
of the day of the Lord in its aspect of terror. Grace
and judgement move side by side. The Fall of
Jerusalem was the sequel of the day of Pentecost.
For those who would not receive their God when He
came in mercy, He must appear in wrath.

The day of Jehovah will come with its attendant ne aetiver-
terrors. But it will not be a day of terror for Israel, Tract,
for whosoever shall call on the name of Jehovah shall be
delivered: for in mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall
be a company that escape, as Jehovah hath said, and
among the survivors shall be those whom Jehovah calleth
(ii. 32)! Here, too, the primary reference appears to
be to Israel ; and although the words admit of a wider
meaning, it is implicit, and not definitely expressed.

The counterpart of this picture of Israel’s iumin- The judge.
ation and deliverance is the judgement of the nations, nations.
They are summoned before Jehovah’s tribunal to
answer for their offences against His people. Those
who have plundered Jerusalem, and sold Israelite
captives into distant slavery, will themselves in turn
meet the like fate.

Another scene follows. The nations are ironically
challenged to muster for the final conflict. Jehovah

1 On the probability that here and elsewhere Joel refers to
Obadiah, see above p. 40.
76 TEACHING OF JOEL LECT,

brings down His heavenly hosts to battle against
them. The day of His final triumph is at hand. The
prophet leaves the doom of the insurgent armies to
his reader’s imagination, and turns to picture the
felicity of Zion, when Jerusalem shall be holy, and
there shall no strangers pass through her any more ;
when there shall be no more scarcity and drought, but
perennial streams will fertilise even the barren ravine
of the acacias ; when the Presence of Jehovah among
His people will at length be fully realised.
Limitations The limitations of Joel’s prophecy require careful
Phecy ae” notice. For him the great contrast is between Israel
(Fhe and the nations. Israel is to be saved and glorified.
(he nations, The nations are to be judged. The contrast between
the righteous and the ungodly within the chosen
people, and the hope of the salvation of at least a
remnant among the heathen nations, lie outside the
circle of Joel’s teaching. There are none of the stern
warnings which we find in almost every other prophet,
that the day of Jehovah will be a day of terror and
doom to the sinners even among His own people ;
none of the glorious hopes which meet us alike in
the prophets of the eighth century and in the prophets
of the Restoration, that the nations will one day pay
homage to Jehovah, and come to Zion for instruction.
If there is room in his words for both warning and
hope, at any rate they are not explicitly expressed.
Can these limitations best be explained on the
hypothesis of an early or a late date? Has the
III TEACHING OF JOEL 77

universalism of Messianic prophecy not yet been
reached ? or is the stern exclusiveness of later Judaism
already clouding over the larger hope? Surely it is
easier to see in them the unexpanded bud of prophecy,
rather than its withered flower.

The author of deliverance is Jehovah Himself. Cee
There is no prediction of a Teacher! or Deliverer or
King who will be His earthly representative. Him-
self He sits to judge the nations. In person He
takes up His abode in Zion.

Joel has been charged with “a want of ethical © cthicat
interest.” The moral element in his prophecy is ne
said to be subordinated to the longing for a national
triumph over the heathen. The criticism, I must
say, seems to me a shallow one. Repentance deep
and sincere is urged upon the people in the strongest
terms. The locust plague is viewed as a divine call
to return to Jehovah. It is true that repentance is
not defined, and that particular sins are not singled
out for condemnation. But we cannot tell how far

1The rendering of ch. ii, 23: Mor He hath given you the
teacher for righteousness, which is followed by the Targum and
Vulgate (quia dedit vobis doctorem “ustitiae), cannot be defended.
The context makes it clear that méreh must mean, as it does in
the next clause, the former rain. The meaning of the words for
righteousness is, however, difficult. The rendering moderately
(A.V.), or in just measure (R.V.), is questionable, for the word
righteousness in the O.T. always has an ethical sense. Probably
for righteousness means either—(a) in proof of His righteousness
or faithfulness to His covenant (Isa. li. 5, 6); or (0) in token of
your righteousness, ie, your justification and restoration to God’s
favour (Job xxxiii. 26).
Conclusion.

78 CONCLUSION LECT. Tl

these brief utterances may have been supplemented
by oral teaching. Leturning to Jehovah sums up
the duty of His people who had wandered from
Him. The promise of the outpouring of the Spirit
recognises most fully man’s need of the infusion of a
supernatural life, and his capacity for being raised
above his natural self.

The dwelling of Jehovah among His people,
which is the final goal of the prophecy, implies
that they have been fitted for His immediate
presence. And if the relation of Israel to the
nations may seem at first sight to be tinged with a
spirit of narrow nationalism, it must be remembered
that the conflict between Israel and the nations was
the form in which the great conflict between good
and evil, between God and His enemies, presented
itself to Joel under the circumstances of his age.

Thus, then, at the time when Israel was about to
come in contact with the great powers of the ancient
world, and fainting spirits might be tempted to
tremble for the very existence of the people of God,
Joel was inspired confidently to predict the final
issue of the conflict between the people of God and
the powers of the world. Be it never so long
delayed, the day of Jehovah must come, when He
will be finally triumphant over every enemy. Be
His own people never so obstinate, the goal must
finally be reached, when the words shall be fulfilled :
Jehovah dwelleth in Zion.
THE PROPHETS OF THE ASSYRIAN
PERIOD

AMOS—HOSEA—ISATAH—MICAH
6 dé per’ emipedrelas kal mpocoxfs évtvyxdvev Tots mpopytikols
Nbyos, Tabav é& abrod rod avayryvwoKew ixvos évOovoracpod, d av
Tacxe. mecOjnceTa ovK avOpwrwy eva ovyypdpmata Tovs TemTLC-
Teupévous Oeod Nd-yous.

ORIGENES.
LECTURE IV

AMOS

Let judgement roll down as waters, and righteousness as a
mighty stream.—Amos v. 24.

I

Four of the prophets whose writings have been pre- The pro-
served to us belong to what may be termed the “ssyrin
Assyrian period: the period in which the Northern
Kingdom fell before the advancing armies of Tiglath-
pileser, Shalmaneser, and Sargon; and the Southern
Kingdom, after becoming a tributary vassal of the

great king, only escaped from a like fate by the
miraculous intervention of Jehovah for the deliver-

ance of His people. Of these four prophets Amos

and Hosea prophesied to Israel, Isaiah and Micah to
Judah. Amos and Hosea were in part contemporary,

but Amos was somewhat the earlier of the two.

They both commenced their ministry in the reign of
Jeroboam IT; but while there are no indications that

any of the extant prophecies of Amos were delivered

after that reign, Hosea’s activity certainly continued

G
Date of
Amos.

82 CONTRAST BETWEEN AMOS AND HOSEA _LEcT,

into the period of political chaos which followed upon
the death of that powerful monarch.

II

The precise note of time prefixed to the prophecy
of Amos, two years before the earthquake, probably
refers to his mission to Bethel. The memory of that
earthquake long survived, preserved possibly by its
visible effects ;+ but the date of it is no longer known.
We shall not, however, be far wrong if we place the
ministry of Amos in the second half of Jeroboam’s
reign. The victories by which he restored the border
of Isral from the entering in of Hamath unto the sea
of the Arabah, had already been won when Amos
prophesied,” and the prosperity which was the result
of these successes had already begun to bear evil
fruit in the spirit of luxury and overweening self-
confidence. If Jeroboam’s reign, as seems most proh-
able, lasted until B.c. 749, or even a few years later,
the mission of .Amos is probably to be placed about
Bc. 760. On the other hand, none of Hosea’s pro-
phecies can well be later than Bc. 734." Thus the
two prophets fall within the same quarter of a
century, and though Amos preceded Hosea, it can at
the most have been by but a few years,

1 Zech. xiv. 5; ep. note to Lect. XV.
* Cp, Amos vi. 14 with 2 Kings xiv. 25. * See p. 108 1
Iv CONTRAST BETWEEN AMOS AND HOSEA 83

Til

But the recorded prophecies of these two con- contrast
temporary prophets present a singular contrast, which dinos and
it is well to bear in mind in studying their books. oe
It cannot be accounted for by the fact that Amos,
though he prophesied to Israel, was a native of
Judah, while Hosea was a native of the Northern
Kingdom; nor need it be supposed that either of
them ignored the truths which the other teaches, for
Hosea seems to have been acquainted with the
writings of Amos. But they offer a remarkable
illustration of the principle which it is essential to
bear in mind for the study of the Old Testament as
well as the New, that God chooses one man to present
one portion or one aspect of the whole sum of truth,
and another man to present another portion or
another aspect of it. The fourfold Gospel gives a
more complete portraiture of our Lord’s life and
work than a single narrative could have done. St.
Peter and St. John, St. James and St. Paul, have
each a distinctive and characteristic message to de-
liver. Perhaps with our present limited faculties we
are more impressed by truth when one part of it is
presented to us boldly without reserve or qualifica-
tion, and then another part offered for our accept-
ance with equal definiteness and emphasis. The
teachings which a hasty judgement may pronounce to
Cireum-
stances of
the time.

84 HISTORY OF THE TIME OF AMOS LECT.

be contradictory are in fact complementary: consci-
ence, not logic, will adjust the balance between them.
So it is with Amos and Hosea. Amos starts
from the thought of the universal sovereignty of
Jehovah. He is a preacher of a righteousness. His
soul is filled with a sense of the need for justice.
He says comparatively little about deeper motives.
Humanity in man’s dealings with his fellow-man is
a wniversal duty, incumbent upon and recognisable
by nations outside the sphere of special revelation.
Hosea starts from the thought of Jehovah’s relation
to Israel. He is the preacher of mercy and loving-
kindness. He points to the inner motives of human
conduct, and deals with man’s duty to his fellow-man
in the light of his duty to God and in virtue of God’s
choice of Israel. His spirit is full of a pathetic
tenderness, learnt in the school of sorrow.

IV

The period in which Amos was called to his pro-
phetic work was one of singular external prosperity
for both Israel and Judah. Israel had recently re-
covered from a state of extreme depression. During
the reign of Jehoahaz, the son and successor of Jehu,
it had sutfered most severely from the Syrians
under Hazael and Benhadad III. Hazael took all
the Israelite territory beyond the Jordan, and even
captured some cities on the western side of it. The
lv HISTORY OF THE TIME OF AMOS 85

army of Israel was reduced to a nominal strength.
Its weakness is indicated by the repeated raids of the
Moabites, who penetrated even into the neighbour-
hood of Samaria (2 Kings x. 32 f.; xiii. 3, 7, 20, 22,
25). The nation seemed to be on the brink of de-
struction. But the hour of Israel’s fall had not yet
come. It was to have one more respite.

Stimulated by Elisha’s dying charge, Joash, the
son and successor of Jehoahaz, recovered the cities
which his father had lost to the west of the Jordan.
It is probable that these successes were partly due to
the fact that the strength of Syria was otherwise
occupied in grappling with a new enemy on the north.
The Assyrians were advancing southwards. Jehu is
named on the ‘black obelisk’ of Shalmaneser IT. as
having paid him tribute in Bc. 842. But they
began by concentrating their attack upon Syria. For
the time Damascus served as a barrier to check the
tide of their conquests, and their successes relieved
Israel from the presence of their formidable neigh-
bours.

Joash, however, did not follow up his victories ;
and it was reserved for Jeroboam II. to be the saviour
of Israel (2 Kings xiii. 4 f.; xiv. 26 f). He assumed
the aggressive, recovered the territory of Israel on
the east of the Jordan from Hamath in the valley of
the Orontes on the north to the Dead Sea on the
south, and even captured Damascus (2 Kings xiv. 25,
28). Almost simultaneously Uzziah was extending
Internal
condition of

Israel.

86 SOCIAL EVILS OF THE TIME LECT.

the power of Judah in the south ; and the two king-
doms rose to a pitch of power and prosperity greater
than they had enjoyed since the days of Solomon.

But prosperity, as it so often has done, brought
grave evils in its train. The brief chronicle in the
Book of Kings does little more than give a bare out-
line of the external history. It is from the pages of
Amos and Hosea that we must draw the materials
for a picture of the actual condition of the people in
the Northern Kingdom. There we get a glimpse of a
state of society from which the primitive simplicity ,
and equality had disappeared. A class of wealthy
nobles had arisen, who had swept the smaller hold-
ings together into vast estates in defiance of the
fundamental principles of the constitution, and mis-
used their power to oppress the masses, who had
sunk into a condition of poverty and in some cases
even actual slavery.!

Let us turn to the pages of Amos, and note what
he saw beneath the apparent prosperity and external
splendour of Jeroboam’s reign. The luxury of the
rich was conspicuous. They had their winter and
summer residences (iii. 15), which were built of hewn
stone, panelled with ivory, and furnished with couches
inlaid with the same costly material (v. 11; iii. 15;
vi. 4), where they feasted and drank to excess amid
delicate perfumes, and soft strains of varied music
(vi. 4-6). But these luxuries were obtained by means

1 See Robertson Smith’s Prophets of Isracl, p. 93.
Iv SOCIAL EVILS OF THE TIME 87

which Amos bluntly calls violence and robbery (iii. 10);
by oppression of the poor and needy, who were even
sold as slaves by their remorseless creditors (ii. 6-8) ;
by dishonest trading, by false weights, and worthless
goods (viii. 4-6); by exacting presents and taking
bribes (v. 11, 12). Women shewed themselves as
eruel and hard-hearted as men, imperiously demand-
ing from their husbands the means for the supply of
their Inxuries, regardless of the fact that they were to
be procured at the expense of the poor and needy
(iv. 1).

Public and private virtues alike had decayed. The
venality of the judges—that perpetual curse of
Oriental countries—was notorious. The poor man
need not look for redress in the courts where justice
was openly bought and sold (v. 7, 12). Licentious-
ness of the grossest kind was unblushingly practised
(ii, 7). Tradesmen made no secret of their covetous-
ness and dishonesty (viii. 4 ff). Humane laws were
openly ignored (ii. 8).

And withal no reproof of these practices was
tolerated. The suggestion of the duty of upright
dealing was sufficient to make a man unpopular
(v.10). Engrossed with their own pleasures, the nobles
shewed a callous indifference to the moral ruin of
their country (vi. 6). Confident in the continuance
of a prosperity which they attributed to their own
exertions, they had no fear of impending judgement
(vi. 1, 13).
Personal
history of
Amos.

88 PERSONAL HISTORY OF AMOS LECT.

The outward ordinances of worship were zealously
observed at the various sanctuaries. Sacrifices and
burnt offerings and meal offerings and thank offerings
and freewill offerings were brought in abundance.
New moons and Sabbaths and festivals were ob-
served. The joyous songs of the worshippers re-
sounded in their sanctuaries (v. 21 ff; iv.4f.; vi. 3,
5,10). They trusted in the privilege of descent (iii.
2; ix. 7). Was not Jehovah of hostsin their midst ?
Did they not duly propitiate Him in the manner He
desired ? Could He possibly desert them? Surely
the day, whenever it might come, in which He would
manifest His Presence more immediately and visibly,
must be a welcome day of blessing for Israel, and
discomfiture for Israel’s enemies (v. 14, 18)!

Vv

Such was the state of society in Northern Israel
when Amos was sent on his mission. His home was at
Tekoa, about twelve miles south of Jerusalem, whence
came the “wise woman” who was employed by Joab
to procure Absalom’s recall (2 Sum, xiv. 2), He was
no prophet by birth or education,’ but a shepherd or
herdman,’ and dresser of sycamore trees, which were

* When Amos disclaims being a prophet’s son (vii. 14), he may
refer to his natural parentage ; but it is certainly possible that he
means that he had not been trained in the ‘schools of the pro-
phets.’ So R.V. marg., one of the sons of the prophets. Cp. 1
Kings xx. 85.

2 In ch. i. 1 he is said to have been among the shepherds of
Iv PERSONAL HISTORY OF AMOS 89

cultivated both for their fruit and for their durable
wood (1 Chron. xxvii, 28; Iga. ix.10). He may have
partly owned the flocks and the trees which he tended,
but the fact that he followed the flock (vii. 15), makes
it clear that he was not a wealthy noble, but a yeo-
man like Elisha who worked upon his own farm, or
perhaps of still humbler position, The language of
his prophecy bears numerous traces of the character
of his occupation. The significance of the phe-
nomena of nature, familiar to one whose life was
spent in the open air, impressed itself deeply upon
him (iv. 13; v. 8; ix. 5,6). The waggon loaded
with sheaves (ii. 13); the lion growling over his
prey (ii. 4); the remnants of his prey recovered by
the shepherd out of the lion’s mouth (ii. 12); the
bear, more formidable to the shepherd than even the
lion (v. 19) ; the snares set for birds (iii. 5); plough-
ing (vi. 12); cattle-driving (iv. 3); corn-winnowing
(ix. 9); the locusts devouring the aftermath (vii. 1 ff);
the basket‘ of summer fruit (viii, 1 ff); supply
him with imagery which he uses with perfect natural-
ness, as might be expected from one who was brought
up to the calling of a shepherd and husbandman.

At the divine call Amos left his flocks and herds ix mission
0 bethet.

Tekou. The term ndkéd here used occurs elsewhere in the Old Tes-
tament only in 2 Kings iii, 4, where it is applied to Mesha (A.V.
sheepmaster). It appears to denote the owner or keeper of a par-
ticular breed of sheep or goats, small and ugly, but valuable for
their wool. In ch. vii. 14, 15 Amos describes himself as a herd-
man, and says that Jehovah took him from following the flock.
90 PROPHECIES OF AMOS LECT.

and sycamore orchards at Tekoa, and journeyed to
Bethel. There, under the shadow of the royal
palace and sanctuary, he publicly delivered his
message.’ How much of the book as we now have
it was thus orally delivered, we cannot tell. But no
doubt the substance of the prophecy against Israel
which occupies the greater part of it was actually
spoken. The climax was reached when he foretold
the destruction of the sanctuaries of Israel, the fall
of the house of Jeroboam, and the captivity of the
people. Amaziah the priest of Bethel interposed,
and sent word to Jeroboam, charging Amos with
treason. Amaziah evidently dared not lay violent
hands on the sacrosanct person of a prophet without
the king’s authority. But he strove to silence the
unwelcome visitor, and bade him flee to his own
home, and prophesy there. Amos defended his
action. It was no self-chosen task, but one imposed
upon him, contrary to all expectation, by a divine
mandate which he could not resist. And he pro-
nounces a solemn sentence upon Amaziah. Though
he might now be able to silence the prophet, he was
destined himself to experience the fulfilment of his
words.

1 It is possible that he went as far as Samaria. The addresses
in chaps. iii.-vi. seem, in part at least, more suitable to Samaria
than to Bethel. See iii. 9; iv. 1; vi. 1.
Iv AGAINST THE NATIONS 91

VI

It seems probable that Amos went home to rhe Book of
Tekoa, and there committed his prophecies to writ- aur
ing. The book bears evidence of more orderly and
systematic arrangement than would be likely to have
characterised the spoken prophecies! In particular,
the prophecies against surrounding nations, and
against Judah, with which it opens, would scarcely
have been spoken in Bethel. If, as there seems no
reason to doubt, the title is from the prophet’s own
hand, at least two years elapsed before it was
completed.

The series of prophecies against the nations which Higa
forms the prologue to the book is noteworthy, alike tina the
for the view of the universal sovereignty of Jehovah Chaps. tf
which it presents, and for the doctrine of the moral
responsibility of the heathen which it assumes.

Here, in the earliest of the prophets whose date
is universally acknowledged, Jehovah is already
presented to view as the supreme Ruler of the
world. He is not Israel’s God alone, though He
is Israel’s God in a special sense, for He has chosen
Israel out of all the families of the earth to be His
own people. But He who is the all-sovereign
Creator of the universe, orders the migrations of the
nations, and cares tor their welfare. It is He who

1 See Note A, p. 105.
92 PROPHECIES OF AMOS LECT.

brought up the Philistines from Caphtor and the
Syrians from Kir, not less than Israel from the land
of Egypt (ix. 7). He has the right and the power
to punish them for their offences. What then are
the offences of which they have been guilty? In
part no doubt it is for hostility to Israel that they
are condemned; but in the main it is for inhumanity,
for breaches of those natural laws of piety written in
the heart and conscience of man, by which the
relation of man to man and nation to nation ought
to be governed. The gravamen of the offence lies
in its character, not in the fact that it is com-
mitted against Jehovah’s people. Thus Syria is con-
demned for the barbarous destructiveness of its wars
against Gilead; Philistia for merciless deportation
of captives into slavery; Tyre for a like offence,
ageravated by the forgetfulness of the brotherly
covenant made by Hiram with David and Solomon ;
Edom for pitiless hostility, and that against his own
brother; Ammon for savage brutality in warfare;
Moab, most notable instance of all, for senseless
insult, which violated the natural laws of respect for
the dead. The condemnation of these nations
implies that even the heathen possessed some know-
ledge of right, which carried with it a corresponding
degree of moral responsibility. The violation of the
natural laws of humanity written in their hearts
demands punishment. They are capable of exercis-
ing moral judgements. Even the Philistines and
Iv AGAINST THE NATIONS 93

Egyptians are summoned as witnesses of the wrongs
which are perpetrated in Samaria (iii. 9).

With Judah and Israel it is otherwise. Judah is sudan ana
condemned for disregard of the divine revelation a
made to it: because they have rejected the law of
Jehovah, and have not hept His statutes, and their lies,
the false gods which they have chosen, have caused
them to err (ii. 4). Israel is condemned for in-
humanity and debauchery ; and their misconduct is
ageravated by forgetfulness of all that Jehovah had
done for them in bringing them out of Egypt, and
establishing them in the land of Canaan. They have
been admonished by a succession of prophets; but
they have silenced the prophets whose rebukes
disturbed their complacency. They have had the
Nazirites before their eyes as a standing example
of self-control, but they had done their best to
corrupt those whose ascetic lives were a constant
rebuke of their self-indulgence (ii. 6-12).

VII

The storm of judgement which has swept over the ssracrs sins.
surrounding nations from north to south, and from
west to east, remains suspended in all its intensity
over Israel. It was to Israel that Amos was
specially sent, and upon them the full force of his
moral indignation is let loose. The sins which were
rife in the state of society which has already been
94 THE SINS OF ISRAEL LECT,

described—covetousness and dishonesty, cruel treat-
ment of the poor and defenceless, open violation of
humane laws, perversion of justice, selfish and idle
luxury, immorality and profanity—all in succession
are dragged to the light and unsparingly denounced.
Repeated chastisements have had no effect upon them
(iv. 6 ff); they are ripe for judgement; let them
prepare to meet their God; to seek Him is the one
condition of life; and if they do not seek Him, He
will break forth as a consuming fire that none can
quench.

By the side of Isvael’s moral offences, their cere-
monial errors fall comparatively into the background.
Amos goes to the root of the matter, and deals with
the attitude of the people’s heart and will towards
Jehovah. How could any worship, offered ly hands
so stained with sin, from hearts so absolutely indif-
ferent not merely to Jehovah’s known requirements,
but to the common dictates of morality, be possibly
acceptable? But it is scarcely true to say that
Amos “ expresses no dread of the religious symbolism
prevalent in Northern Israel”; that “like Elijah and
Elisha, he lets the golden calves pass without a word
*) Elijah and Elisha were face to face
with the graver question whether Baal or Jehovah
was to be [svacl’s God. Amos was face to face with

of protest.

the scarcely less grave moral question, what concep-

1 Cheyne, Hosea, p. 31. Seo Davidson’s criticism in The
Expositor, 8rd Ser, vol. v. p. 174 MT.
IV THE SINS OF ISRAEL 95

tion Israel formed of Jehovah and His requirements,
This question overshadows everything else. But
apart from the indispensable moral conditions of true
worship, it is clear that he regards the worship
carried on in sanctuaries of their own choice, with
ceremonies of their own devising, as no true seeking
of Jehovah. Their altars are to be destroyed. Jn
the day that I shall visit the transgressions of Israel
upon him, I will also visit the altars of Beth-el, and the
horns of the altar shall be cut off, and fall to the ground
(ii. 14). Or again: Seek ye Me, and ye shall live:
but seck not Beth-el, nor enter into Gilgal, and pass not
to Beer-sheba: for Gilgal shall surely go into captiwity,
and Beth-el shall come to nought (v. 4). Tronically
he exhorts them: Come to Bethel, and transgress ; to
Gigal, and multiply transgression ; and bring your
sacrifices every morning, and your tithes every three
days ; and offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving of that which
is leavened, and proclaim freewill offerings and publish
them (iv. 4, 5). It may be doubtful whether the sin
of Samaria means the calf of Bethel or the Asherah
which was still standing in Samaria (2 Kings xiii. 6) ;
but the worshippers of the calves are certainly in-
cluded in the threat: They that swear by the sin of
Samaria, and say, As thy God, O Dan, liveth ; and, As
the way of Beer-sheba liveth ; even they shall fall, and
never rise wp again (vii. 14). And the last vision
(ix. i. ff) presents a graphic picture of the worshippers
buried under the ruins of the Temple in which they
Israel's self-
delusion.

96 JEHOVAH’S REQUIREMENTS LECT.

are assembled for worship. “These passages,” says
Professor Davidson, “appear to carry in them a
formal repudiation of the calves... If the pro-
phet’s language be not a verbal protest against the
calf worship, it is because it is a great deal more; it
is a protest which goes much deeper than the calves,
and is directed to something behind them. The
calves, and the whole ritual service as it was prac-
tised, were but symptoms of that which gave offence
to the prophets, which was the spirit of the worship,
the mind of the worshippers, the conception of Deity
which they had in worshipping, and to which they
offered their worship. Jehovah distinguishes between
this service and the worship of Him. Seek Ale, and
seek not to Bethel.”

In the midst of all their moral depravity, and
failures to recognise Jehovah’s character, they still
claimed to be His people, and imagined themselves
to be entitled to His favour. Jehovah, the God of
hosts, is with us, was their favourite watchword
(v.14). They desired the day of Jehovah (v. 18). It was
inconceivable that He should manifest Himself other-
wise than as the champion of His own people and
the destroyer of their enemies. It must have been
a rude shock to the easy-going security of the Israel-
ites to learn that just because they were Jehovah’s
people He intended to punish them. ow only have
I known of all the families of the earth: therefore I
will visit upon you all your iniquities (ii. 2), All
Iv JEHOVAH’S REQUIREMENTS 97

that He had done for them in delivering them from
the bondage of Egypt, and leading them through the
wilderness, and destroying the gigantic Amorites
before them, ought to have bound them to grateful
service. At least, if they did not recognise the
claim to gratitude, it would have been the part of
prudence to fear the Almighty Creator of the universe
(iv. 13; v. 8; ix. 6).

Jehovah’s requirements are few and simple. Seek serovan’s
good and not evil... . Hate the evil, and love the good, iments.
and establish gudgement in the gate (v. 14,15). Let
judyement roll down as waters, and righteousness as a
perennial stream (v. 24). Reyuirements few and
simple, yet difficult, because they cut clean across
the ingrained selfishness of the human heart, and
demanded nothing less than a complete reversal of
their present principles of action.

Seek Jehovah ; seek good ; that ye may live, is the The impena-

ing judge-
burden of the prophet’s message. He sets before ment.
them life and death; and if they will not choose the
way of life, the punishment cannot be averted. Once
and again at the intercession of the prophet Jehovah
repents Him of the evil (vii. 1-6). But the end must
come. Judgement cannot be deferred (vii. 7 ff.; viii.
1 ff). The sinful kingdom must be destroyed from
off the face of the earth. Jehovah’s character must
be vindicated in the sight of all the nations. The
instrument of chastisement is at hand. Amos does
not name them, but no doubt he has the Assyrians
H
98 THEOLOGY OF AMOS LECT.

inview. The Syrians had been a formidable enemy,
but a still more formidable and irresistible power was
arising in the distant north (v. 27; vi. 14).

The restora. Yet CO-ordinately with the prediction of judgement

nee we meet with the promise of restoration. When the
sinful kingdom is destroyed, the house of Jacob will
not be utterly destroyed. When the house of Israel
is sifted among all the nations, as corn is sifted in a
sieve, the least grain shall not fall upon the ground.
Only the self-confident sinners, who deny the possi-
bility of a judgement, will perish (ix. 8-10). Then
the ancient glory of the Davidic kingdom will be
restored ; a reunited, purified Israel will once more
possess the remnant of Edom, and all the nations
which Jehovah had claimed as His own.? Israel will
be restored to its own land, and dwell there securely
in the enjoyment of undisturbed prosperity. The
curse of barrenness will be removed: the land will
be enriched with the blessings of exuberant fertility
(ix, 11-15).

VIII

Theology of The dominant idea in the theology of Amos is the
sovereignty of Jehovah in nature and in history.
The Lord, or the Lord Jehovah, or the God of hosts, are
his favourite titles for (fod;? and whatever may
have been the origin of the title Jehovah of hosts, it

1 With ix. 12 ep. Deut. xxviii. 10.
2 See Note B, p. 106,
IV THEOLOGY OF AMOS 99

can hardly be doubted that the Septuagint rendering
Lord all-sovereign («ipsos tavtoxpdtwp) rightly re-
presents the sense in which the prophets employed it
to designate Jehovah as the Ruler of the hosts of
heaven and earth. In three passages Amos breaks
out into a sublime apostrophe of the sovereign
Creator. When he bids Israel prepare to meet its
God, he would startle them into repentance by bring-
ing home to them the conviction of what He is Whose
name is Jehovah, the God of Hosts. He it is Who
formed the solid mountains and created the subtle
wind, Who reveals to man His thoughts in His works
and by His prophets, Who turns the light of dawn
into darkness, and makes the high places of the earth
as it were the footstool of His feet (iv. 13).

When he bids Israel seek Jehovah if they would
live and not die, he draws as it were two portraits,
and hangs them up one over against the other. On
the one side there are the men who turn judgement to
wornwood, and cast righteousness down to the ground :
on the other there is the maker of the Pleiades and
Orion, Who turns the deepest gloom into morning, and
mahes day as dark as night ; Iho calls for the waters
of the sea, and pours them over the face of the earth ;
Jehovah is His name; Who flashes destruction upon
the strong, so that destruction comes upon the fortress
(v. '7 ff). This is the God with whom these daring
sinners have to do.

Do they doubt His power to overtake them,
100 ESCHATOLOGY OF AMOS LECT.

though they should bury themselves in the lowest
depths of Sheol, or scale the topmost heights of
heaven? He Iho touches the lund and it melts away,
and all its inhabitants mourn, is none other than He
Who builds His chambers in the heaven, and founds His
vault upon the carth, and calls for the waters of the
sea, and pours them out upon the face of the earth
(ix. 6).

He is, as we have seen already, the God of his-
tory, Who orders the migrations of the nations, Who
claims the right and has the power to judge them
for their breaches of the common law which He has
written in their hearts.

But in a special way He has revealed Himself to
Israel. In one sense Israel is but as one of the
nations whose destinies He has guided. Are ye not
us the children of the Ethiopians unto Me, O children
of Isracl (ix. 7)? But in another sense Israel is the
only nation which He has /nown,’ chosen and
acknowledged as peculiarly His own. He has sent
them prophets, and the prophets are His servants,
to whom He reveals His secret counsel (ii. 11:
ui. 7).

His moral character is shewn in His denunciation
of Israel’s conduct, and in those demands of goodness,
judgement, and righteousness, of which we have
alrealy spoken,

1 Cp. the use of the word in Gen. xviii. 19 of the call of
Abraham.
Iv ESCHATOLOGY OF AMOS 101

The eschatology of Amos is of the simplest amos
character. The picture of Israel’s future which he eure
draws in the concluding verses of the book is, like
that of Joel,’ a picture of purely temporal felicity.
Sinners will be destroyed in the judgement which is
impending; while the sound grain will be preserved
out of which a renewed people is to spring (ix. 9,
10). But he casts no light on the deeper problem,
how sin is to be atoned for and eradicated. He
looks apparently for this restoration to follow at no
long interval upon the judgement which is to fall
upon Israel from the Assyrians. He has no pre-
diction of a personal Messiah. But it is noteworthy
that he does connect the hope of the future with
the house of David. This is to be restored to its
pristine glory, and through its restoration blessing
comes to the no longer divided nation which
exercises a sovereignty over surrounding nations as
of old. He is still the representative of a rudi-
mentary stage of prophetic revelation, to be en-
larged, developed, spiritualised by his successors ;
to be fulfilled not indeed in the letter, but in the
spirit.

IX
But though in some respects the teaching of Place of
. : “ mos in.
Amos is of a simple and rudimentary character, his oe
* Israel.

1 To whose words he seems to allude, cp. Amos ix. 13 with Joel
iii. 18. See above, p. 63 ff.
102 PLACE OF AMOS IN THE LECT.

book offers a complete refutation of the theory that
his prophecy marks an entirely new departure in the
religious history of Israel. He, in common with the
other prophets of the eighth century,’ is, as I have
already observed (p. 26 ff), a reformer and not
a founder. If the people had no knowledge of the
moral demands of Jehovah, how could they justly be
blamed for disregarding them? Amos refers to
prophets who had preceded him, and betrays no
sense of any discontinuity between their teaching
and his own (ii. 11; iii. 7). With all their faults,
men desire to hear the words of Jehovah. They
are their spiritual food, and the spiritual ‘famine’
which will ensue upon the withdrawal of prophetic
teaching, which is threatened as part of Israel's
punishment, will be recognised as a grievous evil
(vill. 11 ff).

It is instructive to observe the knowledge which
Amos himself shews, and which he presumes in his
hearers. He implies a familiarity with the history
of Jacob and Esau (i, 11). Moab shall die with
tumult (ii. 2) may possibly be a reference to the
phrase sons of tvmull in Balaam’s prophecy of the
destruction of Moab (Num. xxiv. 17, RV). He
condemns (ii. 8) the Iweach of the humane law
concerning pledges, which is found in Exod. xxii. 26.
He speaks of the forty years of wandering in the

1 [ do not refer to the evidence of Obadiah and Jocl, because
their dates are disputed.
IV RELIGIOUS HISTORY OF ISRAEL 103

wilderness, and the gigantic stature of the
Amorites (i. 9, 10). He knows the fame of
David as a musician (vi. 5). This simple country-
man is acquainted with the history of his nation
and understands its religious significance. He
expects his hearers and readers to know it, for he
refers to these things incidentally and cursorily, as
to matters with which they would be familiar; and
he refers to events outside his own nation. The
fate of Calneh and Hamath, the origin of the
Philistines and the Syrians, have their warning and
their interest for him. The natural inference is that
the class of yeomen, possibly even of peasants,
to which Amos belonged, was by no means an
uninstructed class. How far the ancient history of
the nation had been already committed to writing,
or how far it was still preserved by oral tradition,
is a question which cannot be answered with
certainty. But if, as there seems no reason to
doubt, Amos committed his own prophecy to
writing, it is at least probable that some historical
records already existed in a written form.

The law and the statutes of Jehovah are presumed
to be known, for Judah is condemned for having
forsaken them and followed false gods (their lies)
like their fathers (ii. 4)! The existence of a ritual
law is implied in the condemnation of the offering

1 It is wholly arbitrary to condemn this passage as a ‘ Deuter-
onomic’ interpolation.
Permanent
lessons of
the book,

104 LESSONS OF THE BOOK OF AMOS LECT.

of leavened sacrifices on the altar (iv. 5);' and the
sanctity of the holy land in comparison with foreign
countries is presupposed when Amaziah is con-
demned, as part of his punishment, to die in a land
that is unclean (vii. 17; ep. Hos. ix. 3).

New moons and Sabbaths were observed by
abstinence from business, even by those who had no
heart in the observance (viii. 5); feasts and solemn
assemblies were frequented (v. 21; vii. 10);
sacrifices, burnt offerings, meal offerings, peace offer-
ings, freewill offerings were offered (v. 22; iv. 5);
tithes were paid (iv. 4).

The Book of Amos teaches, with singular clear-
ness and force, truths which can never become
superfluous or obsolete. The truths that justice
between man and man is one of the divine founda-
tions of society ; that privilege implies responsibility,
and that failure to recognise responsibility will surely
bring punishment; that nations, and by analogy,
individuals, are bound to live up to that measure of
light and knowledge which has been granted to
them; that the most elaborate worship is but an
insult to God when offered by those who have
no mind to conform their wills and conduct to

1 Lit. burn a thank offering of leaven. Cakes of leavened bread
were presented as part of the sacrifice of peace offerings (Lev. vii.
13), but no leaven was ever to be burnt (Lev. it. 11). Such a
ritual impropriety would seem to be of small moment. The
allusion to it implies the existence of a ritual law, to which much
importance was attached.
IV LESSONS OF THE BOOK OF AMOS 105

His requirements ;—these are elementary but eternal
truths.

Notg A.
STRUCTURE OF THE Book or Anos.

The Book of Amos may be divided as follows :—

(i) Chaps. i-ii. The Prologue.

The title and preface ! (i. 1, 2) are followed by denuncia-
tions of judgement against six neighbouring nations (i. 3-
ii. 8); upon Judah (ii. 4, 5); and lastly, in more detail, upon
Israel (ii. 6-16), Each begins, Thus saith Jehovah.

(ii) Chaps. ii.—vi.

A series of addresses, three of which begin Hear ye this
word (iii. 1; iv. 1; v. 1), and end with a threat introduced
by Therefore (iii. 11; iv. 12; v. 11, 16); and two begin
with IVoe (v. 18; vi. 1). In these the crimes and the
impending punishment of Israel are set forth at length,

(iii) Chaps. vii, 1-ix. 10.
Further threatenings of judgement in the form of five
visions. After the third follows the narrative of Amos’

experience at Bethel (vii. 10 ff.); and after the fourth a
repeated rebuke of the sins of the people (viii, 4 ff.).

(iv) Chap. ix. 11-15. The Epilogue.

The promise of the restoration of the House of David, and
the renewed happiness of Israel in their own land under
Jehovah’s protection.

 

1 Comp. Joel iii. 16.
106 NAMES OF GOD IN AMOS LECT. IV

Nore B.
Names oF Gop In Amos,

(1) The Lord Jehovah! is his favourite title, occurring
nineteen times, Ch, i, 8; iii. 7, 8, 113; iv. 2,5; v. 3;
vi. 8; vil. 1, 2, 4 (2), 5, 6; viii. 1, 3, 9, 11; ix. 8,

The Lord only, vii. 7, 8 ; ix. 1,

(2) Jehovah the God of hosts; iv. 18; v.14, 1535 vi. 8,
14; and more emphatically, Jehovah, whose name is the God
of hosts, v. 27.

The Lord, Jchovah of hosts, ix. 5.

The Lord Jehovah, the God of hosts, iii, 13.

Jehovah, the God of hosts, the Lord, v. 16.

Note that Lord never occurs in Hosea, and God of hosts
only once (xii. 5).

 

’ Readers of the E.V. will remember that Gop and Lonrp
printed in capitals represent the sacred name JHVH, which from
early times was not pronounced by the Jews in reading the Scrip-
tures. In place of that ineffable Name was read Addnat=Lord,
or when Adonai precedes, Hlohim =God.
LECTURE V

HOSEA

I desire lovingkindness, and not sacrifice ; and knowledge of God
more than burnt offerings. — HosEa vi. 6.

I

HOsEA was a younger contemporary of Amos, and Date of
an older contemporary of Isaiah and Micah. <Accord- Be 75-70.
ing to the title prefixed to his book, the word of
Jehovah came to him in the days of Uzziah, Jotham,
Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and in the days

of Jeroboam the son of Joash, king of Isracl. It seems

to be tolerably certain that this is a composite title.

The latter part of it probably belonged in the first in-
stance only to the earlier section of the book (chaps.
i-iii.); while the earlier part was added, perhaps by

the editor of the collection of the Minor Prophets, to
indicate that Hosea prophesied in the same period

as Isaiah and Micah,' without any intention that it
should be strained to mean that Hosea’s ministry
extended over the whole period covered by the

1 Comp. Isa. i. 1; Mic. i. 1.
(1) Chaps.
v.-tit, in the
reign of
Jeroboam.

(2) Chaps.

ty, ain, after

FTeroboam's
death.

108 DATE OF HOSEA’S MINISTRY LECT.

reigns of these four kings of Judah. In fact it seems
hardly possible that it can have done so. Internal
evidence proves that while the greater part of the
book must be assigned to a time subsequent to the
reign of Jeroboam, no part of it can well be so late
as the reign of Hezekiah or even of Ahaz.

The book falls into two well-marked divisions,
Chaps. i.-ii. are complete in themselves. They be-
long evidently to the reign of Jeroboam. For they
predict the downfall of the house of Jehu (1. 4), a
prediction which was fulfilled when after a brief
reign of six months Jeroboam’s son and successor
Zechariah lost his throne and his life by Shallum’s
conspiracy.' Moreover they were written in a time
of prosperity. Corn and wine, silver and gold, were
still abundant (ii. 8 ff). But Israel was soon to be
deprived of the blessings which it had misused, and
the true Giver of which it had ignored. The reign
of Jeroboam was, as we have seen, a time of such
prosperity. But it speedily came to an end after
his death. We can thus hardly be wrong in refer-
ring the first three chapters of Hosea to the
closing years of his reiyn, about 755-749 B.c.

The second division (chaps. iv.-xiv.) evidently be-
longs to a later period. It contains clear indications

1 See 2 Kings xv. 10. The expression rendered before the people
isa very strange one ; and we should probably adopt Gritz’s brilliant
conjecture, in b?eam, which involves an extremely slight change in

the letters of the text. Iblcam was in the plain of Jezreel (2 Kings
ix. 27). See Driver in The Expositor, 8rd Ser, vol. v. p. 259.
@ DATE OF HOSEA’S MINISTRY 109

of the state of anarchy and misrule into which the
Northern Kingdom fell upon Jeroboam’s death?
But it is at the latest anterior to the fall of
Samaria, which is predicted as still future (xiii. 16);
and it must in all probability be placed con-
siderably earlier than that event. It shews no trace
of the circumstances which called forth the great
prophecies of Isaiah vii. ff. There is no allusion to
the coalition of Pekah and Itezin to dethrone Ahaz.
The direct consequence of their action was that Ahaz
appealed to Assyria for help, and Pul or Tiglath-
Pileser IL,? responded to his appeal by ravaging
and depopulating northern VPulestine, Galilee, and
Gilead. To this grave disaster Hosea makes no
allusion. The punishment of Israel’s sins is im-
minent, but it is still future. Gilead is spoken of as
being still a part of the Northern Kingdom (vi. 8;
xu. 11; contrast Mic. vii. 14). Assyria is nowhere
regarded as a present and actual enemy, but as a
worthless and dangerous ally, to whose support a
faction in the country was appealing (v.13; vii. 11;
vil. 9; xii. 1; xiv. 3). Now this was precisely the
position of affairs in the reign of Menahem. He

1 See eg. vii. 7; vill. 3 f.; x. 38,15; xiii. 10 f.

? The identification of Pul with Tiglath-Pileser has been corro-
borated by the discovery of the name Pdlw in a list of Babylonian
kings, while in the Babylonian Chronicle Tuklat-abal-isarra
(= Tiglath-Pileser) is given as king for the same years. Pul
appears to have been the Babylonian substitute for the name

Tiglath - Pileser (Schrader, Cuneiform Inscriptions, E.T. i. p.
Xxxii.).
Cireum-
stances of
the time.

110 CIRCUMSTANCES OF HOSEA’S TIMES LECT.

was a military adventurer, who waded through blood
to the throne ; and could only maintain himself there
by purchasing the support of Tiglath-Pileser, and
practically becoming a vassal of Assyria (2 Kings xv,
14 ff, 19 ff). But with the accession of Pekah the
political situation was completely changed. We may
therefore with some confidence conclude that Hosea’s
public ministry was closed, and in all probability his
book written, before B.c, 734, when Pekah and Rezin
invaded Judah.

IL

We must now recall the circumstances under
which Hosea exercised his ministry. We have
already had occasion to consider the characteristics
of the reign of Jeroboam IT. in connexion with the
prophecy of Amos (p. 84 ff). On the death of that
powerful monarch the great kingdom which he had
built up fell speedily into ruin. After six months’

1 If Shalman who spoiled Beth-arbel (x. 14) could be identified
with Shalmaneser the successor of Tiglath-Pileser, it would be
brought down to a date after B.c. 727. But the identification is
improbable. Salamanu appears on the monuments as the name of
a Moabite king ; there was an Arbela on the east of Jordan, and it is
far more likely that the incident referred to occurred in one of the
savage wars between Moab and Gilead. See Schrader, Cune(form
Inscriptions, p. 440. Professor Sayce (Jewish Quarterly Review, vol.
i. p. 162 ff.) endeavours to shew that Hosea’s prophecies belong in
part to the very last years of the Northern Kingdom, immediately
before the fall of Samaria, and conjectures that Jared (v. 18; x. 6)
may have been the natal name of Sargon ; but the arguments
stated above appear to me conclusive in favour of the earlier date.
v CIRCUMSTANCES OF HOSEA’S TIMES 111

reign in Samaria his son and successor Zechariah was
slain by Shallum, and the dynasty of Jehu came to
an end. But the usurper could not keep the throne
which he had seized. Menahem established himself
in the once important city of Tirzah, and marching
thence against Samaria, took it and slew Shallum. A
few brief sentences suggest the horrors of the civil
war which followed, and the brutal vengeance which
Menahem inflicted on those who had refused to take
his side (2 Kings xv. 16). But he could not secure
his throne without external aid. Tiglath-Pileser,
the king of Assyria, invaded Israel. Menahem pur-
chased his support with the sum of a thousand
talents, which he raised by a tax upon the nobles of
the country, and submitted to the indignity of hold-
ing his throne as the creature and vassal of the king
of Assyria. He reigned for ten years, and left his
throne to his son Pekahiah. But after two years
civil war broke out again. Pekah, one of his
generals, with a band of Gileadites, murdered him in
his palace, and seized the throne.

At this point the political relations of the nations
underwent a change. Pekah allied himself with
Rezin the king of Syria to attack Ahaz, and set a
creature of their own, the son of Tabeel, upon the
throne of Judah. Ahaz appealed to Assyria for help,
offering his submission as a vassal, and sending a large
subsidy. Tiglath-Pileser invaded Syria, slew Rezin,
took Damascus, and deported the inhabitants to Kir.
112 CIRCUMSTANCES OF HOSEA’S TIMES LECT.

But first he had attacked Israel, ravaged northern
Palestine both east and west of the Jordan, and
carried the inhabitants away to Assyria. Pekah, de-
feated and discredited, lost his throne and life in the
conspiracy of Hoshea, who in his turn had to submit
to Assyria, and agreed to pay an annual tribute to
Shalmaneser. In the hope of bettering his position
he appealed to So or Sahaco the king of Egypt.
Shalmaneser promptly dethroned and imprisoned
his rebellious vassal. Samaria fell after a three
years’ siege, begun by Shalmaneser, and completed
by his successor Sargon in Bc. 722. The kingdom of
Israel was atan end. The Israelites were transported
to the far east, to the districts between the Tigris and
Euphrates, and even to the remoter Media, while
their old home was peopled with colonists from
Babylonian cities conquered by Assyria. The Israel-
ites who were left in the land intermingled with their
heathen neighbours. A nominal worship of Jehovah
was continued side by side with the worship of
heathen deities. But the national existence of Israel
was at an end. Henceforward all the hopes of the
chosen people centred in Judah.

Thus the ruin of Israel was precipitated by in-
ternal feuds coinciding with the advance of external
enemies. Four out of the six kings who succeeded
Jeroboam died violent deaths. Hoshea ended his
days as a captive. Menahem alone “slept with his
fathers,” and left his kingdom to his son. The throne
v CIRCUMSTANCES OF HOSEA’S TIMES 118

was seized by a succession of military adventurers,
who were not strong enough to maintain themselves
on it without foreign aid. They did not hesitate to
sacrifice the interests of their country to their own
selfish schemes of aggrandisement. The independence
of the nation once lost, its downfall was rapid and
irrevocable.

II

The pages of Hosea cast a lurid light upon the
condition of Israel during the ten or fifteen years
which followed the death of Jeroboam. The evils
which Amos condemned have become rapidly worse.
In the first division of the prophecy (chaps. i.-iii.)
the nation is described as still outwardly prosperous.
But it has practically deserted Jehovah. It ascribes
its blessings to the false gods which it worships. It
is ripe for punishment, which will speedily fall upon
it. It is pre-eminently the religious apostasy of the
nation which is denounced in these chapters.

But the second division of the book, which belongs
to the later period of Hosea’s ministry, presents a
series of pictures of the social, moral, and religious
condition of Israel during the ten or fifteen years
after Jeroboam’s death, not less graphic than those
drawn by Amos, and far more appalling. From the
highest to the lowest the nation is represented as
being utterly corrupt. The king and the princes
amuse themselves with the people’s misdoings instead

I

The history
illustrated
by Hosea.
114 HOSEA AN EPHRAIMITE LECT.

of restraining them. The princes are plunged in
debauchery. The king is the intimate companion of
‘scorners, who prided themselves on their cynical
contempt for virtue and religion, What wonder if
such a populace turns to destroy such kings (vii. 2 ff.)!
What wonder if, with all these internal dissen-
sions, Ephraim’s strength is devoured by strangers,
and he grows prematurely old (vii. 9)! A degenerate
priesthood rejoices in the sins of the people, instead of
checking them, because they augment their revenues
(av. 8). Nay, the priest turns bandit on his own ac-
count (v1. 9). Virtue has perished out of the land.
There is no truth, nor mercy, nor knorledye of God in the
land. Every form of vice has taken its place. There
is nought but swearing and breaking faith, and killing,
and stealing, and committing adultery. One act of
violence follows close upon another. They break out,
and blood toucheth blood (iv. 1, 2; ep. vi. 8; vii. 15 x.
4; xi. 12). Sin is universal (viii. 1).

There is a nominal regard for Jehovah. I/y God, we
Israel know Thee, is the popular ery (viii. 2). Sacrifices
in abundance are offered, nominally to Jehovah, but
He will not accept them (v. 6; vii. 15); for in reality
they have forgotten Him, and abandoned themselves
to licentious and degrading superstitions (iv. 6, 10,
12,13; vi 6,7; viii, 11-14; x. 1,8; xi 2; xiii. 2).
This forgetfulness of Jehovah is the root-evil of all.
When danger threatens they look to Assyria or Evypt:
for help instead of turning in repentance to Jehovah
Vv HOSEA AN EPHRAIMITE 115

(v. 18; vii 11; viii 9). They will not tolerate
rebuke (iv. 4); but persecute and despise the pro-
phets which are sent to them (ix. 7, 8). For such a
nation nothing remains but judgement sharp and
speedy.

IV

Such were the conditions under which Hosea had ae,
to deliver his message. Like Amos he prophesied to fo
the Northern Kingdom. He only casts side glances,
sometimes of encouragement and approval, sometimes
of warning and rebuke, at Judah. But while Amos
was a stranger, sent upon a temporary mission only,
all indications combine to shew that Hosea was a
native of Israel, bound to the kingdom whose ruin he
had to predict by the closest ties of sympathetic
patriotism. He has been called the Jeremiah of the
Northern Kingdom ; and it is not surprising to find
from the numerous allusions to his book in Jeremiah,
that it was evidently a favourite study of that pro-
phet. “In every sentence it appears that Hosea had
not merely visited the kingdom of Ephraim, as Amos
had done, but that he is acquainted with it from the
depths of his heart, and follows all its doings, aims,
and fortunes, with the profound feelings gendered of
such a sympathy as is conceivable in the case of a
native prophet only.”’ He shews, as we have seen,
complete familiarity with the internal condition of

1 Ewald, Prophets, vol. i. p. 211 (E.T.).
116 HOSEA’S LIFE HISTORY LECT,

the kingdom; with the depth and hopelessness of its
social corruption; with the crimes of its kings, its
nobles, and its priests; with its foreign relations,
such as the various intrigues for alliance with Egypt
or Assyria; with the deep-seated religious apostasy
which united a nominal worship of Jehovah in a
corrupt and idolatrous form with Baal worship and
an utter disregard for morality. The picture is
drawn with a force and feeling which attest an eye-
witness; and an eye-witness who does not merely
view things from the outside as a stranger, but is
keenly and bitterly alive to the sense that his own
country is being dragged headlong down to ruin by
the sins and crimes which he rebukes but cannot
reform. So strong is the impression produced by the
general drift of the prophecy, that it is scarcely
necessary to point to the special allusions which
stamp it as the work of an Ephraimite. The places
which Hosea mentions are all in the Northern
Kingdom. Lebanon supplies him with imagery (xiv.
5-7); Mizpah in Gilead and Tabor in Galilee repre-
sent the land from east to west (v. 1); Samaria is
frequently mentioned (vii. 1; vit. 5,6; x. 5,75 xiii.
16), Jerusalem not once; Gilead (vi. 8; xii. 11),
Shechem (vi. 9 R.V.), Gilenl Gv. 15; ix. 15; xii. 11),
Bethel, sometimes sarcastically called Beth-aven,
for the house of God has been turned into the house of
vanity or idol-worship (iv. 15; v. 8; x. 5, 8, 15),
Jezreel G. 5), (ibeah (v. 8; ix. 9; x. 9), Ramah
v HOSEA’S LIFE HISTORY 117

(v. 8), are among the places referred to. The name
Ephraim occurs no less than thirty-seven times.
Distinctive features of language are less numerous
than might have been expected; but certain pecu-
liarities of style and diction appear to belong to
the northern dialect. Others possibly have been
smoothed away in the course of transmission.

Vv

Hosea’s personal history supplies the master-key
to his teaching. Jehovah’s loving faithfulness to
Israel, and Israel’s thankless unfaithfulness to Jeho-
vah, are the ideas which permeate and give unity to
the whole book. These ideas had been branded upon
Hosea’s inmost soul by his own domestic experience.
With delicate touch and entire absence of self-
consciousness, almost as if he reflected upon it from
the outside, he tells the sad story, and reveals the
secret of his life. When Jehovah began to speak to
Hosea, He said to him, Go, take thee a whorish wife
and whorish children; for the land goeth utterly a
whoring from following Jehovah. So he went and
took Gomer the daughter of Diblaim (i. 2,3). She
bore him children, to whom, in obedience to the
divine command, he gave names which made them,
like Isaiah’s children, living witnesses to their father’s
message. Jezreel signified that a day of vengeance
was at hand for the house of Jehu in the valley of

Hosea's life
history.
118 THE MORAL DIFFICULTY LECT.

Jezreel, to avenge the wanton bloodshed of Jehu in
Jezreel. Lo-ruhamuh, or Unpiticd, betokened that
Israel’s day of grace was drawing to a close, and that
Jehovah would no longer shew mercy to the house
of Israel, and pardon their transgressions. Lo-ammq,
that is, Not-my-people, declared that Israel had for-
feited its position as the people of Jehovah, and that
He would no more be their Gud.

But Gomer proved faithless to her marriage vow.
Ensnared perhaps by the wild orgies of Baal and
Ashtoreth, she deserted her husband. She fell at
last into slavery.’ But in this her lowest degradation
her hushand does not abandon her. By divine com-
mand he redeems her from bondage, and brings her
home again. There he keeps her in a stern seclusion,
depriving her of the liberty which she had so wantonly
abused, and not yet restoring her to the full rights of
a wife; but watching over her, until her affection for
him should revive. <A touching picture, is it not, of
the prophet watching with unabated love over the
guilty wife of his youth; waiting patiently, if per-

1 Ch. iii. records the second act of the tragedy. Zhe woman
loving a paramour, and an adulteress (read the active participle
with the LXX.), can be no other than Gomer. If the relation of
Jehovah to Israel is symbolised by Hosea’s marriage with Gomer,
and Israel’s unfaithfulness is represented by her adultery, then
Jehovah’s unbroken love for Israel and determination to recover
Israel in spite of its apostasy can only be symbolised by the
prophet’s recovery of Gomer. That she had fallen into slavery
must be inferred from his purchasing her. The sum paid, partly

in money and partly in kind, was about thirty shekels, the value
of an ordinary slave (Exod. xxi. 32; Zech. xi. 12).
v THE MORAL DIFFICULTY 119

adventure tears of penitence might cleanse her sin-
stained soul, and her heart again respond to his
untiring love.

Such I believe to be the outline of Hosea’s personal
history. And so he learnt, in the bitterness of his own
domestic trial, something of the unquenchable love
of Jehovah for Israel, something of the cruel wrong
of Israel’s unfaithfulness towards Jehovah.

But before we proceed to observe in detail how rhe «morat

‘ : ‘ 3 ae difficulty.’
this experience shaped all his teaching, it is necessary
to face the ‘moral difficulty’ involved in the story.
How, we ask, could God have given His servant
such a command? or, to put the question from the
other side, How could Hosea have recognised the
voice of God in the impulse which prompted him
to marry a woman of unchaste life? Must he not
rather have thrust it from him as a snare and a
temptation? Such a course must inevitably expose
a prophet to well-merited contempt, as though he
of all men were condoning the immorality of his
countrymen which it was his mission to condemn ?

The difficulty has long been felt, and various The narra-
explanations of it have been suggested. Some inter- #egory.
preters have regarded the whole narrative as an
allegory. Now while it is tolerably certain that the
prophets—at any rate some of the later prophets—
express their teaching in the form of narratives of
transactions which it is not necessary to suppose
actually took place, there is not the slightest hint
120 HOSEA’S LIFE HISTORY LECT,

that such is the case here. The whole narrative
bears the stamp of reality ; and this impression of its
reality cannot be satisfactorily accounted for by the
theory that the transactions related were presented
to the prophet’s mind in a vision, and impressed
themselves upon his imavination as vividly as though
they had actually taken place.

There is not the slightest hint of this in the nar-
rative itself. Only by a literal interpretation does
ch. i, receive its natural meaning; and it is only by
a literal interpretation that we obtain the connexion
between Hosea’s life and his teaching which is the
true key to his writings. But in fact the allegorical
theory does not really remove the moral difficulty.
If the transaction was one which was repugnant
to the moral sense, how could it be chosen as the
subject of an allegory? Moreover, if the prophet
had a faithful wife, it seems incredible that he should
have exposed her to the suspicion of infidelity, as he
must have done by using an allegory which certainly
does not bear its allegorical character upon the face
of it. It may be added that the names are stronely
in favour of the literal interpretation. For if the
story of the marriage was an allegory, we should
naturally expect the wife to bear a significant name.
Jezreel, Lo-ruhamah, Lo-ammi, tell their own story ;
but Gomer bath Diblaim yields no obvious symbolical
meaning. The natural inference is that it is the
actual name of a woman which she bore before she
v HOSEA’S LIFE HISTORY 121

became the prophet’s wife, while the children’s names
were given to them with a purpose.

If then the narrative is not an allegory but a
record of facts, what light can be thrown upon its
moral aspect? Some have thought that Hosea wedded
Gomer with full knowledge of her character, in the
hope of winning her back to a virtuous life. Such
an act, it is urged, would have nothing immoral in
it. But again it must be said that there is no hint
of such a purpose in the narrative, and that it
does not correspond to the requirements of the
symbolisin.

The true view, which at once relieves the moral
difficulty, gives the natural explanation to the nar-
rative, and supplies the key to Hosea’s teaching in
the experience of his life, is that while we have in
these chapters a record of actual facts, Gomer was
as yet unstained when Hosea took her to be his wife.
The expression used in ch. i. 2 is peculiar. She is
not called a harlot, but @ wife or woman.of whoredom.
The hideous tendencies to evil were latent in her
heart. The prophet’s love did not avail to restrain
them. It awoke no permanent response of love in
her heart. She abandoned him for the wild orgies
of the licentious worship of Baal and Ashtoreth.

Then, as he sat in his homeless home, and pondered
over this

sorrow of all sorrows, death of deaths,
The springs of blessing poisoned at their source,
122 THE DISCIPLINE OF SUFFERING LECT.

as he “watched the ghastly ruins of his life,” he saw

that even this cruel culamity was not blind chance
but the will of God.

Through all the mystery of my years
There runs a purpose which forbids the wail
Of passionate despair. I have not lived
At random, as a soul whom God forsakes ;
But evermore His Spirit led me on,
Prompted each purpose, taught my lips to speak,
Stirred up within me that deep love, and now
Reveals the inner secret.

Then he recognised that it was by God’s command
that he had chosen the wife who had proved so
faithless. All had been ordered to teach him the
lesson which he was to teach Israel, as he could have
learnt it by no other means. The beginning of Jeho-
vah’s speaking to him was the impulse to marry
Gomer. He did not know it at the time. It was
only by the course of events that the significance of
that act was revealed to him, and he learnt that that
was the first step in his prophetic career: but he re-
cords it for us in the light in which he was led to see
it in the after days, that we may understand and
sympathise with him in his painful discipline. God’s
instruments not seldom act by His direction without

1 Plumptre’s ‘‘ Comer,” in Lazarus, and other Poems. In this
singularly beautiful and suggestive poem the view is adopted that
Hosea married Gomer, knowing her character, in the hope of
reforming her. But the lines quoted, and much more in the
poem, admirably illustrate the view which is here advocated.
v THE DISCIPLINE OF SUFFERING 123

conscious knowledge that they are being specially
guided, and do not recognise till afterwards that the
impulse which moved them was a divine impulse.
And it is hardly necessary to remark that God
‘spoke’ to His prophets through events and circum-
stances.

We ask indeed why it was that God laid this
heavy burden upon His servant, and trained him by
such a fearful discipline. Is it not a law of this
fallen world, that “knowledge through suffering
entereth,” that self-surrender is the path of service,
that redemption is only wrought out through sacri-
fice? But this is a very different matter from a
command which would have outraged Hosea’s moral
sense, and exposed him to the scorn of his fellow-
countrymen.

VI

It was a stern education, but at least we can see how
it fitted the prophet for his work, and taught him to
understand the relation between Jehovah and Israel.

Jehovah had chosen Israel to be His own people.
He had brought them out of Egypt. He had led them
to the home which He had prepared for them. He
had shewn the tenderest love for them, and claimed
from them the return of a pure and undivided
affection. The bond between them was as close and
tender as the bond of wedlock.

But Israel had been faithless to Jehovah. The

The applica-
tion.
124 INFLUENCE OF HOSEA’S LIFE LECT.

land, so runs the burden of Hosea’s message, gocth
utterly a whoring from following Jehovah (i. 2). She
had sought other lovers in false gods, especially the
various forms under which Baal was worshipped.
To them she ascribed the prosperity and the blessings
she enjoyed. She said, L will go after my lovers, that
give me my bread and my water, my wool and my
flav, mine oil and my drink... For she did not
know that tt was I who gave her the corn, and the
wine, and the oil, and multiplied wnto her silver and
gold, which they made into an image of Baal (ii. 5, 8).
Therefore Jehovah had determined to punish Israel.
He would deprive her of her prosperity, and prove
to her that it did not come from the Baals that she
worshipped. He would carry her into exile, into a
second Egyptian bondage, and there in hard service
she would learn the measure of her folly and her
guilt. There she would be deprived of her legiti-
mate rights, and secluded from her old temptations.?
The children of Israel shall abtde many duys without
hing, and without prince, and without sacrifice, and
without pillar, and without ephod or teraphim (iil. 4).
But it would not last for ever. Behold, I will allure
her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak to her
heart... and she shall make ansiver there, as in the
days of her youth, responding to Jchovah’s call with
trembling confidence (ii. 14 f.; ep. iii. 5).

1 Observe the parallel between the position of Gomer (iii. 8)
and of Israel in exile (iii. 4).
¥ ON HIS TEACHING 125

The doom of Jezreel and Lo-ruhamah and Lo-
ammi will be reversed. Jezrcel will be the pledge of
Israel’s triumph, the scene of the victory of the
united forces of Israel and Judah over their enemies!
G11). But the plain of Esdraelon was not only
the battle-field, but the corn-field of Palestine; and
Jezreel suggests the renewed fertility of the land in
the future time of peace and plenty (ii 22). Lo-
ruhamah, the Unpitied, becomes Ruhamah, the
Pitied. Lo-ammi, Not-my-people, becomes once
more Ammi, My people (i. 23).

Israel and Judah will be reunited under a true
king of David’s line (2. 11; i. 5). Jehovah will
proclaim a truce for His people with man and
beast (ii. 18). He will multiply and prosper them
in the land. The true ideal of the marriage
covenant will be realised. Israel will reflect
Jehovah’s attributes in a perfect and unending
fellowship of knowledge and of love. J will betroth
thee unto Me for ever; yea, I will betroth thee unto
Me in righteousness and in judgement, and in loving-
kindness and in mercies. I will even betroth thee
unto Me in faithfulness, and thow shalt know Jehovah
(ii. 19, 20).

Such is briefly the substance of the first division
of Hosea’s book; and we feel in almost every line .

1 In ch. i. 11 the day of Jezreel must mean the day of battle in
the plain of Jezreel ; and the obscure words shall go up from the
land, are best understood to mean shall go up thither to battle from
all parts of the land.
126 JEHOVAH AND ISRAEL LECT,

how his own sad lot had burnt into his inmost soul
a sense of the heinousness of Israel’s infidelity
towards Jehovah. We feel how he saw that his own
unquenchable love for the guilty Gomer, and his
eager longing to win back her love, were but a faint
type of the mighty love of Jehovah for Israel, and
of His unquenchable desire to win back Israel to her
allegiance to Him; and with Jehovah desire is
purpose, and purpose means accomplishment, be it
never so long delayed by human folly and obstinacy.

VIT
Teaching of In the second division of the book (chaps. iv.-xiv.)
haps. Wv.- . is a és
vin ~~ there is no direct allusion to the circumstances of

the prophet’s life. But the same fundamental
thoughts of the love of Jehovah for Israel, and the
unfaithfulness of Israel towards Jehovah, form the
warp and woof of the whole series of discourses.
The sins of the people in all ranks of life are exposed
and censured. They are all traced to their source in
the spirit of infidelity towards Jehovah. Warning
is given again and again of the inevitable chastise-
ment which such conduct must bring upon them ;
yet in spite of all offences, Jehovah is ready to
pardon, and one day Israel will return and repent
and be restored.

Inpassioned feeling, not logical arrangement, is
the characteristic of the discourses collected in
v JEHOVAH AND ISRAEL 127

this part of the book. Any attempt to give a
systematic account of Hosea’s teaching is liable to
give exaggerated prominence to some parts at the
expense of others. But the following may be set
down as some of the chief forms in which the
fundamental idea of the book finds expression.

A covenant exists between Jehovah and Israel. rhe
Jehovah is Israel’s God. Israel is Jehovah’s people. es
But Israel has broken the covenant. They like
Adam have transgressed the covenant: there have
they dealt treacherously against Me (vi. 7)... A
trumpet to thy mouth! As an eagle against Jehovah's
house doth he come! because they have transgressed
My covenant, and trespassed against My law
(viii. 1).

The closeness and tenderness of this covenant-
relation between Jehovah and Israel are expressed,
as before, by the figure of marriage. But another
figure is employed to bring into relief other aspects
of Jehovah’s protecting care and Israel’s duty of
obedience. Israel is Jehovah’s son. When Israel
was a child, then I loved him, and called My son out of
Egypt (xi. 1). The words recall the words in which
God’s claim upon the nation at the Exodus is expressed

1 The rendering is uncertain. It may be, Like men they have
transgressed, or, They are like men who have transgressed, etc.
But like Adam gives the most point. Though no actual covenant
is said to have been made with Adam, the command given to
him with penalties for the breach of it was virtually a covenant.
Cp. Job xxxi. 33.
Its origin.

128 JEHOVAH AND ISRAEL LECT.

to Pharaoh: Jsracl is My son, My firstborn. . Let
My son go, that he may serve Me (Exod. iv. 22 f.). Other
Semitic nations regarded their gods as the fathers
of their people. They supposed themselves to he
actually descended from their gods. But the relation
of Jehovah to Israel is not a physical but a moral
relation, « fatherhood of adoption, grounded in His
free choice of the people to be His own.

This covenant-relation dated from the Exodus. It
was no new thing. The nation was born when it
was hrought out of Egypt. It was a delight to
Jehovah. He loved it. I found Isrucl, He says, like
grapes in the wilderness; T saw your fathers as the
Jirst-ripe in the fig-tree at her first season (ix. 10).
Since that time He had been Israel’s God. J am
Jehovah thy God from the land of Eyypt; and thou
shalt hnow no god but Me, and beside Me there is no
suviour (xii. 4: cp. xii. 9). He had been continu-
ally training His child by loving discipline. J, even
L, taught Ephraim to wath; L took them on My
arms ; but they knew not that I healed them (xi. 3).
He had taught them by the ministry of the prophets
(xii. 10). But from the first they had sinned, and
chosen other gods. They came to Baal-peor, and
devoted themselves unto the Shame, and became an
abomination like the thing they loved (ix. 10).

The covenant with the nation dated from the
Exodus; but Hosea reminds them how, even in
earlier days, Jehovah had revealed Himself to their
v JEHOVAH AND ISRAEL 129

eponymous ancestor Jacob, and preserved him
through the various vicissitudes of his life (xu. 3 ff.
12 ff). It is important to observe the idea of
national personality which is involved. Israel is
treated as an individual, as possessing a solidarity
and continuity of life, as responsible for its actions.
Jehovah’s covenant is with the nation, not, primarily,
with the individuals of the nation. It is in the later
prophets that the doctrine of personal responsibility
begins to appear, which is fully developed in the
New Testament. But the older truth still retains an
important meaning.

What were the conditions of this covenant? It
implied all the duty and love and obedience which
are involved in the relation of wife to husband, and
son to father. It is true that the ancient conception
of these relations differed not a little from the modern
one. The ideas of ownership and authority entered
into them in a way which is strange to us. But
both relations, as they appear in Hosea, involve the
tenderest love and the closest affection.

The obligations of the covenant were set forth in
a Torah, a Law,a body of instruction or a revelation.
It was the duty of the priests to teach it; but they
had neglected their duty (iv. 6). Israel had tres-
passed against Jehovah’s law. They counted it as a
strange thing (vii. 1, 12).

What do we gather from Hosea were Jehovah’s
requirements as embodied in His law? Truth,

K

Its con-
ditions.
Tsract’s sins,

130 TIE SINS OF ISRAEL LECT.

lovinghindness, huneledge of Cod; these are the essen-
tials which stand in the forefront. It is because
these are wanting that Jehovah has a controversy
with the inhabitants of the land Gv. 1). Loving-
kindness and not sacrifice is what He desires, and
knowledye of God more than burnt offerings (vi. 6).
Justice and lovingkindness are to be the rule and
aim of all their actions (x. 12). Let them return to
God, keep lovingkindness and judgement, and wait
upon their Gud continually (xii. 6). Sacrifice will
not avail to propitiate Jehovah while it is olfered by
men whose hearts are estranged from Him, and who
habitually neglect the essential part of His com-
mandiments (v. 6).

But Israel’s conduct presents a glaring contrast
to the high ideal of loving duty to their God and to
one another which is thus set before them. The
root-sin, from which all others spring, is unfaithful-
ness to Jehovah. Israel is a harlot and an adul-

‘teress. She has broken the marriage vow hy religious

apostasy. The false gods for which she has
deserted Jehovah are her lovers. The Phcnician
nature-worship was essentially immoral, and it is not
always easy to decide whether Hosea is speaking
literally or figuratively. Probably he regarded the
abominations connected with the worship of Baal
and Ashtoreth as the outward symbol of the spiritual
sin, and did not care to distinguish sharply."

1 See iv. 12 ff, 17; v. 8 ff. 3 ix. 23 xiii, 1M
v THE SINS OF ISRAEL 131

Israel’s political apostasy was also a breach of her
marriage vow. Jehovah was her natural protector.
To seek alliance with Egypt or Assyria was a deser-
tion of Him. It implied distrust of His ability or
His willingness to help. Coquetting with foreign
nations was not allowable for a people which was
to be separate from all others (vii. 13; viii. 9).

Their idolatry was a further offence. In the calves
at Bethel and Dan they professed to worship Je-
hovah. But Hosea scorns the notion of a manu-
factured god. He hath cast off thy calf, O Samaria.

From Israel is even this ; a workman made it, and
it is no god: yen, the calf of Samaria shall be shattered
im pieces (vill. 6). Contemptuously he calls Bethel
Beth-aven. For him it is no longer the house of God
hut the house of vanity.’

The separation of the Northern Kingdom from
Judah was another sin. That separation was in one
aspect a punishment to Judah. We cannot help
some feeling of sympathy with the revolt against a
burdensome despotism. The prophet Ahijah, when
he told Jeroboam what was in his mind, did not
condemn his enterprise. He told him the con-
ditions upon which a blessing might rest upon it.
But from the first Jeroboam had set those conditions
at defiance. In the event the separation had borne
evil fruit, and Hosea condemns it as wrong in prin-
ciple. The unity of the nation should have corre-

1 Cp. viii, 4 ff; x. 1, 5, 155 xiii 2; xiv. 3.
The punish-
vrent,

132 ISRAEL'S PUNISHMENT LECT.

sponded to the unity of Jehovah. His wife should
have been one. Moreover, from the first, their self-
chosen kings had led them astray. Idolatry had
been the direct result of the separation. And so
Hosea condemns it, and points forward to the reunion
of Isvael under the true king of David’s line in the
golden age of restoration."

The moral corruption of the nation is universal.
From the highest to the lowest, all are corrupt.
How intimately immorality was connected with false
worship we have already seen. It sprang from the
want of a knowledge of God. It culminated in the
absence of loringhinduess, that cardinal virtue in
which the love of Jehovah for Israel should have
been reflected in man’s relation to his fellow-man.

For these sins judyement is close at hand. Samaria
must bear the punishment of her guilt. The king-
dom of Ephraim must be destroyed. But even while
He pronounces sentence, Jehovah’s compassion is
moved. He yearns over the guilty nation with the
tenderest affection. Hoi shall I give thee up,
Ephraim? how surrender thee, Isracl? how shall T
nuthe thee us Admah ? how set thee as Zeborm ! Mine
heart as turned within Me, My compasstons are kindled
foyether (xi. 8). But the judgement is inevitable, and
death and Sheol are summoned to do their worst.
From the power of Sheol should £ deliver them ? from
death should L redeem them? Where are thy plagues, 0

1 See vill. 45 xiii, 9 fh; i 11; iii 4, 5.
v AND RESTORATION 133

death? Whereis thy destruction, O Sheol? Repentance
shall be hid from Mine eyes (xiii. 14)

But Jehovah's love for His people is unquench- The restora-
able. The first division of the prophecy, as we have
seen, points to a restoration beyond the judgement.
Here the same thoughts recur. If the nation must
die, it will rise again. J will go, says Jehovah, and
return to My place, tall they acknowledge their offence,and
seek My face. In their affliction they will seek Me
earnestly, saying, Come and let us return unto Jehovah :
Jor uk hath torn, and He will heal us; hath smitten, and
will bind us up. After tivo days will He revive us: on
the third day will He raise us up, and we shall live in
His sight. And let us know, press on to know, Jehovah :
His going forth is sure as the morniny: and He shall
come unto us as the rain, as the latter rein that watereth
the earth (v. 15-vi. 3).

For a while Jehovah must be like a lion, tearing
and devouring His prey: yet one day His roar will be
the signal, terrible yet gracious, for Israel’s return
from the lands of their banishment. HE shall roar,
and the children shall come trembling from the west?
They shall come trembling as a bird out of Lgypt,
and as a dove out of the land of Assyria : and I aill

1 The last clause of this verse shews that the preceding clause
must speak of judgement not of deliverance, and must therefore be
taken interrogatively. This interpretation is confirmed by the
preceding and following verses, which speak of the judgement as
now inevitable.

2 .e. from the islands and coasts of the Mediterranean. Cp.
Isa. xi. 11; Joel iii. 6.
134 ISRAEL'S PUNISHMENT LECT.

make them to dwell in their houses, saith Jehovah
(xi.-10,.17);

But the most touching and beautiful picture of
the restoration is in the dialogue between the
penitent people and Jehovah with which the book
closes. They approach Him with a prayer for
pardon, confessing their sin, and promising no more
to turn for help to worldly powers or material forces,
no more to worship the work of their hands. Very
gracious is the answer: J will heal their bachsliding,
Iwill love them freely ; for Mine anger is turned away
from him (xiv. 4).

There is here no reference to the reunion of Israel
with Judah, or to the Davidie king; but it does not
follow that those features in the earlier picture of
the restoration are not Hosea’s work, or have been
forgotten. Completeness is not to be expected
everywhere. The dominant idea of this passage is
Ephraim’s repentance and restoration to the favour
of Jehovah. It is natural that Hosea should dwell
in detail wpon the destiny of his own people, and
especially upon that returning to Jehovah which he
knows must be the condition of restoration and
blessing. But silence as to the future reunion of

1 Vy. 2, 3 of ch. xiv. are obviously the people’s confession, and
vv. 4-7 Jehovah’s answer; and the dialogue is continued in x 8
thus: ‘‘Ephraim shall say, What have I to do any more with
idols?” Jehovah answers, ‘‘I, even IJ, have answered, and will
regard him.’”” Ephraim responds, ‘Tam like a green lir-tree” -
Jehovah reminds him of the source of his prosperity : ‘* From Me
is thy fruit found.”
Vv AND RESTORATION 135

Israel and Judah and the leadership of the house of
David does not mean that these hopes are ignored.
There is nothing in this picture which is inconsistent
with that drawn in the first division of the book,
They are mutually complementary, not contra-
dictory.

VIII

Hosea’s message is limited to the chosen people. Hosea sitent
In the main, indeed, it is, as we have seen, limited me
to that part of it with which he was himself con-
nected. He is silent about the destiny of ‘the
nations. He has no single word to say either of
their judgement or of their redemption. Amos had
recently spoken of Jehovah as the sovereign of the
world, ruling and judging the nations as well as His
own people. The restored and reunited Israel was
to possess the nations. Hosea’s contemporaries
Micah and Isaiah—if not some earlier prophet to
whom they were both indebted—spoke of Zion as
the centre of the worship of the nations, from which
Jehovah’s law was to go forth to the world. But it
would be precarious to infer that Hosea neither knew
nor cared about the destiny of the nations. It is with
Israel that he has to do. His intense love for his
people leads him to concentrate his attention upon
them.

But he gains in depth what he loses in breadth. Deeper

character of

1 i i tq Iosea's
If the teaching of Amos is wider, that of Hosea is (7a,
First refer-
ence to the
Messianic
king.

136 AMOS AND HOSEA LECT.

more profound. Not that the one is to be regarded
as the rival of the other: each has’ his proper place
in the economy of revelation. But we cannot fail to
note that Hosea goes deeper, and deals not with
action only but with the springs and motives of
action. The love of God for His people is a thought
which does not appear in Amos. It is prominent in
Hosea (iii. 1; xi 1,4; xiv. 4). The term loving-
kindness (Heb. hesed) is not found in Amos, It isa
characteristic word in Hosea, to express the natural
attitude of Jehovah to His people, and man’s natural
attitude to his fellow-man, as the reflection of that
love (ii, 19; iv. 1; vi. 4,6; x. 12; xi, 6). Charac-
teristic too of Hosea as compared with Amos is the
stress which he lays upon Israel’s repentance as the
condition of its restoration. Amos sees the nation
purified by judgement. Hosea equally foresees that
the sinners must be destroyed; but further, he puts
into the mouth of the nation confessions and prayers
which point to the radical change needed (v.15; vi.1 ff;
xiv. 1 ff). While like Amos he describes the future
as a time of restored prosperity and fertility, it is not
this which is the supreme goal of his aspirations, but
the perfect fellowship of life and luve between God
and His people, in which His purpose for them will
be completely realised.

Once more Hosea takes a step in advance of Amos
in his prophecy of the future king. Amos had spoken
of the reunion of Israel in connexion with the house
v AMOS AND HOSEA 137

of David. Hosea predicts that the children of Israel
shall return and seek Jehovah their God and David
their king (iii. 5). It is the first hint of that ideal
ruler whom we are to find in Micah and Isaiah.
For David must mean not merely a prince of David’s
line, but a second David; one who corresponds to
David as the man after God's own heart, and who, as
is plain from the position which he occupies, is to be
Jehovah’s true representative.

IX

How have Hosea’s prophecies been fulfilled ?
Does it seem that they reach far beyond any fulfil-
ment to which we can point, and have failed of
accomplishment? It must be remembered that all
prophecy is conditional. It expresses God’s purpose,
which is so mysteriously conditioned and limited by
man’s folly and obstinacy. Yet in spirit, if not in
the letter, it has been and is being fulfilled. Israel
went into exile. The nation died. But it was re-
called to life. Israel of the Return was always held
to represent the whole and not a part of the nation.
After it returned from Babylon it never again forsook
Jehovah for other gods.

The second David has appeared in Christ; and
the promised blessings have been granted through
Him in a way utterly transcending all that Hosea
could have anticipated. The love of Jehovah has

Fulfilment.
138 THE BOOK OF HOSEA LECT.

been manifested by His unspeakable gift to humanity.
The ideal of sonship has been exhibited in Christ,
who has fulfilled Israel’s calling.’ Jehovah’s relation
to Israel is continued for us in Christ’s relation to
His Church. But we can see too how Israel’s blind-
ness and obstinacy have hindered the complete fulfil-
ment of the prophecy ; and we still wait for the time,
when, in the words of St. Paul, all Jsracl shall be
saved,

Jehovah’s mighty and inextinguishable love for
Israel, which will not rest satisfied until it has
brought all Israel into harmony with itself; that is
the master-thought of Hosea’s messige. As we
expand it in the light of the Incarnation, we dare
to think of a love which embraces all mankind, an
almighty love which will not be content until all
things are subject unto it, that God may be ull in all.

Nore A.
ANALYsIS OF THE Book or Hosta.
Part I.-—Chaps. i.—iii.

The prophet’s domestic history, and the message of doom
expressed by the names of his children (1. 1-9). Yet even
this doom will be reversed (i. 10-ii. 1).? Reverting

 

1 The quotation of ch. xi. 1 in Matt. ii. 15 implies that Isracl
was « type of Christ. Israel’s resurrection (vi. 2) is a type of
Christ’s resurrection.

* Abrupt as is the transition from v. 9 to v. 10, and again from
ij. 1 to it. 2, T cannot think that the transposition of i. 10-ii. 1
v THE BOOK OF HOSEA 139

abruptly from the future to the present, Hosea describes
the sin of Israel and the certainty of judgement (ii. 2-13),
and concludes with the promise of restoration (ii. 14-23).
The prophet’s treatment of his guilty wife is a parable of the
means which Jehovah will adopt for the restoration of Israel
by the discipline of punishment (iii.).

Part I1.—Chaps. iv.—xiv.

Fresh beginnings may be noted at iv. 1; v.13; viii. 1;
ix. 1; xi. 12 (Heb. xii. 1), but no definite plan of arrangement
can be traced. The section as a whole must be taken to re-
present Hosea’s teaching after Jeroboam’s death. It is possible
that Hosea himself committed to writing prophecies orally
delivered on different occasions. But no precise division of
subjects is to be looked for in a prophet like Hosea, burning
with indignation at the sights he saw, yet yearning with
intense love over the guilty nation.

The following subdivisions may however be a help to
study :—

(1) Chaps. iv.—viii. Israel’s guilt. The accusation.

The corruption of the people due to their ignorance
which is the fault of the priests (iv.). Detailed account of
the way in which this corruption penetrates all public life,
and infects the State from its leaders downwards (v.—vii.).
Israel’s sins of covenant-breaking ; idolatry ; political apos-
tasy ; neglect of the law (viii.).

 

to the end of ch. ii, which is proposed by Cheyne and others, can
be right. These verses would form a very awkward conclusion to
that chapter. Rather, as it seems to me, the thought of deliver-
ance succeeds that of judgement as it does in ch. ii. and again in
ch. iii., so that each of the three subdivisions into which chaps.
i,-iii. fall contains the contrast of the two ideas which form the
groundwork of prophecy, and ends with the promise of restoration.
140 HOSEA LECT, V

(2) Chaps. ix-xi. 11. The necessity and certainty of
Israel’s punishment further demonstrated. In this section
the impending catastrophe comes more clearly into view.

(3) Chaps. xi. 12-xiv. Retrospect and prospect.

The past history of the nation shews the ingratitude of
their faithlessness (xii, xiii.) ; but when punishment has
done its work, the penitent nation will be restored (xiy.).
LECTURE VI
ISAIAH THE SON OF AMOZ

In the year that king Uzeiah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a -
throne, high and lifted up, and His skirts filled the temple, Abuve
Him were standing seraphim: each one had six wings: with twain
he doth cover his face, and with twain he doth cover his feet, and
with twain he doth fly. And one kept erying unto another, and say-
ing, Luly, holy, holy, is Jehovah of hosts: the whole carth is full
of His glory.—Isa1au vi, 1-3.

Iv was a crisis in the history of Israel that rhe crisis.
needed an exceptional messenger. The last half of
the eighth century was to witness the fall of the
Northern Kingdom. It was hopelessly corrupt.
Amos and Hosea had pronounced its doom. The
judgement was inevitable. Its ministers were close
at hand. Would Jerusalem share the fate of
Samaria? How could it escape in the impend-
ing conflict between Assyria and Egypt for the
supremacy of Western Asia? Lying as it did
close to the route which the hostile ammies must
traverse, its existence was at stake. So human
The messen-
ger,

142 ISAIAIVS GREATNESS LECT.

reason would have calculated. But Jehovah’s pur-
pose was to preserve His own city; and as the
interpreter of that purpose He raised up the
prophet Isaiah.

The messenger was worthy of the occasion.“ Of
the other prophets,” writes Ewald,! all the more
celebrated ones were distinguished hy some special
excellence and peculiar power, whether of speech or
of deed; in Isaiah all the powers and all the
beauties of prophetic speech and deed combine to
form a symmetrical whole; he is distinguished less
by any special excellence than ly the symmetry
and the perfection of all his powers. There are
rarely combined in the same ind the profoundest
prophetic emotion and purest feeling, the most
unwearied, successful, and consistent activity amid
all the confusions and changes of life, and lastly,
true poetic ease and beauty of style, combined with
force and irresistible power; yet this triad of
powers we find realised in Isaiah as in no other
prophet.” He is indeed the king among the
prophets. During his long ministry of forty years,
through evil report and good report, unflinchingly
and consistently he delivered Jehovah’s message to a
people blind to its high calling, deaf to the divine
word, destitute of energising faith and elevating
hope. When they were secure in the conceit of
their own arrogant self-confidence, he warned them

' Prophets, vol. ii, p. 1 (HT. ).
VI ISAIAH’S GREATNESS 143

of the impending judgement. When they trembled
in pusillanimous despair at approaching calamity, he
encouraged them with the assurance of divine pro-
tection. With unshaken confidence he proclaimed
the absolute sovereignty of Jehovah over the nations
of the world, and maintained “the eternal hope of
the divine kingdom upon earth.”

Watch him at his work. He was no recluse, soe of
living apart from the busy ways of men, and emerg- a
ing from his retirement only to disappear again
when his message had been delivered. His home
was in the capital. There, in the centre of the
national life, he exercised his ministry. Almost all
his discourses are addressed to the people, or to
particular classes, or to individuals in Jerusalem.
His family around him formed part of his message.
His own name, Jehovah's deliverunce, given him
originally as an expression of trust or of gratitude
(cp. Ps. xxvii. 1), became an omen of his work. His
wife was the prophetess. Two at least of his children,
like Hosea’s, bore significant names. Shear-ydshib,
‘a remnant shall return’ (vii. 3), bore witness to the
assurance that though Judah must be purified by
judgement, though it must even go into captivity,
it could not be utterly destroyed, or banished for
ever from its own land. JMaher-shalal-hash-baz,
‘ Hasten-booty-speed-spoil’ (viii. 1 ff.), foretokened the
speedy downfall of Samaria and Damascus. Thus
in the darkest days of trial he could say, Behold,
lit ISAIAH’S MODES OF WORK LECT.

Land the children whom Fehovah hath given me are
for signs and for wonders in Israel from Jehovah
of hosts, which dwelleth in mount Zion (vi. 18).

He eathered round him a band of faithful dis-
ciples, who treasured up his utterances in their
memories, and guarded the prophecies which he had
committed to wvriting—a sealed book to the in-
fatuated multitude (vill. 16; xxix. 11).

At one time we see him taking a great tablet and
writing on it in bold legible characters some pro-
phetic watchword, which he placards in public in
order to arrest the attention of the most casual
passer-by (viii. 1; xxx. 7 ff). At another time we
see him traversing the streets of Jerusalem stripped
and barefoot, a living picture of the captives of
Egypt and Ethiopia who were to be led away by the
victorious Sarvon (xx. 2).

He evidently occupied a wnique position of
authority in Jerusalem. He was the fearless censor
of the faithless and cowardly Ahaz; the trusted
counsellor of the well-intentioned though vacillating
Hezekiah. In no gentle terms he denounced an
unworthy minister of State, and frankly warned his
successor of the dangers and temptations of office
(xx. 15 ff 24 f). When he needed a witness in the
prosecution of his prophetic work, he could call

1 Tn this case the words Ruhab hem shebeth were to be written on
the tablet as the designation of Egypt. ah«d, ir, Egypt, is
sitting still, They may brag, as the name /ahab implies, but they
will not move to help you.
VI ISAIAH’S MODES OF WORK 145

upon the chief ecclesiastical authority of the city
(viii. 2).

The variety of his activities is most remarkable.
Not only was he a religious and social reformer, «
preacher of righteousness and godliness, but a keen
and far-sighted statesman. He observed the
political movements of the day at home and abroad.
He criticised them from the divine standpoint. He
pronounced an authoritative judgement on their
true meaning and issue in relation to the will and
purpose of God. But though he thus lived among
his people, intensely interested in all that concerned
their welfare, and fully conscious of the importance
of the present, he looked forth from his prophetic
watch-tower upon the nations around, and marked
their movements and foretold their destinies; he
looked forward with clear eye to a future in which
Israel, purified in the fire of judgement, should realise
its calling, and be the centre from which spiritual
knowledge should go forth to illuminate the nations
of the world.

Il

At the outset of any attempt to form an estimate The Book of
of the work and teaching of Isaiah, we are met by the
preliminary question, how much of the volume which
bears the name of Isaiah can be ascribed to the son of
Amoz, the friend and counsellor of Hezekiah. Modern
criticism, upon grounds of which the general principles

L
146 NON-ISAIANIC PROPHECIES LECT.

have been stated in the first Lecture, detaches at one
stroke the last twenty-seven chapters, and assigns that
sublime prophecy to one or possibly more authors, who
lived towards the close of the Babylonian Exile, when
Cyrus had already commenced his career of conquest.
That that view is not only critically justified, but
that it sheds a flood of light on the meaning of the
prophecy, I hope to show in a future Lecture. But
criticism does not stop here. Upon similar grounds,
more or less convincing in each particular case, some
twelve out of the first thirty-nine chapters are pro-
nounced not to be from Isaiah’s pen. Among these
passaves are to be reckoned the doom of Babylon, to-
gether with the magnificent ode of triumph at the
oppressor’s downfall (xiii. 2-xiv. 23): the vision of
universal judgement and national restoration which
forms the epilogue to the collection of prophecies
against the nations (xxiv.-xxvil.): the doom of Edom
and its contrast in the glorious future of Israel which
forms a similar epilogue to the collection of discourses
belonging to the reign of Hezekiah (xxxiv., xxxv.):
the historical record found also with comparatively
small variation in the Book of Kings (xxxvi.-xxxix,,
with the execption of Isaiah’s words in xxxvii. 21-
35): together with some shorter and less important
pieces, about which opinion is less decided. These
passages are thought to presume historical cireum-
stances which are not those of Isaiah's time. They
differ in style, more or less markedly, from the
VI IN THE BOOK OF ISAIAH 147

undoubted prophecies of Isaiah. They contain
theological ideas which appear to be in advance of
those of Isaiah’s day, and to belong to a later stage in
the development of revelation.

It is obviously impossible to discuss here the
validity of the grounds upon which this judgement
rests in each case. But they are certainly of sufficient
weight to make it necessary to set these passages on
one side in endeavouring to form an estimate of Isaiah’s
work and teaching. The devout student of Holy
Scripture need not be disquieted by such a conclusion.
The canonicity of a particular document does not de-
pend upon the accuracy of the tradition with regard
to its authorship. Its inspiration is not necessarily
diminished if that tradition is found to be erroneous.
Isaiah is honoured rather than dishonoured if he is
seen to have been the founder of a school, to which
no small part of the book which bears his name is
due. The Holy Spirit is not limited to the use of
one instrument in preference tomany. Whether the
Book of Isaiah is the work of one prophet or of many,
it is placed in our hands as an undoubted part of the
canonical Scriptures of the Old Testament, and is to
be studied as such. But our concern at the present
moment is not with the book as a whole, but with
those parts of it which may without reasonable doubt
be attributed to Isaiah himself.
The call of
Isaiah.

148 ISATAH'S CALL LECT,

Id

The key to the right understanding of Isaiah’s
ministry is to be found in the account of his call to
the prophetic office, which is given in the sixth
chapter. It was in the year of King Uzziah’s death.
That monarch’s long reign had been, like the reign of
his contemporary Jeroboam II. for northern Israel, a
period of prosperity such as Judah had not known
since the time of Solomon. But for those who saw
below the surface, its splendour was dimmed by the
deep-seated decay of religion and morality. One day
in that year, as the prophet worshipped in the Temple
courts, musing peradventure upon the sovereignty of
the King of Israel, Jehovah of hosts, Who had set His
throne there, and upon the failure of His subjects to
render Him a loyal homage; meditating upon the
holiness of Jehovah and the appalling contrast pre-
sented by the almost universal unholiness of the
nation; the earthly Temple faded from his view, and
its place was taken by its heavenly counterpart. The
veil which shrouded the inner sanctuary of the divine
Presence was drawn aside. Instead of the .Ark, the
symbol of that Presence, he beheld the throne itself
whereon the Lord was seated; instead of the
Cherubim of glory, overshadowing the mercy-seat,
he saw attendant seraphs hovering above the
throne; instead of the chant of priests and Levites,
VI ISAIAH’S CALL 149

he heard those seraphs answering one another in
perpetual hymn,’

Holy, holy, holy is Jehovah of hosts,

The whole earth is full of His glory.
Yet all he saw was as it were the skirts of the robe
of Him who sat there ; for who can look upon the face
of God and live? and he marked how even those holy
seraphs were wont to veil their faces before the divine
Majesty, as unworthy to behold it; and to cover their
feet, as though conscious of the imperfection of their
service,

Then, as the prophet gazed upon the sight, and
listened to those voices unceasingly proclaiming the
essential nature of the thrice holy God, the sense of
his own uncleanness, of his own unfitness to bear the
holy message of that holy Being, the sense of the un-
cleanness of his people which, as dwelling in the
midst of them and representing them, he could not
escape, overwhelmed him utterly. Woe is me/ he
cried, for Tam undone ; because I am aman of unclean
lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean
lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, Jehovah of
hosts. But his lips are touched with a live coal from
off the altar. The cleansing fire of divine love purges
away his sinfulness. He is ready for his commission.
‘When he hears the voice asking, Whom shall I send,

1 Even the R.V. fails to mark the frequentative tense, one kept
erying unto another, etc. Rightly the Te Deum: ‘‘Tibi Cherubin
et Seraphin ¢ncessabili voce proclamant.”’ ete.
150 ISAIAH’S CALL LECT.

and who will go for us? he is prepared to answer,
Hercam 7; send ime. But what a terrible task it is!
(fo, and tell this peopl, Hear ye continually, but under-
stend not; and see ye continually, but perceive not.
Make the heart of this people gross, and make ats cers
dull, and seal up its eyes; lest it see with ats cyes,
and hear with its ears, and its heart understand,
and it turn and be healed. It is a stern sentence.
But the nation was already insensible, deaf, and
blind. God's message must fall upon  unre-
ceptive ears, and it is a fixed law of the divine
economy that calls to repentance, messages of grace,
all good motions and impulses, do but harden the
hearts of those who will not yield to them. Indi-
viduals would no doubt hear and repent. But the
nation as a whole was spiritually dead. © [saih’s
ministry would but confirm the obdurate mass of the
people in its obduracy.

Lord, how luny? He dares not appeal against the
sentence as Amos did (vu. 2, 5). But he feels that it
cannot be final. The answer comes that cities must
be wasted, and houses uninhabited, that the land
inust be desolate and its people exiled. Judgement
must follow upon judgement until the evil is
destroyed. Yet the nation cannot be annihilated.
As the life remains in the stump of the felled
oak tree, ready, when spring returns, to throw
up fresh shoots, so there will be a holy seed left
in Israel, ready, when the winter of its punishment
vI ISAIAH’S CALL 151

is over, to spring up once more into a holy nation
(vi. 13).

That vision stamped an indelible character upon
Isaiah’s whole ministry. The majesty, the holiness,
the glory of God: these are the ideas which fill and
awe his spirit. They intensify his sense of the petti-
ness of man, of the impertinent absurdity of human
pride, of the intolerable enormity of Israel’s defiance
of Jehovah. But while he is possessed with the cer-
tainty that judgement must come to purge the un-
godly nation, he is equally assured that the people
and city of God’s choice cannot perish utterly. A
remnant shall return is the echo of the words, a holy
seed is the stock thereof.

It seems plain that this vision was the primary
call of Isaiah to his prophetic ministry, and not, as
some have supposed, a second and special call to the
ministry of hardening. Why then does the account
of it stand where it does, and not, as might have been
expected, at the beginning of the book? The most
probable answer seems to be that it was prefixed toa
collection of prophecies which was published separ-
ately, and retained in this place when the various
subordinate collections were united. We can easily
understand that Isaiah might not have felt disposed
at once to publish so solemn an experience, and re-
served it for the preface to prophecies of the time of
Ahaz, instead of prefixing it to those of the reign of
Jotham. There is at least this appropriateness in the
Cireum-
stances of
the time,

152 CIRCUMSTANCES OF ISAIAH’S TIMES LECT.

present order. The opening chapters have familiar-
ised us with the character of the people. We have
learnt something of the sins which are demanding
punishment. We are prepared to understand the
terms of his mission, and to sympathise with him in
his arduous task.

IV

Isaiah’s ministry may be divided into three periods,
corresponding approximately to the reigns of Jotham,
Ahaz,and Hezekiah. If he lived on into the reign of
Manasseh, by whom, according to tradition, he was
sawn asunder, we have no record of his ministry
which can be connected with the history of the time.
Let us endeavour to realise the condition of Judah in
the year of Uzziah’s death, when Isaiah began his
work. It was not unlike that of Israel in the time
of Jeroboam IT. For while Jeroboam had been ex-
tending the power of Israel in the north, Uzziah had
been strengthening the kingdom of Judah in the
south. He waged successful wars against the Philis-
tines, dismantled the fortresses of Gath, Jabneh, and
Ashdod, and built cities for himself in Philistia.
The Ammonites and Edoinites were among his vassals.
He fortified Jerusalem and other cities, reorganised
the army, and stocked his arsenals with munitions of
war. Nor was he less successful in the arts of peace.
He largely developed the internal rescurces of the
country. He rebuilt the port of Elath on the Red
VI CIRCUMSTANCES OF ISAIAH’S TIMES 153

Sea, by which the commerce of the East found its
way to Jerusalem. The occupation of Sela, which
had been captured by Amaziah, commanded the trade
route to Southern Arabia. But, as was the case in the
Northern Kingdom, prosperity had brought grave evils
in its train, and sowed the seeds of disaster and ruin.
The increase of wealth and luxury had undermined
the ancient national life. The greed of gain had
sapped the nation’s morality. As the rich grew
richer and more powerful, the poor grew poorer and
more defenceless.

Jotham continued his father’s policy with success. (i) Reign of
He strengthened the fortifications of Jerusalem, built ¥-0 740-735.
castles and towers in the forests, perhaps beyond
Jordan, and suppressed an Ammonite revolt. Only
towards the end of his reign were the murmurs of the
coming storm heard. Pekah and Rezin attacked him,
though without success. But it was a warning of
what was in store for his successor.

Under these circumstances Isaiah commenced his
ministry. To the reign of Jotham may be referred
with confidence the discourses included in chaps.
i.-iv., together with the closely connected appendix
in chap. v. One or two references suggest that these
discourses were not committed to writing until Ahaz
had come to the throne, but in the main they reflect
the time when disaster had not yet befallen the State,
and the pride of Judah was still unbroken. From
them we may draw a picture of the social and religi-
154 ISAIAH IN THE REIGN OF JOTHAM LECT.

ous evils of the time. Listen to Isaiah’s sarcastic
inventory of the jewellery and the wardrobes of the
fashionable ladies of the capital: the anklets and the
networks and the crescents, the pendants and the bracelets
and the veils, the head tires and the anhle chains and
the sushes and the perfume boxes and the anvulets ; the
rings and the nose jewels; the festival robes and the
mantles and the shawls and the satchels, the mirrors
and the muslin veils and the turbans and the scarves
(ii. 18 ff), With contemptuous severity he pictures
these haughty daughters of Zion promenading the
streets with stretched forth necks and wanton eyes, walh-
ing and mineing as they go, and muking a tinkling
with ther feet with the anklets which they wore.

Listen to the woe which the prophet pronounces
upon the revellers who rise up carly in the morning,
that they may follow after strong drink, and tarry late
into the night, while wine inflames them. And the harp
and the lute, the tabret and the pipe, and wine, are in
their feasts (v.11 f.). Listen to his indictment against
the great men who had accunulated vast estates by
ousting small men from their ancestral holdings in
contradiction to the fundamentally democratic spirit
of the Israelite commonwealth. Toe unto them that
join house to house, that lay field to field, till there be no
room, and ye are left to dwell alone in the midst of the
land (v. 8).

Listen to the ery of the poor, plundered and crushed
and ground down, seeking in vain for redress from
VI ISAIAH IN THE REIGN OF JOTHAM 155

venal judges who take bribes to acquit the guilty,
and condemn the innocent (v. 7, 23). It is the elders
and the princes who are to blame. The guardians
of Jehovah’s vineyard have behaved like the cattle
which they were set to exclude from it, and have
themselves browsed upon it. J¢ 1s ye that have eaten
up the vineyard ; the spoil of the poor is in your houses :
what mean ye that ye crush My people, and grind
the face of the poor? saith the Lord, Jehovah of hosts
(iii. 14 f.).

Religious indifference accompanied the growth of
luxury, and lay at the root of the decay of morality.
The worship of Jehovah had degenerated into a heart-
less though elaborate ceremonial (i. 11 ff.).1_ Idolatry
was common; foreign superstitions of all kinds were
freely practised; magic and witchcraft and necro-
mancy were resorted to by those who were curious
to penetrate into the mystery of the future instead
of doing their duty in the present (ii. 6 ff.; iii. 2, 3;
viii. 19 f.).

Scornful sceptics denied the providential govern-
ment of Jehovah, and challenged Him to prove His
power by action. Let Him make speed, let Him hasten
His work that we may see it: and let the counsel of the
Holy One of Israel draw nigh and come, that we may
know it (v.19). Some undermined the foundations
of morality, obliterating the distinction between right

1 A few references are introduced, which, though taken from
later prophecies, illustrate the tendencies of this time.
156 ISAIAH IN THE REIGN OF JOTHAM LECT.

and wrong, and calling evil good and good evil (v.
20). False prophets misled the people, and drugged
their consciences by prophesying smooth things
(ix. 15; xxviii. 7; ep. Micah ii. 6; iii, 5, 11); and
the people on their part welcomed the delusion, and
strove to silence the voice of fearless reproof (xxx.
9 ff). .A complacent self-confidence and a proud
reliance in the abundance of their wealth and the
strength of their armaments characterised the nation.
Their defiant independence seemed to proclaim aloud
that they had no need of Jehovah to protect their
land and their city (ii. 7 ff.; ii. 8).

The im- In the face of this state of things Isaiah’s messaye

Tudgement. ig almost exclusively a message of judgement. The
day of Jehovah is at hand; a day of judgement upon
all human pride, a day of woe to all those self-satisfied
sinners. Jehovah of hosts hath a duy upon all that ts
proud and haughty, and upon all that ts lifted up; and
ut shall be brought low (ii. 12). Jehovah standeth up
to plead, and stundeth to judge the peoples (iii. 13). He
will break down the fence of His vineyard, and leave
it to be devoured and trodden down. Jehovah's
people must go into captivity for lack of knowledge.
Sheol will open its jaws, and swallow up all
Jerusalem’s magnificence and thronging population
and noisy crowds of careless holiday keepers (v. 5 ff.
14). The judgement fell upon them in the invasion
of Pekah and Rezin; and in an appendix added
apparently after this event Isaiah describes the
VI ISAIAH IN THE REIGN OF JOTHAM 157

catastrophe, and, doubtless in view of the spirit
in which it had been met, warns the people that
Jehovah’s anger is not yet turned away, and that He
is summoning a yet more terrible enemy from the
ends of the earth. He gives that enemy no name,
but beyond a question it is the invincible and untir-
ing Assyrian that he has in view (v. 25 ff.).’

Yet all this judgement is for purification, not for
destruction. A remnant will be left. When chas-
tisement has done its work, 2 shall come to pass, that
he that is left in Zion, and he that remaineth in
Jerusalem, shail be called holy. Jehovah will once
more manifest His Presence there as of old time in a
cloud of smoke by day, and a flaming fire by night
(iv. 3, 5).

It is probable that during part of the sixteen Gi) meget
years assigned as the length of Jotham’s reign (2 Kings ®-". 75-728.
xv. 33) he was acting as regent during his father’s
enforced seclusion from public affairs, and that his
reign as sole king was but a short one. His son
Ahaz succeeded him, and the disasters predicted by
Isaiah speedily fell upon Judah. Ahaz was a weak,
vain, incapable prince, “a child of that spirit of

1 With some hesitation I have treated the perfects in v. 13 ff.
as ‘prophetic’ perfects, or perfects of certainty, referring to that
which is still future, but must inevitably come. But the natural
explanation of v. 25 ff. is to regard it as an addition to the original
prophecy, pointing to its fulfilment in the disasters of the Syro-
Ephraimite invasion, and warning (vv. 26 ff.) that still worse
calamities are in store for an unrepentant people.
158 ISAIAH IN THE REIGN OF AHAZ LECT:

the age against which Isaiah was waging war.” The
heathenish party, led by the king himself, at once
gained the ascendency. Idolatries of all kinds were
introduced. The horrors of Moloch-worship were
revived. The public worship of Jehovah was sus-
pended."

Meanwhile Ahaz was threatened with invasion.
The sole object of the series of unprincipled adven-
turers who succeeded Jeroboam II. in the Northern
Kingdom was self-aggrandisement. Casting about
for some means of securing himself upon the throne
which he had seized by violence, Pekah entered
into an alliance with Rezin the king of Syria, for the
purpose of conquering Judah. It was a policy as short-
sighted as it was unbrotherly, for it could hardly
fail to end in the intervention of Assyria. The con-
federate kings attacked Jotham without success.
But the accession of Ahaz was the signal for the
renewal of the attack. They invaded Judah with
the intention of dethroning Ahaz, and setting
up a creature of their own, Ben Tabeel, in his
place. Ahaz and his people were in consterna-
tion. In the expressive phrase of Isaiah, his heart
shook, and the heart of his people, as the trees of the
Jorest shake before the wind (vii. 2). Tt was a evitieal
moment. The only policy which his counsellors

1 See 2 Kings xvi. 38, 4, 10 Mf; xxiii, 11, 12; 2 Chron. xxviii.
2 ff., 23 ff; xxix, 7. Isaiah alludes to him as a petulant child
(iii, 4, 12).

°
VI ISAIAH IN THE REIGN OF AHAZ 159

could suggest was that he should make a humble
submission to Assyria, and throw himself upon
Tiglath-Pileser’s protection. At this juncture Isaiah
was sent to him with a message of warning and
encouragement. He went out along with his son
Shear-yashttb, whose name was a pledge of Jehovah’s
final purpose of mercy through judgement, and found
Ahaz inspecting the water-supply of the city, in
preparation for the expected siege. Take heed, and
be quiet, was his counsel; fear not, neither let thine
heart be faint, because of these two stumps of smoulder-
ing firebrands (vil. 4). It was not from them that
Judah had to fear. The power of Syria and Israel
was doomed. But, he concludes with significant
warning, if ye will not believe, surely ye shall not be
established (vii. 9). The meaning is clear. <Ahaz
must choose between the policy of faith and the
policy of unbelief; between reliance upon Jehovah,
and reliance upon Tiglath-Pileser. He chose the
latter. Tiglath-Pileser’s help was given, but not before
the allied kings had inflicted a severe defeat upon
Ahaz, captured a host of prisoners, and actually
besieged Jerusalem.’ Probably they were compelled
to raise the siege by the news that an Assyrian army
was in motion. Tiglath-Pileser invaded Syria and
Israel, and carried away the inhabitants of the
northern part of the kingdom of Israel into exile.
Two years later, in B.c. 732, Damascus was taken.

1 [sa, Vil. Le ¥, 252 2 Chiron, xxviii, 6 i
160 ISAIAH IN THE REIGN OF HEZEKIAH LECT.

Before he returned home, Tievlath-Pileser held a
court at Damascus, at which he received homage
from his vassals. Among them, as we learn from his
triumphal inscription as well as from the Book of
Kings (xvi. 10), was Ahaz. Thus Ahaz was delivered,
but at what a price! Not the gold and the silver
only, which he took from the treasuries of the
Temple and the palace, but the independence of
Judah, was the ransom which he paid. From this
time onwards, with the exception of brief intervals,
Judah was the tributary vassal of Assyria, until for
a moment Egypt seized its share of the decaying
empire, only to surrender it at once to the still
mightier power of Babylon.

Isaiah’s watchword in this crisis was Jmmaniel,
‘God is with us’; as the Psalmist of a few years
later expands it—

(fod is in the midst of her, she shall not be moved ;

(od shall help her, when the morning duwneth.

Psaum xvi. 5,

In this hour of Zion’s peril and her king’s faith-
lessness, in full view of the dark days of calamity to
come, in sight of preparations for war and amid
signs of disaster and defeat, with trumpet tones
Isaiah rings out that thrilling prophecy of a great
light which should dawn upon the darkness, of the
final victory of God’s people over their oppressors,
of the Child of promise, who should found an eternal
kingdom of peace and righteousness (ix. 1 ff),
VI ISAIAH IN THE REIGN OF HEZEKIAH 161

The reign of Hezekiah forms the third and most ey
brilliant period of Isaiah’s ministry. Soon after his ®« 78-69.
accession Hezekiah, stimulated by the warnings of
Micah (Jer. xxvi. 18, 19), and supported, no doubt,
by Isaiah, carried out a great reformation, abolished
idolatry, and restored the worship of Jehovah. The
high places, and such objects of superstition as the
brazen serpent, were destroyed; the Temple was
reopened; the Passover was celebrated. He resumed
the policy of Uzziah; strengthened the defences of
Jerusalem ;1 filled his arsenals ; and recovered some
of the prestige which Ahaz had lost. He encouraged
agriculture; and we learn from the title of the
later collection of Proverbs (xxv. 1) that his scribes
were employed upon the collection and preserva-
tion of the literature of the country.

Soon after the accession of Hezekiah, Tiglath-
Pileser was succeeded by Shalmaneser IV. (s.c. 7217).
Egypt had recently been conquered by Ethiopia,
and Shebek I, called by Greek writers Sabaco,?
reigned at Memphis. Efforts were made to unite
the states on the Mediterranean in a coalition
with Egypt against Assyria. © Hoshea, who
had been placed upon the throne as a vassal of

1 The ‘Siloam inscription,’ found in 1880, describes the con-
struction of a tunnel connecting the Virgin’s Spring with the Pool
of Siloam. This may have been the conduit which Hezekiah made
to improve the water-supply of the city (2 Kings xx. 20).

? In 2 Kings xvii. 4, he is called, according to the Massoretic
text, So. But this is probably an erroneous vocalisation for Sévé.

M
162 ISAIAH IN THE REIGN OF HEZEKIAH LECT.

Assyria, refused to pay tribute. Shalmaneser in-
vaded the Northern Kingdom, and made Hoshea
prisoner. After a three years’ siege Samaria was
captured in B.c. 722, not however by Shalmaneser
but by his suecessor Sargon, who had just come to
the throne. A large number of the Israelites were
carried into exile, and their place filled by Baby-
lonians. An Assyrian governor was appointed, and
the Northern Kingdom ceased to exist.

It was apparently in these early years of Heze-
kiah’s reign that a strong party in Jerusalem advo-
cated alliance with Egypt. This policy Isaiah
resisted with all the eloquence and authority at his
command. The series of discourses preserved in
chaps. xxvili.-xxxi. is the record of his efforts’ As
strongly as he had resisted the fatal determination
of Ahaz to call in the aid of Assyria, he now resisted
the policy of breaking loose from Assyria in reliance

1 Chaps. xxix.-xxxi. are very commonly referred to B.c. 702,
on the ground that xxix. 1 anticipates the siege of Jerusalem
within a year. But this interpretation of the verse is very
questionable. On the other hand xxviii. 1 ff. is anterior to the
destruction of Samaria, and chaps. xxix.-xxxi. appear to be closely
connected with it. Ch. xxviii. 15 ff. will refer to the Egyptian
alliance which was being negotiated, and which is further referred
to in the following chapters. The references to idolatry (xxx. 22 ;
xxxi. 7; notice the close parallel to these passages in xvii. 8, about
734) point to a time before Hezekiah’s reformation, which must
have taken place in the early years of his reign. Ch, xxwiii.
belongs partly to the time of Sennacherib’s invasion (vv. 7 ff.),
partly to the time immediately after his retreat (vv. 13 ff.), Possibly
the discourses of chaps. xxviii.-xxxi. were collected and published
with the addition of chaps. xxxii. and xxxiii. at this time.
VI ISAIAH IN THE REIGN OF HEZEKIAH 163

upon Egyptian help, and advocated submission and
peace.

We may trace the steps of the negotiations
with Egypt in Isaiah’s denunciation of the policy
of the secular statesmen of Jerusalem. Samaria’s
destruction is imminent. The ministers of Jehovah’s
judgement are at hand (xxviii. 1 ff). But Judah is
scarcely less guilty, and stands in need of sharp
discipline. The statesmen of Jerusalem indeed boast
that they have secured themselves in the coming
storm. We have made a covenant with death, and
with Sheol are we at agreement ;1 when the overflowing
scourge shall pass through, it shall not come unto us ;
for we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood
have we hid ourselves (xxviii. 15). The prophet
ironically puts into their own mouths words which
describe the true character of the Egyptian alliance
upon which they were depending. He calls it lies
and falsehood, for it involved a breach of faith with
Assyria and was in itself a delusion. The foundation
of the divine kingdom was laid in Zion; deliverance
would come, but not from the quarter to which they
looked for it. The storm would burst; the hail
would sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters
overflow the hiding-place. If they persisted in their
policy, their bands would be made strong (v. 22).

1 “Ts this passage a reference to Hos. xiii. 14? Death and hell
may have been invoked to do their worst upon the Northern
Kingdom (see p. 182), but we are secure.
164 ISAIAH IN THE REIGN OF HEZEKIAH LECT.

The yoke of Assyrian domination would be riveted
more firmly on their necks. They endeavour to
conceal their negotiations from the prophet, but in
vain. Woe wnto them that strive to hide their counsel
deep from Jehovah, and their work is im the dark,
and they say, Who seeth us? and who knoweth us
(xxix. 15)? He cannot prevent the embassy from
being sent, but he exposes its folly and uselessness.
Woe to the rebellious children, saith Jehovah ; taking
counsel but not of Mc, and weaving a web, but not of
My spirit, in order to add sin to sin: that walk to go
down into Egypt, and have not asked at My mouth ; to
shelter themselves in the shelter of Pharaoh, and to take
refuge in the shadow of Egypt. But the shelter of
Pharaoh shall prove your shame, and refuge in the
shadow of Egypt your disyrace (xxx. 1 ff). The real
ground of their hankering for alliance with Egypt
was mistrust of Jehovah, and confidence in material
power. Woe to them that go down to Kyypt for help,
and rely upon horses; and trust in chariots, because
they are many, and in horsemen, because they are very
strong; but they have not looked to the Holy One of
Israel, neither sought Jehovah. . But the Egyptians
are man, and not God ; and their horses are flesh, and
not spirit: and when Schovah stretcheth forth His
hand, both helper and holpen shall stumble and fall,
and they shall all fail together (xxxi. 1, 3).

Whether in consequence of Isaiah’s influence or
owing to external circumstances, Judah did not
VI ISAIAH IN THE REIGN OF HEZEKIAH 165

revolt, and Jerusalem escaped the fate of Samaria.
Two years later (B.c. 720) Sargon totally defeated
Sabaco in the battle of Raphia, and verified Isaiah’s
warnings of the futility of reliance upon Egypt. Nine
years later (B.c. 711) Sargon’s armies were in Palestine
again. Ashdod, depending apparently upon Egyptian
help, had revolted and endeavoured to get neighbour-
ing states to join it. Its presumption was speedily
chastised, and the Egyptians left it in the lurch.

For some time the Assyrians appear to have left
Palestine alone, and it may be inferred that Judah
and the neighbouring countries paid their tribute
quietly. Again and again Isaiah, while advocating
submission to the yoke of Assyria, repeats that this
scourge of God is but a servant in the hand of his
master. Not a step further can he go than he is
permitted; and the time will come when his pride
must be humbled and he will be taught to recognise
Jehovah’s supremacy.)

The death of Sargon and the accession of Senna-
cherib in B.c. 705 led to a change in the position of
affairs. Merodach-baladan of Babylon revolted, and
endeavoured to stir up the western states to revolt
also. The opportunity seemed favourable, and
Hezekiah asserted his independence. Sennacherib
promptly came to chastise his rebellious vassal.
The last hour of Jerusalem seemed to have come.
The exact course of events is obscure. But it appears

1 See e.g. ». 5 ff., belonging probably to the time of Sargon.
166 ISAIAH IN THE REIGN OF HEZEKIAH LECT.

that Sennacherib ravaged Judah, forced Hezekiah to
submit, and compelled him to pay a heavy indemnity,
without however requiring the surrender of Jerusalem
(2 Kings xviii. 13-16). But reflection convinced him
that it would be imprudent to leave so strong a
fortress in Hezekiah’s hands while he marched on to
Egypt ; and he therefore detached a force under the
Tartan and the Rabsaris and the Rabshakeh? to
threaten Jerusalem, and demand its surrender.
Though the force was insufficient to invest the city,
a refusal seemed certain to ensure condign chastise-
ment when Sennacherib returned victorious from his
Egyptian campaign. What should Hezekiah do?
In his extremity he sent to Isaiah for advice. The
prophet bade him not to fear, and Sennacherib’s de-
mands were refused. Rabshakeh returned to his
master, who was now besieging Libnah. Gladly no
doubt would he have inflicted a summary vengeance.
But Tirhakah’s army was already on the march, and
he was forced to content himself by replying to
Hezekiah’s defiance with fresh threats. The letter
which he sent to Hezekiah was a contemptuous
denial of Jehovah’s power to defend Jerusalem.
Hezekiah took the letter to the Temple, and spread

1 These are not proper names, but titles of Assyrian officers.
Tartan = commander -in-chief ; Rabsaris, according to Pinches’
recent discovery (dcademy, 25th June 1892, p. 618) = Rabu-sa-resu,
chief of the heads or princes; Rabshakeh=Rab-saki, chicf of the
captains. The two last titles have been Hebraised in a form which
gives them u wrong meaning, The chief of the cunuchs and the
chief of the cup-bearers would hardly be military officers.
VI ISAIAH IN THE REIGN OF HEZEKIAH 167

it before Jehovah, with earnest prayer that He whose
honour had been impeached would vindicate His
claim to be the living God.

Then it was that Isaiah uttered that sublime pro-
phecy in which this period of his ministry culminates.
Sennacherib’s proud words, he declared, were rank
blasphemy. He knew not who it was whom he had
defied. But now that haughty spirit would find that
he had met his master. I will put My hook in thy
nose, and My bridle in thy lips, and [ will turn thee
back by the way by which thou camest. Jehovah’s city
should be inviolate. He shall not come unto this city,
nor shoot an arrow there, neither shall he come before
ut with shield, nor cast a mount against it... . For I
will defend this city to save it, for Mine own sake, and
Jor My servant David's sake (xxxvii. 29, 33, 35).

And so it came to pass. The angel of Jehovah went
forth and smote in the camp of the Assyrians a hundred
and fourscore and five thousand. What form that
sudden and mysterious catastrophe wore to human
eyes, we do not know. Probably it was a pestilence.
Unable to face Tirhakah’s army, Sennacherib turned
homewards, leaving Jerusalem unharmed. Twenty
years later he died by the hands of his own sons as
he was worshipping in the temple of Nisroch.

So, as ever, man’s extremity was God’s opportunity.
Isaiah lived to see his own prophecies fulfilled, and
to prove God’s faithfulness to His promises. Ina
passage of singular poetic power and beauty he cele-
168 ISAIAH’S THEOLOGY LECT.

brates the deliverance! (xxxiii. 13 ff). He looks for
its moral effect upon the sinners in Zion. Surely
now they will be startled into repentance by the
visible tokens of God’s presence in their midst. Once
more the people of Judah will see their king restored
to his proper dignity, and his kingdom extending to
its old limits. The recollection of the terrors of the
invasion, the preparations for the siege, the fierce looks
and strange language of the Assyrian invader, will
deepen their sense of gratitude for deliverance. Jeru-
salem will enjoy a perfect peace. Look upon Zion, the
city of owr solemnities. Thine eyes shall see Jerusalem a
quict habitation, a tent that shall never be removed, the
stakes whereof shall never be plucked up, neither shall any
of the cords thereof be broken. And in his closing words
the prophet sees the final goal as though it were
close before him. The inhabitant shall not say, Tam
sich: the people that dwell therein shall be forgiven
theur iniquity.

But the conditions were not fulfilled. Even this
proof of Jehovah’s Presence failed to convince the
impenitent people. The righteousness for which He
looked was still wanting. The spiritual Israel had
not yet been formed out of the carnal Israel.

1 Psalins xlvi.-xlviii. and probably Ixxy., Ixxvi. belong to this
time, and should be read in illustration of Zion’s jubilant thankful-
ness.
VI ISAIAH’S THEOLOGY 169

Vv

Isaiah towers above all the other prophets before /saiat's

and after. It seems almost presumptuous, in the
case of so many-sided a genius, to attempt to single
out special and distinctive elements in his teaching.
But even Isaiah has his distinguishing characteristics.
Every prophet was a theologian. His teaching
rested upon that aspect of the divine character
which had been specially brought home to his
consciousness. But Isaiah is pre-eminently a theo-
logian. The vision in which he received his call
was a revelation of the Glory of Jehovah, exhibiting
the supreme attributes of Majesty and Holiness. An
overwhelming sense of these attributes was burnt
into his inmost soul. It shaped his view of Jehovah’s
relation to Israel and of Israel’s behaviour to
Jehovah, and formed the inspiration and dominating
idea of his teaching.

What God 1s in the ineffable reality of His
absolute Essence man cannot understand. Upon the
consuming intensity of that light unapproachable in
which He dwells no human eye can gaze. But
what man may know and behold of that divine
perfection is revealed as God’s glory. It is mani-
fested in nature, in history, in revelation. The whole
earth is full of His glory. And in this supreme
moment of Isaiah’s life the glory of God’s majesty
and the glory of God’s holiness were flashed into

theology.
(1) The
majesty of
Jehovah.

170 THE MAJESTY OF JEHOVAH LECT,

Isaiah’s soul. The revelation of the divine majesty
awakened in him the sense of creaturely weakness,
of his own insignificance: the revelation of the
divine holiness aroused the sense of human sinful-
ness, of his own transgression. In the light of God’s
glory man shrivels awestruck into nothing; shrinks
conscience smitten and abashed from the Presence
he cannot endure. These two ruling ideas of the
majesty and the holiness of Jehovah come into
prominence in successive periods of his work.
Neither is ever absent from his mind, but the first
distinguishes the earlier and the second the later
period of his ministry.

The majesty of Jehovah was a predominant idea
in Isaiah’s teaching during the reign of Jotham. It
was, as we have seen, a period in which long years
of prosperity were bearing bitter fruit. Signs of
careless luxury and proud independence met the
prophet’s eye and ear wherever he turned. Supersti-
tion, idolatry, scepticism, infested the whole country.
The cry of the poor for their lawful rights was
unheeded. The processes of justice were perverted
to the ends of oppression. Those vast estates, made
by dispossessing small holders from their ancestral
holdings ; those splendid palaces with their sumptu-
ous banquets and riotous revels; those extravagant
wardrobes and costly jewels with which the grand
ladies of Jerusalem adorned themselves; those
horses and chariots, those forts and towers, those
VI THE MAJESTY OF JEHOVAH 171

tleets and armies, of which the statesmen of Judah
boasted as an impregnable defence; those private
chapels with their gold and silver images; those
secret rites performed by some cunning soothsayer
from Philistia or the East; that reckless indifference
to truth and right and justice which was compatible
with the most profuse outward ceremonies of
worship ;—what were all these but a deification of
wealth and power and selfish pleasure and reckless
ambition; an insolent defiance of the supreme majesty
of Jehovah of hosts? This was the aspect of Israel’s
sins which presented itself to Isaiah’s mind in this
period. Man seemed in his complacent self-aggran-
disement to have forgotten his Maker; Israel had
defiantly flung off the obligation of allegiance to its
King; the indictment against them is summed up in
the words, Their tongue and their doings are against
Jehovah, to provoke the eyes of His glory (iii. 8).
Therefore Jehovah must vindicate His character.
The day of Jehovah is at hand, in which all human
pride and worldly greatness will be humbled before
the terrible manifestation of His majesty. Enter into
the rock, and hide thee in the dust, from before the
terror of Jehovah, 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 Jehovah
alone shall be exalted in that day. Men will fling
away their impotent idols to the moles and to the
bats, and flee to hide themselves from before the
172 THE MAJESTY OF JEHOVAH LECT.

terror of Jehovah, and from the glory of His majesty,
when He ariseth to shake mightily the earth Gi. 10 ff
17, 19 ff; ep. v.15). In that day He will prove to
the trembling and astonished people His paramount
supremacy. He will demonstrate that He is the
Jealous God, Who tolerates no rival, and cannot be
satisfied with a half-hearted allegiance. Throughout
the group of prophecies from the reign of Jotham
(chaps. ii-v.) the idea which moves the prophet’s
mind is the sense of Jehovah’s majesty, outraged and
insulted by Judah’s proud independence and speedily
to be vindicated by a searching judgement.

That judgement fell upon Judah in the attack of
the Syro-Ephraimite alliance in the reign of Ahaz;
in the humiliation which it suffered by other defeats,
and by its ignominious submission to Assyria;
ultimately in Sennacherib’s invasion, in which,
though in the end it was delivered, the country
suffered heavily from the ravages of war and the large
indemnity which it paid. The judgement fell upon
Israel in the internecine feuds which sapped its
strength and precipitated its ruin, and in the suc-
cessive invasions of the Assyrians, by which the
kingdom was first curtailed and then destroyed.

But judgement was in store for Assyria also. The
Assyrian had a commission from Jehovah. He was the
rod of Jehovah’s anger, and the staff in his hand was
Jehovah’s indignation, But he knew it not. He too
would grow proud in his own conceit, and fancy
VI THE MAJESTY OF JEHOVAH 173

himself the lord of all the world, and boast, By the
strength of my hand I have done it, and by my
wisdom; for I am prudent. And therefore it will
come to pass, that when the Lord has performed His
whole work upon mount Zion and upon Jerusalem,
that He will punish the frurt of the stout heart of the
king of Assyria, and the glory of his high looks (x. 5 ff;
12, 13). The majesty which must’ first be vindi-
cated in punishing His own people for their pride
would afterwards be exhibited in vengeance upon
their enemies. Jehovah is exalted, for He dwelleth on
high, was the moral of Sennacherib’s humiliation
(xxxiii. 5); and the triumph song which is put into
the mouth of the redeemed in the day of their
deliverance repeats the same theme :—

Give thanks unto Jehovah, call upon His Name ;
Make known His doings among the peoples,
Make mention that His name is ewalted (xii. 4).

Still loftier and more comprehensive than the (The i
idea of Jehovah’s majesty is the idea of His holiness, Jeo.
Holy, holy, holy, was the ery which Isaiah heard
from the lips of the adoring Seraphim; and he
chooses the title the Holy One of Israel to describe
the relation of Jehovah to His people. What then
is the meaning of the divine attribute of holiness ?
and in what sense does Isaiah employ the title
Holy One of Israel ?

Holiness is not of course an attribute now for the
174 THE HOLINESS OF JEHOVAH LECT.

first time ascribed to Jehovah. It is used by Isaiah’s
predecessors! To Amos it is the essential character-
istic of Deity. The Lord Jehovah, he says, hath
sworn by His holiness (iv. 2). That is synonymous
with swearing by Himself (vi. 8). In Hosea He is
proclaimed to be the Holy One in the midst of
Ephraim (xi. 9; ep. 12).

Nor is it a title which was limited to the sphere
of revelation. Other Semitic nations applied it to
their gods;? but revelation takes it, and invests it with
a deeper significance. Primarily the Hebrew root
from which the word is derived seems to denote
separation. It represents God as distinct from man,
separate from the creation which He has called into
existence. Then, since limit is the necessary con-
dition of created things, and imperfection and sin-
fulness are the marks of humanity in its fallen
state, the term grows to denote the separation of
God from all that is limited, imperfect, and sinful.
But it does not rest here in a merely negative
conception. It expands so as to include the whole
essential nature of God in its moral aspect. This it
is which evokes the unceasing adoration of angelic

1 Whether its use can be carried back to the Mosaic age will
depend upon the view taken of the date of the Song of Moses (Exod.
xv, 11), and of the ideas which have taken final shape in
Leviticus (xix. 2, etc.) But it cannot be new to Amos and
Hosea.

* The holy gods occurs in the inscription on the sarcophagus of

Eshmunazar king of Sidon, in the fourth century s.c. (Corp,
Inser. Sem. i. p. 14.)
VI THE HOLINESS OF JEHOVAH 175

beings. His purity and His righteousness, His
faithfulness and His truth, His mercy and His loving-
kindness, nay even His jealousy and His wrath, His
zeal and His indignation,—these are the different
rays which combine to make up the perfect light of
holiness. It is the moral nature of God, which
man’s dull soul can but dimly imagine; for what
does he know of absolute truth and righteousness
and love? what of the consuming indignation which
the sight of sin must stir in Him Whose nature is
an intense zeal for truth and righteousness ? what of
the reconciliation of apparently opposing attributes
in perfect unity of will and purpose ?

God is holy ; persons, places, and things set apart
for His service are holy by virtue of that consecration ;
and of men there is demanded an inward holiness
which shall, in its measure, reflect the holiness of God.

The character of God as the Holy One in His
relation to Israel is expressed by the title the Holy
One of Israel. This title appears to have been coined
by Isaiah. At any rate it is almost peculiar to the
Book of Isaiah It is characteristic of the second
part of the book as well as of the first, and forms
one of the most noteworthy links of connexion
between them.

1 It occurs three times in the Psalter (Ixxi. 22; Ixxviii. 41;
lxxxix. 18): twice in Jeremiah, but in chapters which appear to be
the work of a follower of Jeremiah, and are largely dependent on the

Book of Isaiah (1. 29; li. 5): once in a modified form in Ezekiel
(xxxix. 7, the Holy One in Israel). Cp. too Hos. xi. 9; Hab. i. 12.
176 THE HOLY ONE OF ISRAEL LECT,

Let us try to realise its significance. Jehovah is
the thrice holy God. This holy God, in all the ful-
ness of His Deity, has entered into personal relations
with Israel. He is Israel’s God. They are His
people. He is therefore their Holy One, and His ex-
press claim upon them is, Ye shall be holy, for I ain
holy (Lev. xi. 44, 45; xix. 2; xx. 7, 26; xxi. 8):
ye shall be unto Me a holy nation (Ex. xix. 6; Deut.
vil. 6; xiv. 2, 21: xxvi. 19; xxviii. 9). They are
to reflect and exhibit to the world Jehovah’s character.
They are to be His witnesses. Perhaps originally
this meant little more than that they were to be a
separate people, distinguished by their allegiance to
Jehovah ; but as His character was gradually revealed
to them in Law and Prophecy, the claim on Israel
grew to have a deeper meaning. Then it was that
the divorce between calling and practice grew to be
startling. The people fancied that they had a right
to claim Jehovah’s faithfulness to His covenant, while
they were at liberty to sit loose to the obligations
which it imposed upon them.

So Isaiah comes forward to assert this neglected
truth of the holiness of Israel’s God. It has a double
aspect. It is a truth of terror, and a truth of con-
solation. Jehovah must vindicate His neglected
holiness, not less than His outraged majesty, by the

1 Whatever view is taken of the date of the documents from
which these words are quoted, the ideas contained in them are pre-
supposed by Isaiah.
VI THE HOLY ONE OF ISRAEL 77

chastisement of His people’s sins. Yet equally must
He vindicate it by the defence of His people and the
destruction of their enemies.

At the beginning of the book, in an address which
serves as a general introduction, although not de-
livered until the reign of Ahaz at the earliest, Isaiah
strikes this note. The children whom Jehovah has
brought up and raised to high estate have rebelled
against Him. They are not a holy nation, but a sin-
ful nation. They have forsaken Jehovah, they have
despised the Holy One of Israel (i. 4). The thought is
developed in the parable of the vineyard in ch. v.
The manifold and tender care of Jehovah for the
people of His choice had not resulted in the fruit
which He desired. When He looked that His vine-
yard should bring forth grapes, it brought forth wild
grapes. Again their transgression is summed up in
the sentence, They have rejected the teaching of Jehovah
of hosts, and despised the word of the Holy One of Israel
(v. 24). The enormity of those sins of covetousness
and violence and profligacy and debauchery was only
aggravated by the insulting hypocrisy of a ceremonial
worship, which was abomination to Jehovah, while
they professed to honour Him, though their hearts
were far from Him. It reached its climax in the
audacity of a scepticism which challenged Him to
prove His claim to be the Holy One of Israel by
action. Let Him make speed, let Him hasten His work,
that we may see it ; and let the cownsel of the Holy One

N
178 THE HOLY ONE OF ISRAEL LECT.

of Isracl draw nigh and come, that we may know
(v.19)! Therefore in the impending day of judgement
the holiness not less than the majesty of Jehovah
will be vindicated. When men are bowed down, and
great men humbled, and the eyes of the lofty are humbled,
then Jehovah of hosts will be exalted in Judgement and
God the Holy One will be proved holy in righteousness
(v. 15, 16).

In the later period of Isaiah’s ministry the
doctrine of the Holy One of Israel became still more
prominent in his teaching. In that crisis when the
policy of the worldly-wise statesmen in Jerusalem
threatened to entangle Judah in an alliance with
Egypt, and involve it in the ruin which befel
Samaria, Isaiah unhesitatingly bade his countrymen
rely upon the Holy One of Israel. If they would
remain quiet, and obey His message, and conform to
His will, then in His own time He would be gracious
to them, and deliver them from the oppression of the
Assyrian tyrant. His honour was pledged to defend
His own people. But they were for the most part
faithless. The worldly spirit predominated. Zhus
said the Lord Jehovah, the Holy One of Isracl, By re-
turning from your self-chosen policy and Ieeping still
shall ye be saved ; in tranquillity and in confidence
shall be your strength, and ye would not (xxx. 15).
Mockingly they taunted the prophet and his com-
panions with their great watchword. Cause the Holy
One of Isracl to cease from befure us, they cried (xxx. 11);
VI THE HOLY ONE OF ISRAEL 179

and instead of looking to the Holy One of Israel,
and seeking Jehovah, they sent their ambassadors to
ask for the help of Egypt, and put their trust in
chariots and in horsemen (xxxi. 1).

Calmly Isaiah continued to proclaim his double
message of judgement and deliverance. Thus saith
the Holy One of Israel, Because ye despise this word,
namely the prophetic exhortation to rely upon
Jehovah, and trust in oppression, which they must
use to extort means for purchasing the help of Egypt,
and in perverseness, namely the policy of secret in-
trigue, and rely upon it; therefore this iniquity shall
prove to you like a breach ready to fall, bulging out in a
lofty wall, whose ruin cometh suddenly in an instant
(xxx. 12,13). Yet Jehovah will protect Jerusalem,
like the mother bird, hovering over its nest to pro-
tect its young, passing over wt and preserving it, as of
old He passed over the houses of the Israelites when
He destroyed the Egyptians (xxxi. 5).

The Egyptian policy failed, and the danger was
averted. The shock of the fall of Samaria may have
contributed to induce the obstinate people to give
heed to the warnings of the prophets, and enabled
Hezekiah to effect the reformation of which we read
in the Book of Kings.

It was not till some twenty years afterwards that
the great crisis came. Then, at the moment when
all seemed lost, the Holy One of Israel proved Him-
self to be all that He had promised. Sennacherib’s
180 THE HOLY ONE OF ISRAEL LECT.

blasphemous message, contemptuously lowering Je-
hovah to the level of the gods of the nations whose
cities he had destroyed, was a flat defiance of the
Holy One of Israel. Little did the proud king know
Whom he had challenged. HW’hom hast thou reproached
and blasphemed? and against whom hast thou exalted
thy voice ant lifted up thine cyes on high ? even agarnst
the Holy One of Israel (xxxvii. 25). In the utter-
most extremity and not until then, Jehovah shewed
Himself to be the Holy One of Israel, and vindicated
His holiness not less than His majesty in the deliver-
ance of His city and His peuple.

The great thoughts of the majesty and the holi-
ness of Jehovah shape and colour Isaiah’s hopes
for the future. It is worth while noticing how
entirely the author of the Book of Consolation enters
into the spirit of his master when he represents the
redemption of Israel from Babylon as the character-
istic work of Israel’s Holy One. This, however, lies
outside our present subject. But what Isaiah him-
self looks forward to a8 the goal of all God’s dealings
with His people is the production of a holy nation.
In that gloomiest moment, when he is warned that
the effect of his preaching must be to harden an
already obdurate nation, he is assured that there is
still a holy seed within it (vi. 13); and when the Lord
shall have purged the blood-giiltiness of Jerusalem from
the madst thereof by the spirit of judyement and by the
spirit of burning, then he that is left in Zion, and
VI THE HOLY ONE OF ISRAEL 181

he that remaineth in Jerusalem, shall be called holy
(iv. 3, 4). In the day when Ephraim and Syria are
humbled, men will no more resort to their altars and
their idols, but will look unto their Maker and have
respect unto the Holy One of Israel (xvii. 7, 8).
When the light of Israel shall be for a fire, and his
Holy One for a flame, consuming the mighty Assyrian
power like a heap of thorns and briars, the remnant
of Israel, and they that are escaped of the house of
Jacob, shall no more again stay upon him that smote
them, but shall stay upon Jehovah, the Holy One of
Israel, in truth (x. 17, 20).

When the great transformation comes, the meek
shall increase their joy in Jehovah, and the poor among
men shall rejoice in the Holy One of Israel (xxix. 19).
In that day men’s spiritual sight will no more be
blinded; their spiritual ears will no more be deaf.
The deaf shall hear the words of the book, and the eyes
of the blind shall see out of obscwrity and out of dark-
ness (xxix. 18). When they see the manifest tokens of
Jehovah’s Presence in their midst, the sinners in Zion
are afread: when they reflect on His judgements
upon themselves and upon the terrible enemy of the
nation, trembling surprises the godless ones. Who of
us, they ask, can sojourn in a consuming fire? who of
us can sojourn in perpetual burnings? Who indeed
can endure the Presence of the most Holy God, who
burns and devours His enemies like thorns and
thistles?_ This is the prophet’s answer: He that
182 MESSIANIC PROPHECIES OF ISAIAH LECT.

walketh righteously and speaketh wprightly ; that re-
jecteth the gain of fraud, and shaketh his hands from
holding of bribes, that stoppeth his cars from hearing of
blood, and shutteth his eyes from looking upon evil ; he
shall dwell on high; strongholds of the rocks shall be
his refuge ; his bread shall be given him ; his water shall
be sure (xxxili. 13 ff.). Israel will recognise the holi-
ness of Jehovah, and reverence His majesty. T”hen
his children see the work of My hands in the midst of
him, they shall hallow My Name; yea they shall hallow
the Holy One of Jacob, and stand in awe of the God of
Israel (xxix. 25).

The triumph song of the redeemed closes with the
eall to joyful adoration :
Give thanks unto Jehovah, call upon His Name ;
Make known His doings among the peoples, make mention that

His Name is exalted.

Cry aloud und shout, thou inhabitant of Zion ;

For great is the Holy One of Israel in the midst of thee.
(xii. 4, 6.)

Vi

Messianic Isaiah’s preaching concerned the present. It
prophecies: Fund its occasion and its object in the needs and the
circumstances of his own day. But it is constantly
reaching out beyond the immediate present into the
future of the divine purpose. The course of God's
dealings with His people, and in a measure with the
nations also, is through judgement to redemption.
VI MESSIANIC PROPHECIES OF ISAIAH 183

The goal of His purposes is the establishment of a
kingdom of peace and righteousness, the centre of
light and salvation for the nations. The establish-
ment of this kingdom is connected with the coming
of a personal Deliverer, a King who is to spring from
the house of David. Its seat is to be in Zion, purified
and regenerated through judgement.

To hisearliest collection of discourses Isaiah has pre-
fixed a brief prophecy, taken from Micah or from some
older prophet,' in which the future destiny of Zion is
described. It serves as a foundation for the prophet’s
call to repentance, and as a foil to the description of
Judah’s sin, shewing the depth of its fall by contrast
with the sublimity of its mission. In the after days
Zion is to be the spiritual centre of the nations. Its
spiritual pre-eminence is represented under the figure
of a physical elevation of the temple-mount. Thither
not Israel only but the nations of the world will go
up to worship, and to learn from Israel’s Gol. Thence
will proceed the divine revelation. The nations will
obey Jehovah’s rule, and universal peace will be
established (ii. 2 ff). There is here no hint of a
personal Messiah. Jehovah Himself is the Teacher
and the Ruler. The form of the prophecy is sug-

1 For our present purpose it is immaterial whether {the words
are Micah’s own, or, as many think, borrowed by him as well as
by Isaiah from some older prophet. Their loose connexion with
the context shews that they are not Isaiah’s own, but he appro-
priates them by quoting them. I see no sufficient reason to regard
them as merely the insertion of a compiler. On the other hand,
they are firmly embedded in the context in Micah.

Ch. ti. 2-4,
Ch, iv. 2.

184 MESSIANIC PROPHECIES OF ISAIAH LECT.

gested by the pilgrimages of worshippers to the
Temple. Its spirit is the truth that in the divine
purpose Zion was to be the centre of the world’s
salvation (John iv. 22).

The full grandeur of this prophecy is only seen
when it is brought into relation with the circum-
stances of the time. When religion and morals were
at the lowest ebb; when Israel instead of converting
the nations to the worship of Jehovah was being
perverted by their superstitions; when the nations,
instead of coming to pay homage to the God of
Jacob, were threatening to crush His people out of
existence; at such an inauspicious moment Isaiah
authoritatively repeats the prophecy which predicts
the spiritual supremacy of Zion, and the establish-
ment of an universal peace.

The group of prophecies which thus opens with
the ideal of Israel’s destiny ends with the description
of Zion purified through judgement, and protected by
the Presence of Jehovah in her midst, which we have
already had occasion to consider (p. 157). That
prophecy is sometimes thought to contain a reference
to a personal Messiah. Jn that day, it runs, shall the
sprout [Tsemach] of Jehovah be beautiful and glorious,
and the fruit of the land shall be ercellent and comely
Sor them that are escaped of Israel (iv. 2). These words
are thus paraphrased in the Targum: “ At that time
shall the Messiah of Jehovah be a joy and a glory,
and they that keep the law shall be an honour and
vi MESSIANIC PROPHECIES OF ISAIAH 185

praise to them that are delivered of Israel.” Such a
personal interpretation, however, does not lie in the
context. The renewed fertility of the land is a con-
stant feature in the pictures of the Messianic age,
and it is to this that the words primarily refer.
Jehovah makes His land bring forth and bud and
bear fruit for His restored people. Possibly the
words may include those spiritual gifts of which these
material blessings are the symbol (Lxi. 11).

But though a personal reference can scarcely be
intended here, itis hard not to see in the passage the
source of the term Tsemach, ‘Shoot’ or ‘Sprout’
(A.V. ‘Branch’), applied to the Messiah in later
times. Jeremiah speaks of the Messiah as the shoot
or sprout from the stock of David (Jer. xxiii. 5;
xxxili. 15); and Zechariah treats it as a recognised
title of the Messianic King (iii. 8; vi. 12). The use
of the term is at once limited and elevated. Isaiah’s
words may include those spiritual gifts of which
material blessings are the symbol (1xi. 11); and of all
the blessings which Jehovah will cause to spring up
for His land and people, the chief will be that King
of David’s line in whom the hopes of his nation are
centered.

In no case perhaps is it so difficult to disengage
the mind from the associations of its ultimate fulfil-
ment, and to endeavour to ascertain its original
meaning, as In the case of the prophecy of Immanuel.
But it is clear that the words, Behold a virgin shall

Ch. vit. 14 f
186 MESSIANIC PROPHECIES OF ISAIAH LECT.

conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name
Immanuel, were not, in their original intention, a
prediction of the miraculous birth of Jesus. Isaiah
is giving Ahaz the sign, for which, with a spurious
assumption of piety, he had refused to ask. Now an
event which was not to happen for more than seven
centuries could not form a sign to Ahaz. Moreover,
the context proceeds to speak of what is shortly to
happen. Before the child who is to be called Im-
manuel arrives at years of discretion, the power of
Syria and Ephraim will be humbled. It is in the
immediate future that he is to be born. Accordingly
some commentators regard Immanuel as the Messiah
whose advent Isaiah expected to fall within the
period of the Assyrian troubles. But this view
cannot be regarded as satisfactory, though it com-
mends itself to many able interpreters. Such a
“perspective combination of events lying far apart”
is not indeed contrary to the general conditions of
prophecy. Isaiah seems to have looked for the com-
plete regeneration of the nation immediately after
the deliverance from Assyria, much as the Apostles
looked for the final coming of the Lord in their own
lifetime. But the child Immanuel is not connected
with the house of David, nor is he spoken of as a
deliverer. And the fatal objection to this theory is
that an event which did not happen could not possibly
form a sign to Ahaz.

The true explanation appears to be that the sign
VI MESSIANIC PROPHECIES OF ISAIAH 187

consists not in any miraculous circumstances con-
nected with the birth of the child, but in that which
is to happen before the child comes to years of
discretion. Some mother known to Ahaz and the
prophet, but of whom we know nothing, who was
goon to give birth to a child, or possibly any woman
who was about to become a mother, is told that she
may call her son Immanuel. She may with con-
fidence give him a name significant of the Presence
‘of God with His people. That Presence will be
manifested in deliverance and in judgement. It
will be manifested by the fulfilment of the prophet’s
declaration, that from Rezin and Pekah Ahaz has
nothing to fear. For before the child comes to years
of discretion, the land whose two kings Ahaz now
dreads shall be desolate. But there is another side
to the sign. The child must feed on curds and honey.
This does not mean the usual food of childhood, or
a luxurious diet. It implies that the land will be
uncultivated, and relapse into a rough pasture,
furnishing milk and wild honey, and nothing more.
Judgement will fall wpon Judah, and that from the

1 The Hebrew word rendered virgin in the A.V. would be more
accurately rendered damsel. It means a young woman of marriage-
able age, and is not the word which would be naturally used for
virgin, if that was,the point which it was desired to emphasise.
The definite article (the damsel) may refer to a particular young
woman, or it may be generic, and refer to any young woman who
was about to become a mother.

? Cp. vii. 21-25, which confirms this explanation of the meaning
of eating curds and honey, as a threat and not a promise.
188 MESSIANIC PROPHECIES OF ISAIAH LECT.

very quarter to which Ahaz was now looking for
help, the King of Assyria (v. 17).

In virtue of his significant name, a representative
character attaches to Immanuel. He is the pledge
for his generation of the truth expressed in his name,
as Isaiah’s children by their names were living ex-
ponents of other truths which he proclaimed.
Accordingly when Isaiah foretells that the flood of
Assyrian invasion, pouring over Syria and Ephraim,
will sweep onward into Judah, he calls Judah Im-
manuel’s land, the home of him whose name is a
constant reminder of the presence of God and a
pledge of deliverance (viii. 8). The significance of
this is plain from what follows. The nations may
make an uproar, but they shall be broken in pieces;
they may take counsel, but it shall be brought to
nought; for Zinman El, ‘God is with us,’

If this view is correct, the sign given to Ahaz is
not a direct prophecy of the Messiah and of the
miraculous manner of His birth, any more than the
second Psalm is a direct prophecy of the Resurrection,
or Hosea xi. 1 a direct prophecy of the Flight into
Egypt.!| But as the words which in the Psalm re-
ferred primarily to the adoptive sonship of the
king are applied in the New Testament to the eternal
sonship of Christ, so the name given as the pledge of

1 St. Matthew introduces the quotation of Hos. xi. 1 with the
game words as that of Isa. vii. 14: that it might be fulfilled which
was spoken by the Lord through the prophet.
VI MESSIANIC PROPHECIES OF ISAIAH 189

the presence of God with His people becomes the
name of Him who was the mediator of that presence.
The words describing His birth receive a profound
depth of meaning, which they admit, though they do
not necessarily convey it. The name itself becomes
the expression of the mysterious fact of the Incarna-
tion. Jesus is the true Immanuel, and in Him the
prophet’s utterance is fulfilled.

The house of David was represented by a faithless
and apostate prince in Ahaz. Its enemies were
plotting its destruction. It must have seemed hope-
less to look for deliverance from such a quarter.
But with the fearless courage of inspiration Isaiah
proclaims that it is still God’s purpose to establish
His kingdom of peace and righteousness by the
means of a scion of the house of David. He sees
the dawn breaking over that part of Israel which had
suffered most from the Assyrian invasion.’ He sees
the power of Israel’s oppressor broken as in the
day when Gideon with his handful of warriors broke
the power of Midian. He sees the instruments of
war piled together on the battlefield, and burnt.
And how has this been brought to pass? Because
unto us a child is born, unto us a son ts given, and the
principality rests wpon his shoulder, and his name ts

1 In quite an unexpected way the prophecy which seems to pre-
dict only a temporal restoration receives a spiritual fulfilment
(Matt. iv. 13 ff.). Despised Galilee becomes the scene of Christ’s

ministry. That which suffered most is most honoured : that which
was most despised is selected for special privilege.

Ch. ix. 1-7
Chai. 1g |

190 MESSIANIC PROPHECIES OF ISAIAH LECT.

called Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Eternal
Father, Prince of Peace. Of the inerease of his princi-
pality and of peace there shall be no end, upon the throne
of David, and upon his kingdom, to establish at, and to
uphold it, with judgement and with righteousness from
henceforth even for ever (ix. 6, 7).

The fourfold name of this prince declares his mar-
vellous nature, and proclaims him to be, in an extra-
ordinary and mysterious way, the representative of
Jehovah. The title Wonderful Counsellor conveys
the idea of hisendowment with supernatural wisdom
in that counsel which was peculiarly the function of
aking! Afiyhty God expresses his divine greatness
and power, us the unique representative of Jehovah,
who is Himself the mighty God (x. 21)? Eternal
Father describes his paternal tenderness and unend-
ing care for his people. Prince of Peace denotes the
character and the end of his government. His
advent is still future but it is assured. The zcal of
Jehovah of hosts will perform thes.

In another prophecy the character of this king
and his rule is described. The Assyrian has fallen.
The mighty forest of Lebanon has been hewn down
(x.55 f.). But out of the stock of Jesse shall come forth
a shoot, and a branch out of his roots shall bear fruit.

1 Cp. xxviii. 29; Mic. iv. 9.
” “Tn such passages the Old Testament revelation falls into a
self-contradiction, from which only a miracle has heen able to de-

liver us, the Incarnation of the Son of God” (Orelli, Old Testament
Prophecy, \» 274).
VI MESSIANIC PROPHECIES OF ISAIAH 191

The spirit of Jehovah in all its manifold fulness will
rest upon him to fit him for his office, which he will
exercise with perfect righteousness and equity. The
peace of Paradise will be restored innature. They
shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain; for
the earth shall be full of the knowledye of Jehovah, as the
waters cover the sea (xi. 1-9).

i He will be the signal for that gathering of the
nations to Zion which had already been foretold.
Israel’s exiles will be brought home from the lands
whither they have been scattered. Ephraim and
Judah will live in perfect harmony. The return
will be like a second Exodus; and the prophet con-
cludes by putting into the mouth of the restored
people a song like that which Israel sang upon the
shore of the Red Sea (ch. xii.).

Thus when the kingdom was in the lowest depth
of degradation, Isaiah foretold the Advent of the ideal
King of David’s line, the pledge and mediator of God’s
presence among His people, to effect the destruction
of their foes, and establish a kingdom of peace and
righteousness, the rallying point for all the nations of
the earth.

Another series of prophecies relates to Zion as the
seat of God’s kingdom. In the days when Zion was
threatened with destruction, Isaiah asserts its perma-
nence. Worldly-minded politicians were intriguing
for an alliance with Egypt, a policy at once faithless
and fatal. In contrast to that policy is the tried stone,

he in-
violability
of Zion.
192 MESSIANIC PROPHECIES OF ISAIAH LECT.

the precious corner-stone of swre foundation which Je-
hovah has laid in Zion. The language is a metaphor
from the solid and costly foundations of the Temple.
What is that stone of sure foundation ? Not the city,
nor the Temple, nor the house of David, but the divine
plan of which that house is the outward expression.
Jehovah has laid the foundation of His kingdom in
Zion; but the building upon it must be reared with
the line of judgement and the plummet of righteous-
ness. Faith is the condition of tranquil security
(xxviii. 16 f.).

This prophecy is re-echoed in Ps. cxviiil. 22: The
stone which the builders rejected is become the head of
the corner. It is fulfilled in Christ, as the personal
embodiment of the divine purpose, the foundation of
God's kingdom in the Church.

The necessity and the certainty of judgement on
the one hand, and the inviolability of Zion on the
other, form the groundwork of the prophecies of this
period (xxix. 3 ff). And beyond the judgement, as
we have seen, conversion, reformation, pardon, the
transformation of nature for God’s purified people,
open up a vista of wondrous possibilities. The rule of
the perfect king is responded to by the nobility of a
regenerate and instructed people (xxxii. 1 ff.); but
only through judgement will the end be reached, when
the work of righteousness shall be peace, and the effect of
righteousness quictness and confidence for ever.

See Rom. ix. 33; 1 Pet. ii, 6 ff. Cp. Matt. xxi. 42; Acts iv. 11.
VI MESSIANIC PROPHECIES OF ISAIAH 193

In the first series of prophecies is presented the
promise of the personal Messiah, the ideal King. In
the second series the permanence of that kingdom
is assured, which is God’s means for realising His
purpose upon earth.

Thus we are brought to the series of prophecies
relating to the nations. The oracles upon the nations
are for the most part threatenings of judgement.
Yet the purpose, generally set forth in ch. ii. 2 ff and
ch, xi. 10, shines through in several passages. Moab
is exhorted to seek the protection of the true king
who is to sit on David’s throne, but Moab’s pride is a
fatal hindrance (xvi. 1 ff.). "When they see the judge-
ment fall upon the Assyrians, Isaiah anticipates the
homage of the Ethiopians to Jehovah. At that time
shall a present be brought unto Jehovah of hosts of a
people tall and smooth, and from a people terrible from
their beginning onward ... to the place of the name
of Jehovah of hosts, the mount Zion (xviii. 7).

But prophecy reaches its climax when Isaiah looks
forward to the reconciliation of those bitter foes,
Egypt and Assyria, with Israel and with one another.
Israel, the victim of both, becomes the bond which
unites them. Jehovah shall make Himself known to
Lgypt, and the Egyptians shall know Jehovah wn that
day. . . . In that day shall there be a highway
out of Egypt to Assyria, and the Assyrian shall come
into Egypt, and the Egyptian into Assyria ; and the
Egyptians shall worship with the Assyrians. In that

0

The nations.
194 FULFILMENT OF ISAIAH’S PROPHECIES LECT.

dey shall Egypt be the third with Egypt and with
Assyria, a blessing in the midst of the earth: for thal
Jehovah of hosts hath blessed them, suying, Blessed be
Eyypt My people, and Assyria the work of My hands,
and Israel Mine inheritance (xix, 21, 23 ff.).

These nations represent the nations of the world ;
their reconciliation signifies the eventual incorpora-
tion of even its most deadly eneiies in the kingdom
of God. The prediction can never be literally realised
for these nations, because they have ceased to exist ;
but it will yet be reulised in that great peace of the
world, which is the hope of all the nations of
mankind.

ae Isaiah’s prophecies received a partial fulfilment
prophecies. in his own lifetime. The deliverance of Jerusalem
from Sennacherib attested his divine commission.
It shewed that the Holy One of Israel was in the
midst of His people. They had not waited for Him
in vain. But Isaiah seems to have looked forward
to that great deliverance as the dividing line between
the present and the future, as the crisis which would
usher in the after-days for which he looked. He
seems to have anticipated the Advent of the perfect
King and the regeneration of the people within a
measurable distance, if not in his own lifetime. The
divine purposes were revealed to him, but the time
and the manner of the accomplishment of those pur-
poses were not revealed to him. He saw them from

’ Briggs, Messianic Prophecy, p. 208.
VI FULFILMENT OF ISAIAH’S PROPHECIES 195

afar, yet they seemed to be close at hand, like the
distant peak which the Alpine traveller sees towering
majestically into the sky, apparently close beyond the
grassy slope upon which he stands. Nor need we be
surprised that it was so. If the closest followers of
the Lord, at the critical moment when He was about
to leave them, were warned that it was not for them
to know times or seasons (Acts i. 7), is it strange that
such knowledge was withheld from the Old Testament
seers? They sought and searched diligently .. what
time or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which
was in them did point unto; and it was revealed unto
them, sometimes by the course of events interpreted
by that Spirit, sometimes doubtless by the direct
teaching of that Spirit, that their prophecies were
not for themselves but for a future generation
(1 Pet. i. 10 ff).

All prophecy is conditional, and the realisation
of the promises with which Isaiah was charged de-
pended upon the attitude of the people. But not
even the mighty deliverance which they experienced
could awaken them to repentance and faith. The
result was inevitable. The depth of Judah’s fall was
proportionate to the height of grace to which it had
been raised. Within a very few years after Senna-
cherib’s retreat Hezekiah was succeeded by Manasseh,
the infamous crimes of whose long reign sealed the
doom of the kingdom of Judah (2 Kings xxiv. 3 f.;
Jer. xv. 4).
196 STRUCTURE OF THE BOOK OF ISAIAH LECT,

Yet if the fulfilment of Isaiah’s prophecies did
not come in the form or at the time which he antici-
pated, they have not been frustrated. The teaching
of the Gospel has gone forth from Zion; the Incarnate
Word of the Lord from Jerusalem. To Zion the
nations turn as the centre and source of their highest
hopes. Unto us a child is born. The shoot has
come forth from the stock of Jesse, wpon whom the
Spirit of the Lord rests. While the kingdoms of
this world have their day and perish, the kingdom
of God endures. Slowly the purpose of the ages is
being fulfilled, till in the end He will manifest
Himself as the Eternal King, supremely exalted,
supremely holy.

Nore A.
STRUCTURE OF THE Book or IsaraH.

The Book of Isaiah falls into two main divisions. In the
first of these, chaps. i.-xxxix., Assyria is the great enemy of
Israel: in the second, chaps. xl—Ixvi., it is Babylon. It is
with the first of these divisions only that we are now con-
cerned. All that can be offered here is a general sketch,
which does not attempt to deal with minutiae or to solve
many difficult problems.

Chaps. i—xxxix. include four distinct books, some at least
of which show evident traces of composite origin. They are
as follows :—

A,—Chaps. i—xii. This book has a Prologue (ch. i.), and
an Epilogue (ch. xii.), and is divided by the account of Isaiah’s
call in ch. vi.
vI STRUCTURE OF THE BOOK OF ISAIAH 197

(1) Ch. i. forms a general introduction, setting forth
Jehovah’s care for His people and their ingratitude to Him.
It cannot be earlier than the time of Ahaz, for the land has
suffered severely from invasion (vv. 7 ff.), and may be as late
as the invasion of Sennacherib ; but on the whole may be
best regarded as a call to repentance at the end of the Syro-
Ephraimite war.

(2) Chaps. ii.—y. consist of a continuous discourse (ii. 5-
iv. 6), prefaced by a quotation from Micah or some older
prophet (ii. 2-4), and followed by the parable of the vine-
yard, with the series of woes appended to it. Reproof of the
sins of Judah and warning of the imminent judgement form
the main subject of this division.

It must belong in the main to the time of Jotham, for
Judah’s prosperity and pride are still unbroken. But one
or two allusions make it probable that the discourses were
not committed to writing till after the accession of Ahaz
(iii. 4, 12) ; and the conclusion refers to the Syro-Ephraimite
invasion, and the yet worse danger of an Assyrian invasion
looming in the distance (v. 25-30),

(8) Ch. vi. Isaiah’s call.

(4) Chaps. vii—x. 5 belong to the reign of Ahaz. Ch.
vii. refers to the time when Ahaz was threatened with in-
vasion by Pekah and Rezin (x.c. 734). Ch. viii-ix. 7 is a
little later, after the devastation of Northern Israel (ix. 1), but
before the fall of Damascus in B.c. 732 (viii. 4).

Chaps. ix. 8-x. 5 are addressed to the Northern Kingdom,
when it was beginning to recover from the disasters of the
Assyrian invasion (vv. 9,10). Vv. 18 ff. may refer to the
conspiracy of Hoshea against Pekah. It is therefore in its
proper chronological order here; and the description of the
miserable reality of the present follows naturally upon the
picture of the glorious future (ix. 1-7), by the law of contrast
so often traceable in prophecy.
198 STRUCTURE OF THE BOOK OF ISAIAH LECT,

(5) Chaps. x. 5,-xii. open with the prediction that Assyria,
though employed by Jehovah as His instrument, will be
punished for its pride. Assyria’s power will be destroyed,
and a kingdom of righteousness established in Zion under
the perfect King of David’s line. The scattered Israelites
will be restored ; and the thanksgiving song of the redeemed
forms a fitting epilogue to the book.?

Several links seem to connect this section with the
prophecies of the time of Ahaz. Ch. xi. 1 ff. is the sequel
of ix. 1 ff. ; x. 20 describes the policy of Ahaz; x. 21 refers
to vii. 3, and xi. 13 to ix. 21; as. 12, 21 ff. speak of severe
judgements as still impending. But x. 9 ff. appear to refer
to Sargon’s conquest of Samaria in B.c. 722, Arpad in 720,
Carchemish_ in 717.2 The captivity of the Northern
Kingdom has taken place (xi. 11 ff.). Hence in its present
form this section cannot be earlier than the middle of
Hezekiah’s reign, and may be later. But the appropriate-
ness of its position is obvious. The affirmation of the
transitoriness of the Assyrian power and the permanence of
the divine kingdom is needed as a counterpoise to the pre-
diction that Assyria will be the scourge of Judah (vii. 17 ff.).

This collection of prophecies (i.—xii.) was probably circu-
lated separately, as forming a symmetrical whole of con-
venient size.

B.—Chaps. xiii—xxvii.—A series of prophecies concerning
the nations (except ch. xxii.).

1 The Isaianic authorship of xi. 10-xii. 6 is denied by Cheyne
and others. But so far as xi. 10-16 is concerned, the political
horizon is that of Isaiah’s time (vv. 11, 16); v. 13 alludes to ix.
21; and the references to the Exodus are quite in Isaiah’s manner
(x. 26; ep. iv. 5; xxxi. 5). Then ch. xii. is intimately connected
with it. The parallel between the song of the redeemed and Exod,
xv. is unmistakable, so that it forms the natural sequel to xi. 15,
16. If it is not Isaiah’s, it isa very remarkable lyrical compendium
of his teaching.

2 Schrader, Cuneiform Inscriptions, p. 885.
VI STRUCTURE OF THE BOOK OF ISAIAH 199

Some dates are given or can be fixed with tolerable
certainty. Ch. xvii. 1-11 appears to be before the Syro-
Ephraimite invasion ; ch. xiv. 28 ff, is dated in the death-
year of Ahaz;1 ch. xx. belongs to B.c. 711; chaps. xviii. and
xxii. probably belong to the time of Sennacherib’s invasion ;
ch, xix may be somewhat later.

The collection contains some non-Isaianic prophecies.
Chaps. xv., xvi. appear to be an older prophecy, reaffirmed
with a supplement by Isaiah (xvi. 13 f). Chaps. xiii, 1-
xiv. 23 are ascribed to a prophet of the Exile on the ground
that the historical situation is not that of Isaiah’s time.
Babylon not Assyria is the mistress of the world, and the
oppressor of Israel. Babylon is soon (xiii. 22) to be de-
stroyed, and Israel restored to its own land (xiv. 1 ff.). The
great apocalypse of judgement and redemption which con-
cludes the series (xxiv.—xxvii.) is also thought to bear marks
of a later age ; and it seems not improbable that this book of
prophecies concerning the nations was not completed until
after the return from the Exile, when the concluding chapters
were written by a disciple of Isaiah, deeply penetrated with
his spirit, as a finale to the collection. See further in
Lecture XVI.

C.—Chaps. xxviiii-xxxv.—Chaps. xxvili-xxxiii, contain
a series of prophecies dealing with the relations of Judah
to Assyria, and in particular with the scheme for throwing
off the Assyrian yoke by an Egyptian alliance. Ch. xxvii.

1 The oracle refers not to the death of Ahaz, but to that of
Tiglath-Pileser, which happened about the same time (B.c. 727).
Philistia had suffered from Tiglath-Pileser, who captured Gath, and
the Philistines would naturally be triumphant at his death. But
his successors would prove even worse enemies. In point of fact,
Sargon defeated Hanun king of Gaza at Raphia in 720, and
captured Ashdod in 711, while Sennacherib took a tremendous
vengeance on Ashkelon and Ekron in 701. See Schrader, Cunei-
form Inscriptions, pp. 168, 256.
200 ISAIAH LECT, ‘Vi

opens before, but not long before, the fall of Samaria. Ch.
xxxiii, as plainly refers to Sennacherib’s invasion in 701.
The date of chaps. xxix.-xxxi. is disputed, but the view that
they belong to the early years of Hezekiah gives by far the
most intelligible explanation of their contents (p. 162 ff),
Chaps. xxviiii—xxxi.;may have been republished with the
addition of ch, xxxii., the connexion of which is loose, and
ch. xxxiii., when events had proved the wisdom of the policy
they advocate and verified the prophecies they contain.

Chaps. xxxiv., xxxv. appear to be a supplement to this
collection, added towards the close of the Exile, predicting
the judgement of the nations and the restoration of Israel.
They stand to this section in a relation analogous to that of
chaps. xxiv.—xxvii, to the preceding section.

D.—Chaps. xxxvi.—xxxix.—A historical section, found also
in 2 Kings xviii, 13-xx. 19, with some variations. 2 Kings
xviii. 14-16 is not in Isaiah, and Isa. xxxviii. 9-20 is not in
Kings. It can hardly in its present form be the work of
Isaiah, for it brings the history down to Bc. 681 (xxxvil.
38); and the text is in a disturbed condition, e.g. vv. 21, 22
of ch, xxxviii. are out of place. But it is a question whether
it may not have been derived, mediately or immediately,
from the chronicle of Hezekiah’s reign which Isaiah wrote
(2 Chron. xxxii. 32), It is appended here, as Jer. li.
(=2 Kings xxiv. 18 ff. xxv.) is appended to the Book of
Jeremiah.

Divisions A, B, C were probably in circulation as separate
books before they were combined, supplemented by D, and
finally united in the same great volume with the Book of
Consolation (x].-1xv1).
LECTURE VII

MICAH

He hath shewed thee, Oman, what is good; and what doth
Jehovah require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and
to walk humbly with thy God.—Micau vi. 8.

I

CONTEMPORANEOUSLY with Isaiah of Jerusalem
flourished Micah the Morashtite. The two prophets
present a remarkable contrast in their origin, their
training, their sphere of work. They are a striking
example of the variety of the instruments which God
chooses for communicating His message and accom-
plishing His purposes. Yet, remarkable as are the
differences between them, their unity of aim and
teaching is no less remarkable. It bears witness to
the identity of the source from which their imspira-
tion is derived.

Isaiah, if not actually connected, as some have
thought, with the royal family, evidently belonged
to the upper classes. He was the counsellor and
friend of kings, intimate with priests and nobles,

Contrast
between
Micah and
Isaiah,
202 CONTRAST BETWEEN MICAH AND ISATAH cect.

well acquainted with the various parties of statesmen
in Judah. He was a native of Jerusalem; his home
was in the city; he was in close touch with the
national life which centered there.

Micah was a simple countryman, born of obscure
parentage, in an otherwise unknown village. His
father’s name is not mentioned. He is only dis-
tinguished as the Morashtite, or native of Moresheth,
probably the same as Moresheth-gath (i. 14), a
village in the lowlands of Judah,! some twenty
miles south-west of Jerusalem. Jerome tells us that
in his day it still existed as an insignificant village
near Eleutheropolis. Micah, as his prophecy shews,
was in closest touch and sympathy with the class of
yeomen whose wrongs he so graphically describes
(i. 1 ff), and to which, in all probability, like Amos,
he belonged. His love for his country home and its
surroundings is strikingly indicated in his description
of the impending judgement (1. 10 ff). He watches
the enemy sweeping through the lowland, and seiz-
ing one village after another. Each familiar name
seems to contain an omen of destruction, or a call to
mourning, or a cruel irony of contrast.

To the countryman the sins of the nation seemed
to he concentrated in its capitals G. 5: ep. vi. 9).

1 The Shephélah, ov ‘lowland’ of Judah, was the region of low
hills hetween the maritime plain of Vhilistia and the central high-
lands of Judah. It was the debatable ground between Israel and

the Philistines. Vor a graphic description of the district see G, A.
Smith in The ELepositor, March 1892, p, 189 ff,
vir CONTRAST BETWEEN MICAH AND ISAIAH — 203

Samaria and Jerusalem are marked out for inevit-
able destruction. Micah was no politician like Isaiah.
He nowhere alludes to the appeal to Assyria for
help which Isaiah stigmatised as the climax of
worldly faithlessness ; or to the intrigues for alliance
with Egypt, which he opposed as equally faithless
and futile. He does not condemn that blind confi-
dence in material forces which to Isaiah was one
of the most significant indications of the national
spirit, except incidentally and by implication, when
he classes horses and chariots and fortresses along
with witcherafts and images and pillars-and Asherim
as things of which the land will be rid in the
Messianic age (v. 10 ff). He does not, like Isaiah,
stand on his prophetic watch-tower and survey the
nations araund, and assign to each its destiny,
though he sees them sharing in the judgement and
salvation of the future. His message is to Israel and
Judah, and indeed in the main to his own country.
It deals not with matters of state policy and foreign
alliance, but with the not less vital questions of
social morality and religious duty; questions which
Isaiah by no means ignored, but which Micah treats
with an energy and vividness peculiarly his own;
and while he predicts the inevitableness of judge-
ment for the guilty nation, he predicts the certainty
of its restoration to fulfil the divine purpose, with
an unhesitating confidence which bears witness to
a mind penetrated by a constant conviction of the
204 MICAH’S SHARE IN LEer.

faithfulness of Jehovah to His covenant and His
promises.

With all the difference between them in origin,
in education, in environment, in point of view and
range of survey, Micah and Isaiah are in fundamental
agreement in their admonitions and instructions for
the present, and in their hopes for the future. Yet
in this fundamental agreement the simple country-
man is charged with a distinctive message, and alike
in his representation of the character and require-
ments of God, and in his predictions of the future
development of the kingdom of God, he supplements
his unrivalled contemporary.

Il
Haein From a notice of unique interest in the Book of
rejorma-
tion. Jeremiah (xxvi. 17 ff.) we learn that Hezekiah’s

reformation was due to the preaching of Micah, In
the beginning of Jehoiakim’s reign Jeremiah prophe-
sied in the most public place and manner that unless
the people repented, Temple and city would be de-
stroyed. He was put on trial for his life; and in
his defence certain elders of the land recalled before
all the assembly of the people the precedent of Micah,
and quoted the words of his prophecy against Jeru-
salem. Micuh the Morashtite was prophesying in the
days of Hezekiah king of Judah ; and he spake to all the
people of Judah, saying, Thus saith Jehovah of hosts,
VII HEZEKIAH’S REFORMATION 205

Zion shall be ploughed as a field, and Jerusalem shall
become heaps of ruin, and the mountain of the house as
the high places of the forest. Did Hezxwlhiah king of
Judah and all Judah put him at all to death? Did he
not fear Jehovah, and intreat the favour of Jehovah,
and Jehovah repented Him of the evil which He had
spoken against them? Whereas we are committing grew
evil against our own souls.

Micah’s procedure was probably similar to that of
Jeremiah. We may imagine him appearing in the
Temple courts upon some public occasion of fast or
festival, when the people from every part of Judah
were assembled at Jerusalem, and there, in the pres-
ence of king, priests, and people, delivering his
message. We can picture the amazement succeeded
by fury with which venal judges and corrupt priests
and hireling prophets listened to the words of one
whom no doubt they branded as a fanatic enthusiast.
Ls not Jehovah in the midst of us? no evil shall come
upon us, was the comfortable doctrine which they
approved, appropriating the assurance of Isaiah’s
great watchword ZJmmanuel, while they ignored the
warnings which he connected with it. But better
counsels prevailed. The threat indeed was absolute
and unconditional; but God’s threatenings, like His
promises, are conditional; they may be withdrawn
or suspended; and upon the repentance of Hezekiah
and the people the threatened punishment was
averted. Through the critical period of the Assyrian
Length of
Micah's
ministry.

206 LENGTH OF MICAH’S MINISTRY LECT.

invasions, when the destruction of Jerusalem seemed
imminent, Isaiah could boldly proclaim that Jehovah’s
chosen city was inviolable. But Micah’s prediction
remained on record. Its fulfilment was only de-
ferred.

The reformation of Hezekiah was the culminat-
ing point of Micah’s ministry. But there is no
reason for supposing that his ministry was limited
to that occasion. The title of his book assigns the
reigns of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah as the period
of his activity, nor is there any sufticient ground
for doubting its accuracy. The social evils which he
condemns closely resemble those which Isaiah con-
demns in prophecies unquestionably delivered in the
reign of Jotham, even if they were not committed to
writing until after the accession of Ahaz (p. 153 ff.).
These evils doubtless lasted on into the time of
Ahaz, and were in some respects aggravated by the
weak government of that prince, by the calamities of
war, and by the burdensome taxation necessary in
order to raise the Assyrian tribute. To this period
may with much probability be assigned chaps. vi.
and vii, Ahaz abandoned the worship of Jehovah,
and Jehovah’s expostulation with His people implies
that they were deserting Him (vi. 1 ff). Ahaz set
the example of human sacrifice, by causing his son
to pass through the fire (2 Kings xvi. 3); and the
words which are put into the mouth of the people
imply that the sacrifice of a firstborn son was regarded
vu LENGTH OF MICAH’S MINISTRY 207

at the time as the highest form of religious devotion
(vi. 7). Ahaz walked in the way of the kings of Israel
(2 Kings xvi. 3), and the indictment against Judah
culminates in the charge that the statutes of Omrt are
kept, and all the works of the house of Ahab, and ye walk
in their cownsels (vi. 16). The reign of Ahaz, as may
be gathered from the hints in the Book of Isaiah,
was precisely such a time of anarchy and distress
and dissolution of the bonds of society and of family
ties as that which is described in ch. vii

But if the Book of Micah is the record of a pro-
longed ministry, what relation does it bear to his
prophecy before Hezekiah? The analogy of Jere-
miah’s method of procedure is suggestive. Just as
Jeremiah, by divine command, gathered up the sub-
stance of more than twenty years of oral teaching,
and launched it, as a last desperate effort, against
the unrepentant people of his day, so Micah, but with
happier results, may have gathered up the substance
of many years of work, in his harangues to Hezekiah
and the people of Judah. The substance of his pro-
phecy upon that occasion is probably preserved to us
in chaps. i.-v., interspersed with those promises of a
happier future, which can hardly have formed part
of his public call to repentance, yet doubtless had
been spoken, or were afterwards spoken, in private,

1 With ch. vii. 2 cp. Isa. i. 15 6, 21; with vii. 3 cp. Isa. i, 23;
with vii. 4 cp. Isa x. 3; with vii. 5, 6 ep. Isa. iii. 5.
Tis imessage
of yudge-
ment.

208 MICAH’S MESSAGE OF JUDGEMENT LECT.

for the consolation of the faithful disciples who
gathered round hii.

Il

Micah’s message is primarily a message of judge-
ment. Jehovah cometh forth out of His place amid awful
convulsions of nature, which express the terror of His
advent. Itis the transgression of Jacob and the sins
of the house of Israel which have called Him forth.
Samaria and Jerusalem are as it were the impersona-
tion of the nation’s guilt. On them the punishment
must fall. Samaria must be utterly destroyed. With
wild shrieks and piteous lamentations he bewails its
fall. But the calamity does not stop there. It
sweeps onward to the very gate of Jerusalem. Zell
it not in Gath, he exclaims, quoting the ancient pro-
verb, weep notin Acco! Let not our enemies hear of
it lest they mock us; shew no signs of grief before
them lest they insult us in our misfortune. He
watches the invading army sweeping along the Low-
land; and the familiar names of the villages in the
neighbourhood of his home each yield an omen of
calamity. At Beth-le-aphrah, the house of dust, he
must wallow in the dust as a mourner. Shaphir, the

‘ 1 This almost certain emendation (supported by the LXX.) re-
stores the parallelism. Acco was a town from which the Canaan-
ites were not driven out (Judg. i. 31), and it is chosen along with
Gath, as a representative of places which would rejoice at Israel's
disaster, for the sake of the paronomasia which the name affords
with the word for weep.
VII MICAH’S MESSAGE OF JUDGEMENT 209

fair, 1s a name of bitter irony for a village whose in-
habitants must pass away into captivity in naked-
ness and shame. Zaanan and Beth-ezel belie their
names when they do not sally out to repel the foe or
help their neighbours. Maroth is doomed to verify
its name by the dztterness of disappointed hopes.
Lachish will have sore need of the swift steeds
(rechesh) which its name resembles. Moresheth-gath
suggests the idea of a daughter whose mother must
give her up with parting presents to a husband.
Achzib proves but “a summer-dried fountain”
(achzab) to those who rely upon it. Mareshah
(possession) must expect a new possessor. Israel’s
nobles will flee for refuge, like David, to the caves
of Adullam. Judah must mourn for the children in
whom she delighted, for they are carried away into
captivity.

The prediction of impending judgement is followed
by an exposition of its causes. It takes the form of
a stern denunciation of the offenders whose sins call
for this judgement. It is offences against the funda-
mental laws of social morality, breaches of the
elementary principles of justice and mercy, which
chiefly provoke Jehovah’s wrath. The idolatries of
Samaria and Jerusalem’ are not condoned (i. 5, 7).
A prominent feature in the Messianic age to which

1 It is probable that in i. 5 we should follow the LXX., Syr.,
and Targ. in reading (as the parallelism seems to require), what is
the sin of Judah? for what are the high places of Judah? But the
idolatries of Judah are clearly condemned by implication in v. 10 ff.

P

The causes
of the judge-
ment,
Principally
social sins.

210 SOCIAL EVILS OF MICAH’S DAY LECT,

he looks forward will be the abolition of witchcraft
and soothsaying, the destruction of graven images
and pillars and Ashérim out of the land (v. 10 ff).
But these are not the sins upon which Micah dwells
in detail. It is the social sins of his time which he
attacks with the passionate emphasis of one who has
seen, if not felt, the scourge of the crimes he de-
nounces, and with the lofty authority of one who is
full of power by the spirit of Jehovah, and of judgement,
and of might, to declare unto Jacob his transgression
and to Israel his sin (iii. 8). For these he sees no
remedy but judgement, swift and sharp.

Foremost among these evils was the formation
of great estates by the wealthy nobles. Isaiah
had in general terms pronounced Woe to them that
join house to house, that annex field to field, till
there be no room, and ye be left to dwell alone in the
midst of the land (v. 8). But Micah shews us the
process in actual operation. We feel that it is no
fancy picture, but a description of what he had seen
going on in his own neighbourhood. Woe to them
that devise iniquity and work evil upon their beds !
when the morning is light, they practise it, because it is
in the power of their hand. And they covet fields, and
seize them; and houses, and take them away: and
they oppress a man and his house, even a man and his
heritage (ii. 1, 2). Wesee the unscrupulous magnate
scheming how he may get the poor but honest owner
of a few acres into his power, and dispossess him from
VII SOCIAL EVILS OF MICAH’S DAY 211

his ancestral land and home. Naboth’s vineyard was
no doubt a typical case. The judges were quite
ready to do a friendly turn for a powerful neighbour.
They set both hands to evil to do tt thoroughly. The
prince asketh, and the judge giveth judgement for a
reward; and the great man, he uttereth the mischief of
his soul, and they weave it together (vii. 3). Little do
they care about the consequences of their heartless
evictions. What does it matter to them if the women
of. Jehovah’s people are cast out from their pleasant
homes, or young children deprived of their birthright
in the land of promise, and left to wander forlorn in
heathen countries (ii. 9) ?

Exacting creditors did the like on a smaller scale.
Look at yonder man tearing the cloak from the
shoulders of a fellow villager in pledge for some debt,
as ruthlessly as a marauding enemy might do in time
of war (ii. 8).

The governors and the judges who ought to have
been the shepherds of Jehovah’s tock, fleeced and
devoured the sheep which they were set to guard.
They pluch off their skin from off them, and their flesh
Srom off their bones ; they eat the flesh of My people ;

1 It is certain that the Massoretic text of this verse is corrupt.
My people must mean, as in ii. 9 and iii. 3, the oppressed poor.
The ingenious corrections of Roorda and Robertson Smith (Prophets,
p. 427) must be adopted, which, however, I venture to translate
somewhat differently thus. But ye are become an enemy unto My

people: aman riseth up against him that is at peace with him (ep.

Psa. vii. 4): ye strip off the cloak from them that pass by securely
averse from war.
212 SOCIAL EVILS OF MICAH’S DAY LECT.

and they flay their skin from off them, and break their
bones ; yea, they chop them in pieces, as for the pot, and
as flesh within the ealdron (iii. 2, 3).

The people were crushed by oppressive taxation
as well as by private extortions. They were doubt-
less often forced to borrow money to pay the taxes,
and when unable to pay the interest, lost their lands
by foreclosure. Uzziah and Jotham were great
builders; Ahaz had to pay a heavy tribute to Assyria,
besides repairing his losses by war. As Micah gazed
upon the modern improvements in Jerusalem, the
strong fortifications and the stately palaces upon
which no doubt the nobles congratulated themselves,
it seemed to him as though they were constructed of
the lives of men, and cemented with human blood.
They build up Zion with blood, and JTerusalem with
iniquity (ii. 10).

In the darkest period of the prophet’s ministry an
appalling state of social corruption prevailed. It was
not merely that the strong oppressed the weak.
Every man’s hand was against his neighbour. The
dictates of natural piety were ignored. The most
sacred relations of life were violated. No one could
be trusted. 7rust ye not in u friend, put ye not con-
fidence in a faniliar friend: keep the doors of thy
mouth from her that licth in thy bosom. For the son
dishonoureth the father, the daughter riscth up against
her mother, the danyhter in law against her mother in

1 Cp. Neh. v. 4, 5.
VIL SOCIAL EVILS OF MICAH’S DAY 213

law ; a man’s enemies are the men of his own house
(vii. 5, 6).

Upon this guilty nation judgement must fall. rie judge:
Those who had forcibly dispossessed others must oa
themselves in turn be dispossessed by force. Those
who had banished their fellow-countrymen from
their rightful inheritance must see their ill-gotten
estates partitioned by the conqueror. The splendid
buildings of Jerusalem, which to the prophet’s eye
were sO many monuments of oppression, must be
levelled to the ground. The Temple in which they
trusted must become an overgrown ruin. The people
must be scattered as exiles in a foreign land. The
land which had been promised them as a rest and an
inheritance could be no resting-place to those who so
misused it. They must be driven out, even as the
Canaanites were driven out before them, because they
have polluted the land, till it can bear them no
longer.’ Up and begone! for this ts not your rest :
because af uncleanness shall ye be destroyed; even with
grievous destruction (ii. 10).

IV

But beyond this time of distress, dispersion, and Prophecies

of restora-

humiliation, dawns the sure hope of restoration, re- tion.
union, and glorification. Israel must be scattered ;
’ With ii. 10 cp. Deut. xii. 9, etc.; Lev. xviii. 25.

? So the LXX. The variation may be one of points only ; lit.
shalt thow be destroyed.
214 MICAH’S PROPHECIES OF RESTORATION — uecr.

but Jehovah will once more gather His flock; and
though, as Isaiah had prophesied, it is only a remnant
that will return, it will represent the whole nation.
Led by their king, they will march forth from the
prison of exile; yea, Jehovah Himself will go before
them as at the Exodus (Exod. xiii. 21). In few but
graphic words the prophet describes that triumphal
progress. Zhe breaker is gone up before them: they
have broken forth and pussed on to the gate, and are
gone out thereat: and their king is passed on before
them, and Jehovah at the head of them (ii. 13).

The ideal of the theocracy will be realised.
Jehovah shall reign over them in mount Zion from
henceforth even for ever (iv.'7). A prince of the house
of David will rule over a reunited Israel as His ap-
pointed representative. He springs from Bethlehem,
the ancient home of David, not from Jerusalem, the
seat of his kingdom; for the kingdom has passed
away, and the family of David has returned to its

1 This passage is certainly not (1) a threat that Israel will be
driven to take refuge in fortresses, and to flee before their enemies ;
nor (2) a specimen of the false prophets’ teaching, for it presup-
poses the disasters which they denied would happen; but (8) a
promise of restoration, which is intended as an answer to those
who complain that Jehovah’s prophet has no message but of judge-
ment (ii. 6, 7), and in which Jehovah’s care for His flock forms a
contrast to the description of the false shepherds which follows in
chap, iii. 1 ff. See Note A, p. 225 ff. Z'he breaker may be used in a
collective sense for the advance guard of the army which clears a
way for the passage of the main body. If it denotes an individual
leader, he is distinguished from the Messianic king. See Driver in
The Expositor, 8rd Ser. vol. v., p. 263 ff.
VII MICAH’S PROPHECIES OF RESTORATION 215

primitive obscurity in one of the most insignificant
villages of Judah. Yet he it is for whom the divine
purpose has been preparing, and to whom the word
of prophecy has been pointing, from ancient times.
He shall be Peace; the pledge and giver of security.
He—such is the limitation of Micah’s language, fore-
shortening the course of events, and speaking in
terms adapted to the nation’s present need—will
gather round him an abundance of able leaders to
repel the Assyrian invader, nay, to carry the war
back into the enemy’s country.)

To the nations which submit Zion will be a
beneficent quickening power, as dew from Jehovah,
as showers upon the grass, that tarrieth not for man,
nor waiteth for the sons of men (v.'7). For Zion will
be the teacher of the nations, and the centre of a
world-wide worship. Hrom Zion shall go forth instruc-
tion, and the word of Jehovah from Jerusalem. Zion’s
God will arbitrate between the nations, and establish
universal peace (iv. 1 ff.).

But to those who resist Zion will be as a lion
among the beasts of the forest. When the nations
gather for one final effort to destroy the city of
God, Zion will be triumphantly victorious. They
know not the thoughts of Jehovah, neither understand
they His counsel: for He hath gathered them as the
sheaves to the threshing floor. Arise and thresh, O
daughter of Zion: for I will make thine horn tron,

1 See Note B, p. 230.
216 MICAH’S PROPHECIES OF RESTORATION © tev.

and I will make thy hoofs brass: and thou shalt beat
in picees many peoples: and thou shalt devote their gain
unto Jehovah, aud their substance unto the Lord of the
whole carth (iv. 12,138). Divine vengeance will be
executed upon the nations which will not hearken.
The kingdom of God will be established in peace and
righteousness.’

Perhaps we do wrong to attempt to range the
prophecies of Micah in an order of succession.
Different visions of the future present themselves
to his mental eye? He does not accurately dis-
tinguish the order in which the events were to occur ;
still less does he indicate the intervals of time which
were to separate them. His prophecies were never
intended to be a chronological chart of the history of
the future.

But the leading ideas of his prophecy are the
regeneration of Israel through judgement; the estab-
lishment of the kingdom of Jehovah under the ideal
king of David’s line ; the evangelisation of the nations
through that kingdom. In the main they are the
same as those of Isaiah. The prophet of the court
and the prophet of the people are in fundamental
agreement. Micah indeed predicts the destruction
of Jerusalem, while Isaiah, except in one isolated

1 The double aspect of Israel to the nations as a blessing and a
terror (v. 7, 8) is parallel to and is illustrated by the fuller pro-
phecies of iv. 1 ff, 11 ff

° Now in iv. 9 denotes a diflerent present from now in iv, 11:
while v. 1 reverts to the time of iv. 9. See Note A, p. 229.
Vil MICAH’S PROPHECIES OF RESTORATION 217

passage (xxxil. 13, 14), predicts its preservation.
The judgement which was ultimately to fall was
averted for the time. Micah also goes further than
Isaiah, in predicting the birth of the Messiah in
Bethlehem. The significance of that prophecy in its
original context, lies, as we have seen, in its suggestion
of the circumstances under which the Messiah was to
be born, rather than in the prediction of the precise
place of His birth; but its literal fulfilment was one
of those signs connected with the birth of Jesus
which were unmistakably significant alike to the
simple and to the learned.

In connexion with the circumstances of their own
time, in part under the forms and limitations of that
time, Micah and Isaiah expressed the sure purpose
of God towards His people and the world. Those
purposes have been accomplished and are still being
accomplished, not with the rigid literalism demanded
by a mechanical theory of prophecy, but with a true
fulfilment, which witnesses to the progress of divine
purpose which is gradually being revealed to the
world.

These predictions of a nobler age to come stood in Tie false

. ‘ prophets.

a close and important relation to Micah’s preaching
to his contemporaries. They were a consolation to
the faithful, and a rebuke to the careless. They
were one of the weapons in his hand in the conflict
which he had to wage with false prophets. For now
for the first time we get a clear view of a popular
218 THE FALSE PROPHETS LECT.

party of false prophets opposed to the true and
faithful messengers of Jehovah. Isaiah refers to
prophets who teach lies, to leaders who are mis-
leaders, to prophets who are swallowed up of wine
and have gone astray through strong drink (ix. 15, 16 ;
xxviii. 7). But in Micah their character and their
practices are depicted with more definiteness. They
pandered to the sensual lusts of the people, and were
welcomed by them accordingly (ii. 11). They de-
manded payment for their prophecies, and, provided
that their clients rewarded them with proper liberality,
were always ready with a cry of Peace! while they
unsparingly attacked those who refused to comply
with their demands. These were the men who lulled
the people into an easy security by the perversion of
Isaiah’s doctrine of Immanuel, reiterating as their
watchword, Is not Jehovah in the midst of us? no evil
shall come upon us (iii. 5, 11).1 The essential differ-
ence between Micah and these men was the moral
character of his mission. This was the proof of true
inspiration. J am full of power by the spirit of
Jehovah, and of judgement, and of might, to declare

1 According to the R.V. ch. ii. 6, Prophesy ye not, thus they
prophesy, refers to the attempt of the false prophets to silence the
true prophets. But I am inclined to think that this verse is a
dialogue between Micah and the nobles whom he is censuring.
Prophesy ye not, say the nobles to Micah and his fellow-prophets.
They shall prophesy, is his emphatic answer. At any rate, retort
the nobles, they shall not prophesy concerning these thinys, reproving
our conduct and predicting our exile. Disgrace, answers Micah,
shall not be averted, your fate is certain (or perhaps, rebukes shall
not cease, the prophets cannot be silenced). Cp, Isa. xxx. 10, f.
VII THE FALSE PROPHETS 219

unto Jacob his transgression, and to Israel his sin
(ili. 8).

But it was an indispensable part of his message,
that while these false prophets were preaching their
delusive message of peace, and taunting him with
being a prophet of evil only, he should proclaim that
Jehovah's purposes towards His people were good and
not evil (ii. 7), and should promise the realisation of
Israel’s destiny, even if it could only be accomplished
through judgement.

Vv

But to return to the consideration of Micah’s Popwar
and pro-

moral and religious teaching. One of the most a
remarkable passages in the whole book is that in
ch. vi, in which the false popular view of Jehovah
and His requirements is placed in sharp contrast
-with His real character and demands. Jehovah
institutes a trial between Himself and His people.
He pleads His own cause. It is assumed that mutual
obligations existed between them. Has He imposed
burdensome conditions, or failed to fulfil His obliga-
tions, that they have deserted Him ?

Nay surely! He appeals to the testimony of his-
tory. He had redeemed them from the bondage
of Egypt. He had given them leaders. He had
confounded the malice of their enemies, and brought
them safely across the Jordan.’ In all His dealings

1 Remember from Shittim unto Gilgal means ‘remember all that
220 FALSE AND TRUE IDEAS OF RELIGION LECT.

with them He had demonstrated His righteous-
ness, His faithful performance of His side of the
covenant.

The voice of the people is heard in answer, inquir-
ing how Jehovah may successfully be propitiated,
and suggesting what they are ready to offer.

Wherewith shall I come before Jehorah, and bow
myself down unto Gol on high? shall I come before
Him with burnt offerings, with calves af a year old?
will Tchovah accept thousands of rams, myriads of
rivers of oil? shall I give my firstborn for my trans-
gression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul
(vi. 6, 7)?

The speaker evidently represents the popular idea
of the essentials of religion.’ He regards Jehovah
as other nations regarded their gods, as a despot who
requires to be propitiated by material offerings, and
can be propitiated by them, provided they are suffi- -
ciently large and costly. He is ready to go all
lengths. He will not be behind the Phceenician or
the Canaanite. He will offer a sacrifice of his nearest
and dearest. But as the prophet’s answer shews,
he has no conception of the moral requirements of
Jehovah.

happened from Shittim, the last station on the east of Jordan, to
Gilgal the first station on the west.’

1 Bishop Butler (Serm. viii.) takes vv. 6, 7 to be Baluk's words,
and v. 8 to be Balaam’s answer. It would be scarcely worth while
to mention this interpretation, which destroys the whole signifi-
cance of the passage, had not Dean Stanley given it currency in
his Lretwres on the Jewish Church (Lect. viii. vol. i. p. 168).
vu FALSE AND TRUE IDEAS OF RELIGION 221

In sharp contrast to the people’s lavish offer is the
prophet’s simple answer, He hath declared to thee, O
man, what is good: and what doth Jehovah require of
thee, save doing judgement, and loving mercy, and walk-
ing humbly with thy God (vi. 8)?

Doing judgement: seeing that each and all have
their just rights; the foundation of society, and yet
the very thing of which there was an utter lack in
Micah’s time. The rulers whose duty it was to know
judgement abhorred it and perverted all equity (iii.
1,9). Sternly Jehovah challenges the people: Are
there yet treasures of wickedness in the house of the
wicked, and the scant measure which is abominable ?
and in reply the voice of the offender’ is heard
parleying with himself whether he may not “be
pardoned and retain the offence.” Can TI be clean
with wicked balances, and with a bag of deceitful
weights (vi. 10, 11) ?

But justice is not the whole of man’s duty to his
neighbour. Mercy or lovingkindness is nobler than
justice. But mercy must not be strained, and
stinted, and grudging. Accordingly God’s second
demand is loving mercy; not merely to shew it,
but to love it. No doubt there were not a few
among the wealthy nobles of Micah’s day who prided
themselves on not being guilty of injustice. Yes!

1 So the Hebrew text. But it is very doubtful whether we
ought not to follow the LXX., Targ., and Syr., in reading Shall
«w man be clean, etc., continuing God’s speech in v.10. For clean
ep. Isa. i. 16,
202 FALSE AND TRUE IDEAS OF RELIGION tect.

perhaps they were entirely within their legal rights
when they seized the land of some poor neighbour
who through bad seasons and misfortune and
pressure of heavy taxes had failed to pay his debts
and fallen into their power. But was conduct like
that brotherly? Nay, there was the higher duty of
loving mercy. And how utterly destitute of the love
of mercy was that state of society in which every
man’s hand was against his neighbour, and none
could trust another (vii. 1-6).

And what does God require in respect of duty
towards Himself? What but walking humbly with
thy God? A life of fellowship with God implying
an identity of will and purpose ; but fellowship con-
ditioned by that spirit of humility which must ever
govern the intercourse of weak and sinful man with
a perfect and infinite God. What a contrast to the
temper of the proud self-satisfied magnates of
Jerusalem, clouded in the conceit of their own
power, infatuated by the supposed security of the
privileges which they abused.

In this simple but comprehensive summary of
man’s duty to his neighbour and to God, Micah
takes up and combines the teaching of his pre-
decessors and his great contemporary. Amos had
insisted upon the paramount necessity of civil
justice: Hosea had proclaimed that it was not
sacrifice but lovingkindness that God desired: one
of the prominent doctrines of Isaiah was the majesty
Vit FALSE AND TRUE IDEAS OF RELIGION 223

of Jehovah, to which reverent humility on man’s
part is the fitting correlative.

Simple as are Jehovah’s requirements, Micah has
little expectation that the nation as a whole will
conform to them. Their ingrained selfishness and
inveterate corruption forbid the hope. Nothing but
the sternest discipline of punishment can avail to
reform that guilty people. There are few more
touching utterances in the whole range of prophecy
than the closing passage of the book. The prophet
speaks in the name of the true Israel, the nucleus of
faithful souls which existed in the midst of the
unfaithful mass, the holy seed which was to preserve
the life of Israel. Sorrowfully he confesses the
widespread and deep-seated depravity which pre-
vails (vii. 1-6); and then he turns to contemplate
the future. In faith and patience he will watch and
wait. With humble resignation he accepts the just
punishment of the nation’s sin, sure that the dawn
must follow the darkness. I will bear the indignation
of Jehovah, because I have sinned against Him ; until
He plead my cause, and execute judgement for me: He
wil bring me forth to the light, I shall behold His
righteousness. Nor is that confidence misplaced.
Addressing Zion Jehovah! proclaims the decree for
its restoration. A day for building thy fences! in
that day shall the boundary be remote/? The land

1Jt seems best to regard Jehovah as the speaker, as in v. 15;
but it may be the prophet himself.

2 Fences, not walls; the figure of the vineyard underlies the
Qed RESIGNATION AND FAITH LKCT.

will be large enough for all the exiles who crowd
into it from the lands of their dispersion. But even
across that bright vision of the future passes a cloud.
Judgement must precede redemption, The land
shall be desolate because of them that dwell therein,
Jor the fruit of their doings (vii. 13).

Hope turns into prayer. Feed Thy people with Thy
vod, the flock of thine heritage let them feed in
Bashan and Gilead, as in the days of old. And
Jehovah makes answer that He will deliver them
from exile as He did from Egypt. As in the days of
thy coming forth out of the land of Eyypt will I shew
unto him marvellous things, Once more the nations
will behold and tremble! When they see the mani-
festation of Jehovah's power on behalf of His people,
they will humbly pay Him homage.

Man’s perversity may delay but it cannot frustrate
God's purposes. He will yet find a way to pardon,
and not only to pardon, but to remove, the iniquity
of His people. The oath which He sware to the
forefathers of the nation cannot be broken. TI ho ds
a God like unto Thee, concludes Micah, with a
reminiscence of the Seng of Moses, and an allusion
to the meaning of his own name,” forgiving iniquity

expression, cp. Isa. v. 5; Ps. Ixxx. 12; Ixxxix. 40. In that day
the boundaries of the land will be extended; ep. u Sar-stretching
land, lit. a land of far distances, Isa, xxxiii, 17.

1 Op. Exod, xv. 14 ff.

? Micah= Who is like Jehovah, ep. Exod. xv. 11; and for the
following words, Exod, xxxiv. 6, 7.
VII RESIGNATION AND FAITH 225

and passing over transgression for the remnant of His
heritage? He retaineth not His anger for ever,
because He delighteth in mercy. He will turn again and
have compassion upon us ; He will subdue our wmniqut-
ties, as He subdued the Canaanites before us; yea,
Thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea,
as thou didst overwhelm the Egyptians in the Red
Sea.’ Thou wilt show Thy faithfulness to Jacob, and
Thy mercy to Abraham, which Thou didst swear unto
our fathers from the days of old.’

Nore A.

Contents AND InrEGRITy oF THE Book or Micau.
The Book of Micah falls into three divisions.
A.—Chaps. i., ii.

(1) Jehovah is about to appear to judge Israel for its sins
(i. 2-5). Samaria will be utterly destroyed (6, 7) ; the wave
of calamity will sweep onward to Jerusalem (8, 9). One
town after another in the Lowland will be overwhelmed by
it (10-16).

(2) Woe to the proud nobles of Judah, whose deeds of
violence demand this punishment. They would fain silence
true prophets, and listen to false prophets, but as they have

driven their victims from their homes, so will they be driven
out into exile themselves (ii. 1-11).

(3) Yet the scattered flock of Israel will one day be
gathered, and go forth from captivity in a second Exodus (ii.
12, 13).

1 See Josh. xviii. 1, ete. ; Exod. xv. 5.

* Cp. Gen. xxii. 16 ff.; xxviii. 13 f.; Exod. xiii. 5, 11; xxxii.
13.

Q
226 CONTENTS OF THE LECT.

B.—Chaps. iii—v.

(1) Censure of the rulers, prophets, and priests, for abuse
of their offices. They are the cause of Jerusalem’s impend-
ing destruction (iii. 1-12).

(2) Yet in the latter days Jerusalem will be the centre of
instruction for the world (iv. 1-5). The scattered flock will
be gathered ; the eternal reign of Jehovah inaugurated ; the
Davidic kingdom restored (6-8).

(3) In the immediate future humiliation and exile are in
store for Zion (9, 10); yet ultimately she will be victorious
over the nations which muster to destroy her (11-13).

(4) Israel must be reduced to extremity, and her ruler
subjected to gross insult (v. 1); but from Bethlehem will
come forth a king of David’s house, to rule over a reunited
nation, and repel the Assyrian invader (v. 2-6). To some
Israel will be a source of blessing (7), to others a destructive
foe (8, 9). Israel will be purified, and vengeance executed
upon the obdurate nations (10-15).

C.—Chaps. vi. vii.

(1) From that ideal future the prophecy turns to the sad
contrast of the present. Jehovah is dramatically represented
as commencing a suit with Israel. He defends His faithful-
ness to His side of the covenant, and contrasts His real
demands with the popular idea of religion (vi. 1-8).

(2) The wilful disregard of these requirements calls for
punishment (9-16).

(3) The prophet speaks in the name of the true Israel,
lamenting the universal corruption (vii. 1-6), and expressing
its determination humbly to bear the punishment ; in perfect
confidence that Jehovah will one day vindicate His righteous-
VII BOOK OF MICAH 227

ness (7-10). In answer is heard the divine proclamation for
Zion’s restoration (11-13).

(4) The prophet prays for this restoration, and Jehovah
promises to bring it about (14-17). He concludes with an
expression of perfect trust in the pardoning mercy and un-
changing faithfulness of Jehovah (18-20).

Each of the three main divisions begins with rebuke and
threatening, and ends with promise and hope.

I have given this somewhat full analysis with the
object of showing that the book is not the disconnected col-
lection of fragments, or the patchwork of interpolations
which it is sometimes represented as being. It must be re-
membered that in all probability it consists of discourses
delivered on various occasions and under different cireum-
stances. The transitions are no doubt more than usually
abrupt. Connexions and contrasts of thought are not ex-
pressed. It is left to the reader’s intelligence to supply them.
But they are, I believe, to be discerned. The question for
the student is not (as it is so often misleadingly put) whether
the sequence of ideas is “what we should expect,” but whether
it admits of explanation. Now just as in the Hebrew lan-
guage co-ordination is common where Western languages
would use subordination, so in the prophetic books two con-
ceptions or two descriptions are frequently compared or
contrasted without any definite statement of the relation in
which they stand to each other.

Let us apply this principle to Micah.

(1) Ch. ii, 12, 13 is said by some, who admit that it
may be Micah’s, to stand in no logical connexion with the
context: by others it is set down as an exilic interpolation.
The connexion is certainly loose, and the prophecy of restora-
tion presumes that Israel will go into exile. But so does the
preceding admittedly genuine prophecy (vv, 3-5, 10); and
228 INTEGRITY OF LECT.

nothing in vv. 12, 13 presumes that the exile is a present
fact. Now, on the principle suggested above, is there any-
thing unreasonable in the bare addition of prediction of
restoration to a prediction of exile? There is, however, a
link of connexion, The true prophets were attacked for
prophesying evil (vv. 6, 7). Micah will shew that he too can
prophesy good as the ultimate purpose of Jehovah towards
His people. Nor is a link of connexion with iii. 1 ff. want-
ing. The treatment of Jehovah’s flock by their shepherds
which is there described presents a striking contrast to His
own care of them in the future which is promised in
ii, 12, 13.2

(2) Again, chaps. iv., v. are supposed by some critics to
be a composite work. Stade (Z.A.T.W. i. 165 ff.) regards the
whole as exilic or post-exilic, but thinks that iv. 1-4, iv. 11-
v. 4, v. 7-15 form a continuous whole, into which iv. 5-10
and vy. 5, 6, were inserted still later. Kuenen allows that
part may be Micah’s, but holds that at any rate iv. 6-8,
11-13, and the present form of v. 10-15, are due to an
exilic or post-exilic hand. Two questions arise: (a) Do these
passages contain ideas which are inconsistent with what we
know of the prophets of the eighth century? and (6) Is the
want of connexion such as to prove that the whole passage
cannot be the work of the same author ?

(a) With regard to iv. 6-8 the remarks already made
on ii. 12, 13 will apply. It is presumed that the Exile
will take place, but not that it is a present fact. That the
assault of many nations upon Zion (iv. 11 ff.) is not a pre-
exilic idea cannot be maintained. Isa, xxix. 1-8 is a sufficient
parallel.

(6) The disjointed character of the passage is no sufficient

1 Jt should be noticed how the conception of the people as a
flock runs through the whole book, See ii. 12; iii, 1 ™ ; iv. 6,
8; v.43 vil 14.
VIL THE BOOK OF MICAH 229

argument against unity of authorship. It presents a series of
pictures of the destiny of Zion, arranged by contrast or con-
nexion of thought, not in chronological succession. Zion’s
exaltation (iv. 1-5) is the contrast to its destruction (iii, 12):
that exaltation involves the gathering of the people (iv. 6-8)
whose dispersion has been predicted (ii. 3 ff. 10). To that
dispersion the prophet then reverts (iv. 9, 10); but again
glancing forward into the distant future foresees the nations
gathering against Zion to their own destruction (iv. 11-13).1
Once more he reverts to the idea of the humiliation (v. 1)
which will precede the advent of the Messianic king, for
which he looks within the period of the Assyrian troubles
(iv. 2-6). Then once more he looks forward into the future
of redemption, [Israel’s double relation to the nations is
parallel to what has preceded ; v. 7 corresponds to iv. 1 ff. ;
vy. 8, 9 to iv. 11-13. That the outlook should conclude
with the purification of Israel and the judgement of the
nations needs no explanation.

(8) The difference between chaps. vi, vii. and chaps. i.—v.
in style and character, and to a certain extent, in the circum-
stances presumed, is remarkable, and has led to the very
general acceptance of Ewald’s view, that these two chapters
are the work of another prophet in the reign of Manasseh.
No doubt this hypothesis is plausible ; but that the differ-
ence of style is incompatible with unity of authorship is by
no means certain. There is nothing in the contents of the
passage which might not have been written by Micah him-
self, and the difference of environment may be accounted for
if it was written in the time of Ahaz or of Manasseh, into

1 Now in iv. 9 refers to a time different from and now in v. 11.
The first is a present anterior to the Exile, the second subsequent to
it. Now in v. 1 reverts to the present of iv. 9. That the Hebrew
word for now may be so used of an assumed present is clear from
iv. 7, where from now (A.V. from henceforth) refers to an assumed
present in the time of the restoration.
230 THE BOOK OF MICAH LECT,

which Micah may easily have survived. Some reasons for
connecting it with the reign of Ahaz have been pointed out
above (p. 206 f.), Chap. vi. at any rate is a piece of public
preaching, which is more likely to belong to the time of
Ahaz than to that of Manasseh, when true prophets were
silenced. The message to the city (vi. 9) is entirely in Micah’s
spirit (p. 202), and the allusion to his name (vii. 18) quite
in the style of the author of ch. i,

More recent criticism assigns vii. 7-20 to the Exile, and
affirms that there is a gap of a century between vii. 6 and
vii. 7 ff. But in its dramatic style the passage has a strong
bond of connexion with vi. 1—vii. 6 : it refers not to the Baby-
lonian but to the Assyrian exile (vii. 12), and to the Assyrian
ravages of the Northern Kingdom (vii. 14): some conclusion
is certainly needed to vi. 1—vii. 6, which can hardly have
ended abruptly with v. 6. The remarks already made on ii.
12 f, iv. 6 ff. apply here. The captivity is presumed as an
event that will happen, not described as a present fact.
There seems to be nothing in the passage which might not
be the work of a prophet who knew that the Exile must
happen, and had before his eyes the first captivity of
Northern Israel or possibly the destruction of that kingdom.
The position of chaps, vi., vii. at the end of the book is not
decisive against a date in the reign of Ahaz; for they form
a separate work, and could be placed in no more suitable
position.

Ihave treated this remarkable prophecy as part of the
writings of Micah, and assigned it to the reign of Ahaz. At
the same time I feel that the arguments in favour of a later
date, under Manasseh, have considerable weight, and that the
possibility that it proceeds from a different author must be
allowed.

Note B.

A brief note is all that can be given upon some of many
VII MICAH V. 2-6 231

points of difficulty and interest in ch, v. 2-6. The English
reader is liable to miss the connexion of v. 2 with iv. 8.
The word rendered ruler is from the same root as that ren-
dered dominion. This ruler will exercise the former rule.
But what is meant by whose goings forth are from ancient
time, from the days of old? Goings forth (or comings forth) is
from the same root as shall come forth in the same verse, and
must be explained accordingly. From ancient time, from the
days of old, is illustrated by vii. 20, days of ancient time, and
vii. 14, days of old. The words can hardly describe the
eternal pre-existence of the Messianic king, or his manifesta-
tion from time to time in the course of history ; for these
ideas, though in the light of the fulfilment they may be
seen to be included in the words, hardly come within the
range of Old Testament prophecy. Rather they describe
the coming forth of the Messianic king as included from
ancient time in the divine purpose which is made known
through the prophets. Cp. Isa. xxii. 11; xxxvil. 26.

She which travatleth (v. 3) is very commonly interpreted of
the mother of the Messiah. But the comparison of ch. iv.
9, 10 makes it certain that the nation is this travailing
woman. Jehovah will give up His people to their enemies
until the nation has brought forth its new offspring of be-
lievers. Cp. Isa. lxvi. 7-9. The following clause (v. 3 6)
seems to refer to the reunion of the divided nation in the
return from exile, which is a constant feature in the pro-
phetic outlook.

Vv. 5, 6 are parenthetical: v. 7 is the sequel of v. 4.
Isaiah connects the coming of the Messiah with the restora-
tion of the exiles (ch, xi); Micah more distinctly brings
it into connexion with the needs of his own time. It is a
striking instance of the limitations of prophecy.
THE PROPHETS OF THE CHALDEAN
PERIOD

NAHUM—ZEPHANIAH—HABAKKUK—
JEREMIAH—EZEKIEL
Multa in Scripturis sanctis dicuntur iuxta opinionem illius
temporis quo gesta referuntur et non iuxta quod rei veritas

continebat,
S. Hieronymus.
LECTURE VIII

NAHUM

Jehovah is a jealous God and an avenger ; Jehovah is an avenger
and full of wrath ; Jehovah is an avenger unto His adversaries, and
He reserveth wrath for His enemics.—NAuvm i. 2.

I

Tue last half century of the kingdom of Judah was
an age of change and convulsion throughout Western
Asia. As the prophets surveyed the nations around,
or contemplated the internal condition of the kingdom
of Judah, they could not fail to see that the day of
the Lord was at hand ;—“ one of those crises or turn-
ing points in the history of the world at which God
Himself interposes, revealing Himself as all that He
is, and bringing to an end openly all the work which
in more hidden ways He has been performing from
the beginning.” *

That eventful half century saw the ruin of the
great empire of Assyria, founded on violence and
built up by bloodshed: it saw the rise in its place of
the Chaldean empire, sweeping all before it in an

1 A. B. Davidson in The Expositor, 3rd Ser. vol. vii. p. 207.

Events
during the
last half
century of
the kingdom
of Judah.
236 THE PROPHETS OF LECT.

irresistible tide of conquest. For a moment it seemed
uncertain whether the seat of the supremacy of
Western Asia would be upon the Nile or the Eu-
phrates, but the decisive battle of Carchemish (B.c. 605)
annihilated the hopes of Egypt, and gave Babylon
the sovereignty of the nations for three-quarters of a
century. That half-century saw the invasion of the
Scythians, an event which was for the time as
momentous and appalling to the ancient monarchies
of Asia as the invasions of the Goths and Vandals
were to the Roman empire. Bursting forth from
behind their mountain barriers in the dark mysteri-
ous North, these savage hordes of barbarians poured
down upon the ancient seats of luxury and civilisa-
tion, spreading terror as they moved. They pene-
trated to the borders of Egypt, where Psammetichus
the king of Egypt met them, and only dissuaded
them from advancing further by prayers and gifts.
For twenty-eight years, so Herodotus tells us, they
held sway in Western Asia, and turned everything
upside down by their overbearing insolence and un-
restrained plunderings.t

Such distress of nations with perplexity . . . men’s
hearts failing them for fear, was the spectacle which
the prophets of Judah beheld all around them. At
home the prospect was not more hopeful. For a
brief time indeed it may have seemed that the refor-

1 Herodotus, i. 105, 106. Comp. Grote’s History of Greece, vol.
ii, ch. xvii. The precise time is uncertain, but it falls within
B.O. 640-607.
VIII THE CHALDEAN PERIOD 287

mation effected by King Josiah gave promise of new
life for Judah; but deeper prophetic insight saw
only too plainly that it was but superficial and
temporary; that the great day of Jehovah was at
hand for Judah, and that the deserved chastisement
of her sins could no longer be deferred. It became
more and more evident that God’s purposes for His
people could only be accomplished by means of the
purifying fires of judgement.

Four of the prophets whose writings have come Trephels
down to us belong to this period, Nahum, Habakkuk, 2eried.
Zephaniah, and Jeremiah; and Ezekiel, though he
occupies a somewhat different position, may be con-
veniently annexed to it. Nahum was probably the
earliest. The possible limits for the date of his
prophecy are from 8.c. 660 to B.c. 607; but we shall
not be far wrong in placing him about the middle of
this period, soon after. B.c. 640. Zephaniah pro-
phesied in the reign of Josiah, probably in the earlier
part of it, while the great Reformation was in progress.
Habakkuk may have delivered his message in the
same reign, but there are good grounds for placing
him in the early years of Josiah’s son and (after the
brief interval of the reign of Jehoahaz) successor
Jehoiakim, about B.c. 610-607.

Jeremiah’s long ministry extended over nearly
half a century, from the thirteenth year of Josiah
(B.c. 627) till some years after the fall of Jerusalem.
Thus Zephaniah and Habakkuk were his contem-
Their char-
acteristics.

238 THE PROPHETS OF LECT,

poraries, while Nahum may have flourished a few
years earlier.

Each of these four prophets had a distinct message
to deliver, and each delivered it in his own character-
istic style. Nahum pronounced the doom of the op-
pressor, and interpreted the impending ruin of Nineveh
as a revelation of the righteous vengeance of God.

Zephaniah, like Nahum, is a herald of judge-
ment, but it is a universal judgement on the world,
and, above all, on the chosen people of God. But he
looks beyond the judgement, and shews that it is
God’s means for universal redemption, of His own
people first, and then of the nations.

Habakkuk, perplexed with obstinate questionings,
troubled with doubts as to the justice of the mysteri-
ous ways of divine Providence when he beholds
violence succeeding violence in the cataclysm of the
nations, boldly challenges God to defend His actions,
and teaches the lessons of patience, constancy, and
faith, which he was taught himself in answer to his
challenge.

Jeremiah stands in the midst of a doomed
and obdurate nation, the most tragic figure in the
history of Israel, the martyr prophet, bearing the
iniquity of his people. He proclaims with equal
distinctness the imminent ruin of that guilty people,
and the rise out of that ruin of a kingdom of right-
eousness, and the establishment of a New Covenant.

Each prophet had his special gift for his particular
VIII THE CHALDEAN PERIOD 239

work. Nahum bears the palm for poetic power.
His short book is a Pindaric ode of triumph over the
oppressor’s fall, stern, vindictive if you will, but
springing out of a deep satisfaction at this proof of
the sovereignty of righteousness, this testimony to
the moral government of Jehovah among the nations
of the world.

Zephaniah is the orator of plain straightforward
speech, severe and uncompromising in his denuncia-
tion of the sins of his countrymen.

Habakkuk has a philosophic mind, which would
fain understand the enigma of the world. The
dramatic form of his book is noteworthy, and its
appeal to the imagination not less than the reason is
characteristic and instructive.

Jeremiah is distinguished by his intense humanity.
He attracts our sympathy by his unique life of sufter-
ing. A man of no great intellectual power (as we
should say) as poet, orator, or philosopher; naturally
shy, retiring, and tender-hearted ; he is pre-eminent
among those who out of weakness were made strong,
a signal proof that the prophet’s power was given to
him from above, and was not the product of his own
genius,

II

The terminus a quo for the prophecy of Nahum is Date of

Vahum's

the capture and destruction of No-amon, or Thebes, ee

in Egypt. He quotes it as a warning to Nineveh of
240 DATE OF NAHUM LECT.

its impending fate. Shalt thou fare better than No-
amon, that was situate among the canals, that had the
waters round about her; whose rampart was the sea
(we. the Nile), and her wall the waters? Ethiopia and
Egypt were her strength, and it was infinite: Put and
the Libyans were thy help. Yet was she carried away ;
she went into captivity (iii. 8 ff.).

There can be little doubt that the event referred
to is the capture of Thebes by Assur-bani-pal, the
son and successor of Esar-haddon, in his second
Egyptian campaign, undertaken against Urdamani,
or Rud-amon, the successor of Tirhakah. The ex-
pedition took place soon after Tirhakah’s death in
B.c. 664, and we may therefore fix B.c. 660 or there-
abouts as the earliest possible date for Nahum’s
prophecy.

The terminus ad quem is the destruction of
Nineveh, which took place, according to the best
chronological authorities, about B.c. 607,) not, as
used generally to be thought, in B.c. 625. The
prophecy of Nahum must certainly have been com-
posed before that event.

These limits may, however, be narrowed con-
siderably. (1) The allusion to the destruction of

1 The expedition of Pharaoh Necho against the king of Assyria
(2 Kings xxiii. 29) will in this case have actually been under-
taken against the last king of Nineveh. There will be no need to
assume an error in the Book of Kings, or to explain king of Assyria
as equivalent to kings of Babylon, because Nabopolassar’s empire
had taken the place of Assyria.
VIL DATE OF NAHUM 241

Thebes is in favour of a date towards the beginning
rather than the end of the period. Though no
doubt the fall of such a powerful city would make
a lasting impression, and the ruin of Thebes would
naturally be selected for mention because it had
been effected by the Assyrians themselves, the
allusion would be more forcible if the event had
occurred within living memory. (2) Judah is not
only still under the Assyrian yoke, but apparently
still smarting under the recollection of an Assyrian
invasion (i. 12 6,13, 15 6; ii 2). Nineveh, though
threatened by its enemies, is still in the full posses-
sion of its wealth and strength (i. 12; 1.9). Now
the last recorded Assyrian invasion of Judah was in
the reign of Manasseh, who was carried captive to
Babylon, but after a while was set at liberty and
restored to his kingdom (2 Chron. xxxiii. 11 ff.)

1 The historical character of this narrative, which has been
called in question, has received remarkable confirmation from the
cuneiform inscriptions. (1) They supply evidence of the inter-
vention of Assyria on the coast of the Mediterranean during this
period. (2) They suggest an explanation of the statement, at first
sight so perplexing, that Manasseh was taken to Babylon, not to
Nineveh, which was the capital. After the suppression of Shamash-
shum-ukin’s revolt, Assur-bani-pal caused himself to be crowned
king of Babylon, and probably resided there for a time. An
inscription exists which records his reception of certain ambassa-
dors at Babylon. (3) An exact parallel to the treatment of Man-
asseh is found in Assur-bani-pal’s treatment of Necho I., who was
seized, bound hand and foot with iron bands and chains, and
carried to Nineveh ; yet, in spite of this ignominious treatment,
subsequently restored to his throne. See Schrader, Cuneiform
Inscriptions, p. 366 ff.

R
242 DATE OF NAHUM LECT.

The name of Manasseh appears in a list of kings
who were tributary to Esar-haddon, the successor of
Sennacherib, but as there is no hint that he had
then attempted to throw off the Assyrian yoke,
it seems probable that the narrative in Chronicles
refers to another occasion. The inscriptions of
Assur-bani-pal record that the “West Country” or
Pheenician and Palestinian states rose when his
brother Shamash-shum-ukin revolted about the
year B.c. 648. What can be more likely than that
Manasseh took part in this rising, or at any rate
incurred the suspicion of disloyalty, that an expedi-
tion was sent to inflict punishment, and that he was
carried away into an ignominious though temporary
captivity ?1 This hypothesis explains Nahum’s allu-
sions to a recent Assyrian invasion.

On the other hand after the death of Assur-bani-
pal (Bc. 6267) the power of Assyria rapidly
declined. The loss of Babylon, where Nabopolassar
established himself about B.c. 625, was a severe blow
to its prestige. Josiah seems to have enjoyed a
practical independence, and about the middle of his
reign (B.c. 622) we find him exercising an authority
in Northern Palestine, which he would scarcely have
done if the Assyrian government had still been
vigorous (2 Kings xxii. 15 ff).

1 See Schrader, Cuneiform Inscriptions, p. 867 ff. It may be
noticed that colonies were planted in Samaria by Esar-haddon

(Ezra iv. 2), and Assur-bani-pal, with whom Osnappar (Ezra iv.
10) is most probably to be identified.
VUIL DATE OF NAHUM 243

On these grounds it seems best to place the
prophecy of Nahum soon after B.c. 640, when the
memory of an Assyrian invasion of Judah was still
fresh, and the power of Assyria was still un-
impaired. This date moreover best explains the
situation of Nineveh which is implied in Nahum.
He appears to know of a particular enemy who
is threatening the city (i. 1), though he does not
mention its name. Now it was just about this time
that the Median power, which had been consolidated
by Deioces, became formidable to Assyria under Phra-
ortes. Nahum saw that this power was destined to
be the avenger of Israel’s wrongs. Phraortes, indeed,
lost his life in his attack upon Nineveh; and the
Scythian invasion, from which Medes and Assyrians
both suffered, deferred the final catastrophe. It was
reserved for Cyaxares, the successor of Phraortes, to
combine with Nabopolassar, and to inflict the blow
which Nahum had foreseen.

1 The later date (c. 623) advocated by Kuenen seems to me
inconsistent with the description of the power of Assyria as still
unimpaired, for, after the death of Assur-bani-pal, if not before, it
was rapidly falling into decay. The exhortation to Judah to keep
her feasts and perform her vows (i. 15) might seem to indicate
that Josiah’s reformation had already begun. But after his
captivity Manasseh had at any rate tolerated the worship of
Jehovah, and the accession of Josiah would be sufficient to encow-
age anticipations of a happier time. Moreover if, as I hope to

shew, Nahum was writing at a distance from Judah, little stress
can be laid upon the words.
Place of
writing.

244 NAHUM WROTE AT NINEVEH LECT,

TIT

Nahum is called the Elkoshite, ov native of Elkosh.
Unfortunately this designation gives us no certain
information. No such place is mentioned in the
Old Testament. Jerome states that in his day a
ruined village in Galilee called Heliesei was pointed
out to him as the birthplace of Nahum; and a
village on the left bank of the Tigris, near Mosul,
bearing the name of Alkush, still contains a building
which is called the tomb of Nahum. Neither of
these rival traditions can be regarded as_ trust-
worthy. Much value can hardly be attached to a
tradition of the end of the fourth century A.p.; while
the tomb at Alkush is not ancient, and the tradition
connecting it with Nahum cannot be traced beyond
the sixteenth century.

It may however be inferred from the contents
and character of his prophecy, that he was residing
in Assyria at the time when he wrote it. He uses
Assyrian words to designate Assyrian officers. He
was well acquainted with Nineveh. Its brick-built
walls (iii, 14); the ‘mantelet’ used for protecting
the soldiers upon them (ii. 5); the river-gates; the
palace in the centre of the city which was the last
retreat of its defenders (ii. 6); its temples and
images (i. 14); its immense stores of wealth, the
spoil of conquered nations, the prey which the lion
had gathered in his den (ii. 9, 12); its vast popula-
VU NAHUM WROTE AT NINEVEH 245

tion, the conflux of many nations (ii. 8; ili. 15); its
crowds of merchants (iii. 16); its horses and chariots
(ii. 13); its princes with their tiaras; its marshals
and nobles and worthies in all their magnificence
(iii. 17, 18),—these are depicted with a vividness
which bespeaks not merely vigour of poetic imagina-
tion but the familiarity of an eye-witness. He must
have seen the magnificent palace of Assur-bani-pal,
from the ruins of which many of our finest speci-
mens of Assyrian art, and many of our most valuable
cuneiform inscriptions, have been derived.

That he must have seen Nineveh is certain ; but
further than that, he addresses the city as if it was
actually before him in all its eruel splendour when
he was writing. And this conclusion is confirmed
by phenomena in his book which indicate that he
was not writing in Judah. He has only a passing
word for Judah. He seems to regard it ideally, as
the kingdom of God, rather than actually, in its
existing condition, There is no hint that the
Assyrian oppression was a justly merited punish-
ment for the sins of Judah, or that the city whose
deliverance he welcomes was almost if not quite as
guilty as the city whose doom he announces.!. The
absence of reproof and the idealisation of Judah are
most satisfactorily accounted for by the hypothesis
that he wrote at a distance from Palestine. Nor is
there anything in the prophecy which militates

1 Cp. Zeph. iii. 1 ff. with Nah. iii. 1.
The Book of
Nahum.

246 UNITY OF THE BOOK OF NAHUM LECT:

against this view. He betrays no sign of a close
acquaintance with Judah and Jerusalem. The
references to Palestine (i. 4) are of a distant and
merely literary character.

Whether he was a descendant of the exiles carried
away from Northern Israel nearly a century before,
or whether he was taken there as a prisoner in some
later invasion, perhaps that of Assur-bani-pal, there
is nothing to indicate; but in either case, it is
interesting to hear the voice of prophecy sounding
across the desert from the banks of the Tigris,
publishing the good tidings of the oppressor’s fall
and proclaiming peace, as it sounded nearly a century
later from the banks of the Euphrates, to announce
the glad tidings of the end of the still more cruel
tyranny of Babylon."

IV

The Book of Nahum differs from the books which
we have been considering by its unity, and its literary
character. It deals with a single subject: it was
evidently not based upon oral discourses, but com-
posed to be at once committed to writing. Its theme
is the impending ruin of the guilty city of Nineveh,
regarded as the proof of Jehovah’s moral government
of the world.

The book opens with a solemn proclamation of

1 His name, which means Comforter, suggests the parallel with

Isa, xl. 1; and i. 15 is quoted in Isa, lii. 7.
VIII UNITY OF THE BOOK OF NAHUM 247

Jehovah’s twofold character, as a God of vengeance
and a God of mercy. The rhythm of the original is
stately as befits the subject :

Jehovah is a jealous God and an avenger ;

Jehovah is an avenger and full of wrath ;

Jehovah is an avenger unto His adversaries ;

And He reserveth wrath for His enemies.

Jehovah is slow to anger and great in power,

And He will in no wise acquit the guilty ;

Jehovah hath His way in the whirlwind and in the storm,
And the clouds are the dust of His feet.

He brooks no rival. He will not condone iniquity.
If He seem at times slack to interfere, it is the
patience of omnipotence, and neither the helplessness
of impotence, nor the apathy of indifference. When
once He wills to act, none can resist His power.

Before His indignation who can stand ?

And who can rise wp in the fierceness of His anger ?

His fury is poured out like fire,

And the rocks are broken asunder by Him.

But in contrast to this appalling awfulness

Jehovah is good, a stronghold in the day of adversity ;

And He knoweth them that take refuge in Him.

And with an overwhelming flood will He make a full end of
her place,

And will pursue His enemies into darkness,

That judgement is not the contrast to His good-
ness, but the proof of it. There is no need to mention
the name of the arch-adversary, the embodiment of
248 THE GUILT OF NINEVEH LECT.

antagonism to Jehovah. The prophet’s eye is riveted
upon that guilty city. Her offence is insolent defiance
of Jehovah, high-handed oppression not of His chosen
people only, but of a multitude of nations, upon whom
she has trampled with brutal inhumanity. Senna-
cherib with his insulting blasphemies was her typical
representative, and to him the prophet’s mind recurs.
From thee went forth one (we can hardly doubt that
it was he) purposing evil against Jehovah, counselling
woekedness. Her ferocious violence and her heartless
treachery are graphically described. The lion did
tear in pieces enough for his whelps, and strangled for
his lionesses, and filled his caves with prey and his
dens with ravin. Then, dropping figure, he exclaims,
Woe to the blood-guilty city, all full of falsehood
and outrage, where rapine ceaseth not. Resuming
metaphor, Nahum goes on to describe her as fascinat-
ing the nations by her insidious charms, and be-
witching them by her cunning, until she gets them
into her power, and reduces them to a hopeless
slavery.

The prophet’s indictment against Nineveh has
received strange confirmation from the inscriptions
and sculptures which have been brought to light in
recent years, many of which may be seen in the
British Museum. “The barbarities which followed
the capture of a town would be almost incredible,”
writes Professor Sayce, “ were they not a subject of

1 Assyria ; its Princes, Priests, and People, p. 127.
Vl THE GUILT OF NINEVEH 249

boast in the inscriptions which record them.” The
details of the savage cruelties of the Assyrians are
too horrible for quotation. “How deeply seated
was their thirst for blood and vengeance on an
enemy is exemplified in a bas-relief which represents
Assur-bani-pal”—the king, be it remembered, who
was Nahum’s contemporary—“ and his queen feast-
ing in their garden while the head of a conquered
Elamite king hangs from a tree above.”? They are
witnesses against themselves that they flagrantly
violated every law and instinct of humanity in
their lust of conquest and their passion for
revenge.

And so Nineveh’s doom was pronounced. With
righteous indignation not unmingled with an almost
contemptuous exultation Nahum chants her knell.
He bids her strain every nerve for defence; repair
her walls, make provision for the siege, set her
sentinels (ii. 1; ui. 14). But all in vain. A short
skirmish outside the walls, and the gates are forced ;
panic terror paralyses her defenders; the battle
rages through her streets; the central citadel sur-
renders; her vast stores of wealth are plundered ;
she is stripped bare and naked and exposed to infamy
(ii. 3 ff; iii 2 ff). Naught remains of all her mag-
nificence, but emptiness and desolation and vacuity.

So utterly indeed was she destroyed that
“the very site of Nineveh remained for centuries

1 Assyria ; its Princes, Priests, and People, p. 128.
250 NAHUM’S VIEW OF JUDAH LECT.

unknown.”’ It is a striking comment on the pro-
phet’s words.

She falls unwept. IVho will bemoan her? She
pitied none, and there is none to pity her. Nay all
rejoice, for all have been her victims. All that hear
the report of thee clap their hands over thee, for wpon
whom did not thy wiekedness pass continually (iii. 19) ?

Judah is released from the oppressor’s yoke. The
messengers speed to carry the good news, and the
prophet bids her celebrate glad festivals of thanks-
giving and pay her vows.

Behold upon the mountains the feet of him that
bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace! Keep
thy feasts, O Judah, perform thy vows ; for the wicked
one shall no more pass through thee; he ws utterly

cut off:
v

Nahum's Nahum had a great principle, an eternal truth,
mere proclaim—the certain destruction of this world’s
kingdoms built on the foundation of force and
fraud; the triumph of the kingdom of God reared
on the foundation of truth and righteousness. But
the limitation of view with which he proclaims this
truth is very remarkable; and the fact that a pro-
phet’s view might be thus limited is an important
principle to be borne in mind for the general inter-
pretation of the Old Testament. For him Nineveh

1 Sayce, p. 26. 2 Cp. Ps. Ixvi. 11-14.
VIII NAHUM’S VIEW OF JUDAH 251

is the representative of worldly power in antagonism
to Jehovah ; Judah is the kingdom of Jehovah, repre-
senting Him on earth. Judah is viewed in the
abstract in the light of her calling and destiny, in
a word, idealised ; not in the concrete, as she actually
was, failing hopelessly to fulfil that calling.

(1) There is not a single word of recognition that
the long Assyrian oppression had been the punish-
ment of Judah’s sin, as we are constantly taught
by other prophets. Nahum’s prophecy is the sequel
to those words of faith with which the book of Micah
closes: Jehovah will bring me forth to the light, I shall
behold His righteousness. Then mine enemy shall sce
at, and shame shall cover her; which said unto me,
Where is Jehovah thy God ? (Mic. vii. 10); but Nahum
betrays none of the deep consciousness of national
guilt which distinguishes that most touching pro-
phecy.

(2) Again, there is no hint that Judah stands in
present need of penitence and reformation ; yet it is
difficult, if not impossible, to assign Nahum’s pro-
phecy to a time when the internal condition of Judah
was essentially different from that which is described
by Zephaniah and Jeremiah.

(3) Once more, Nahum not only gives no hint
that the yoke of Assyria would be succeeded by the
yet heavier yoke of Babylon, but in express terms
predicts a full deliverance and restoration for Judah.
Though I have afflicted thee, I will afflict thee no
252 NAHUM LECT. VIII

more. . The wieked one shall no more pass through
thee... . For Jehovah bringeth again the excellency of
Jacob as the excellency of Israel (1. 12, 15; i. 2),
Yet the fall of Nineveh was not the final end of
Judah’s servitude; it was not the immediate pre-
cursor of her complete restoration, though Nahum
seems to have expected that it would be. It was
indeed one step in the evolution of God’s purposes
for His people; but the salvation of Zion was not
to be yet.

Judah’s impenitence and faithlessness postponed
God’s purpose. Nahum, writing far away from
Judah (and in no other way can I understand his
prophecy), could not realise the deeply ingrained sin
of the people; and while he grasped and clearly
enunciated the great principles of the divine govern-
ment, he did not take into account the human
obstacles to the fulfilment of God’s purpose, or per-
ceive the long hard course of discipline by which
Judah must be led to the desired consummation.
LECTURE Ix

ZEPHANIAH

Hold thy peace at the presence of the Lord Jehovah ! for the day
of Jehovah is at hand.—ZEPHANIAH i. 7.

I

ZePHANIAH and Nahum belonged to the same age. Contrast
They prophesied in all probability within a few Zephaniah
years of each other. But Zephaniah stands in“
pronounced contrast to Nahum. While Nahum
announced the particular judgement of Nineveh
alone, and saw in that judgement the prospect of
Judah’s liberation from a cruel tyranny, Zephaniah
proclaimed the speedy approach of an universal judge-

ment, and saw that its first and chief severity must

fall upon Jerusalem. Nahum regards the judge-
ment of Nineveh mainly as a just retribution for its
crimes. Zephaniah regards the judgement of Judah

and the nations not only or chiefly as the punish-

ment due to them, but as the means by which the
purification of Judah and the conversion of the
nations are to be accomplished. Thus Zephaniah
254 DATE OF ZEPHANIAH'S PROPHECY LECT.

goes far beyond Nahum in breadth of view, and in
insight into the ultimate course of the divine
purpose.

So far as the teaching of a prophet was con-
ditioned by his environment, a ground for this
difference may be found in the wholly dissimilar
circumstances of the two prophets. We have seen
reason to believe that Nahum prophesied in Assyria,
and, remote from actual knowledge of the condition
of Judah, could concentrate his thoughts upon the
wrongs which she had suffered rather than upon the
punishment which she deserved. Zephaniah evi-
dently lived in Jerusalem.' He appears to have
belonged to the royal family.” At any rate he had
abundant opportunity for observing the crimes of
the highest classes in the capital.

II

Date of The title of the book tells us that the word of
prophecy Jehovah came to Zephaniah in the days of Josiah.

c. 630 B.C,
Internal evidence confirms this statement. The
only question is whether he prophesied in the be-
ginning of Josiah’s reign, before the great reforma-

1 Note the special topographical allusions to the Fish-gate, the
Second Quarter or Lower City (the Afishneh), the Maktesh (lit.
mortar) where the merchants lived (i. 10 f.).

? It is difficult to account for his genealogy being traced up to
Hezekiah and no further, unless the well-known Hezekiah is
meant.
1X DATE OF ZEPHANIAH’S PROPHECY 255

tion had done its work; or towards the close of it,
when this last effort for amelioration had spent its
force, and the reaction which was to break out in
the reign of Jehoiakim had already set in. A
decisive answer may be given in favour of the
first alternative. The idolatrous practices which
Zephaniah condemns are precisely those which were
abolished by Josiah. While it is possible that the
first steps towards reformation were already being
made, it seems scarcely conceivable that language
like that of Zephaniah could have been used after
the reformation had been carried out.1 That refor-
mation can hardly have been completed at one
stroke; the Book of Chronicles describes it as a
gradual process in successive stages; and we shall
probably not be wrong if we suppose that Zephaniah
prepared the way for Josiah’s movement by his

1 See ch. i 4 ff, 8 ff. ; 12; iii 1 ff It has been urged (1)
that the expression remnant of Baal (i. 4) implies that the reforma-
tion had already taken place; and (2) that the allusion to the
king’s sons (i. 8) implies that Josiah’s sons were already responsible
persons. (1) The reading of i. 4 is however doubtful. The LXX.
has the names of Baal, which may be right (cp. Hos. ii. 17); and if
not, the expression may mean no more than ‘every vestige of Baal
worship.’ At most it need imply no more than that the reforma-
tion had commenced, which it did, according to Chron., in the 12th
year of Josiah. (2) Jehoiakim would have been 12, and Jehoahaz
10 years old in the 18th year of Josiah, and hardly of age to incur
censure on their own account. But the king’s sons may mean the
royal family generally, ‘the princes of the blood’; and if Josiah’s
sons are referred to, it is questionable whether the prophecy implies
their personal responsibility. This doubtful phrase cannot outweigh
the positive indications referred to in the text.
Its occasvon
the irrup-
tion of the
Scythians,

256 OCCASION OF ZEPHANIAH’S PROPHECY LECT.

preaching, and was one of the prophets who sup-
ported him in its final achievement (2 Kings
xxiii. 2). His ministry may therefore be dated
between B.c. 630 and 622.

It was just about this time that the marauding
hordes of Scythians poured down over Western
Asia (p. 236). It seems highly probable that their
advance was the occasion of Zephaniah’s prophecy.
Rumours of this “scourge of God,” which spread dis-
may and devastation as it went, must have reached
Jerusalem. What is more likely than that the pro-
phet should have seized the opportunity, as Joel
seized the opportunity of the locust-plague, and
taught, as Joel did, that this dreaded visitation was
in reality a manifestation of Jehovah’s power, by
which He was judging the nations, and summoning
His people to repentance. It is plain that the idea
of an invasion, and an invasion of an extraordinary
and desolating character, underlies his description of
the day of Jehovah. The danger is close at hand.
The great day of Jchorah is near and coming very
quickly (i. 14). Now at this time Judah had httle
cause to fear from the Assyrians, while the Baby-
lonians had not yet become formidable. But the
Seythians correspond remarkably to the description.
The mystery of their origin clothed them with
just that vague terribleness which characterises
Zephaniah’s description. They swept down along the

1 See i. 7, 18, 16-18; ii, 4.
IX OCCASION OF ZEPHANIAH’S PROPHECY 257

coast, and Philistia must have suffered heavily from
them. Herodotus records that in their retreat they
plundered the temple of Aphrodite (12. Atargatis) at
Ashkelon. They do not appear to have turned aside
to Jerusalem. It was hid in the day of Jehovah's
anger. Zephaniah’s warnings succeeded in their
object, and the judgement was averted for the time.

ITI

In truth the condition of Jerusalem was such as The con
to call for judgement. Alike in religion and in Fuca”
morals an appalling corruption prevailed. The cruel
persecutions of the earlier part of Manasseh’s reign
had been suspended, and the worship of Jehovah was
tolerated. But that was all. Incense was burned
to Baal in Jerusalem. Idolatrous priests were regu-
larly maintained. The worship of the sun, moon, and
stars upon the roofs of their houses was the favourite
practice of the people.

An easy syncretism deemed the recognition of
Malcam as a deity compatible with a professed
allegiance to Jehovah. Here there were apostates
who had forsaken Jehovah; there there were in-
differentists who did not trouble themselves to seek
Him. Here there were men who hankered after
foreign fashions in a way that proved them unfaith-
ful to their national privileges; there there were
practical atheists who denied that there was any

8
258 ZEPHANIAH’S BREADTH OF VIEW LECT.

providential government of the world (i. 4 ff. 8, 12).
Immorality went hand in hand with irreligion.
Zephaniah’s strictures upon Jerusalem are hardly
less severe than those of Nahum upon Nineveh.

Woe to her that is rebellious and polluted, to the
oppressing city! .. . Her princes in the midst of her
are roaring lions ; her judges are evening wolves ; they
leave nothing until the morrow. Her prophets are light
and treacherous persons; her priests have profaned
that which is holy, they have done violence to the law.
Self-complacent pride, shameless falsehood, flagrant
iniquity, merciless extortion, are rife, and yet the
guilty transgressors are unabashed. The wnjust
knoweth no shame.

And therefore the ‘decree’ of judgement has been
issued; the day of grace is passing as swiftly as the
chaff swept away before the wind, and the day of the
Lord’s anger is about to come upon the guilty city

(ii. 2).
IV

pena s It is in his conception of the impending judge-

view. ment, that Zephaniah’s remarkable breadth of view
is to be noticed. The judgement which he pre-

dicts is an universal judgement. It will be as it

were a second deluge, consuming all things from off

1 iii, 1-4, Cp, the expansion of this passage in Ezek. xxii. 23 ff.

2 iii, 55 ii, 1; iii, 11-13; i. 9. The latter passage appears to

refer to the extortions practised by the retainers of great men, not
to idolatrous customs,
IX ZEPHANIAH’S BREADTH OF VIEW 259

the face of the ground.’ The great day of Jehovah
is close at hand. That day is a day of wrath, a day
of trouble and distress, a day of wasteness and desola-
tion, a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds
and thick darkness, a day of trumpet and alarm
(i. 15)?

The storm of judgement strikes Jerusalem first :
it is infinitely searching (i. 12); there is no possi-
bility of escape, no means of redemption for the men
that have sinned against Jehovah (i. 18). Even the
righteous can hardly be saved. J¢ may be ye shall be
hid in the day of Jehovah's anger is all the hope that
is held out even to the meek of the land which have
wrought His judgement (ii. 3).

From Jerusalem the storm sweeps westward to
Philistia, eastward to Moab and Ammon; it reaches
Ethiopia in the remotest south, Nineveh in the
distant north. Nay, none are excepted. My deter-
mination is to gather the nations, to assemble the king-
doms, that I may pour upon them Mine indignation,
even all the fierceness of Mine anger ; for with the fire
of My jealousy shall all the earth be devoured (iii. 8).

If Zephaniah is distinguished by breadth of view pepth of
in his conception of the universality of the judge- ao
ment in which Jerusalem must share, he is equally

' With i. 2 f. ep. Gen. vi. 7; vii. 23.

2 The opening words of this passage, Dies irae dies illa, were
adopted by Thomas of Celano as the opening words of that great
hymn on the Last Judgement, which is one of the masterpieces of
sacred Latin poetry. See Trench, Sacred Latin Poetry, p. 296.
260 ZEPHANIAH’S BREADTH OF VIEW LECT.

distinguished by profound insight into the purpose
and the issue of this universal judgement for Israel
and for the nations. Nahum views the judgement
of Nineveh almost as an end in itself. Its grand
object is the manifestation of Jehovah’s righteous
sovereignty in the punishment of the inhuman
tyrant. He glances no doubt at the consequent
liberation of Judah from the yoke of servitude, but
only incidentally and cursorily. Zephaniah on the
other hand views the judgement as the appointed
means for the purification of Israel and the conver-
sion of the nations.

In that day. . Iwill take away out of the midst of
thee thy proudly eaulting ones, and thou shult no more
be haughty in My holy mountain... The remnant
of Israel shall not do iniquity nor speak lics ; neither
shall a deccitful tongue be found in their mouth
(iii. 11, 13).

Zion will rejoice in her King; and Jehovah will
rejoice in His ransomed people. In words of passion-
ate tenderness, which remind us of Hosea, the
prophet declares :

In that day it shall be saul to Jerusalem, Fear thou
not; O Zion, let not thine hands be slack. Jehovah
thy God is in the midst of thee, a Mighty One Who
saveth; He will rejoice over thee with joy, He will
rest in His love, He will joy over thee with singing
(iii. 16, 17).

The ‘restored people will be a witness to God’s
Ix ZEPHANIAH’S BREADTH OF VIEW 261

working and a wonder to the world. Ad that time

. will I make you a name and a praise among all
the peoples of the earth (ii1. 20).

But it is not only Israel which will be redeemed Resuits of

th

through judgement. When Jehovah paralyses all »
the gods of the earth with the terribleness of His
advent, men shall worship Him, every one from his
place, even all the coast-lands of the nations (ii. 11).

The fire of God’s jealousy refines while it con-
sumes. It works for the nations the great change
of purified lips, that they may all call wpon the name
of Jehovah, to serve Him with one consent. From
remotest countries they come to worship in Zion.
From beyond the rivers of Ethiopia My suppliants, even
the daughter of My dispersed, shall bring Mine offering
(ii. 9, 10).

Zephaniah has no prophecy of a personal Messiah
He does not foresee particularly how redemption is
to be effected, but this he does foresee, that this
judgement which is imminent in all its unparalleled
terribleness will issue in salvation for Israel and the
world.

Isaiah and Micah had prophesied of the day when
all the nations would stream Zionwards to learn and
to worship. Zephaniah repeats this hope; but he
takes another firm step forward towards the univers-
ality of the Gospel, when he foretells that, instead
of their old defeated and discredited gods, men will
worship Jehovah every one from his place. It is a

e judge-

nent for
h

e nations.
The fulfil-
ment.

262 FULFILMENT OF LECT.

prelude to the yet more definite declaration with
which Malachi rebuked the bigotry of his contem-
poraries (i. 11), and it prepares the way for that
memorable utterance of Him in whom all privileges
of race and prerogatives of place were abolished:
The hour cometh, when neither in this mountain nor
in Jerusalem, shall ye worship the Father (John
iv. 21).

The immediate judgement with which Zephaniah
threatened Jerusalem was averted. But his prophecy
began to be fulfilled in the disasters which befel
neighbouring nations. It was fulfilled yet further
in those great convulsions of the nations of the East
which followed shortly. It was fulfilled for Judah
in the captivity and the destruction of the guilty
nation. For these were all steps of progress advanc-
ing towards the great end, elements contributing to
the fulness of the times, preludes to the establish-
ment of the universal divine kingdom.

In part Zephaniah’s words still await fulfilment,
and we do him no injustice if we say that he could
not anticipate how distant their fulfilment would be.
It was given to those ancient prophets to soar above
the earth-born mists which becloud human vision,
and to see God’s purposes rising majestically against
the clear firmament of His righteous sovereignty,
like sunlit Alpine peaks against the azure sky; but
ib was not given them to see all at once how many
an obstacle must be surmounted, how many a dis-
Ix ZEPHANIAH’S PROPHECIES 263

appointment endured, ere the longed-for goal could
be attained.

These prophets of judgement still teach the great
lesson that God is King; and that in spite of all
that men may think to the contrary, He is ever
coming to judge the world. Force and violence are
transitory ; truth and righteousness abide. Assyria,
Egypt, Babylon, Macedonia, Rome, where are they ?
But that little nation of Israel, bruised and battered
in the clash and collision of mighty world empires,
scattered and scourged for its own sins, rose with a
new life to be the Jewish Church, and from the
Jewish Church there sprang that wonder of the
principalities and powers in heavenly places,—the
Christian Church; and in the Name of its Master it
goes forth conquering and to conquer.

As we look back upon each successive great day
of the Lord in past ages faith gathers strength, and
we look forward without impatience and without
wavering to that greatest day of all, when the Son of
Man shall send forth His angels, and they shall gather
out of His kingdom all things that cause stumbling,
and them that do iniquity . . . and the righteous shail
shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father.
The
Chaldean
period,

LECTURE X

HABAKKUK
O Lord, how long ?—HABAKKUK i. 2.

I

TuE entry of the Chaldeans on the stage of history
found its herald in Habakkuk. Nahum, as we have
seen, predicted the destruction of Nineveh. He saw
in the ruin of that ruthless oppressor of the nations
a signal exhibition of God’s judgement upon pride
and violence, and anticipated, it would seem, that
the removal of the tyrant would be immediately
succeeded by the deliverance and clorification of
God’s people.

Zephaniah, with a wider and clearer view of the
course of God’s purposes, foresaw that an universal
judgement must precede deliverance, and that this
judgement must begin at the house of God. The
bright expectations kindled by Josiah’s reformation
were doomed to speedy disappointment. It soon
became evident that the desire for better things had
never taken real hold of the heart of the nation.
LECT, X THE CHALDEANS 265

When Josiah fell in the fatal battle of Megiddo, the
hopes of Judah perished with him. Passing over
his eldest son Jehoiakim, the people made Jehoahaz
king. After a reign of only three months, he was
deposed by Pharaoh-necoh, who was now for a brief
space supreme over the countries from the Euphrates
to the Nile. He placed Jehoiakim on the throne
instead of Jehoahaz. Jehoiakim was a selfish,
tyrannical, godless ruler. The nobles were only
too ready to follow his example, and in a short time
the old evils of Manasseh’s reign broke out again.
Meanwhile the new, mysterious, invincible power
of the Chaldeans was gathering like a storm-cloud
in the north. Rumours of their ferocious character,
their insatiable lust for conquest, their irresistible
prowess, reached Jerusalem. It was an age to try
the faith of pious souls. Obstinate questionings
could not fail to force themselves upon every
thoughtful mind. At home, the reign of lawless-
ness! abroad, this power that knew no law but its
own ambition and its own strength, threatening to
overwhelm the earth! Judah no doubt deserved
chastisement. But how could a righteous God
employ for His instrument this self-deifying world
power? Was brute force, not righteousness, after all
the arbiter of human destiny ?

In such a crisis Habakkuk was called to deliver
his message; frankly to face the problem, and not
indeed to solve it, but to shew men how they might
Date of
Habakkuk.

\

\

266 DATE OF HABAKKUK LECT.
e

wait in faith for its ultimate solution. His messag

is a theodicy; its aim is to justify the ways of God
to man; but in providence as in nature it is true
that His judgements are unsearchable, and His ways
past tracing out ; and oftentimes the only answer that
He can return to man’s doubt is to point to what
He has revealed Himself to be, and bid man trust
that He is the same, yesterday, to-day, and for ever.

II

Internal evidence makes it tolerably certain that
Habakkuk wrote in the reign of Jehoiakim (B.C.
609-597). The Chaldeans were already in full career
of conquest. Their terrible reputation had reached
Jerusalem (i. 5 ff). Some years must therefore have
elapsed since Nabopolassar founded the Chaldean
empire at Babylon (B.c. 625). But it seems impos-
sible to suppose that the gloomy picture drawn by
Habakkuk (i. 2-4) can represent the condition of
Judah during the reign of Josiah. It points decidedly
to the reign of Jehoiakim, whose selfish luxury and
oppressive exactions are sharply contrasted by Jere-
miah with his father’s upright conduct and just
administration (Jer. xxii, 13-17).

It is however less easy to decide whether the
prophecy was written in the earlier or in the later
part of Jehoiakim’s reign. It is urged on the one
hand that the Chaldeans must already have invaded
x DATE OF HABAKKUK 267

Judah. The prophet appears to have their over-
bearing violence actually before his eyes. The
wicked is swallowing up the righteous (i. 18).
Habakkuk must therefore have written after Ne-
buchadnezzar’s first invasion, which took place about
B.c. 601.’ On the other hand the language in which
the rise of the Chaldean power is described appears
to imply that it is not yet firmly established. It
still seems incredible to the mass of the people that
this power which has so suddenly sprung up should
be destined to prove Jehovah’s instrument of judge-
ment. I work a work in your days, which ye will not
believe though it be told you (i. 5). But after the
defeat of Necho at Carchemish (B.c. 605) the
supremacy of the Chaldeans was assured. It must
have been obvious that there was no barrier to stay
their advance. Nor is it certain that Habakkuk
speaks of the Chaldeans as already having invaded
Judah. The language in which their conquests is
described is still quite general. It is the nations
which are suffering. It is not clear that Judah is
represented as being already a victim. On the whole
the balance of probability appears to be slightly in
favour of the earlier date, before the battle of Car-
chemish; but the interpretation of the prophecy is
not materially affected, whichever date is adopted.
Habakkuk’s commission is not to predict the rise

1 In this case v. 5 would have to be rendered, J am working a
work in your days, which ye would not believe, if tt were told you. ©
268 THE BOOK OF HABAKKUK LECT.

of the Chaldean power, but to reconcile their employ-
ment as an instrument of judgement with the justice
of God, and to foretell their ultimate destruction.

III

Habakkuk Habakkuk was not a preacher like Jeremiah and
Zephaniah. His prophecy shews no indications of
having been delivered orally before it was com-
mitted to writing. He does not bear a message of
warning to his guilty countrymen in the hope that
even at the eleventh hour they might amend their
ways and avert the impending punishment. It is
possible indeed that, like Isaiah, he may have in-
scribed the oracle of consolation on a tablet, and
exposed it in public, and explained its enigmatic
utterance to any one who cared to inquire. But as
a whole his book is the fruit of religious reflection ;
it exhibits the communing and questioning of his
soul—representative no doubt of many other pious
spirits of the time—with God; and records the
answers which the Spirit of God taught him for his
own sake and for the sake of tried souls in every
age. These communings and questionings, these
wrestlings of his spirit with God, were doubtless
spread over some considerable time. It is not to be
supposed that light was given at once. The book
seems rather to be the result of a prolonged mental
struggle. But it is—as I must still believe in spite
x THE BOOK OF HABAKKUK 269

of some recent theories as to its character—an artistic
and connected whole. In form it is dramatic, though
Ewald’s suggestion that it was intended for actual
performance is destitute of all probability.

The book opens with a dialogue between the The book.
prophet and God, in which God is boldly but
reverently challenged to defend His action in the
government of the world (ch. 1.). The answer which
the prophet receives, with the command to inscribe
it upon tablets in legible characters which all may
read, is the assertion of the principles upon which
death and life depend in nations and individuals.
This naturally introduces a detailed denunciation of
the Chaldeans for their career of violence and injustice
(ch. u.). Their victims are represented as rising up
to denounce them, and their crime begets its own
punishment. The last woe is pronounced on the
senseless stupidity of idol- worship; and in magni-
ficent contrast to this folly is pictured the Advent of
the living God for the destruction of the wicked and
the salvation of His people. It is a poetic appeal to
the religious imagination. The splendour of the
thought convinces and overwhelms the prophet’s
heart; a holy fear possesses him in the presence of
this all-sovereign God ; he feels that however gloomy
and disastrous may be the future through which the
nation must pass, he can joyously trust in the God
of his salvation, who will in the end surely fulfil His
purposes for His people (ch. iii).
Ch. t. 2-4.

Ch. i. 5-11.

270 THE BOOK OF HABAKKUK LECT.

I have taken a rapid survey of the whole book,
because it is important to get a general view of the
relation of its parts and of the progress of thought in
it, which are so striking as entirely to outweigh
arguments against the unity of the book derived
from some difficulties of detail. We may now pro-
ceed to examine more fully the way in which the
various thoughts are worked out.

The book commences with a bold expostulation
with Jehovah. Habakkuk contemplates with dismay
the reign of lawlessness around him in Judah. Long
and earnestly has he pleaded with God to interpose,
but no answer has come: evil rears its head un-
checked and unremedied: iniquity, violence, oppres-
sion, plundering, strife, contention, universal paralysis
of law and order: these are the sights he is compelled
to witness day by day around him in Judah. Will
Jehovah never interfere ?

The answer comes from the mouth of Jehovah
Himself. Even now He is raising up the Chaldeans
to be the executioners of His judgement. Unparal-
leled and wholly incredible is the sudden uprising of
this mighty nation, It is fierce and restless; it
marches through the length and breadth of the earth
in an unchecked career of conquest. It acknowledges
no higher law, no superior power; it mocks at the
puny efforts made to resist its advance ; the strongest
fortresses are no bar to its progress. Yet—and here
is the one ray of comfort—though it deifies its own
x THE BOOK OF HABAKKUK 271

strength, it will pass away like the hurricane which
it resembles, and perish self-condemned and be no
more seen.

Such is the answer to the prophet’s complaint. ch. «. 12-17
But it only raises a fresh perplexity in his mind.
Granted that Israel deserves to be punished; granted
that the relation of the eternal God to His people as
the Holy One of Israel is the guarantee that chastise-
ment will not result in annihilation. How, he would
fain know, can the pure and holy God employ such
instruments as these lawless upstarts? How can
He surrender not Israel only but the nations of the
world to the mercy of a tyrant who acknowledges
no law but his own will and worships no god but his
own might? Is this Jehovah’s government of the
world? The judgement seems to be only the triumph
of violence on a larger scale. The correction of one
evil appears to involve the permission of a still
greater evil.

O Jehovah, for yudgement hast thou appointed him /
yea, O Rock, for correction hast thou established him !
O Thou that art of purer eyes than to behold evil, and
that canst not look on perverseness, wherefore lookest thou
upon them that deal treacherously, and holdest Thy peace
when the wicked swalloweth up him that is more right-
cous than he? yea, Thou hast made men as the fishes of
the sea, as the creeping things that have no ruler over
them! ... Shall he therefore not spare to slay the
nations continually (i. 12 ff.) ?
272 PRINCIPLES OF LIFE AND DEATH LECT.

Thus boldly yet reverently the prophet summons
God to explain Himself; and then in earnest expecta-
tion he prepares to watch for an answer, and to
defend his outspoken challenge.

The answer comes, in a brief, enigmatic, pregnant
oracle, which he is to engrave upon a tablet in
characters that may easily be read, as a testimony
to future generations ; for its fulfilment will be long
delayed, albeit come at last it assuredly will.

Behold, his soul is puffed wp, tt is not upright within him ;
But the righteous shall live in his faithfulness (ii. 4).1

St. Paul has adopted the second clause as one of
the watchwords of his theology. He has given it “a
spiritual meaning and a general application.” But
our present aim is to ascertain its primary and
original meaning; and we must be on our guard lest
the New Testament development of the thought
which is here presented to us in germ should lead us
astray as to the meaning which it bears in the
original context.

The first clause describes the Chaldean. His
whole nature is inflated, presumptuous, insincere. It
is essentially false and unreal; and therefore—so we
must complete the sense by inference from the second

1 This verse is the whole of the oracle which is to be engraved
upon a tablet, and perhaps (cp. Isa. viii. 1; xxx. 8), exposed in
public to catch the attention of the passer-by. Vv. 2, 3 give the
reason for the command ; vv. 5 ff. are the expansion of ~ 4 a.
x PRINCIPLES OF LIFE AND DEATH 273

clause—it has no principle of permanence; he is
doomed to perish.

But the righteous—Israel according to its calling,
realised in the character of those godly men who
even in the darkest days represented what Israel was
designed to be—shall live in his faithfulness. We
shall not diewas Habakkuk’s confidentassurance, based
upon the character of Jehovah; and this oracle is the
divine response to that confidence. For the true
Israel his integrity, his trustworthiness, his constancy,
the correspondence of his nature to God’s eternal
law, constitute a principle of permanence: he cannot
perish but is destined to live, through all the cata-
clysms and convulsions which are to shake the world.

This is the sense of the words as they are used by
Habakkuk. We must not anticipate the progress of
revelation by supposing that fazth in the full New
Testament sense of the word is here revealed as the
meaus of life. The Hebrew language indeed has no
word which fully expresses the idea of faith as an
active principle. Yet since integrity of character
and constancy in trouble could only for the Israelite
spring from reliance on Jehovah, the thought of
faith as an active principle is not far distant. St.
Paul takes the message, enlarges it, interprets it,
and shows its fulfilment in the light of the Gospel
revelation.

1 Comp. Bishop Lightfoot, Galatians, pp. 154 ff., ‘On the words

denoting Faith.”
T
274 THE CHALDEANS SELF-DOOMED LECT.

This then is the message which the prophet re-
ceives as the answer to his questionings, that in spite
of all appearances to the contrary pride and injustice
will perish, while righteousness will endure.

Then, fixing his eye on this turbulent, ferocious,
self-confident nation of the Chaldeans, he proceeds
to predict their doom. With dramatic vividness he
summons the nations which have been their victims
to pronounce it. Shall not all these take up a parable
against him, and a taunting riddle, and say, Woe to
him that increaseth that which is not his! how long ?
and that ladeth himself with pledges! Restless ambi-
tion and insatiable lust for conquest will be their
ruin. By their extortions they are as it were
burdening themselves with a crushing: load of debt.
As suddenly as they themselves have arisen, will
others arise to reclaim from them their illgotten
spoils ; as ruthlessly as they have plundered and slain
others, will others plunder and slay them. They that
tahe the sword shall perish with the sword.

Little will their strong fortresses avail to save
them; the very beams and stones are eloquent with
the tale of their oppressions. Bloodshed and iniquity
are not means by which stable cities can be built;
the toil of all these nations which labour wearily to
rear the palaces of Babylon is destined to the flames:
all that opposes the establishment of God’s kingdom
must be destroyed, for (as Isaiah had declared
more than a century before) the carth shall be filled
x THE CHALDEANS SELF-DOOMED 275

with the knowledge of Jehovah, as the waters cover
the sea.

By cunning intrigues they have outwitted their
enemies, and gloat over the sorry spectacle of their
shame:! they in turn must themselves drink of the
cup of Jehovah’s wrath, and their glory be covered
with infamy. Nay, for their misuse of God’s world, the
very forests of Lebanon which they have wantonly
destroyed, and the wild beasts which they have
slain in their savage hunting expeditions, will rise in
judgement against them.’

They have no champion to defend them. What
can the idols which they have themselves manu-
factured avail? What profiteth the graven image, that
the maker thereof hath graven uw? the molten image,
and the teacher of lies, that the maker of his work
trusteth therein, to make dumb idols/*? But how
different is the God of Israel! Jehovah is in His
holy temple : let all the earth keep silence before Him.

+ The language appears to be figurative and to refer generally to
the fraud as well as force which the Chaldeans employed. But it
does not seem impossible that the figure was suggested by an actual
occurrence. Herodotus relates that Cyaxares and the Medians
‘entertained the greater number of the Scythians as their guests,
made them drunk, and then massacred them” (i. 106). Such a

breach of Oriental laws of hospitality could not fail to make a
deep impression, even though the victims of it were the dreaded
Scythian invaders.

? With the principal ancient versions we must read, shall make
thee afraid, in ii. 17.

® It has been suggested that vv. 18 and 19 should be transposed,
so that Woe, etc. may stand first. But it is possible to be led astray
by too rigid a demand for symmetry.
276 JEHOVAH’S COMING LECT.

These words form the transition to the great ode
which occupies ch. iii—the prayer of Habakkuk,
as it is called. As the woes upon the Chaldeans
correspond to the first clause of the central oracle, so
this poem corresponds to the second. For how better
shall the prophet enforce the truth that the righteous
shall live in his faithfulness, than by making men
feel that the living God rules supreme in the world,
and ever and anon comes to judgement with a
purpose of victorious righteousness ?

Habakkuk has received the assurance that Israel’s
sin will speedily be punished; and that in turn their
proud oppressors will be judged for their offences,
while the righteous will live; but that assurance
was coupled with a warning that the fulfilment of it
might be long delayed. He fears that such long
delay may shake the faith of waiting Israel; and so
he prays for a speedier accomplishment of the divine
purpose—

Jehovah, when I heard Thy message I was afraid :
Bring Thy work to life, Jehovah, in the midst of the years.

In the midst of the years wilt thou make it known,
In wrath wilt remember mercy.

The answer to his prayer tlashes upon him as in
a moment. He beholds as in a vision the advent of
Jehovah to judge and to redeem. He describes it in
language borrowed from the great deliverances and
revelations of the past;—the Red Sea, Sinai, the
Jordan, the conquest of the Promised Land. These,
x FOR JUDGEMENT AND SALVATION 277

as the language implies, are all pledges for the
future. To the Oriental mind, with its disciplined
and well-stored memory, the law of association
meant far more than it does to us. A word
suggested a whole train of thought. A phrase
implied an argument. And so it is here. The
recollection of the past is the ground of hope for the
future. He who once wrought these wonderful
works for His people will not fail to work the like
again in His own time and His own way.!

Habakkuk sees God coming as He came of old to
manifest His Presence at Sinai The radiance of
His glory fills heaven and earth. Light unapproach-
able, impenetrable, conceals His power. When He
takes His stand, the earth trembles, nations are
scattered, the unchanging mountains are convulsed ;
as of old He came, so now He comes again.

The nations tremble at His coming. He dries up

1 Such I believe to be the right principle of interpretation of this
difficult ode, following in the main the renderings of the margin of
the R.V. Many commentators, adopting the renderings which the
text of the R.V. has retained from the A.V., regard it as wholly a
historic retrospect, recalling the great deliverances of the past as
pledges for the future. This method of interpretation appears to
be less in accordance with the grammatical constructions, though
it may be admitted that these are not decisive ; it involves more
difficulties in detail; and it gives a less forcible meaning to the
whole. But whichever line of interpretation is followed, the
general purport of the whole is the same ; to impress upon the
heart by the help of the imagination the great truth of God’s
sovereign rule in the world. For a rendering of the Prayer to
illustrate the line of interpretation adopted see Note B, p. 283.

2 Cp. Deut. xxxiii. 2; Judges v. 4,5; Ps. Ixviii. 7.
278 JEHOVAH’S COMING LECT.

the sea, and divides the rivers as He did of old. No
obstacles can bar His progress. His bow is drawn
to discomfit the enemies of His people.

All nature trembles awestruck. The sun and
moon withdraw their light, outshone by the glitter-
ing of His arrows and the lightning flash of His
spear. He marches through the earth in an irresist-
ible progress of judgement. This is the twofold
purpose of His coming, to redeem His people and
to execute judgement upon their oppressors.

Thow art come forth for the salvation of Thy people,

For the salvation of Thine anointed ;

Thou hast shattered the head from the house of the wicked,
Laying bare the foundation to the rock.

Thow hast pierced with his own spears the head of his warriors,
Who came as a whirlwind to scatter me,

Exulting as it were to devour the afflicted in secret.

The prophet feared when he heard the message of
impending judgement (v. 2); and now, in view of
this awful manifestation of God’s Presence and
power, he trembles with a terror which convulses
his whole frame. But while he trembles, he learns
the secret which will give him patience, nay more,
rejoicing in the day of trouble, when the land lies
utterly desolate from the Chaldean invasion. He
can endure, as seeing Him Who is invisible, working
in the world.

For though the fig tree blossom not,
And there be no fruit upon the vines ;
x FOR JUDGEMENT AND SALVATION 279

Though the labour of the olive disappoint,
And the fields produce no food ;

Though the flock be cut off from the fold,
And there be no herd in the stalls ;

Yet as for me, I will exult in Jehovah,

I will rejoice in the God of my salvation.

Earthly hopes may fail, but in Jehovah there is
an unfailing spring of calm happiness in the midst
of trouble. And one day the indefeasible purpose of
Jehovah for His people will be accomplished, He
will give them secure possession of their own land.
In bold language of faith he sees that goal attained :

Jehovah the Lord is my strength,
He will surely make my feet like hinds’ feet,
And cause me to tread upon mine high places.

IV

Habakkuk’s prophecy was a timely word of tages
consolation to those who had to watch the dissolu- bt.
tion of their country, the horrors of the Chaldean
invasion, the last agony of the siege and capture of
Jerusalem, and the shadows of the long night of the
captivity settling down over the city and the land
they loved. Has he not a special message for an
age like our own, in which the problems of human
existence, of permitted evil, of the slow advance of
good, press heavily upon thoughtful minds, till some
are fain to ask whether there is a righteous God at
all, or whether, if there be a righteous God, He is
280 INTEGRITY OF THE LECT.

not contending with antagonistic forces which He
cannot altogether control ?

Faith and patience are the gist and essence of
Habakkuk’s message. He teaches us that we iust
not look at one small part of God’s government
alone, but study the whole so far as we may see
it; for then we shall know that it does make for
righteousness; we shall learn to trust where we
cannot understand; we shall be enabled to wait in
patience for the end which will solve the riddle.
We see in Habakkuk an example of the higher faith
that comes through doubt—doubt not captious and
hasty, but reverent, humble, patient, longing to know
more of God and of His ways. Such questionings as
his are answered, not with a demonstration that
will satisfy the caviller who demands to live by
sight, but with that fuller sense of God—for us of
God in Christ—which is life eternal.

Lord, who Thy thousand years dost wait
To work the thousandth part

Of thy vast plan, for us create
With zeal, a patient heart.

Note A.—INTEGRITY AND STRUCTURE OF THE Book oF
HABAKKUK.

I do not propose to discuss the grounds upon which some
modern critics maintain that chaps. i. 1—ii. 8 is the only part
of the book which is to be assigned to the Habakkuk of the
Chaldean period; ch. ii. 9-20 being an addition of post-
exilic times, describing a heathen or heathenishly disposed
x BOOK OF HABAKKUK 281

enemy of the congregation, and ch. iii. a prayer of the
post-exilic congregation in time of distress, possibly written
by the author of ch. ii, 9-20, possibly taken from some
collection of Psalms arranged for use in the Temple. If
the view of the organic connexion between the several parts
of the book which I have endeavoured to maintain is correct,
the theory falls to the ground, unless it is to be supposed
that the original prophecy has been worked up by an artist
at least as skilful as the prophet himself. In support of the
view taken in the text I append the following analysis.

The book falls into three main divisions.

A.—tThe Problem. Ch, i.

(1) Habakkuk speaks, expostulating with Jehovah for
allowing wrong to triumph unchecked so long in Judah
(2-4).

(2) Jehovah answers, pointing to the Chaldeans, whom
He has raised up to chastise the guilty nation. Their
terrible character is described (5-11).

(3) Habakkuk rejoins, expressing his astonishment that
Jehovah can not only tolerate these monsters of cruelty, but
use them as His instruments. Are they to go on for ever
unchecked in their course of rapine (12-17) ?

B.—The Solution. Parti. Ch. ii.

(1) Habakkuk pauses, waiting for an answer, and con-
sidering how he may best support his bold challenge of the
divine rectitude (v. 1).

(2) The answer comes, declaring that the proud Chaldean
has in himself the germ of ruin, while the righteous pos-
sesses the principle of life (2—4).

(3) The first of these thoughts is expanded. The Chal-
dean’s drunkenness, his restless ambition, his insatiable lust
282 THE BOOK OF HABAKKUK LECT:

for conquest will prove his ruin (v. 5). His victims are
introduced ! heaping their execrations upon him in a series
of woes, for the barbarous cruelties of his conquests, which
will recoil upon his own head (6-8); for the bloodshed and
injustice by which his empire has been established (9-11) ;
for the merciless tyranny by which his capital has been
built (12-14) ; for the cunning intrigues by which he had
entrapped his victims and for his wanton outrages of nature
(15-17) ; for his senseless idolatry (18-20),

V. 20 contrasts the living God with the dumb and lifeless
idols, and forms the transition to

C.—The Solution. Part ii. Ch. iii.

(1) Habakkuk has heard the announcement of God’s
judgement on Israel, and of the ultimate doom of the
Chaldeans, But he fears that the long postponement of
the latter which is contemplated (ii, 2,3) may prove too
severe a trial of faith, and therefore he prays that the time
of waiting may be shortened (iii. 2),

(2) The answer to his prayer is given in the fuller
revelation of Jehovah’s working in the world, which is
expressed by the description of His Advent to redeem His
people and to judge their enemies (3-15).

(3) Reflecting on this sublime Theophany the prophet
(speaking in the name of the faithful Israel) expresses his
determination to rejoice in Jehovah even in the midst of
distress, in full assurance that He will one day put His
people in secure possession of their land (16-19).

It may be observed in conclusion that the dramatic
character of this ‘prayer’ is entirely in keeping with the

1 Perhaps this idea is lost sight of after v. 8, and in vv. 9 ff. the
prophet?speaks rather in his own person.
x THE PRAYER OF HABAKKUK 283

dramatic character of chaps. i. and ii.; although it differs
from those chapters as poetry from prose,

Notr B.—Tue Prayer or HaBakKoK.

I subjoin a rendering of ch, iii. to illustrate the line of
interpretation adopted in the text.

A Prayer! of Habakkuk the prophet. In the dithyrambic
mode?

I

Jehovah, when I heard Thy message I was afraid.

Bring Thy work to life, Jehovah, in the midst of the years.
In the midst of the years Thou wilt make it known,

In wrath wilt remember mercy.

I

God cometh from Teman,

And the Holy One from Mount Paran.

His majesty covereth the heavens,

And the earth is full of His praise,

For the brightness is as the sunlight,

He hath rays coming forth from His hand ;
And there is the hiding-place of His power.
Before Him goeth Pestilence,

And Fever followeth in His track.

He hath taken His stand, and made earth to quake ;
He hath looked, and made nations tremble ;
And the eternal mountains are scattered,

1 Cp. 1 Sam. ii. 1; Psalms Ixxii. 20; xe. 1.

° Shigidnoth, the plural of Shiggaion (Psalm vii.) probably
denotes a particular style of music or poetry, or may include
both.
284 THE PRAYER OF HABAKKUK LECT.

The aeonian hills do bow ;

His goings are as of old.

Under affliction do I see the tents of Cushan ;
The curtains of the land of Midian are trembling.

Is it against the rivers, O Jehovah,

Is it against the rivers that Thine anger is kindled,
Is Thy fury against the sea,

That Thou ridest upon Thine horses,

Upon Thy chariots of salvation ?

Thy bow is bared fully bare ;

(By oath are Thy chastisements decreed) ;1

With rivers Thou cleavest the earth.

The mountains see Thee, they tremble ;

The flood of waters overflows :

The deep utters his voice,

The height lifts up his hands.

Sun and moon abide in their dwelling ;

At the light of Thine arrows as they go,

At the lightning flash of Thy spear.

When Thou marchest through the earth in indignation,
Dost thresh the nations in anger.

Thou art come forth for the salvation of Thy people,

For the salvation of Thine Anointed :

Thou hast shattered the head from the house of the
wicked,

Laying bare the foundation to the rock.?

Thou hast pierced with his own spears the head of his
warriors,

Who came as a whirlwind to scatter me,

Exulting as it were to devour the aftlicted in secret.

1 Reading and interpretation are very uncertain.
2 Adopting Cheyne’s ingenious emendation, Psalms, p. 396.
THE PRAYER OF HABAKKUK 285

Thou hast trodden the sea with Thine horses,
The heap of mighty waters.

Ir

I heard, and I trembled inwardly ;

My lips quivered at the voice ;

The strength of my bones decayed,

And my limbs trembled under me :

That I must wait calmly for the day of distress,
When the troop of invaders cometh up against my people
For though the fig tree blossom not,

And there be no fruit upon the vines ;

Though the labour of the olive disappoint,

And the fields produce no food ;

Though the flock be cut off from the fold,

And there be no herd in the stalls ;

Yet as for me, I will exult in Jehovah,

I will rejoice in the God of my salvation.
Jehovah, the Lord, is my strength ;

He will surely make my feet like hinds’ feet,
And cause me to tread upon mine high places.
Tragic in-
terest of the
life and
times of
Jeremiah.

LECTURE NI

JEREMIAH

Behold, I have put My words in thy mouth: sec, I have this
day set thee over the nations and over the kingdoms, to pluck up
and to break down, and to destroy and to overthrow ; to build, and
to plant. JEREMIAH i. 9, 10,

I

THERE is a tragic interest attaching to the life and
times of Jeremiah. The circumstances of the age,
the person of the prophet, the character of his
message, all combine to demand our sympathetic
study. Who can watch unmoved, even at the
distance of twenty-five centuries, the death-agony of
a nation, and that nation the chosen people of God ?
Who can fail to be deeply touched by the story
of the prophet’s life-long martyrdom, ended not
improbably by a martyr’s death,—that story with
its frank confessions of human weakness, and its
unrivalled testimony to the reality of God-given
strength ? Who can ponder without awe the record
of human hardness and obstinacy, insensible alike
to the pleadings of love and the denunciations of
LECT. XI HISTORY OF THE TIME 287

wrath? Who can trace without wonder and reverence
the irresistible advance of God’s purpose through
and in spite of man’s opposition to His will, bringing
life out of death, and shaping a new order out of the
dissolution of the old?

The Book of Jeremiah is a combination of history, iris book.
biography, and prophecy, which carries us into the
heart of the age, and pictures for us the character of
the prophet, more strikingly and completely than any
of the other prophetic books. It is—let it be freely
confessed—less attractive in outward form than
Isaiah: I doubt if it is studied as it deserves to be;
but it yields to no book in its intensely human
interest.

II

Very briefly let us recall the history of that long wistory of
half-century during which Jeremiah’s ministry lasted Josiah
(B.C. 627-577). His call took place in the thirteenth » ae
year of Josiah (i. 1). It was an auspicious moment.

The power of Assyria was weakened; and although
probably still nominally subject to it, Judah was
enjoying practical freedom. A noble-hearted king
was on the throne in the bloom of youth, surrounded
by right-minded advisers. A religious reformation Josian's re-
had just been set on foot’ to purge the country eo
the idolatrous worship and flagrant immoralities

1 According to 2 Chron. xxxiv. 3, Josiah began his reformation
in the twelfth year of his reign, the year before Jeremiah’s call.
288 HISTORY OF JEREMIAH’S TIMES LECT.

which had been dominant through the long and
disastrous reign of Manasseh (2 Kings xxi.; xxiii.
4 ff.; Jer. vii. 9 ff, 17 ff, 30 ff.; viii. 2; xix. 13; xxxii.
29, etc.; Zeph.i. 4 ff). That reign, with its horrible
enormities, had filled up the measure of Judah’s guilt
(2 Kings xxiv. 38,4; Jer. xv. 4); yet in God’s for-
bearance one last opportunity of repentance was to
be offered ere the final sentence of doom was pro-
nounced on the apostate nation and the guilty city.

This movement of reform Jeremiah supported by
his public preaching. To this period may be referred,
in the main at least, the contents of chaps. i1—vi.,
(see iii. 6); though it is highly probable that some
of these utterances were modified in the light of
subsequent experience, when he committed them to
writing in the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim.
Repentance was indeed still possible. Amend your
ways and your doings, and I will cause you to dwell
in this place, are the words in which he sums up the
teaching of this period (vi. 3). But he seems soon
to have found that the sin of Judah was so ingrained
and inveterate that there was but little hope of any
thorough amendment. The sin of Judah was written
with a pen of won, with the point of a diamond (xvii.
1); and their virtual reply to all his exhortations to
repentance was, 7hrre is no hope: for we will walk
after our own devices, and we will do cvery one after the
stubbornness of his cril heart (xviii. 12).

Eighteen years after the commencement of Jere-
XI HISTORY OF JEREMIAH’S TIMES 289

miah’s ministry, Josiah fell, fighting against Pharaoh-
Necoh, on the fatal battlefield of Megiddo. The
last hopes of Judah perished with him.

His second son, Jehoahaz or Shallum, was placed on sehoanaz,
the throne ; but, after a brief reign of three months, noon
he was enticed by Pharaoh-Necoh to Riblah,! made
prisoner, and carried away to Egypt. Jeremiah and
Ezekiel appear to have seen some promise of good in
him, for they both speak with sorrow of his untimely
fate (Jer, xxii. 10-12 ; Ezek. xix. 3, 4).

In his stead Necoh placed Josiah’s eldest son Jehoiakim,
Eliakim on the throne, changing his name to Jehoi- o
akim. Judah thus became a dependency of Egypt.

Jehoiakim was a cruel, selfish, luxurious prince
(Jer. xxii. 13 ff). With his accession the old pagan-
ising party again came into power. The worship of
Jehovah was not indeed suspended, but it was com-
bined with heathen idolatries. But mark God’s
long-suffering. Still the offer of pardon was held out,
and on two occasions at least deliberately and con-
temptuously rejected.

The first of these occasions was in the beginning
of, Jehoiakim’s reign (xxvi. 1 ff; cp. vii. 1 ff).
Jeremiah was directed to take his stand in the

1 Riblah was on the Orontes, midway between Damascus and
Hamath. It was the meeting-point of the main routes eastward
to the Euphrates, westward to the coast and Pheenicia, southward
to Damascus and the Jordan. Pharaoh-Necoh was halting there
before advancing to the Euphrates ; and Nebuchadnezzar made it
his headquarters for his campaign against Jerusalem and Phcenicia
(Jer, xxxix. 5, 6).

U
290 HISTORY OF JEREMIAH’S TIMES LECT,

Temple court on some public fast or festival, when
the inhabitants of all the cities of Judah would have
come to Jerusalem to worship, and deliver his
message in the ears of all the people. J¢ may be
they will hearken, and turn every man from his evil
way ; that Imay repent Me of the evil, which I purpose
to do unto them because of the evil of their downgs.
But instead of repenting, the people, led by the
priests and the prophets, seized Jeremiah and
clamoured for his life. The charge against him,
like the charge against our Lord Himself and against
St. Stephen, was one of blasphemy, for threatening
the Temple and city with desolation (vv. 11,12). He
was only saved by the courageous firmness of certain
elders, who defended him by quoting the example of
Micah in the reign of Hezekiah, won over the
people in spite of the persistent hostility of priests
and prophets (xxvi. 16, 17), and secured his acquittal.

The second occasion was in the fifth year of
Jehoiakim (xxxvi. 9 ff). The roll which Baruch had
written at Jeremiah’s dictation, and read in public
on the great fast day in the ears of all the people,
was taken to the king. We are familiar with the
scene of the king sitting with his courtiers in his
winter-palace, with the fire in a brasier burning
before him. Jehudi began to read the roll to him,
but he had read no more than three or four columns
when the king impatiently seized it, contemptuously
cut it to shreds with his own hand, and flung it into
xl HISTORY OF JEREMIAH’S TIMES 291

the fire which was burning before him. A few of the
more reverently-minded princes made intercession to
the king not to burn the roll, but he would not listen
to them. The rest looked on with indifference or
approval. The prophet’s warnings made no impres-
sion on them. The king’s contempt for Jehovah’s
message did not strike them with any horror. They
were not afraid, nor rent their garments, netther the
king, nor any of his servants that heard all these words.
Thus once more, through its chief head and repre-
sentative, the nation proclaimed its impenitence, and
set the seal to its doom.

Meanwhile the great battle of Carchemish,! in the
fourth year of Jehoiakim, B.c. 605, had settled the
question of the supremacy of Western Asia. In that
great battle—it was one of the decisive battles of
ancient history—the forces of Egypt under Necoh
met those of Babylon under Nebuchadnezzar (Jer.
xlvi. 2 ff). Nebuchadnezzar was completely victori-
ous, and the Egyptians were compelled to retreat.
For the moment he was unable to follow up his suc-
cess, as his father’s death recalled him to Babylon.
But he soon returned to secure the fruits of his
victory, drove Necoh’s forces back to Egypt, and

+ Carchemish used generally to be identified with the classical
Circesium, at the junction of the Chaboras with the Euphrates, but
is now thought to have been situated much farther up the river to
the north-west at Jerabis. In either case it commanded the pas-
sage of the Euphrates, and hence the decisive battle was fought
there.
Jehoiachin,
B.C. 597.

Zedekiah,
B.C. 597-586.

292 HISTORY OF JEREMIAH’S TIMES LECT.

added to the Babylonian empire all the provinces
which had belonged to Egypt, right up to the frontier
of that country (2 Kings xxiv. 7). Jehoiakim became
his vassal. For three years he served him, and then
rebelled. It was an act of mad folly. Nebuchad-
nezzar soon appeared before the walls of Jerusalem.
Jehoiakim probably fell in some skirmish.’ His son
Jehoiachin, otherwise known as Jeconiah or Coniah,
succeeded him. But after a brief reign of three
months he was compelled to surrender. He was
carried prisoner to Babylon; and Josiah’s youngest
son Mattaniah placed on the throne —if throne it
could now be called—under the name of Zedekiah.
The name signifies Jehovah’s righteousness. Did the
heathen monarch know what bitter irony and stern
truth there was in the name he gave the puppet
king? Jehovah’s righteousness : just what the faith-
less king and the ungodly people would not believe
in; and because they would not believe in it, and
respond to it in their lives, it must be made manifest
in the awful judgements now about to fall on the
people of God.

Calamity produced no reformation. In vain Jere-
miah declared that submission to the yoke of Babylon
was God’s will; that the exiles in Babylon should
resign themselves to a prolonged sojourn there, and
that those who remained in Judiea should bear the

1 Jer. xxii. 19; cp. the silence of 2 Kings xxiv. 6 about his
burial.
Xi HISTORY OF JEREMIAH’S TIMES 293

yoke of vassalage with equanimity. In the fourth
year of his reign Zedekiah seems to have been plot-
ting rebellion. It is clear from the purport of Jere-
miah’s message to the kings of Edom, Moab, Ammon,
Tyre, and Zidon (xxvii. 1 ff.),1 that their object in
sending ambassadors to Jerusalem was to form a
confederacy to throw off the yoke of Babylon; and
it is natural to connect Zedekiah’s visit to Babylon
in the same year (li. 59) with this movement.
Nebuchadnezzar no doubt had heard of it, and forth-
with summoned his vassal to appear before him and
renew his oath of allegiance.

At length Pharaoh-Hophra came to the throne,
and, trusting in the old delusion of Egyptian support,
Zedekiah broke his oath. An oath was none the less
binding because it was taken to a heathen king.
Indignantly Ezekiel asks, Shall he prosper? shall he
escape that doeth such things? shall he break the cove-
nant and yet escape (xvii. 15, 16)? Nebuchadnezzar
with a powerful army appeared before Jerusalem
and besieged it. The advance of an Egyptian army
compelled him temporarily to raise the siege (Jer.
xxxvil. 5 ff). But the end was close at hand. After
an eighteen months’ siege famine made further resist-
ance impossible. A breach was made in the walls,
and the city was taken, on the ninth day of the
fourth month of the eleventh year of the reign of

' It is evident from xxvii. 3, 12, 20; xxviii. 1, that Jehoiakim
in xxvii. 1 is a textual error for Zedekiah.

Destruction
of Jerusa-
lem, B.C.
586.
294 HISTORY OF JEREMIAH’S TIMES LECT.

Zedekiah. Zedekiah attempted to escape, but was
captured by the Chaldeans, and brought before Nebu-
chadnezzar at Riblah. After his sons and the nobles
who had been taken prisoners had been put to death
before his eyes, he was himself blinded, according to
the brutal custom of the time, and carried in fetters
to Babylon, fulfilling to the letter Ezekiel’s prophecy
that he should not see Babylon, though he would die
there (Ezek. xii. 13). A month later Nebuzaradan
appeared at Jerusalem to execute his master’s sen-
tence on the rebellious city (2 Kings xxv. 8 ff.). The
principal priests and officers and sixty prominent
citizens were sent to Riblah for execution; all the re-
maining treasures of the temple were carried off; the
temple, palace, and city were burnt; and all the people
of the better class were carried away into exile. Only
some of the poorest of the people were left behind
to cultivate the land. Over these Gedaliah, the son
of Jeremiah’s protector Ahikam, was appointed
governor. Here, at least, there seemed to be a gleam
of hope. But the miserable jealousy of a member of
the royal family—Ishmael, the son of Nethaniah,
instigated by Baalis, the king of Judah’s ancient
enemies the Ammonites— speedily quenched it.
Gedaliah was treacherously murdered; the leaders
of the people, fearing the vengeance of the Chaldeans,
migrated —in defiance of Jeremiah’s advice — to
Egypt, where the Jews were scattered about, and
fell into their old idolatries (Jer. xl-xliv.). Five
XI HISTORY OF JEREMIAH’S TIMES 295

years later another deportation completed the de-
population of Judea (lit, 30); the land was left
utterly desolate to enjoy her Sabbaths; Jeremiah’s
predictions and threatenings were fulfilled to the
very letter in his own lifetime, and before his own
eyes.

Thus, by the utter destruction of city and sanctu-
ary, another volume of Israel’s history was closed. The
destruction of the sanctuary at Shiloh had marked
the end of the age of the Judges ; the destruction of
Solomon’s Temple marked the end of the period of
the monarchy ; the destruction of the second Temple
by Titus was to mark by a yet more terrible catas-
trophe the close of the national history of Israel in
their own land.

It is necessary thus briefly to trace the features
of the history of Jeremiah’s times; to point out the
obstinacy, the impenitence, the infatuation of kings,
princes, and people during at any rate the last half
of that eventful fifty years, if we would at all realise
the agony, the bitterness, the struggle of Jeremiah’s
ministry, as the long night of the exile settled down
in storm and gloom upon his beloved country; and
the strength of the prophetic inspiration by which
he was enabled to foresee a nobler city arising out of
the ruins of the old, a new covenant taking the place
of that which seemed to have been so decisively
annulled.
The prophet
Jeremiah.

His call, ch.
LAL.

His char-
acter,

296 JEREMIAH’S MISSION LECT.

Il

Let us now fix our attention on the prophet him-
self. His book is to a large extent an autobiography
—a volume of personal “confessions,” from which we
learn to know him in his weakness as well as his
strength, and to sympathise with him in the trying
circumstances of his long and arduous ministry. He
was a priest, and his home was at Anathoth, a village
about three miles to the north-east of Jerusalem.
His active ministry was mainly exercised in Jeru-
salem, but apparently he continued to live at
Anathoth (xi. 21; xii. 6; xxxii. 7). He was but a
youth when the word of Jchovah came to him. He
would fain have declined the call. Ah, Lord Jehovah!
behold, I cannot speak ; for Tama child. But man’s
I cannot was met by God’s Thow shalt. Say not, I
am a child: for upon whatsoever errand I shall send
thee thou shalt go, and whatsoever I shall command
thee thou shalt speak... Behold, I have put My words
in thy mouth: sce, I have this day set thee over the
nations and over the kingdoms, to pluck up and to
break down, and to destroy and to overthrow ; to build
and to plant... Gird up thy loins, and arise, and
speak wnto them all that IT command thee: be not
dismayed at them, lest I dismay thee before them
(i. 6 ff, 17).

We mark at the outset the prophet’s natural
timidity of character, and reluctance to face the
XI JEREMIAH’S MISSION 297

terrible task before him. The same characteristics
reappear in later life, when, in the midst of de-
famation and persecution, he would gladly have kept
silence, or fled to some solitary lodge in the wilder-
ness (xx. 9; ix. 2), Jeremiah was not the man upon
whom human choice would have fallen for so diffi-
cult, nay, desperate a mission; but God chooses
the weak for His instruments, in order that the
strength with which He endows them may be seen
to be all His own.

Yet we may recognise in Jeremiah’s character a wis mission.
special fitness for his mission. That tender, shrink-
ing, sympathetic heart could more fully feel, and
more adequately express, the ineffable divine sorrow
over the guilty people, the eternal love which was
never stronger than at the moment when it seemed
to have been metamorphosed into bitter wrath and
implacable vengeance.

Jeremiah’s commission concerned not Israel only,
but “the nations’: he was to be the exponent of
God’s world-plan in that age of convulsion and up-
heaval. It was primarily to pluck up and to break
down, and to destroy and to overthrow; though ulti-
mately to build, and to plant; in other words, to
announce the removal of the existing order of things
to make room for a fresh one. Jehovah was as the
potter who shapes his work upon the wheels, re-
moulding it into new forms according to his purpose,
dealing with nations and men in His sovereign
298 JEREMIAH’S MINISTRY Lu.

power, not arbitrarily or capriciously, but according
to their deserts. It was a commission which might
well have daunted a bolder heart than Jeremiah’s.
Alone he must stand, in opposition to rulers and
people alike, to kings and princes, priests and
prophets, and all the people of the land (i. 18).
Some friends and supporters he had in the earlier
days of his ministry; but they died or were carried
into exile, and the more he needed support and en-
couragement, as his mission grew more difficult, the
more entirely was it denied him. He was to form
no domestic ties; to abstain from sharing the social
joys, or showing his sympathy with the natural
sorrows, of his countrymen (xvi. 1 ff.). His stern and
cheerless life of isolation must express the burden
of his message, and figure the doom of his people.
Modes of We may watch him at his work, delivering his
; message in the most public places, on the most
public occasions, in the Temple courts, at the royal
palace, at the city gates, upon days of fast or festival,
when the people from the country had come to
Jerusalem to worship! We see him using symbolism
which involved a laborious journey as the foundation
of his teaching (xiii. 1); deducing a lesson of warning
from the sight of the potter at his wheel (xviii. 1 ff);
taking a party of elders into the valley of Hinnom
by the “potsherds’ gate,” and breaking an earthen

1 See vii. 2; xvii. 19; xix. 14; xxii. 15 xxvii 2; xxxv. 2;
XEXVL. 5, 10,
xr JEREMIAH’S MINISTRY 299

pitcher into fragments before them as an illustration
of the ease with which Jerusalem would be destroyed,
and the irreparableness of the destruction (xix. 1 ff.).
He takes the Rechabites, and tempts them to disobey
their father’s command, in order to point to the
contrast between their fidelity to a father’s precept
and Israel’s disregard of Jehovah's law (xxxv. 1 ff.).
In the last siege of Jerusalem he proves his confidence
that his prophecies of ultimate restoration would be
fulfilled, by exercising his right as next of kin to
redeem a field at Anathoth, on which very possibly
the Chaldeans were at that moment encamped
(xxxii. 6 ff.).

With the help of his faithful scribe and disciple
Baruch, he commits his prophecies to writing, gather-
ing together a record of his first twenty-three years
of ministry, at the crisis when Nebuchadnezzar was
on the point of invading Judah; and when the
godless Jehoiakim destroyed the roll, re-writing it
with many fresh additions. Specially was he
charged to commit to writing those wonderful
prophecies of restoration which form the Book of
Consolation (chaps. xxx.-xxxili.), to be a witness
during the long years of exile to Jehovah’s purpose,
and a comfort to the faithful in their banishment
from country and sanctuary and all that they held
most dear.

Jeremiah’s ministry was a life-long martyrdom.
Not only was it in its nature a burden that might
His suffer-
ings.

300 JEREMIAH’S SUFFERINGS LECT.

well have crushed the strongest spirit ; not only was
he compelled to stand almost alone against the whole
nation; but he was actually the object of bitter
persecution: his very life was constantly in danger.
His neighbours at Anathoth sought to murder him.
They devised devices against him, saying, Led us destroy
the tree with the fruit thereof, and let us cut him off
Jrom the land of the living, that his name may be
no more remembered (xi. 18 ff.). His own family
raised the hue and cry after him, and could not be
trusted (xii. 6). Denounce, and we will denounce him,
say all my familiar friends, they that watch for my
halting ; peradventure he will be enticed, and we shall
prevail against him, and we shall take our revenge
on him (xx. 10). The priest who was the chief
officer of the Temple thrust him in the stocks for
profaning (as he thought) the Temple court with his
forebodings of evil (xx. 1 ff.). The popular prophets
were in constant opposition to him, both in
Jerusalem and in Babylon (xxii. 9 ffi; xxvil. 1;
xxix. 1) endeavouring, only too successfully, to
neutralise his message with their flattering falsehoods.
Not even when he solemnly predicted the death of
Hananiah, and his prediction came to pass within
two months (xxviii. 16 f.); nor when he declared
that Ahab and Zedekiah, who were not only false
prophets, but immoral livers, would suffer the
horrible Babylonian punishment of being burnt alive
(xxix. 21 ff), did the people believe him.
XI JEREMIAH’S SUFFERINGS 301

Priests and prophets, as we have seen, clamoured
for his life, and put him upon his trial for predicting
the destruction of the city and the Temple. Jehoi-
akim sought to arrest him after he had written the
roll; and the example of Uriah, who for similar
prophecies was brought back from Egypt, whither he
had fled, put to death, and his corpse ignominiously
flung into the graves of the common people, shews
that in the profane degeneracy of this unbelieving
age, no inviolable sanctity attached to the person of
a prophet, and Jeremiah might easily have shared
the fate of Uriah (xxvi. 20 ff). In the siege he
was charged with the intention of deserting to the
Chaldeans, and thrown into prison (xxxvii. 14 ff.).
The military party demanded his execution. The
pusillanimous king dared not oppose them. They
flung him into a filthy dungeon, to perish by
starvation ; and he was only rescued from it by the
charity of a foreigner (xxxviii. 1 ff). He was
dragged away perforce to Egypt by the men who
consulted him whether they should remain in Jeru-
salem, and then had not faith or courage to follow
his advice (xliil. 6). Finally, if tradition may be
accepted, he was stoned to death at Daphnae, in
Egypt, by the angry people, who were impatient of
his denunciations of their idolatries.

We should have been glad to think that he ris
endured this persecution with meekness and patience
and forgivingness, We can hardly,indeed, be surprised
302 JEREMIAH’S COMPLAINTS LECT.

that he bemoaus his hard lot, or even curses the day
of his birth (xv. 10 ff.; xx. 14 ff). Many a Christian
man’s faith has failed him, and in moments of
despair he has wished that he had never been born.
When he challenges the justice of God’s govern-
ment (xii. 1 ff.), or even complains that he has been
deceived and deluded (xx. 7), we can sympathise
with the human despair and weariness which for the
moment loses its hold on God, and sinks exhausted
and hopeless.

and denun- But we are startled, nay, horror-struck, to hear

fis enemies. his bitter curses against his persecutors, his passionate
invocations of divine vengeance upon them.!' They
reach a terrible climax in ch. xvii. 19 ff.

Give heed to me, Jehovah, and hearken unto the voice
of them that contend with me? Shall evil be recom-
pensed for good? for they have digged a pit for my
soul. Remember how I stood before Thee to speak good
for them, to turn away Thy fury from them. There-
fore deliver up their children to the famine, and give
them over to the power of the sword ; and let their wives
become childless and widows ; and let their men be slain
of death, and their young men snvritten of the sword in
battle... . For Thou, Jehorah, Thou knowest all their
counsel against me to slay me: forgive not their in-
iquity, neither blot Thou their sin from Thy sight; but

1 See xi. 18 ff. ; xv. 15 1% ; xvii. 18; xviii. 19 ff. ; xx. 11,
* Should we not read with the LXX., the voice of my plea?
Cp. ch. xx. 12; Job xiii. 6.
XI JEREMIAH’S COMPLAINTS 308

let them be made to stumble before Thee: deal Thou with
them in the time of Thine anger.

Let us be just to Jeremiah. The provocation was
tremendous. The most strenuous efforts for the
welfare of his countrymen were recompensed with
treacherous plots against his life, or open demands
for his execution. And we must not judge him by
the standard of the Gospel. It is the spirit of
Elijah and Elisha, not of Christ. It is the spirit
of Zechariah, whose dying words were, The Lord
look upon it and require it; not the spirit of
Stephen, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. Let
it be granted that some personal vindictiveness
was mingled with those imprecations. But there
was a far deeper meaning in them. They were
—in however imperfect a way—the expression of
a desire for the triumph of righteousness, for the
manifestation of God’s justice in the world. We
must remember how keenly the prophet felt that his
cause was God’s cause, and that his enemies were
God’s enemies ; that God’s honour was at stake to
defend and vindicate His prophet, and prove his
opponents to be utterly in the wrong; while in those
times the idea of future rectification and redress of
the wrongs of this world was hardly, if at all, enter-
tained, and godly men longed to see God’s righteous
judgement visibly manifested in this present life.

Nor must we forget the other side of the prophet’s Another side

character; the tender sympathy of his nature,—I. lee
Jeremiah a
type of
Christ.

Jeremiah's
teaching.

Jehovah
and Israel.

304 JEREMIAH’S TEACHING LECT.

suspect it was largely this which made him feel the
malice of his persecutors so bitterly—the deep sorrow
with which he watched his infatuated country rush-
ing madly to irreparable ruin (eg. iv. 19 ff; viii.
18 ff.) ; the faith that believed and obeyed and acted
even where it could not understand (xxxii. 17 ff.),
resting itself upon the character of God revealed and
proved in the long history of His dealings with His
people.

Unchristlike as was his temper in denouncing his
enemies, men have rightly seen in Jeremiah a type
of Christ. The solitary sufferer, defamed and perse-
cuted, and opposed by the spiritual leaders of the
nation, in an age when the country was hastening to
ruin, prefigures Him who was to suffer many things of
the elders and chief preests and scribes, as He made the
last offer of God’s mercy to an obdurate people, before
they were scattered for a dispersion compared to
which the seventy years of exile were to be but as a
few days.

IV

From the prophet we turn to his message. It
was in the main a call to repentance and a warning
of judgement. Like Amos and Hosea, he based his
preaching on the relation of Jehovah to Israel,
Jehovah had chosen Israel, and entered into covenant
with them, brought them out of Egypt, and led them

‘
XI JEREMIAH’S TEACHING 305

through the wilderness; He had continually edu-
cated them by the ministry of His prophets (ii 1 ff,
6 ff.; vii. 25). Like Hosea, Jeremiah uses the figures
of marriage and sonship to describe the closeness of
Israel’s relation to Jehovah, and the duties implied
in that relationship. J remember for thee the kindness
of thy youth, the love of thine espousals; how thou
wentest after Me in the wilderness, in a land that was
not sown (11.2). I am a father to Israel, and Ephraim
is My firstborn (xxxi. 9).

“But Israel had forsaken Jehovah, and chosen seraers
other gods ; and false belief had led to a deep-seated sha
and inveterate moral degeneracy. J/y people have
committed two evils; they have forsaken Me the foun-
tain of living waters, to hew out for themselves cisterns,
broken cisterns, that hold no water... . I had planted
thee a noble vine, wholly a true seed: how then art
thou turned into the degenerate plant of a strange vine
unto Me (ii. 13, 21)?

Idolatry was openly practised in the cities of saotatry.
Judah and the streets of Jerusalem;' the very
Temple had been polluted (vii. 30); Jerusalem had
been defiled with the abominations of human sacri-
fices (vii. 31); and it would seem that these horrors
had actually been defended as pleasing to Jehovah,
for He has expressly to disclaim ever having given
such a commandment. The people fancied that they

1 See i. 16; vii. 16 ff. ; viii. 2,19; xi. 13; xxxii. 29 ff. ; xliv.

2ff., 7 ff.
xX
306 THE SINS OF JUDAH LEOT.

could unite these idolatries with the worship of
Jehovah, utterly failing to recognise that He was
“the jealous God,” who would not tolerate a divided
allegiance, no, not for a moment.

Unbelief. The provocation of Jehovah was combined with a
contemptuous scepticism. They have denied Jehovah,
and said, It is not He; neither shall evil come wpon us
(v. 12). Not that they were speculative atheists,
denying His existence; but practical atheists, deny-
ing His government.

Inmorality. Corruption in religion had borne fruit in corriip-
tion of conduct. Faithlessness and falsehood,
injustice and covetousness, violence and murder,
were universal.’ Jerusalem was like Sodom in the
days of Lot. There was no salt of righteousness in
her to preserve her. Lyn ye to and fro through the
streets of Jerusalem, and see now, and know, and seck in
the broad places thereof, if ye can find a man, of there
be any that doeth justly, that speaketh the truth, and I
will pardon her (v. 1). Her sins cried out for punish-
ment. Shall I not visit for these things? saith Jchovah:
shall not my soul be avenged upon such a nation as
this (v. 29) ?

Blin! for Yet their blind confidence in the outward forms
of religion remained unshaken. They offered their
sacrifices. Indignantly the prophet repudiates the
idea that a ritual of sacrifice was the sum and sub-

1 See v. 1, 26-28; vi. 6 ff., 13; vii. 5 ff. ; ix. 2 ff., 8; ete, and
for illustration, xxxiv. 8 ff.
xI THE SINS OF JUDAH 307

stance of the Mosaic legislation (vii. 21 ff.). Bluntly
they are told that their offerings are not acceptable
(vi. 20). Severely they are asked, Shall vows and
holy flesh take away from thee thy wickednesses, or
shalt thou escape by these? They trusted in the
presence of the temple in their midst, and, pointing
to its buildings, exclaimed, with the iteration of
fanaticism, The temple of Jehovah, the temple of Jehovah,
the temple of Jehovah, are these (vil. 4); and there-
fore, they argued, no evil could happen to them.
But sternly Jehovah demands, IV1ll ye steal, nvurder,
and commit adultery, and swear falsely, and burn
incense unto Baal, and walk after other gods whom
ye have not known, and come and stand before Me in
this house, which ts called by My name, and say,
Deliver us ?*’—that ye may do all these abonvinations !
Is this house, which is called by My name, become a
den of robbers in your eyes (vil. 9 ff.) ?

They trusted in the wisdom of their “wise men”— py aie
the philosophical thinkers and political advisers of —
the state ; in the law which the priests and scribes
expounded with an easygoing opportunism; in the
comfortable assurances with which the false prophets
drugged their consciences. The established order of
things was very satisfactory: it was not going to
come to an end just yet; Jeremiah was a revolu-

+ Ch. xi. 15, according to the LXX. The Massoretic text can
only be translated by violence, and gives no satisfactory sense.

? Ewald rightly suggests that, by a simple change of vowel
points, the verb should be read in the imperative.
308 THE IMPENITENCE OF JUDAH LECT.

tionary disturber of the public peace to challenge its
excellence. We are wise, they said, and the law of
Jehovah rs with us... . The law shall not perish from
the priest, nor counsel from the wise, nor the word
from the prophet (vii. 8 ff; xviii. 18).

Obduracy. No prophetic exhortation could convince them of
their sin. No chastisement could bring them to
repentance. When judgement fell upon them they
would ask, with an air of injured innocence, Where-
fore huth Jehovah our God done all these things unto
us (v.19; xiii, 22; xvi.10)? They were incorrigible
(v. 3), and nothing was left but to write Judah’s
epitaph: This is the nation that hath not hearkened
to the vowe of Jehovah their God, nor received correc-
tion: truth is perished, and is cut off from their
mouth (vi. 28).

Therefore nothing remains but judgement. The
city and nation must be swept away. The old order
must be destroyed that a new one may arise in its
place: death is the only hope of life.

Change of At first, indeed, there is a tone of hopefulness in

cee pro. Jeremiah’s message. Reformation was still possible.

hopefuiness’ The exile might still be averted (iv. 3; vi. 8). Amend
your ways and your doings, and I will cause you to
dwell in this place (vii. 3). This is the purport of
the prophecies which belong to the reign of Josiah
(chaps. ii.—vi.), though even in these a sense of the
desperateness of Judah’s case frequently appears.
Perhaps the prophet saw the superficiality of the
XI THE IMPENITENCE OF JUDAH 309

reformation ; perhaps, too, they are coloured by the
state of affairs in the reign of Jehoiakim, when they
were committed to writing.

In the prophecies of the early years of Jehoiakim
hope and despair alternate. The offer of pardon is
still made, but the impression left by the discourses
of this period is that the prophet was thoroughly
convinced that the conditions of pardon would never
be accepted. The people are heard pronouncing
their own doom. When Jehovah pleaded with them,
Return ye now every one from his evil way, and amend
your ways and your doings, their answer, in deeds if
not in words, was this, There is no hope: for we will
walk after our own devices, and we will do every one
after the stubbornness of his evil heart (xviii. 12).

And so from the fifth year of Jehoiakim and tothe con.
onward the stern sentence goes forth. They are a Judgement
people past praying for, and Jeremiah is forbidden
to intercede for them any more.’ Could there be a
more terrible command than this? Therefore pray
not thow for this people, neither lift wp cry nor prayer
for them, neither make intercession to Me: for I will
not hear thee (vil. 16). God’s patience is exhausted.
Nay, even if the most famous intercessors of all
history, Moses and Samuel, could arise to plead
their cause, yet would they not prevail to avert the
jud@.ement (xv. 1 ff).

The seventy years’ duration of the Babylonian

( 1 See vii. 16 ff ; xi. 14; xiv. 11; xv. 1.
Hope
directed to
the future.

310 JEREMIAH’S LECT.

supremacy was now plainly proclaimed (xxv. 11 ff);
those who were carried away to Babylon with Jehoia-
chin were bidden tosettle there, and prepare for this pro-
longed sojourn in the land of exile (xxix. 4 ff); those
who remained in Judeea were counselled to bow to the
Chaldean yoke, for thus alone might the severity of
their punishment be mitigated, if they would resign
themselves to Jehovah’s will (xxvii. 9 ff, 12 ff).
And thus in the final siege Jeremiah’ had to bear
the reproach of being a traitor and a renegade, because
he must needs preach surrender when prolonged
resistance was but a futile effort to evade the inevit-
able divine decree (xxi. 8 ffi; xxxvil. 6 ffl; xxxvili.
5 ff).

Vv

From that gloomy and desperate present, that
terrible spectacle of an obdurate and impenitent
people courting its own doom, Jeremiah turned his
gaze to the future. In his sternest denunciations of
judgement he held out the promise of restoration.
In the darkest gloom of the night of the calamity he
foresaw the dawn of a brighter day. In the death-
agony of his nation he foretold its resurrection to a
new life. The fullest promises are collected in the
“ Book of Consolation” (chaps. xxx.—xxxiii.), a series
of prophecies which he was specially enjoin&' to
commit to writing as the record of God’s fore-
ordained purpose, But they are not confined to this
1. XE PREDICTIONS OF RESTORATION 311

book. Let us try to gather out a general idea of
their substance.

(1) The indestructibility of Israel was from the Le ten

first one of his favourite doctrines. The judgement Jsrae.
which must be inflicted is designed for correction,
not annihilation. J am with thee, saith Jehovah, to
save thee: for I will make a full end of all the nations
whither I have scattered thee, but I will not make a full
end of thee ; but I will correct thee with judgement, and
will in no wise leave thee unpunished (xxx. 11; cp.
iv. 27; v.10, 18; xlvi. 28; x. 24). He insists upon
God’s good and loving purpose in this chastisement.
I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith
Jehovah, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you
an hereafter and a hope (xxix. 11).

(2) The nation must go into captivity; but the rhe return
day for return will come when the seventy years are ene
over—a decade of punishment for each century of
sin—and the double recompence of their iniquities
has been inflicted (xvi. 18). The exodus from
Babylon will eclipse the memory of the exodus from
Egypt (xvi. 14 ff), and restoration will be for Israel
as well as Judah (iii. 12 ff). Fear thou not, O Jacob
My servant, saith Jehovah ; neither be dismayed, O
Israel: for, lo, I will save thee from afar, and thy seed
from the land of their captivity ; and Jacob shall return,
and shall be quiet and at ease, and none shall make him
afraid (xxx. 10). The storm of the Lord’s fury will
burst upon the head of the wicked (xxx. 23), but the
The Messi-
anie King.

312 JEREMIAH’S LECT.

day of Babylon’s distress will be the hour of Israel’s
redemption (xxx. 7).

In tenderest language does God declare His love
for Israel. Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting
love; therefore have I continued lovingkindness unto
thee (xxxi. 3). It is the love of the father’s heart
yearning over his prodigal son. Js Lphraim My
precious son? is he a darling child? for as often as I
speak against him, I do earnestly remember him still :
thercfore My heart yearns for him; I will surely have
mercy upon him, saith Fchovah (xxxi. 20, cp. ver. 9).
Rachel’s tears for her lost children are dried (xxxi.
16). Ephraim laments his sin, and prays for the
grace of penitence (iii. 21 ff.). A holy people return,
and Zion can be saluted with a greeting worthy of
her name as the city of God: J/chovah bless thee, O
habitation of justice, O mountain of holiness (xxxi. 28).

(3) A succession of worthless kings had dis-
graced the throne; but in that day of restoration
true and faithful shepherds will be raised up to take
the place of these false and selfish tyrants. Pre-emi-
nent above them all towers the figure of One whose
Name is a pledge of the new dispensation which He
inaugurates. Lehold, the days come, saith Jehovah, that
I will raise unto Duvid a righteous Branch, and he
shall reign us hing, and deal wisely, and shall execute
Judgement and justice in the land. In his duys Judah
shall be suved, and Isract shall dwell safely: and this is
his name whereby he shall be called, Jehovah is our
XI PREDICTIONS OF RESTORATION 313

righteousness (xxiii. 5,6). That Name is a watchword
of the age to come. It signifies that he is to be the
pledge for the realisation of the truth, that Jehovah
Himself is at once the standard and the source of
His people’s righteousness. A righteous ruler will
reign over a righteous people, in perfect fellowship
with a righteous God. ;

Elsewhere that King is styled David (xxx. 9).
Not that Jeremiah expected David to return in
person, like the Arthur of our ancient legend ; but,
like Hosea, he looked for one of the line of David
who should fulfil the ideal of the man after God's
own heart. That King is to have a mysterious privi-
lege of priestly access to God. J will cause Him to
draw near, and He shall approach unto Me: for who is
he that hath had boldness to approach unto Me? saith
Jehovah (xxx. 21).

(4) The city must be destroyed. But out of its rhe regener-
ruins will arise a new city, wherein shall be heard ae
again the voice of joy and the voice of gladness, the voice
of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the voice of
them that say, Give thanks to Jehovah of hosts: for
Jehovah is good; for His mercy endureth for ever
(xxxiii. 11), The restored city will bear the same
name as the righteous King. Jn those days shall
Judah be saved, and Jerusalem shall dwell safely :
and this is the name whereby she shall be called,
Jehovah is our righteousness (xxxiti. 16). For city
no less than King will be the witness to the truth
The New
Covenant,

314 THE NEW COVENANT LECT.

which constitutes the essence of Redemption, and
will be the instrument for translating that truth into
visible fact.

(5) An apostate people had broken the old cove-
nant made with them at the Exodus (xi. 1 ff). But
Jehovah will make a New Covenant, written not on
tables of stone, but on the tables of the heart, an
inward, spiritual, everlasting covenant, a covenant of
pardon and grace. This is the covenant that I will
male with the house of Isracl after those days, saith
Trhorah: EI will put My law in their inward parts,
and in their heart will [write vt; and T will be their
God, and they shall be My people: and they shall teach
no more every man his neighbour, and every man his
brother, sayiny, Anow Jehovah: for they shall all know
Me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them,
saith Jehovah: for I will forgive their iniquity, and
thety sin will [remember no more (xxxi. 33 f.).

Laill give them one heart and one way, that they
may fear Me for ever; for the good of them, and of
their children after them: and Twill make an ever-
lasting covenant with them, that [will not turn away
from them, to do them good; and Lacill put My fear
in their hearts, that they shall not depurt from Me
(xxxii. 39 f.).

And LI oarill cleanse them from all their tniquity,
whereby they have sinned against Me; and T will
pardon all their iniquitics (xxxiii. 8).

(6) The ark had been the most prized palladium of
XI PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY 315

the old order; and the spirituality and glory of the rhe Pres-
new age ould not be more emphatically described Fehovah.
than by the prophecy that it would neither have nor

need an ark, because Jehovah Himself would be

in their midst. His Presence would supersede its
symbol.

In those days they shall say no more, The ark of the
covenant of Jehovah ; neither shall it come to mind:
neither shall they remember it ; neither shall they miss
ait; netther shall it be made any more. At that time
they shall call Jerusalem the throne of Jehovah
(iii. 16 f.).

(7) The people failed to realise their own guilt. Personat

They complained that they were being punished for bill
the sins of their forefathers, and impugned the justice
of God. But in the new age a deeper sense of
individual responsibility will be realised. Jn those
days they shall say no more, The fathers have eaten
sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge.
But every one shall die for his own wmiquity : every man
that eateth the sowr grapes, his teeth shall be set on edge
(xxxi. 29 f.). Jeremiah is not abrogating the second
commandment. In the very next chapter he ex-
pressly quotes it (xxxil. 18). He is not questioning
the truth of the solidarity of a family or a nation.
There are consequences of their parents’ conduct
which the children cannot escape. But it is for
their own sin that men are responsible, and for their
own sin that they will be punished.
Fellowship
with God.

The destiny
of the
nations

in judge-
ment

316 THE DESTINY OF THE NATIONS LECT.

(8) It is an intimate, spiritual fellowship between
the repentant, pardoned people and the God who
loves them with an indomitable love, in spite of all
their perversity, to which Jeremiah looks forward.
It is thus summed up: J will give them an heart to
know Me, that I am Jehovah ; and they shall be My
people, and £ will be their God: for they shall return
unto Me with their whole heart (xxiv. 7).

VI

But Jeremiah had an express commission to the
nations as well as to Israel. He speaks of a book of
prophecies against the nations, some part at least of
which is incorporated in the extant Book of Jeremiah
(xxv. 13). His message to the nations was in the
main, as it was to Israel, a message of judgement.
It was an epoch of judgement for the world, and
Nebuchadnezzar was the divine agent in its execution.
Lo, I beyin to work evil at the city which is called by
My name, and should ye be utterly unpunished? Ye
shall not be unpunished: for I will call for a sword
upon all the inhabitants of the earth, saith Jehovah of
hosts (xxv. 29; cp. xii. 14 ff). Srhorah hath a con-
troversy with the nations; He will plead with all flesh;
as for the wicked, He will gire them to the sword
(xxv. 31; cp. xlvi. 10; xlvil. 6; xlviii. 10).

Nebuchadnezzar is Jehovah’s servant: into his
power He has given the kingdoms of the world, for
XI THE DESTINY OF THE NATIONS 317

He as their Creator claims the sovereign right to
dispose their destinies. And all the nations must
serve Nebuchadnezzar, and his son, and his son's son,
until the time of his own land come (xxvii. 5 ff.).
But that day will come, a day of retribution for
Babylon’s heartless violence; and the book of the
prophecies against the nations closes with a tri-
umphant vision of vengeance on the great oppressor
Babylon, who shall sink, and not rise again.’

Yet even in the judgement of the nations there is
hope. To Moab, to Ammon, to Elam, a restoration
is promised (xlviii. 47; xlix. 6, 39).

And,like his predecessors, Jeremiah sees the gather-
ing of the nations to Jerusalem, to the name of Jehovah
(iii. 17). He sees them come from the ends of the
earth, disowning their idols, and confessing that
Jehovah alone is God (xvi. 19). Israel might even
now be the blessing and the boast of the nations
according to the patriarchal promise, if it would
repent (iv. 2): and in the days to come the nations
will no longer teach Israel the worship of their false
gods, but themselves learn to serve Jehovah (xii. 16) ;
and ransomed Zion will be the wonder of all the
nations of the earth (xxxiii. 9).

1 While the statement that Jeremiah prophesied the fall of
Babylon is not to be questioned (li. 60), it is doubtful whether
chaps. 1. li., at any rate in their present form, can be from his pen.
See Driver’s Introd., p. 250.

and redemp-
tion.
Summary.

The fulfil-
ment of
Jeremiah's
prophecies.

318 FULFILMENT OF JEREMIAH’S PROPHECIES LE&or.

VII

Thus in an age of change and convulsion and
revolution Jeremiah with unhesitating faith pro-
claimed the certain progress of the eternal purpose of
God. He affirmed that the destruction of the old
order was but the prelude to the introduction of a
new and nobler order. We declared that the final
aim of the removal of the things that were shaken was
that the things which cannot be shaken might remain.
In the prophecy of the New Covenant he deepened
aud spiritualised the idea of the relation of the
Church to God, and emphasised the thought of the
responsibilities and privileges of the individual. If
his picture of the Messianic King and his kingdom
is less magnificent than Isaiah’s, the true glory of
that rule comes into fuller prominence in proportion
as the outward splendour falls away ; and we make
a long step forward towards the idea of that spiritual
kingdom which was to be the true fulfilment of the
hopes of Israel.

If, lastly, we ask how Jeremiah’s prophecies have
been fulfilled, we can point first to the literal restora-
tion of the Jews to their own land. Unlikely
enough it must have seemed to human calculation,
gazing upon the ruined walls of the city and the
smoking ashes of the temple, that the greatest glory
of temple and city was yet to come. But so it was.
And if the feeble band of exiles that returned, and
XI FULFILMENT OF JEREMIAH’S PROPHECIES 319

the struggling community which for centuries hardly
held its own against hostile neighbours, seemed but
a poor realisation of those glowing pictures of pros-
perity, what shall we say? On the one hand, did
not man’s unbelief dwarf and stunt the growth of
the divine purpose, so that God could not (with
reverence be it said) fulfil all His will? All pro-
phecy, as Jeremiah himself repeatedly teaches, is
conditional. On the other hand, does not St. Paul
caution us against too hastily assuming that God’s
purposes for Israel as set forth in these prophecies
have already received their complete fulfilment?
We dare not dogmatise how or when or where, but
we still look for the consolation of Israel (Rom.
xi. 25 ff).

But if something may seem to be wanting to the
fulfilment of the promises of Israel’s restoration, it is
surely far otherwise with those other most charac-
teristic prophecies of Jeremiah.

The New Covenant has been established in the
spiritual dispensation of the Gospel, in a law
written by the Spirit in the hearts of men; and
in the new revelation the means of pardon and
purification have been provided and made known to
man. In the Incarnation God came to dwell among
men in a far more intimate relation than Jeremiah
could have anticipated. All and more than all of
the essential spirit of the prophecy of the righteous
Branch is fulfilled in Christ, the true heir of David’s
320 JEREMIAH LECT. XI

line. In Him is set forth the deep meaning of the
Name, The Lorp is our righteousness. He is priest
as well as king, entering into the presence of God
with unceasing intercession. To Him all nations
are gathered, and His Church, which is His body, the
fulness of Him that filleth all in all, is the present
witness in the world (alas, with what defect and
failure!) of the truth which He made known, The
LORD is our righteousness.

Scorn and shame and persecution and ingratitude
were the reward of the martyr prophet in his life-
time ; but “self-sacrifice was fruitful”: fruitful for
his own age; for corrupt as were the people as a
whole, there must have been a holy seed to whom
his prophecies were as life in death: fruitful for all
time to come; for he stands for ever as a strong
corner-stone in that foundation of the prophets upon
which is reared the majestic building of the Catholic
Church of Christ.
LECTURE XII

EZEKIEL

The word of Jehovah came unto me, saying, Son of man, I
have made thee a watchman unto the house of Isruel.—EzExK1£1 iii.
16, 17.

ELEVEN years before its final destruction in B.c. 586, Hrokiers
Jerusalem was captured by Nebuchadnezzar, and
stripped of all its best and noblest inhabitants.
Together with the young king Jehoiachin, and the
queen- mother Nehushta, the ruthless conqueror
carried away to Babylon all Jerusalem, and all the
princes, and all the nughty men of valour, even ten
thousand captives, and all the craftsmen and the
smiths: none remained, save the poorest sort of the
people of the land.’ In the train of exiles which
sadly wended its way across the desert to Babylon
was a young priest, Ezekiel the son of Buzi, designed

12 Kings xxiv. 14. See further vv. 15, 16, and comp. Jer.
xxiv. Ezekiel dates from this captivity, and in ch, xxxiii, 21; xl,
1, expressly speaks of it as our captivity.

Y
Condition of

the exiles.

322 CONDITION OF THE EXILES IN BABYLON ect.

by God to be the centre of religious life and hope
for his countrymen in the land of their banishment.

It must not be supposed that the Jewish exiles in
Babylonia were treated as slaves. Such wholesale
deportations as that by which Jerusalem was thus
depopulated were the common policy of Oriental
conquerors: they were intended to break the spirit
of nationality among the conquered peoples, and
reduce them to the condition of submissive subjects ;
but, save for the fact that they were torn from their
homes, the victims of this policy were not harshly
treated. Lands were assigned them; they were
allowed to form settlements; some considerable
degree of civil and religious liberty was permitted to
them. The elders no doubt organised the new com-
munity so far as was possible under the altered
circumstances; the first beginnings of what after-
wards developed into the worship of the synagogue
probably appeared.’ Intercourse with those who
had been left behind in Judeea was maintained.
Ezekiel was well informed of events which happened
in Jerusalem (xi. 2; xvii. 11 ff). Many of his
prophecies were intended for those who were still
left behind there rather than for the exiles.

1 See Ezek. xxxiii. 30; and comp. Jeremiah’s advice to the
exiles to build houses and plant gardens and marry and multiply
in view of the return to their own land ; and to seek the welfare
of the city to which they had been carried captive, and to pray
for it (xxix. 4 ff). The elders are referred to in a way which
makes it clear that official representatives of the people are meant
(vill. 1; xiv. 1; xx. 1, 3).
XII CONDITION OF THE EXILES IN BABYLON 323

Jeremiah wrote letters and sent messages to the
exiles in Babylon (Jer. xxix.; 11.59). It may even
be conjectured that under the pressure of common
suffering, old jealousies were forgotten, and friendly
communications established with such of the
Northern Israelites as had remained loyal to their
religion and nationality through a century and a
quarter of exile.

At Tell-Abib on the banks of the river Chebar—not Zzckiers
to be identified with the Habor (2 Kings xvii. 6) Bawonia.
which flows through Mesopotamia, but some tributary
of the Euphrates in Babylonia—Ezekiel settled. He
was married (xxiv. 18), and had a house of his own
(iii, 24; vill 1; xii.3; xiv.1; xx. 1), to which the
elders and others resorted to consult the prophet;
but scarcely any details of his personal history are
recorded except the sudden death of his wife, and his
life was probably unmarked by special incident.

No doubt he had been trained for the duties of cireum-
the priestly office before he left Judea; but it is wine
doubtful whether he had yet been called to exercise
his priestly office in the Temple.’ Five years after he
arrived in Babylonia came his call to the prophetic
ministry (B.c. 592); and from that time onward for
more than twenty years he was the spiritual centre

1 If the thirtieth year, mentioned in ch. i. 1 in connexion with
the prophet’s call, could be understood to refer to his age, he
would have been twenty-five years old when he went into exile,

and probably would not yet have served in the Temple. But it is
very doubtful to what the thirtieth year refers.
324 NOVELTY OF EZEKIEL’S POSITION LECT.

of the community of exiles. His latest prophecy of
which the date is recorded was delivered on the first
day of the first month of the twenty-seventh year of
the Exile (xxix. 17). Even among the exiles chastise-
ment had not borne fruit in repentance and amend-
ment. Some still clung to their old idolatries, which
they persisted in regarding as compatible with a
nominal allegiance to Jehovah (xiv. 1 ff; xx. 1 ff);
others were ready to offer a stubborn resistance to
the prophet’s moral teachings (ii. 3 ff. ; 1. 4 ff, 11);
others complained that they had been deserted by
their God, and declared that they were being punished
not for their own sins but for the guilt of their
ancestors (xviii. 2,25; xxxili. 10,17, 20; xxxvii 11).
Ezekiel’s task was rendered more difficult by the
presence of false prophets who buoyed up the hopes
of the people with delusive promises of a speedy
restoration (Jer. xxix. 8 ff, 15, 21 ff). But though
at first perhaps his message was slighted, and possibly
he was actually persecuted, he came to be looked up
to, and recognised as the prophet of the community
in which he lived; it grew to be the fashion to
consult him, and even those who had no mind to
obey his exhortations would go and listen eagerly to
his discourse (xxiii. 20 ff).

piety Thus Ezekiel occupied an entirely new position as
the prophet of Jehovah in a foreign country, far
removed from the old centre of national life and
worship, and all that had been regarded as constituting
XII NOVELTY OF EZEKIEL’S POSITION 325

the distinctive privileges of Israel among the nations
of the world.

This new position largely moulded the character affecting the
of his ministry. In the land of exile, at a distance
from the scene of action, remote from the feverish
turmoil, the restless hopes and fears, which agitated
Jerusalem during the last ten years of its existence,
he could more dispassionately survey the great
catastrophe which was impending, and more calmly
reflect upon its meaning and its purpose.

Hitherto, public discourse had been the principal oe.
method of prophetic ministry. Jeremiah preached Hs wor.
for years before he committed any of his prophecies to
writing : but now, under the changed circumstances
of his position, the prophet must turn author. It is
significant that a roll of a book is given him as the
symbol of his commission (ii. 9 ff). Ezekiel’s
prophecies bear evidence of long meditation and
careful elaboration. Originally he may have spoken
the substance of them to his little band of hearers,
for he tells us how at one time it was the fashion to
come and listen to him (xxxiii. 31 ff.), and how they
complained that he was a speaker of parables (xx. 49) ;
but they were intended for Judea as well as Babylonia,
and he bestowed careful attention on their literary
form as he committed them to writing. He dwells
upon his subject, and expands and develops his
thoughts, in contrast to the terse, sharp utterances of
the older prophets. Not content with an outline, he
His visions.

326 EZEKIEL’S METHODS OF TEACHING LECT,

fills in the details of the picture, sometimes to the
detriment of its distinctness.

Visions, allegories, parables, symbolic actions,
are marked characteristics of the form of Ezekiel’s
teaching. They may correspond to the prophet’s
temperament, to a naturally imaginative cast of
mind. God makes use of the natural gifts of His
servants. These shape, to some extent at least, the
form which their communications take. But there
is no ground for regarding Ezekiel’s visions as merely
a literary artifice, as nothing more than the form in
which he chose to clothe his message. On several
occasions, we are told, the hand of Jehovah was upon
him; in other words, he was the subject of an over-
powering divine influence, and fell into a kind of
prophetic trance or ecstasy. This was the case when
he saw the vision of the glory of Jehovah which was
the prelude to his call (1. 3; ep. i. 14, 22). It was
the case when he saw the vision of the shameless
iniquities committed in the very Temple, by which
the inhabitants of Jerusalem were banishing the
presence of Jehovah from its precincts (vill. 1 ff). It
was the case again, when he beheld the vision of the
dry bones brought to life by the inspiration of the
breath of God, to teach the desponding Israelites that
life could be restored even to the dry and svattered
fragments of the nation (xxxvii. 1 ff). It was
the case once more, when he saw rising before him
a glorious picture of the restored sanctuary, in
XII EZEKIEL’S METHODS OF TEACHING 327

which Jehovah would once more vouchsafe to
dwell in the midst of a purified people (xl. 1).
But while we maintain that these visions were
really and supernaturally presented to the pro-
phet’s mental eye, we may admit that it is possible
that they received some elaboration in detail as
he pondered over them before committing his de-
scription of them to writing. No doubt the details
of the picture were all significant to his own mind,
though we may not be able to interpret them
with certainty.

Allegory and parable he employs not only in se
predictions of the future, but in descriptions of the
past and the present. Israel is the foundling child,
faithless to the preserver who has made her his
wife (xvi. 1 ff.). She is the lioness, which rears her
whelps only to become the hunter's prey (xix. 1 ff.) ;
the stately cedar (xvii. 3); the vine which is
doomed to be destroyed (xix. 10 ff.; cp. xv. 1 ff;
xvii. 6). Nebuchadnezzar is described as one great
eagle, the king of Egypt as another (xvii. 3, 7);
Tyre is a stately ship (xxvii. 5 ff); Egypt a mon-
strous crocodile (xxxii. 2 ff). Sometimes, as in
ch. xvii, the parable is worked out in detail, and
subsequently explained.

Frequently Ezekiel’s teaching is presented in the Symbolic
form of symbolic actions. It is much disputed
whether these actions were literally performed, or
whether they are only introduced as a vehicle for the
Repeated
claim of
divine
authority
Sor his
message.

328 COMPARISON OF LECT.

ideas which he wished to convey. It is urged, for
example, that such signs as the mimic siege of
Jerusalem (iv. 1 ff.), or the burning and smiting and
scattering of the hair (v. 1 ff.), would have been
puerile, and cannot be supposed to have been
actually performed. Unquestionably, however, pro-
phets did frequently make use of symbolic actions.
Jeremiah actually put a yoke on his own neck,
which Hananiah took off and broke (Jer. xxvii. 2;
xxviii, 10). He broke the potter’s earthen bottle
in the presence of the elders (Jer. xix. 1 ff). We
are not in a position easily to estimate how far
actions which may seem to us puerile, would have
been considered puerile by the Oriental mind in
those early times. The very strangeness, and it
may be even the foolishness, of a sign, may have
served to attract the attention of those who would
have been indifferent to the prophet’s words (Ezek.
xii. 2 ff.). They were a graphic and forcible way
of expressing the message which he was charged to
deliver. The prophet’s whole life and person and
family relations must all be subservient to his
ministry ; he must live for his work ; he must suffer
that he might teach.

It was not unnatural that the prophet who was
removed from Jehovah’s land, and was working
under new conditions in the midst of heathenism,
should lay special stress on his divine commission.
The frequency with which he repeats his authority
XII EZEKIEL AND JEREMIAH 329

for his message’ is no idle iteration of a meaningless
formula, but an encouraging reminder to his hearers
that even in the days of their punishment Jehovah
had not ceased to care for His people.

Nothing illustrates the position occupied by
Ezekiel so well as a comparison of him with his
contemporary Jeremiah. Ezekiel was in all prob-
ability personally acquainted with Jeremiah: cer-
tainly he was familiar with his teaching and his
writings. During his youth Jeremiah must have
been one of the most conspicuous figures in
Jerusalem. His narrow escapes from a violent
death in the early years of Jehoiakim’s reign must
have been notorious. Jeremiah and Ezekiel were
both priests ; but in almost every other respect they
present a striking contrast. Jeremiah was labouring
in full sight of the death throes of the city and
nation, watching each stage of the dissolution
which he could neither avert nor retard, stigma-
tised as a traitor to his country, despised and
persecuted by the civil, military, and religious
authorities of the city. Ezekiel in his banishment
was at least spared the bitterness of actually wit-
nessing from day to day the folly and the sin which
were filling up the measure of Jerusalem’s cuilt,
though he knew of them by report, and denounced
them from a distance. The exiles among whom he

1 The formula, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah, alone, is said to
occur 117 times.

Jeremiah
and Ezekiel
compared.
The Book of
Ezekiel.

330 THE BOOK OF EZEKIEL LECT.

lived for the most part abstained from any actual
persecution, and even honoured him as the prophet
of Jehovah.

Jeremiah in the presence of a corrupt worship
and a polluted Temple must needs denounce the old
order and declare the necessity for its destruction.
Ezekiel in a foreign land could predict the restoration
of Temple and worship in a new and purified form.

Jeremiah was the man of feeling and action,
Ezekiel of reason and reflection. Jeremiah’s book
is pervaded by an intense personality. We feel
that we know him, and sympathise with hig living
martyrdom. Ezekiel is little more to us than a
name. We do not grasp him or his surroundings,
or feel the throbbing pulses of his life beating in his
utterances. His work is carried on in a calm
equanimity, not in a stress and struggle which
were almost more than frail humanity could bear.

Different as were the positions and the tem-
peraments of the two prophets, for a while their
tasks lay side by side; but Ezekiel carries on his
work to a further point. He is characteristically
the prophet not only of the downfall of Jerusalem,
but of the exile in Babylon.

II

Ezekiel’s book is his own record of his prophetic
work. While it is tolerably certain that the Book
XI THE BOOK OF EZEKIEL 331

of Jeremiah was compiled gradually, and only
brought to its present form by some of his disciples
after his death, the Book of Ezekiel bears the marks
of careful plan and arrangement, and comes to us in
all probability direct from the prophet himself. He
speaks throughout in the first person: his name is
only twice mentioned.

The book falls into three distinct divisions,
corresponding to three periods of his ministry :

G.) Chaps. i-xxiv. contain the prophecies of a
period of four and a half years, from the prophet’s call
in the fifth year of his exile (B.c. 592) to the com-
mencement of the siege of Jerusalem in the ninth
year (B.C. 588).

(ii.) The last division of the book, chaps. xxxiii.—
xlviii., contains the prophecies delivered from the
time when the messenger who had escaped from the
capture of Jerusalem reached him (xxxiii. 21) to
the twenty-fifth year of his exile, almost the close of
his ministry.

(ii) These two divisions are separated by a
collection of prophecies concerning the nations, chaps.
xxv.-xxxii.,, delivered partly, though not altogether, in
the intervals during which he had no message for
Judah, while the siege of Jerusalem was in progress.’

In the first of these divisions the prophet surveys

1 Prof. A. B. Davidson prefers to consider the book as consist-
ing of two equal parts, i.-xxiv. and xxv.-xlviii.; the judgements upon
the nations, which occupy chaps. xxv.-xxxii. being regarded as the
prelude to the restoration of Israel.
332 DESTRUCTION OF FALSE HOPES LECT.

the present. By symbol and figure and discourse
he enforces the inevitable certainty and the moral
necessity of the judgement impending over Jerusalem.
Here and there a gleam of light pierces the darkness ;
but the prophet must pull down before he can build;
he must destroy false hopes before he can hold out
true ones.

In the last division he looks forward to the future.
The blow has fallen: Jerusalem and the Temple are
in ashes; the peopleare in exile. No less confidently
than he had predicted the ruin of the city and the
dispersion of the people, does he foretell the restora-
tion of the people to their own land and the re-
building of the temple and the city.

The judgements on the nations which occupy the
middle division of the book, form the transition from
the one to the other. Judgement had begun at the
house of God, and should it spare the nations? Nay,
their malicious triumph at the fall of Jehovah's
people was an insult to Jehovah Himself: they must
give place in their turn to His kingdom, and be
compelled to acknowledge His sovereignty.

Til

Lmportance It is not difficult to see the particular importance

of Ezekvel's . 7 e

ee his of Ezekiel’s work for his own age in the successive
periods of his ministry. That ministry, it must be

remembered, had for its object the whole nation. It
XII DESTRUCTION OF FALSE HOPES 333

is in fact sometimes difficult to decide whether he is
addressing the exiles around him in Babylon or those
who were still left in Jerusalem.

So long as the city was still standing, the exiles in destroy-
in Babylon, not less than the people who remained hopes
in Jerusalem, were foolishly cherishing delusive
hopes, which needed shattering with no gentle hand.
The expectations of the exiles were, as we have seen,
buoyed up by the utterances of the false prophets
who promised them a speedy return. Ezekiel and
Jeremiah united in pronouncing these expectations
to be wholly illusory (Ezek. xiii.; Jer. xxix.), Misled
by similar false teachings, the inhabitants of
Jerusalem persuaded themselves into a comfortable
security that they had nothing more to fear from the
Chaldeans (Jer. xxviii). There was a party in Judea
who despised the exiles, questioned their right to
claim a share in national privileges, and boasted of
their own superior position (Ezek. xi. 15).

Under these circumstances the prophecies con-
tained in the first division of the book are of necessity,
in the main, of a gloomy and threatening character.
Yet, here and there rays of light break through the
clouds. Just when the contemptuous sneers of the
dwellers in Jerusalem were reported to the exiles,
the hope of restoration to their own land is held out,
coupled with the promise of a new heart and regener-
ate will, which would enable them to keep the com-
mandments which they had hitherto broken (xi. 16 ff.).
am awaken-
ing true
hopes.

334 AWAKENING OF TRUE HOPES LECT.

Just when the heaviest indictment for perfidious
ingratitude has been entered against Israel, and the
survey of the nation’s history has proved it worthy
of the severest judgements, the renewal of an ever-
lasting covenant is foretold, and judgement is shewn
to have mercy as its final purpose (xvi. 59 ff; xx.
36 ff.). Just when the cedar of the house of David
is doomed to be plucked up by the roots, Ezekiel
announces the divine purpose to take from the top-
most of his young twigs a tender one, and plant it
in the high mountain of Israel (xvii. 22 ff). Just
when the crown is torn from the unworthy brows of
the prince of Israel, the hint is given that it is
reserved for One whose right it is (xxi. 25 ff).

When once the city had fallen, and the nation had
for the time ceased to exist, there was grave danger
of the exiles falling into despair and apathy, and
either sullenly murmuring at the injustice of their
fate or contemptuously acquiescing in their present
lot. Our transgressions and our sins are upon us, said
some of them, and we are wasting away in them: how
then can we live (xxxiil. 10). The way of Jehovah is
not equal, murmured others, who alleged that they
were being punished for the sins of previous genera-
tions (xxxili. 17; ep. xviii. 25). Our hope zs lost : we
are clean cut off, sighed others, who abandoned them-
selves to faithless despair (xxxvii. 11).

Then it was that Ezekiel bent all his energies to
awaken an cherish the hope of restoration. God's
XII AWAKENING OF TRUE HOPES 335

purpose, he proclaimed, was not to destroy, but to
reform. As J live, saith the Lord Jehovah, I have
no pleasure in the death of the wicked ; but that the
wicked turn from his way and live: turn ye, turn ye
from your evil ways; for why will ye die, O house of
Israel (xxxiii. 11)?

The leaders and rulers of the nation had abused
their trust. Jehovah’s sheep were scattered and
forlorn. But He Himself will search for His sheep
and will seek them out. He will gather them from
the countries, and bring them back into their own
land. There He will set up one shepherd over them,
even His servant David. They will be ruled by the
ideal king, the man after God’s own heart. The true
mutual relation between Jehovah and His people will
be realised (ch. xxxiv.).

The holy land lay desolate, abandoned to exultant
enemies who said, Aha! the ancient high places are
become our possession (xxxvi. 2). But Jehovah will
judge the nations. He will restore and marvellously
augment the fertility of the land. He will multiply
its ‘inhabitants. When He restores His people to
their land He will regenerate them by an act of pure
grace, cleansing them from their sins, endowing
them with a new nature, implanting in them a spirit
of willing obedience (ch. xxxvi.).

The nation, as a nation, had ceased to exist.
Nothing short of a miracle could recall it to life.
But that miracle will be wrought. The dry bones
The future
of the
nations.

336 THE FUTURE OF THE NATIONS LECT.

scattered about in the open valley will feel the
quickening power of the Spirit of God, and be recalled
to life. The severed peoples will be reunited into
one. The reunited nation will have one king,
Jehovah’s servant David. He will confirm an
eternal covenant of peace with them. His sanctuary
will be in the midst of them for evermore
(ch. xxxvii.).

The Temple was in ashes, worship was suspended,
the land was desolate; but Jehovah had only aban-
doned His land and His sanctuary for a little time.
A nobler Temple and a purer worship will be called
into existence, answering to an ideal which had never
yet been realised; Jehovah will return to dwell in
the midst of His regenerate people; a life-giving
stream will issue from the Temple and fertilise the
desert ; the curse of barrenness will be removed
(chaps. xl—xlviii.).

Ezekiel’s eschatology is almost entirely concerned
with Israel. He does not, like Isaiah and Micah,
picture the nations streaming up to the restored
Jerusalem to receive instruction ; or, like the great
prophet of the Exile, describe Zion’s oppressors
coming to pay her homage and to worship her God.
His visions of the future of the nations are, in the
main, visions of judgement. Gog and his hosts pour
down from the remotest north, and, joining with the
peoples of the distant south, threaten the restored
Jerusalem with destruction. The powers of the
XII THE FUTURE OF THE NATIONS 337

world muster their forces for one final and stupendous
effort to destroy the kingdom of God, only to meet
with complete and ignominious discomfiture. Through
this and through other judgements the nations, we
are told repeatedly, shall know that I am Jehovah ;
shall recognise that Jehovah is what He claims to be
in relation to Israel and to the world. But there
are only hints, few and obscure, of a conversion of
the nations. Sodom and Samaria, the one the type
of heinous and defiant sin, the other of self-willed
separation, will share Israel’s restoration, for their
guilt is less than hers (xvi. 53 ff.). The goodly cedar
which will spring from the tender twig taken from
the other cedar which is to be rooted up, will shelter
in its branches all fowl of every kind; in other
words, all nations will resort to the Messianic king-
dom for protection (xvii. 22 ff). But though these
hints of a larger hope are given, they are not
developed. It is to Israel’s future restoration that
Ezekiel’s outlook is almost exclusively directed.

IV
The fundamental principle and inspiring motive Funda.
ey . mental prin-
of Ezekiel’s teaching was the glory of God. God’s ciples of
ZEKIEL SF

glory is the Old Testament expression for ats revealed Ge,
Presence of God among His people. His glory cor- ¥ 7".
responds to His Name, which is the summary of His
Nature, so far‘as He has made it known to man.

Z
338 FUNDAMENTAL IDEAS LECT.

The vision by the river Chebar, which formed the
prelude to Kzekiel’s call to the prophetic office, was
the appearance of the likeness of the glory of Jehovah
(i. 28). That complex and mysterious vision symbol-
ised the divine omnipotence, omnipresence, and
omniscience. It represented the manifold and un-
ceasing activity of Jehovah’s power in the world. It
was the key to the ministry of the exiled prophet,
that the glory of God could be manifested in the
plains of Babylon as truly as on the mountains of
Judwa. He saw it again in the plains of Babylon
(iii. 23). In a trance he beheld it in the temple,
outraged by the abominations which were done
in its very presence (vii. 4 ff). He beheld it
leaving its accustomed place as the sentence went
forth to destroy the guilty city (ix. 3; x. 4),
and finally quitting the polluted place which
was no longer fit for its abode (x. 18, 19; xi
2833).

Again in vision he saw that glory return to the
restored city and temple; once more the glory of
Tchovah filled the house, and he heard the voice which
proclaimed, This is the place of My throne . where
I will dwell in the midst of the children of Isracl for
ever (xlili. 2-7; xliv. 4).

This ever-present sense of the glory of God finds
its counterpart in the title by which Ezekiel is taught
to speak of himself. Before that divine Presence he
feels the frailty of his own humanity: he is the son
XII OF EZEKIEL’S TEACHING 339

of man; the weak mortal descendant of mortal earth-
born flesh.

Jehovah’s Name is the correlative of His glory. The
All His dealings with Israel have been and are and Jehovah.
will be for His Name’s sake. They are designed to
manifest His one unchangeable Nature. Israel had
merited nothing but destruction in the wilderness,
but He spared them for His Name's sake, that it
should not be profaned in the sight of the nations
(xx. 9,14, 22). So now it is not for any merit on
Israel’s part that they will be recalled from exile,
but for Jehovah’s Name’s sake. J do not this for
your sake, O house of Israel, but for Mine holy Name
(xxxvi. 22). The judgement of the nations and the
redemption of Israel are both a sovereign exercise
of divine grace in accordance with the immutable
character of the divine Nature.

Closely connected with the conceptions of the Oita
Glory and the Name of Jehovah is the conception Jerovar.
of His holiness. His holiness is His essential
Deity. It has been profaned by the exile of His
people. He has been forced to let Himself appear
in the sight of the nations as though He were unable
or unwilling to protect His people. Thus, when He
restores Israel, He will demonstrate the holiness of
His great Name, which has been profaned among
the nations. As Israel had been the guilty cause
of its profanation, so it will be made the instrument
of its sanctification. The nations shall know that I
Ezekiel ein-
phasises in-
dividual re-
sponsibility,

340 FUNDAMENTAL IDEAS LECY.

am Jehovah, saith the Lord Jehovah, when I shall be
sanctified in you before their cyes (Xxxvi. 233; ep.
xx, 41; xxviii. 25; xxxix. 27). In the judgement
of the nations, moreover, not less than in the restora-
tion of Israel, will His sovereign Deity be exhibited.
Thus it is said of the destruction of Gog: J will
magnify Myself, and sanctify Myself, and T will make
Myself known in the cyes of many nations; and they
shall know that Iam SIchovah (xxxviii. 23 ; ep. v. 16
and xxvii. 22).

Such were the fundamental principles of Ezekiel’s
theology. Some further characteristic elements of
his teaching remain to be considered.

The doctrine of individual responsibility had been
taught by Jeremiah (Jer. xxxi. 29, 30), but Ezekiel
repeats it with an emphasis which is peculiarly his
own. Men were complaining that they were being
punished for the sins of their ancestors; and he
meets their complaint by affirming the principle that
the soul that sinneth, it shall dic: the son shall not bear
the iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear
the iniquity of the son; the righteousness of the right-
cous shall be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked
shall be upon him (xviii. 20). On the other hand,
the presence of the righteous cannot avail to deliver
a land in the day of its transeression. Though these
three men, Nouh, Daniel, and Job, were in at, they
shoud but deliver their own souls by their righteousness
(xiv. 14).
XII OF EZEKIEL’S TEACHING 341

The sense of personal responsibility in his own
work weighed heavily on the prophet’s own mind:
and the nature and limits of that responsibility were
made clear to him at the outset of his mission, and
again at the commencement of the second period of
his work. He was shown that while he was respon-
sible for the faithful proclamation of his message, he
was not responsible for its success or failure (il. 16
ff.; xxxil. 1 ff).

We cannot fail to be struck with the attitude of smportance
Ezekiel towards the ceremonial side of religion. serene
True, he was a priest, and by training and associa-
tions he might be expected to have a sympathetic
feeling for the Temple and its ritual; still he em-
phasises the importance of ceremonial in a way
which is new to prophecy. Nor is the reason far
to seek. So long as the Temple was standing,
and the chief danger was lest men should trust
in outward form, the efforts of prophecy were
directed to the condemnation of externalism and
the interpretation and spiritualisation of outward
ordinances.

But when the Temple had fallen, and the regular
worship of Jehovah had ceased, prophecy must needs
foretell the re-erection of the Temple and the restora-
tion of the forms of worship. Religion must of
necessity find some outward expression; and as we
shall see when we come to consider the work of the
prophets Haggai and Zechariah, the Temple was the
does not
exclude

ethical in-

terest or
spiritual
religion,

342 FUNDAMENTAL IDEAS LECT.

indispensable centre and rallying point for Israel
in the period of the Restoration. It was the focus
of their religious life, the visible pledge and witness
to Jehovah’s Presence among His people, when all
outward tokens of national power and greatness had
passed away.

But it is a strange perverseness which has led
some critics to charge Ezekiel with caring for nothing
but the externals of religion; of having, as one
writer sarcastically says, “ the merit of having trans-
formed the ideals of the prophets into laws and
dogmas, and destroyed spiritually free and moral
religion.” 1

Nothing can be more unfair than such an asser-
tion. In common with his predecessors, he explicitly
condemns the prevalent sins of idolatry, injustice,
oppression, impurity, and the like, and insists upon
the practice of the opposite virtues (ch. xviii.).

But he goes much further and deeper than this.
The restoration of Israel which he predicts is not
merely an outward restoration of the exiles to their
own land. It is to be accompanied by a spiritual
change wrought by the mighty grace of God. J will
sprinkle clean water upon you,and ye shall be clean. .

A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will

I put within you; and [ will take away the stony

heart out of your flesh, and I arill give you an heart

of flesh. And Tarill put my spirit within you, and
1 Duhm, Theologie der Propheten, p. 263.
XII OF EZEKIEL’S TEACHING 343

cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my
judgements and do them (xxxvi. 25 ff; cxi. 19, p. 20).

This regeneration of the restored Israel will be a
pure act of divine grace. So and not otherwise can
the mighty change be effected. But Ezekiel lays
equal stress upon man’s freedom to choose, upon his
need of repentance and purpose of amendment:
Return ye, and turn yourselves from all your trans-
gressions. .. . Cast away from you all your trans-
gressions, wherein ye have transgressed ; and make you
anew heart and a new spirit: for why will ye die, O
house of Israel (xviii. 30, 31) ?

This is not the language of a petrified legalism,
which expects salvation by its own works, but of
absolute and utter dependence on the renewing grace
of God, balanced by the recognition of the freedom
of the human will and personal responsibility.

Thevision of the restored Temple and re-established
worship, with its wealth of elaborate detail, might
seem at first sight to lend some countenance to
the view that Ezekiel loved form for form’s sake.
But it must be remembered that the great moral
change is presumed to have been already wrought.
The people have been regenerated. The Temple is
the earthly abode of Jehovah who returns to dwell
in the midst of His people. The ritual is their
expression of devotion to His service. It is their
safeouard against relapsing once more into idolatry,
No doubt Ezekiel’s thoughts move in a limited circle.
344 FULFILMENT OF EZEKIEL’S PROPHECIES ect.

He expresses the perfected relation of Jehovah
and His people in the terms of what is familiar
to him.

The times needed a definite promise that the
outward ordinances which were then the necessary
support and expression of religion would be once
more restored; but it is a shallow judgement which
supposes that Ezekiel regards forms and ordinances
as constituting the whole essence of religion.

The fulfil It is not perhaps very profitable to attempt to
inquire how far Ezekiel looked for a literal fulfilment
of his vision of the future, or how far he regarded it
simply as an embodiment of spiritual ideas. But in
less than half a century from the close of his ministry
his prophecies began to be fulfilled. Unlikely as it
must have seemed to human calculation, hopeless as
it appeared to many of the exiles, the Israelites were
restored to their own land, the Temple was rebuilt,
the worship of Jehovah was re-established.

But this was but the beginning of a fulfilment.
Those promises of cleansing and forgiveness and
spiritual renewal point forward to the revelation of
the Incarnation and the atonement, and the dispensa-
tion of the Spirit under which we live. They are
being fulfilled in us and for us.

The name of the city shall be JEHOVAH-SHAMMAH—
“Jehovah is there”; so the closing words of the
prophecy summarise the attainment of God’s purpose
for Israel in the perfected realisation of the covenant
XII FULFILMENT OF EZEKIEL’S PROPHECIES 345

between Himself and His people. The seer of Pat-
mos beheld Ezekiel’s vision expanding with a larger
glory, and heard a great voice out of the throne saying,
Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He
shall dwell with them, and they shall be His peoples, and
God Himself shall be with them, and be their God.
THE PROPHET OF THE EXILE

ISAIAH XL-LXVI.
cola, kal pévovoa ev ary Ta mavTa

pla 6& ofoa mavTa Ovvara
peraBalvovoa pldrous Geo8 Kal

cawlter, Kat kar& yeveas els puxas dolas

Tpopyras Karagkevd fet.
Sapicntia Salomonis.
LECTURE XIII

ISAIAH OF THE EXILE

Comfort ye, comfort ye My people. .. In the wilderness pre-
pare ye the way of Jehovah. .. The glory of Jehovah shall be
revealed, and all flesh shall see it together. —Isatau xl. 1, 3, 5.

I

Ir the great prophecy of Israel’s redemption and Die of the

hecy

glorification now included in the Book of Isaiah had Getermined

come down to us as an independent and anonymous °°"

document, no reasonable doubt could have been
entertained as to the time at which it was written.
Internal evidence would be regarded as fixing its
date with remarkable precision towards the close of
the Babylonian Exile.

Israel is in exile. Jehovah has surrendered His ine
people to their enemies. They are suffering the
punishment of their sins. They are being tried in
the furnace of affliction. Jerusalem has drunk to
the dregs the cup of Jehovah’s fury. The daughter
of Zion lies prostrate in the dust as a mourner; the
chains of her captivity are about her neck. The
Jerusalem
in ruins.

Babylon the
place of
exile,

which has
already
lasted long,

350 DATE OF ISAIAH XL.-LXVI. LECT.

mother city of Zion is a barren exile, bereaved of
her children, and wandering to and fro. Her children
are scattered from their home. Jehovah’s wife is
divorced from Him, and her children are sold into
slavery for their iniquities.!

Jerusalem itself is in ruins ; the cities of Judah
are deserted ; the land is desolate; the Temple is a
heap of ashes. The situation is summed up in the
pathetic words :

Thy holy citves are become a wilderness, Zion is
become a wilderness, Jerusalem a desolation. Our holy
and beautiful house, where our fathers praised Thee, 1s
burned with fire, and all our pleasant things are laid
waste (Ixiv. 10, 11).

Babylon is the scene of Israel’s captivity. Babylon
is the oppressor who holds Zion’s children in thrall.
Babylon has been the agent in executing Jehovah’s
judgement, and she has performed her task with a
malicious pleasure.”

The exile has already lasted long. It seems to
have become permanent. Zion fancies herself for-
gotten and forsaken. Jehovah sleeps. His wonder-
ful works of old time are a memory and tradition
only. Deliverance from the tyrant’s iron grasp

. seems hopeless. The centuries during which Israel

possessed its land are fading into a mere moment in
the remoteness of the past. The weary decades of

1 Sce xii, 22-25 ; xlviii. 10; xlix., 21; 1. 1; 11.17; lit. 2, 3; etc.
2 See xliii. 14; xviii. 14, 20; xlvii. 6.
XIII DATE OF ISAIAH XL.-LXVI. 351

exile are lengthening out into an eternity of punish-
ment. Faith and hope are strained to the point of
breaking.’

But deliverance is at hand. Jerusalem’s servi-
tude is accomplished; satisfaction has been made
for her iniquity. The decree has gone forth for
pardon, redemption, restoration.”

The deliverer is on his way. Cyrus is already in
full career of conquest. Babylon is doomed. The
proud oppressor is on the point of being humbled.
Her gods themselves are going helplessly into cap-
tivity. In fulfilment of prophecy the exiles will be
set free. They will be sent back to rebuild Jeru-
salem and restore the Temple. Jehovah will lead His
people through the wilderness to their ancient home
in a second exodus, which, as Jeremiah predicted
(xvi. 14 ff.), will eclipse the glories of the first. The
desolate widow will be consoled. Zion’s scattered
children will be gathered. Her persecutors will
pay her homage. Glorious with the revelation of
Jehovah’s glory, Jerusalem will become the centre
of universal worship. Israel will fulfil its mission
and unite all nations in a willing allegiance to
Jehovah.

1 See lviii. 12; lxi. 4 (ancient ruins); lxiv. 5, 6, R.V.; but the
text is doubtful and perhaps corrupt ; xl. 27; xlix. 14 ff.; li. 9.

? See xl.1,2; xli. 27; xiii. 1; xliv. 21 ff, 24 ff.; lit, 7 ff; lvii.
17 ff., ete.

3 See xliii. 14; xlv. 1 ff, 13; xlvi. 1 ff; xviii. 14; xl. 3, 4,
9 ff. ; xliii, 19 ff; xliv. 26ff; xliii.5; li 9 ff; liv. 1 ff; lx. 14;
ls, 1 iy lee. 1s, TY, ete,

but is soon
to end.
Date of the
prophecy
about B.C,
546-540.

352 DATE OF ISAIAH XL.-LXVI. LECT.

The circumstances are those of the closing years,
of the Babylonian Exile. But the date can be fixed
even more precisely. Cyrus, according to the
commonly received account, succeeded to the throne
of Persia in B.c. 558. Recent discoveries, however,
appear to shew that he was not originally king of
Persia, but of Anzan or Elam.1 However this may
have been, in B.c. 549 he conquered Astyages, and
victors and vanquished united to form the powerful
Medo-Persian empire. The conquest of Lydia and
the capture of Sardis followed in B.c. 546. Eight
years later came the decisive struggle against the
Babylonian empire. Babylon fell in B.c. 538.

At the time when the prophecy opens Cyrus is in
full career of victory. The double account of his
origin from the cast and from the north (xli. 2, 25)
seems to be a definite allusion to the union of
the l’ersians with the Medes under his sovereignty.
But further, the isles or coast lands are described as

" Recently deciphered inscriptions are said to ‘‘ cast a new and
revolutionary light on the character and nationality of Cyrus, as
well as on his conquest of Babylon. Cyrus and his ancestors are
shewn in them to bave been kings of Anzan or Ansan, not of Persia,
he and his son Cambyses, so far from being Zoroastrian iconoclasts,
conform to the worship and ritual of Babylonia, and Babylon
swrenders to the invader ‘ without fighting’ instead of undergoing
the horrors of a siege.” Anzan was ‘‘the mountainous region in
the cast of Babylonia, which constituted the ancient kingdom of
Elam, with its capital Susa.” The conquest of Astyages took place
in bc, 549, but Cyrus does not receive the title of king of Persia
until B.c. 546, Apparently therefore he only obtained possession
of Persia in the interval. See Sayce in Accords of the Past, New
Series, vol. vy. pp. 144 ff.
XIII DATE OF ISAIAH XL.-LXVI. 353

trembling before him (xli. 5), so that apparently he
was already engaged in his campaigns in the west of
Asia Minor. On the other hand Babylon is still
standing in all her pride and careless security,
unconscious of her impending doom.

Accordingly the extreme limits for the date of
the first division of the prophecy (chaps. xl—xlviii.)
are the years 549 and 538, and while it is not prob-
able that it was earlier than 546, it can hardly
have been much later. For though the latest pro-
phecies in the book, with the possible exception of
parts of ch. lxvi., are still prior to the fall of Babylon,
we may detect a tone of disappointment in some of
them, as though some considerable interval had
elapsed since the first proclamation of deliverance,
without the glorious hopes which it held out having
been realised.

The place of writing can hardly have been other ganytonia
than Babylonia. The prophet speaks in the presence ane
of a dominant heathenism. Idolatry in all its gross-
ness and folly surrounds him. He has watched the
infatuated idolaters carrying their helpless gods in
solemn procession; he has seen these contemptible
idols manufactured, and set up in the temples; he
has watched their besotted worshippers at their vain
devotions.’ All this points naturally to Babylonia;
and when we find the prophet in closest touch and
sympathy with the exiles there ; when we observe

* xl. 18 ff. ; xli. 21 ff. ; xliv. 9 ff.; xlv. 20; xlvi. lf, 5 fh
2A
The author
not Isaiah,

854 AUTHORSHIP OF ISAIAH XL.-LXVI. LECT.

how fully acquainted he is with their circumstances,
their character, their sins, their hopes, their fears,
the impression is confirmed ; and when we note how
the prophet unites himself with those exiles in con-
fession, thanksgiving, and earnest pleading,’ we can
scarcely doubt that he was himself one of them.

It has indeed been urged that the author shews
more acquaintance with Palestine than with Baby-
lonia. But we should not expect him to introduce
details about his surroundings in Babylon, other than
those which bore upon his immediate purpose, such,
for example, as the descriptions of idolatry ; while
the allusions to Palestine are perfectly natural for
one whose heart was constantly there. They are
such as he might easily have derived from the study
of the older prophetic literature with which his
mind was steeped, and from conversation with those
who had been carried into exile by Nebuchadnezzar.
Many of them no doubt still survived; every detail
of Palestinian scenery would be printed in their
memories ; and they would find a sad pleasure in
recalling every feature of their lost home.

It follows that if this prophecy was written in the
last decennium of the Exile, by a prophet living
among the exiles in Babylonia, its author cannot have
been Isaiah the son of Amoz, the contemporary of
Hezekiah. It is no “@ priori assumption of the

1 Note the use of the first person plural in xlii. 24 ; lix. 9-12;
lea. 7, 16.2 Txt. 11
XIII AUTHORSHIP OF ISAIAH XL.-LXVI. 355

impossibility of prophecy” which compels this
conclusion, but a simple induction from the contents
of the book, The Babylonian Exile is not predicted ;
it is described as an existing fact... The rise of
Cyrus is not foretold; he is already triumphantly
advancing from point to point. What is predicted
is the deliverance of the exiles and their restoration
to Palestine. Now while it is conceivable that
Isaiah might have been transferred in spirit to a
future age, and, taking his stand in the midst of
the tribulations which he foresaw were to come, might
have predicted the deliverance which was to follow,
such a hypothesis does not seem to he in accordance
with the economy of revelation. We have repeatedly
had occasion to observe the circumstantial origin of
prophecy; to remark that the teaching of one
prophet after another was designed to meet the
needs of his own age ; to note how it arose directly
out of those needs. Here on the other hand we
should have an example of a prophecy entirely
disconnected from the events of the author's time.
It seems far easier to suppose that, under circum-
stances which we can only conjecture, it was annexed
to the collection which bears Isaiah’s name although
it was not written till a century and a half after his
death, than that it forms so startling an exception to

1 A comparison of the prophecies in which Jeremiah predicts the
restoration from the Babylonian Exile will shew the force of this
argument. In these the Exile is foretold, not assumed. See
Jer, xxxi-xxxili,
The pre-
ceding
argument
corroborated
by the argu-
ments :—

() from stile
and lan-
guage,

(2) from
theological
ideas.

356 AUTHORSHIP OF ISAIAH XL.-LXVI. LECT.

the general principles by which prophecy was
governed.

Not only however does this prophecy contain
positive indications of its date, which if it had not
been attached to the Book of Isaiah could not have
been mistaken, but it is distinguished from the
acknowledged writings of Isaiah by its style, its
language, and its theological ideas. The terse,
compact, forcible oratory of Isaiah is replaced by a
measured though impassioned eloquence; the
vigorous rhetoric of action by the pathetic pleading
of suffering. Careful examination shews that a
considerable number of words and phrases charac-
teristic of Isaiah are entirely absent from these
chapters, or occur in them but rarely ; and conversely,
that a considerable number of words and phrases
occur in these chapters which are not to be found in
the acknowledged prophecies of Isaiah; while not a
few words and phrases which occur once or twice in
Isaiah without any special force are used here in a
distinct and specific sense.

Further, the prominent theological ideas of the
prophecy differ widely from those of Isaiah. This
will appear in detail from the study of the contents
of the book: here it may suffice to point out one or

1 See Driver’s Isaiah, pp. 192 ff., for the best statement of this
argument. ‘‘In carefully weighing the material collected in these
lists,” writes Delitzsch in the last edition of his Zsatah (1889),
‘fone is surprised at the number of phenomena telling against the
unity of authorship” (ii. 128, E. T.).
XIII AUTHORSHIP OF ISAIAH XL.-LXVI. 357

two of the most striking differences. The Messianic
King of the stock of Jesse, so conspicuous in Isaiah’s
teaching, is nowhere mentioned.’ Jehovah is the
only King in the restored Theocracy (lii. 7). The
significance of Israel as Jehovah’s Servant in relation
to His universal purpose for the world, and the
unique portraiture in which the conception of the
Servant culminates, find no parallel in Isaiah. The
new and eternal covenant of mercy which Jehovah
makes with His people in the restoration is never
alluded to by Isaiah? The contrast between
Jehovah, the absolute and only God, and the false
gods which are nothing but material idols, is
developed in a wholly new way.

It may indeed be freely admitted that style and
language change with advancing years, and that we
have no right to fix limits to the extent of the insight
and foresight which might have been granted to
Isaiah in his later years, when he had withdrawn
from public life and in an undisturbed seclusion
pondered on the ulterior purposes of God for His
people. It may freely be admitted that, by the side
of remarkable differences, there is much in these pro-
phecies which reflects the language and the teaching
of Isaiah; for example, the characteristic title of
Jehovah, The Holy One of Israel; and that the germs of

1 Unless indeed ch. lv. 3, 4 refers to him. Even if it does, the
difference is remarkable,

2 Cp. on the other hand Jer. xxxi. 31 ff.; xxxii. 40; Ezek.
xvi. 60 ff.; xxxvii. 26.
Internal
evidence
must out-
weigh tradi-
tion.

358 AUTHORSHIP OF ISAIAH XL,-LXVI. LECT.

much which here attains its full growth and develop-
ment are to be found already in the writings of the
son of Amoz; but these resemblances cannot be
regarded as sufficient to establish identity of author-
ship. Rather they may be taken to indicate that
this Book of Consolation is the work of a disciple of
Isaiah, upon whom a double portion of his master’s
spirit rested,and in whom he lived andspoke to another
generation according to their particular needs. But
this prophet speaks as one who has been disciplined
and enlightened by the unparalleled crisis of national
suffering which had happened in the interval. In
the historical development of Old Testament revela-
tion the Exile and no earlier period is the true place
for this prophecy.’

We have then to balance the whole weight of the
combined arguments, from the clear and definite in-
dications of the circumstances under which the work
was written, from the marked peculiarities of its
style and language, and from the distinctive charac-
teristics of its teaching, against the single fact that it
has been handed down by the tradition of the Jewish
Church as a part of the Book of Isaiah. Undoubtedly
this tradition comes down from ancient times.
Jesus, the son of Sirach, found it in its present posi-
tion at the beginning of the second century B.c., and
naturally regarded Isaiah as its author.? In the New

! Cp. Delitzsch’s Isaiah, ii. 182 (E. T.).
2 Keclus, xviii. 24, 25,
xn AUTHORSHIP OF ISAIAH XL.-LXVI. 359

Testament the accepted tradition is of course fol-
lowed, and these chapters are referred to and quoted
as Isaiah. But this tradition cannot counterbalance
the overwhelming weight of internal evidence. It
may be thought surprising that the name of one of
the greatest of Israel’s prophets should have fallen
into irrevocable oblivion, but it is not more surprising
than that there is not the faintest clue to the name
of the greatest of Israel’s poet-thinkers, the author of
the Book of Job. But here as in other cases the
individuality of the prophet who was charged with a
divine commission seems to have been regarded as of
comparatively little importance. The messenger was
lost sight of in the message ; nay, the more divinely
wonderful the message, the less it mattered for pos-
terity to know from what human lips or pen it came.

Why this prophecy was attached to the Book of
Isaiah instead of being preserved as an independent
book must remain an unsolved enigma! We know
nothing of the circumstances under which the pro-
phetic writings were finally collected into their

1 A partial explanation may be found in the form of ancient
books. The prophecy was annexed to Isaiah i.-xxxix., in order
to form a volume approximately equal in size to those of Jeremiah,
Ezekiel, and the Minor Prophets. If it was anonymous, it would
soon come to be ascribed to Isaiah. ‘‘ Every one who has handled
Eastern manuscripts knows that scribes constantly copy out several
works into one volume without taking the precautions necessary
to prevent an anonymous piece from being ascribed to the author
of the work to which it is attached.”—Robertson Smith, 0. 7. in

Jewish Church (ed. 2), p. 100. But the reasons suggested above
probably had some influence in determining its position.
360 ISAIAH XL.-LXVI,. LECT.

present form. We have already (p. 145) seen reason
to believe that the earlier part of the Book of Isaiah
contains discourses or writings of his disciples. A
true instinct may have felt that the right place for
the prophecies of the greatest of his disciples was in
the same volume with his master’s writings. In
such a prophet Isaiah himself lived on: the sons of
the prophets were the descendants of their spiritual
father; there was a continuity and solidarity in the
spiritual as in the natural family; and no injustice
would be done if posterity identified them. It is
possible, too, that the significance of Isaiah’s name
may have had some influence. Where could the
great prophecy of Israel’s salvation be more fitly
placed than in the volume of the prophet whose
name proclaimed the message of Jehovah’s salvation ?
At any rate, there is no ground for a charge of fraud
or imposture. There is not the slightest reason for
supposing that a nameless prophet wished to secure
the prestige of a famous name. The book itself does
not contain the faintest trace of any claim to have
been written by Isaiah, such as would certainly have
been found in a pseudonymous production.?

‘In the Talmudic list the prophets are placed in the order,
Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Isaiah; and they are found in this order in
many MSS. It has been conjectured that the position of Isaiah
preserves a trace of a consciousness that, in its present form, the

book is later than Jeremiah and Ezekiel. See Strack in Herzog's
Encycl. vii. 433; and Ryle’s Canon of the O. T. p. 225 ff.
XIII A MESSAGE TO THE EXILES 361

Il

It follows that the Book of Consolation is to be rimetiness
studied as a series of prophecies addressed by an prophecy.
exile in Babylon to his fellow-exiles in the last
decennium of the Captivity. It is from this point of
view alone that its full importance can be realised.
It was a crisis in Israel’s history of incalculable im-
portance for the history of the world’s redemption.
At this crisis God raised up a prophet second to
none of the older prophets save Isaiah himself, to
bring home to the desponding spirits of the exiles a
conviction of the grandeur of Israel’s mission for the
world, and of the certainty that Jehovah, Who had
predestined Israel to be His Servant to accomplish
this mission, would assuredly fulfil His purposes. If
any prophecy bears the stamp of appropriateness to a
critical epoch it is this. This prophet is above alla
theologian. The message which he has to proclaim
concerning Jehovah, and Israel’s relation to Jehovah,
is the central truth around which all his teaching is
grouped. But he is no abstract theologian, discuss-
ing the Being and Attributes of God as a speculative
question; he has a most practical aim in view. All
his teaching is bent on making his countrymen
realise the significance of the approaching crisis,
prepare themselves for it, throw themselves on
Jehovah, seize the moment, and, rising to the occa-
sion, realise their true destiny.
Character
of the
exiles :

some.
apostates,

362 CHARACTER OF LECT.

It is not likely that the prophet addressed his
message orally to large audiences. The circum-
stances of the exiles can hardly have made this
possible. It may have been delivered in the first
instance to an immediate circle of disciples, but
in order to reach the mass of the exiles it must have
been committed to writing, and circulated to others
who could communicate it to others immediately
around them. But in whatever way its publication
was effected, it is plain that it was intended for the
whole body of the exiles in Babylon, of every class
and character.

It is sometimes assumed that the Exile effected an
immediate and complete change in the character of
the entire people. Nothing can be further from the
truth. Jeremiah and Ezekiel testify to the pre-
valence of idolatry and superstition in the earlier
years of the Exile, alike in Egypt and Babylonia.
The picture which can be drawn from the pages of
our prophet displays no radical amendment.

Some of the exiles have been absorbed by the hea-
thenism around them. They have no wish to return
to the Holy Land. They have forsaken Jehovah, and
forgotten His holy mountain; they practise heathen
superstitions and worship the heathen deities of
Fortune and Destiny; they contemptuously neglect
the laws of ceremonial purity and Sabbath observ-
ance, which had now become of special importance as

1 See Jer. xliv. ; Ezek. xiv. and xx.
XIII THE EXILES IN BABYLON 363

marking the distinction between Israel and the
heathen; they scorn and persecute the faithful
worshippers of Jehovah. These stout-hearted rebels
are far from righteousness; they do not believe in
Jehovah's purpose to redeem His people.’

Others professed a reverence for Jehovah’s Name, es
and still called themselves citizens of Zion. They
observed the Sabbath, and kept the fasts ; but their re-
ligion was an external formalism. Like their ancestors
in Judea, they had no conception of Jehovah’s moral
demands, and failed to realise that He was a jealous
God. They were guilty of gross violence and oppres-
sion towards their poorer and weaker neighbours,
and they did not scruple to combine heathen rites
with the worship of Jehovah. The temptation
was strong in the midst of a prevailing heathenism,
and they had never broken with the evil traditions
which they had carried with them into exile?

But in the midst of these apostates and in- Ca ale
differentists there were some true Israelites who desponding.
feared Jehovah and obeyed the voice of His servant ;
who followed after righteousness and sought Jehovah
and treasured His law in their hearts; who mourned
for Zion’s desolation, and recognised that the sufferings
of the Exile were the merited punishment of the
nation’s sins. With these, who were of a contrite

1 See lxv. 2 ff., 11 ff. ; Ixvi. 3 ff., 175; xlvi. 8, 12; xlviii. 1 ff ;
li. 7. On chaps. lvii. lviii. see p. 368.
2 See xlviii. 1 ff. ; lviii. 1 ff. ; lxvi. 3.
Adaptation
of the pro-
phecy to
their needs.

364 NEEDS OF THE EXILES IN BABYLON LECT.

and humble spirit, Jehovah promises to dwell; to
these He proclaims the gospel of deliverance. Yet
even these were timid and desponding; fancying
themselves forgotten and forsaken by Jehovah;
questioning whether the fierce tyranny of Babylon
could ever be quelled, and Israel restored to its
ancient home.'

Such were the elements among which the prophet
had to work. He had a message for all. The object
of his prophecy was not merely to comfort faithful
Israelites by the announcement of the approaching
deliverance from Babylon, but to prepare for that
deliverance. The sternest rebuke alternates with
the tenderest consolation. The most fearful descrip-
tions of the rebels’ doom are presented side by side
with the most glorious prospects of restoration.
Jehovah is coming to redeem His people. But the
mass of the nation is all unfit for His advent. It is
the prophet’s task if possible to prepare them for it,
to startle them into repentance, to inspire them with
faith. They have no conception of Israel’s calling
and destiny; it is His aim to convince them of its
responsibility and its magnificence. Now or never
is Israel’s opportunity. With impassioned enthusi-
asm he sets before them the character of the God
with whom they have to do; the purpose for which
He has chosen Israel to be His servant; the deliver-

1 See 1°10; li. 1, 7, 12 ff. ; lxi. 1 © 5 Ixvi. 10; lvii. 15; xl.
27; xlix. 14.
+ XIII NEEDS OF THE EXILES IN BABYLON 365

ance by which He designs once more to put Israel in
a position to fulfil its mission to the world. These
are the leading ideas round which all that he has
to say is grouped; and his message gains a new dépth
of meaning, it becomes instinct with fresh force, when
we realise the circumstances under which the pro-
phet lived and taught; when we regard it not as an
abstract treatise, anticipating needs which were to
arise a century and a half after its composition, but
as the living, burning words of one whose heart
throbs with passionate eagerness and trembling fear
in sight of the glorious consummation which is at
hand, if Israel has but faith and courage to take God
at His word and challenge Him to fulfil His promises
to the uttermost. If the prophecy loses something in
mere wonderfulness when it is no longer regarded as
predicting from a remote distance the circumstances
of the Exile and the Return, it gains infinitely
more in beauty and interest when it is brought into
a vital connexion with the present needs of the
nation.

Til

We must then approach the study of the leading Plan of the
ideas in the Book of Consolation from the standpoint
of its immediate purpose. A rapid glance at its
general plan and outline will facilitate this study.
For our present purpose it may, I believe, be regarded
as possessing a substantial unity. It is not a formal
366 ARRANGEMENT OF ISAIAH XL.-LXVI. LECT,

treatise composed at one time. There are marks of
progress in it. Some critics think that they can trace
the hands of more than a single author. But there
is, in spite of many difficulties especially in the later
chapters, sufficient coherence and unity of purpose to
justify us in speaking of it as a book, and in speaking
of its author. If, as seems almost certain, the author
has made use of earlier prophecies, he has incorpor-
ated them as a substantial part of his work. They
are no mere accidental excrescences, and there seems
no strong reason for supposing that the book was not
completed by its original author substantially in its
present form.

What the plan of the work is, and how it should
be divided, are questions not easily answered.

At first sight the triple division of the book into
three equal parts, which has found much favour, is
extremely attractive. The solemn warning at the
close of ch. xlviii., There is no peace, saith Jehovah,
to the wicked, repeated at the close of ch. lvii,
There is no peace, saith my Cod, to the wicked, and
reiterated in substance though not in words in the
closing verse of the book which describes the doom
of the rebels against Jehovah, has been thought to
give the desired boundary marks. But it does so in
appearance only, There is no real break in thought
between chaps. lvii. and lviii. The theme in both is
the reproof of Israel’s sin.

There is however a general agreement that chaps.
XIII ARRANGEMENT OF ISAIAH XL.-LXVI. 367

xl.—xlviii. form the first division of the prophecy. They (i) Chaps.
are the “Bookof Consolation” properly socalled. They ae
contain the prophet’s first great message of good

news in view of the approaching deliverance. Most,

if not all, of the great ideas further developed in the
subsequent chapters are found here in germ; but

some subjects are treated in detail here which do

not reappear in the later chapters. The contrast
between Jehovah and idols; the appeal to ancient
prophecies in proof of Jehovah’s Deity ; the divine

call of Cyrus and his triumphant career; the destruc-

tion of Babylon the proud oppressor; are prominent
thoughts in these chapters, but do not recur later on.

We may perhaps discern a more hopeful tone in these
chapters than in those which follow. In the first

flush of enthusiasm the prophet has hope for all his
countrymen. Itis only by degrees that he comes to
realise that it is only the few that can be saved to
constitute the new Israel.

From ch. xlix. onward the divisions are less
clearly marked. It has indeed been questioned
whether any real divisions exist. But the following
arrangement will be found helpful for study.

Chaps. xlix.liv. expand the idea of Jehovah's Ser- (ii) Chaps.
vant, already presented in germ and outline in the pre- a
ceding chapters. The Servant’s calling, his experience,
his triumph, are successively described, and the
section ends with a glorious picture of the final
result of his work in the restoration and beatification
iit.) Chaps,
tv.-la,

368 ARRANGEMENT OF ISAIAH XL.-LXVI. LECT.

of Zion. It is addressed, in the main, to the faithful
few, who are capable of appreciating in some degree
the ideal destiny of Israel, and who long for its
realisation. From this point onwards, the Servant of
Jehovah is not mentioned by name, though he may
be the speaker in ch. lxi.1 ff. His place is taken by
the servants of Jehovah, as though the ideal had been
transformed into the actual, and would henceforward
be realised in all the individual members of the
nation."

Chaps. lv.-Ix. may be taken to form the next divi-
sion. It opens with an invitation to accept the offered
salvation, and an earnest callto repentance. But the
people are slow to listen, and the prophet, borrowing
the words of some earlier prophet,? describes the

1See liv. 17; lvi. 6; Ixili. 17; Ixv. 8, 9, 13, 14, 15; Ixvi. 14.
The singular does not occur after liii, 11, nor the plural before
liv. 17.

? The want of connexion with the preceding section, as well as
the difference of style and apparently of historical circumstances in
lvi. 9-lvii. 10, are best explained by the supposition that the passage
is taken from some older prophet, a contemporary, perhaps, of
Jeremiah and Ezekiel. It is not, however, an interpolation, but
is introduced by the author as a description of the causes which
have brought Israel into its present plight. It has an application
to those exiles who were inclined to idolatry. But the prophet
speaks of them rather than ¢o them. He implies that there is a
continuity of national life, and that they are the true children of
their ancestors, from whose guilt they have not dissociated them-
selves by hearty repentance.

In ch. lix. 1-8 it seems to me that the prophet is referring
mainly to the sins of the nation before the Exile, for which
(vv. 9 ff.) the nation is now suffering. Here, too, the prophet may
be following older models, but to what extent is doubtful.
XIT ARRANGEMENT OF ISAIAH XL.-LXVI. 369

actual character of the nation in the past. Yet,
in spite of all past apostasy, it is now Jehovah’s
purpose to heal Israel. Then follows a renewed
summons to repentance, with an exposure of the
hypocrisy of Israel’s formal righteousness. Unre-
pented sin is the real hindrance to the desired
salvation, not impotence or unwillingness on
Jehovah’s part. He is about to appear with an irre-
sistible manifestation of victorious power in judgement
as wellas mercy. Thus, and not otherwise, will the
goal of Israel’s destiny be reached.

Reproof and denunciation are the distinguishing
‘characteristics of this section. It describes the
hindrances to salvation in the impenitence and unre-
ceptiveness of the mass of the nation. But Jehovah
triumphantly overcomes these obstacles: if man will
not co-operate with Him, His own arm will effect
His salvation (lix. 16). The closing chapter reaches
the same goal as the closing chapter of the preceding
section, though Jerusalem’s restoration is now con-
sidered, not in itself merely, but in the wider aspect
of its relation to the nations of the world.

The last division (chaps. 1xi.lxvi.) consists of a (iv) Chaps.
series of addresses, some of which seem intended to
reassure those who were cast down by the delay of
the promised salvation, while others seem to have
been delivered when the decree for the Return had
been issued, and the rebuilding of the Temple was
being actually contemplated. The old promises are

2B
370 THEOLOGY OF ISAIAH XL.-LXVI. LECT.

reaffirmed, but the contrast between the penitent
who can alone enjoy them and the impenitent for
whom nothing remains but judgement, is even more
strongly and sternly emphasised than before. Jehovah
Himself cannot give salvation to those who obstin-
ately refuse its conditions. Even the Book of
Consolation must end with a final contrast of glory
and disgrace.

IV

Theotogy of | A thorough examination of the theology of the

Isa, al.-lxvi.

PCN Book of Consolation would require a separate trea-
Israel. tise. All that can be attempted here is to indicate’
some of the leading ideas which the prophet was
taught by the Spirit of God to impress upon his
fellow-exiles in Babylon to meet their needs in this
momentous crisis. Consider their position. Though
they were not slaves in the modern sense of the
word, they had lost their liberty, and humanly
speaking there seemed but little probability that
they would ever regain it. They were face to face
with a dominant heathenism, which seemed to have
rewarded its votaries with triumphant prosperity.
What wonder if some of them were tempted to think
that man was stronger than God; that after all the
visible powers of the material world were more real
than the unseen powers of the spiritual world?
What wonder if others were ready to regard Bel and
Nebo, whom their conquerors worshipped, as equal
XUT THEOLOGY OF ISAIAH XL,-LXVI. 371

or perhaps superior to Jehovah, and to fancy that
after all it might be wisest to propitiate the gods of
the country where they were living? Such were
their dangers. And so the prophet sets to work to
bring home to their minds the truth that God, and
not man, is the supreme power ; that Jehovah is the
one unique, incomparable God, beside Whom there is
no other. It is not that he has any new truth to
proclaim about Jehovah ; but just as the truths con-
cerning the Holy Trinity were gradually defined and
made clear as the need for definition arose from the
propagation of false statements, and what was im-
plicitly contained in the faith of the Gospel was
explicitly defined so as to exclude error; so now this
prophet of the Exile, for the needs of his time and
his audience, brings out into a new relief and
prominence the great truth of absolute monotheism,
the truth that Jehovah, the God of Israel, was the
one only God Who created the world, and preserved
its order, and controlled the events of history for His
own purposes. All the prophet’s teaching centres
round the exposition of the nature and character of
Jehovah, Who has chosen Israel to be His own
people, to set forth His glory ; for in that nature and
character is the ground of Israel’s confidence, the
certainty that Israel is not and cannot be forsaken.
The contrast between the transitory impotence of (1) contrast

manand theeternal omnipotence of Jehovah is the first ante
point which he emphasises. In face of the apparently
372 THEOLOGY OF ISAIAH XL.-LXVI. LECT.

invincible might of Babylon, deliverance must have
seemed hopeless to the exiles. But at the very outset
of his prophecy he proclaims this contrast for Israel’s
comfort. When the mysterious voice has announced
the impending restoration of Israel, another voice
bids him Cry, and when he asks What shall I
ery? he receives the answer: All flesh is grass, and
all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field: the
grass withereth, the flower fadeth ; because the breath of
Techovah bloweth upon it: surely the people is grass,
The grass withereth, the flower fadeth : but the word of
our God shall stand for ever (xl. 6 ff.). It is the
thought upon which Israel is to reflect in view of all
the overwhelming magnificence and power of their
conquerors, which seems for the moment so irresist-
ible and so permanent.

The same thought is repeated even more emphati-
cally at a later point in the prophecy, when perhaps
disappointment was beginning to be felt at the delay
in the fulfilment of the prediction of deliverance. J,
even I, am He that comforteth you: who art thou, that
thou art afraid of man that shall die, and of the son
of man that shall be made as grass ; and hast forgotten
Sehovuh thy Muler, that stretched forth the heavens, and
laid the foundations of the carth; and fearest con-
tinwally all the day becuse of the fury of the oppressor,
when he maketh ready to destroy? and where is the
fury of the oppressor ? (li. 12, 13).

But it is not so much the contrast between
XIII THEOLOGY OF ISAIAH XL.-LXVI. 373

Jehovah and man as the contrast between Jehovah Sas

and idols upon which the prophet dwells. It is this

tween
Jehovah

- and idols.

which gives him occasion to set forth the omni-
potence and wisdom and omniscience of the Creator,
the sovereign Ruler of the world, Who knows and
declares from the beginning the final purpose of His
will. Who, he asks, hath measured the waters in the
hollow of His hand, and meted out heaven with a span,
and comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure,
and weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills in a
balance? (xl. 12). The answer is obvious—None but
Jehovah, who has assigned to the universe its form
and dimensions, as easily as a workman might measure
his materials and plan his work with his ordinary
tools. Who, he continues, hath meted out the spirit
of Jehovah, or being His counsellor hath taught Him ?
With whom took He counsel, and who instructed Him,
and taught Him in the path of judgement, yea taught
Him knowledge, and shewed Him the way of under-
standing ? (xl. 13 f.).

Alone He planned it in His supreme wisdom ;
alone He rules and maintains it all. The magnifi-
cence and the order of the universe bear unceasing
witness to His power. Lift up your eyes on high, and
see: who hath created these? He that bringeth out their
host by number: He calleth them all by name ; by the
greatness of His might, and for that He is strong in
power, not one 1s lacking (xl. 26). But He does not
rule in nature only. He rules in the affairs of men.
374 THEOLOGY OF ISAIAH XL,-LXVI. LECT.

The Creator of the world is its Governor. It is He
that is throned upon the circle of the earth, «nd the
inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers. It is He Who
has stretched out the heavens like gauze, and spread
them out as a tent to dwell in: that bringeth princes to
nothing, and maketh the judges of the carth as vanity,
Scarce have they been planted, scarce have they been
sown, scarce hath their stock taken root in the carth,
when He bloweth upon them, and they wither, and the
whirlwind taketh them away as stubble (xl, 22-24).

To whom then will ye liken God? or what likeness
will ye compare unto Him ? is the prophet’s indignant
question as he points from his sublime sketch of the
Creator and Governor of the world to the contempt-
ible folly of a manufactured idol (xl. 18). Zo whom
then will ye liken Mc, that I should be equal to him?
saith the Holy One ? is the solemn repetition from God
Himself of the prophet’s question (xl. 25).

But this truth of the sovereignty of Jehovah has
an immediate application to present circumstances.
The coastlands of the Mediterranean and the nations
which are trembling before the triumphant advance
of Cyrus are challenged to say who it is that has
raised up this victorious hero and endowed him with
such irresistible might. Who hath wrought and done
it? and the answer comes, One who calls the genera-
tions from the beyinniny, planning and controlling not
this only but all the movements of the world’s
history: J, Jehoruh, am the first, and with the last I
XIII THEOLOGY OF ISAIAH XL.-LXVI. 3875

am He (xli. 4), But in their panic the nations resort
to their gods, and repair their idols; and these gods
are now arraigned, and challenged to give proof of
their deity by shewing their foreknowledge (xli. 21
ff.). Let them point to predictions which have been
already fulfilled, or predict what is yet to happen:
nay, let them demonstrate their existence by action
of any kind. But they are dumb. There is none that
declareth, there is none that sheweth . . . even among
them there is no counsellor, that... can answer a
word (xli. 26 ff.). Jehovah claims that He has raised
up Cyrus, and no one else knew that he was coming :
He first proclaims to Zion the good news of approach-
ing deliverance.

Once more the nations are summoned. and their
gods are challenged to produce testimony to their
own powers of foreknowledge and of action. Who
among them can declare this, and shew us former
things ? let them bring their witnesses, that they may
be justified. But they have none; whereas Jehovah
can appeal to Israel as His witnesses. That mys-
terious nation in its past history, and in the fresh
wonders which are in store for it, is the witness to
Jehovah’s power. J, even I, have declared, and have
saved, and have shewed, and there was no strange god
among you: therefore ye are my witnesses, saith
Jehovah, and Iam God. Yea from this day forth Iam
He; and there is none that can deliver out of My hand :
I work, and who can reverse it? (xliii, 9-13).
376 THEOLOGY OF ISAIAH XL.-LXVI. LECT.

But Israel is slow to believe ; and once more the
claims of Jehovah to unique Deity, and to the sove-
reignty and foreknowledge which are the attributes of
Deity, ave asserted; and the stupid folly of idolatry
is signally exposed by a graphic description of the
whole process of idol manufacture. Jehovah speaks
as the King of Isracl, and his redeemer Jehovah of
hosts: Iam the first, and I wn the last; and beside Me
there is no God. ... Fear ye not, neither be afraid :
have I not declared unto thee of old, and shewed rt ?
and ye are my witnesses, Is there a God beside Me ? yea,
there is no Rock ; I know not any. They that fashion
a graven image are all of them vanity ; and their de-
serable things shall not profit: and their own witnesses
see not, nor know ; that they nay be ashamed (xliv. 6 ff.).

But Israel’s King is the King of all the earth.
When He formed the earth and established it, He
created it not to be chaos, but formed it to be in-
habited; and His purpose is, and He has confirmed
it with a solemn oath, that unto Him every knee shall
bow, every tongue shall swear. He claims and will
ultimately receive the universal allegiance of all
mankind (xlv. 18 ff.).

The destruction of Babylon is imminent; and as
the prophet watches the images of her tutelary deities
borne into a helpless captivity, he contrasts their im-
potence with the loving care of Jehovah, who has
borne and carried the nation of Israel from its birth.
He makes one last appeal to the transyressors to pon-
XIII THEOLOGY OF ISAIAH XL.-LXVI. ‘877

der the course of Israel’s history, and to read the
lesson of this new deliverance which is in course of
accomplishment. Remember the former things of old :
for I am God, and there ts none else; I am God, and
there 1s none like Me; declaring the end from the be-
ginning, and from ancient times things that are not
yet done; saying, My counsel shall stand, and TI will
do all My pleasure. . (xlvi. 9 ff).

Throughout the first division of the prophecy
(chaps. xl.—xlviii.) this contrast between the impo-
tence of the heathen idols and the omnipotence,
omniscience, and sovereign purpose of Jehovah is re-
peatedly insisted on. This is the fundamental truth
upon which Israel may depend: this can inspire
them with hope and courage in the midst of the
catastrophes which cause consternation to the nations,
for these are but Jehovah’s means for the deliverance
of His people.

All this omnipotence is being exerted on behalf of
Israel. Jehovah has created Jacob, and formed
Israel (xliii. 1). They are His sons and His daughters,
whom He has created for His glory (xliii. 6,7): they
are His people, His chosen, the people which He
formed for Himself that they might set forth His
praise (xliii. 21). Again and again the tender love
of Jehovah for His people is described. He shall fecd
His flock like a shepherd ; even as in the days of old
in His love and in His pity He redeemed them, and
He bare them and carried them all the days of old
378 THEOLOGY OF ISAIAH XL.-LXVI. LECT.

(xiii. 9 ff). His is more than a mother’s love. Can
a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not
have compassion on the son of her womb? yea, these
may forget, yet will I not forget thee (xlix. 15).

There are two attributes of Jehovah, constantly
connected in this prophecy with the redemption of
Israel, which require special notice—His righteous-
ness and His holiness.

aia The righteousness of God is manifested in His
ness, deliverance of Israel. There is no contrast in the
mind of the prophet between righteousness and
mercy. Salvation is the correlative and companion
of righteousness (xlv. 8; xlvi. 13; li. 5, 6, 8; lvi. 1).
Jehovah is a righteous God and therefore a saviour
(xlv. 21). For salvation is His eternal purpose ; and
it is in conformity with that eternal purpose that He
is delivering Israel. However He may seem for a
time to be forced by men’s sin to deviate from the
straight line of that purpose, He is always self-
consistent, unswayed by passion, unbiassed by par-
tiality, undeterred from His purpose by human
obstinacy and perversity. He has called Israel His
servant in righteousness (xlii. 6), and He promises to
uphold him with the right hand of His righteousness
(xli. 10). He has raised up Cyrus in righteousness
to execute His purpose (xlv. 13). When He comes
triumphant from His victory over Israel’s enemies
He proclaims Himself as one that speaks in righteous-
ness, mighty to save (lxiii. 1). The decree for the
XII THEOLOGY OF ISAIAH XL.-LXVI. 379

ultimate submission of the nations is a word that has
gone forth from His mouth in righteousness (xlv. 23).
Jehovah’s righteousness is His conformity to that
absolute law which God must ever be unto Himself,
that unchanging standard of right which excludes all
idea of caprice or variableness. It is the embodi-
ment in action of the attribute of truth, which is the
inalienable characteristic of Deity.

The title the Holy One of Israel is one of the most (/)Jehoval's
striking points of connexion between this prophecy
and Isaiah. It was, as we have seen reason to
believe (p. 175), coined by Isaiah ; and it is appro-
priated by his great disciple in the Exile. The
preservation of Israel in the Assyrian troubles when
Jerusalem’s last hour seemed at hand was the work
of the Holy One of Israel. The redemption of Israel
from Babylon and her glorification is equally His
characteristic work. Thy Redeemer is the Holy One
of Israel is a distinctive note of this prophecy.’ It
is the Holy One of Israel who has sent to Babylon
to bring down all the Chaldeans as fugitives (xlii.
14,15; ep. xlv.11). Redeemed Israel will glory in
the Holy One of Isracl. It is He who glorifies Zion
(lv. 5; lx. 9), and the title of the city will be The
Zion of the Holy One of Israel (1x. 14). This title
the Holy One of Israel was a perpetual reminder of
the character of the God who had entered into cove-
nant with Israel. It affirmed on the one hand that

© See xli. 145 xlili. 14; xlvil. 4; xlvili. 17; xlix. 7; liv. 5.
(5) Jehovah's
name,

(6) Jehovah's
glory.

380 THEOLOGY OF ISAIAH XL.-LXVI. LECT,

in virtue of His essential Deity His purposes for His
people could not be frustrated; and on the other
hand that Israel must conform to His claim of holi-
ness. And the prophet looks forward to the response
of the people to Jehovah’s renewed manifestation of
His purpose towards them.

It is but another way of expressing the truth that
Israel’s redemption is in accordance with the divine
righteousness and the characteristic work of Israel's
Holy One when it is said to be wrought for His own
sake, or for His Name’s sake (xliii. 25; xlviui. 9-11;
cep. xi. 8). It is the outcome and issue of all that
He is, and all that He has revealed Himself to be.
Israel is not redeemed for any merit of its own, but
in pursuance of an eternal purpose, in accomplish-
ment of the unchanging divine Will and Counsel.

As the motive of Jehovah’s action is for His
Name’s sake, its rule His righteousness, its condition
His holiness, so its final cause is His glory. The
object of Israel’s creation is His glory (xliii. 7): in
the redemption of Israel the glory of the Lord will be
revealed so that all flesh may see it together (xl. 5) ;
when He executes vengeance, men will fear the
name of Jehovah from the west, and His ¢lory from
the rising of the sun (lix. 19); Zion in her restora-
tion will be the reflection of that glory (Ix. 1, 2), and
in the final judgement it will be manifested and
recognised among the nations (Ixvi. 18,19). Thus all
the dealings of God with His people and with the
XIII THEOLOGY OF ISAIAH XL.-LXVI. 381

world contribute to that revelation of His Being and
His attributes which makes His Presence known, so
far as men can know it, in its dazzling and tran-
scendent splendour.

Vv

We have seen thus far how the great prophet of rhe servant
the Exile develops and enforces the fundamental —
truth of the Being and the character of Jehovah in
order to reanimate the faint-hearted, to arouse the
indifferent, to convince the apostates, among his
hearers, in view of the approaching deliverance of
Israel from Babylon. Side by side with this truth,
or rather interwoven with it into one great argument,
he sets forth the truths of God’s eternal and irre-
vocable choice of Israel to be His peculiar people, of
the purpose with which that choice was made, and of
the means by which that purpose is to be carried into
effect. The Servant of Jehovah is the counterpart
and correlative of Jehovah Himself in the prophet’s
teaching. It was a truth for the time. Israel as it
was needed to be convinced of its mission to the
world in order that it might seize the opportunity
now to be offered to it of making a new step forward
for the accomplishment of that mission, of redeeming
the failure of past days, of responding to the divine
call and accepting the divine commission.

The study of the idea of the Servant of Jehovah
presented in these chapters is beset with difficulty.
382 THE SERVANT OF JEHOVAH LECT.

The only method which can lead to satisfactory
results is to examine the gradual development of
the conception in the series of passages which treat
of it.

cemein The first of these is ch. xl. 8-16. The con-

ch. zi. 6 sternation which is being produced among the nations
by the triumphant advance of Cyrus has just been
described. From the nations Jehovah turns to
address Israel. In the midst of these political con-
vulsions Israel has nothing to fear.

But thou, Israel, My servant, Jacob whom I have
chosen, the seed of Abraham My friend ; thou whom I
have taken hold of from the ends of the earth, and called
thee from the corners thereof, and said unto thee,
“ Thou art My servant, I have chosen thee and not cast
thee away” ;—Frar thou not, for I am with thee; be not
dismayed, for I am thy God: Iwill strengthen thee; yea,
I will help thee ; yea, I will uphold thee with the right
hand of My righteousness,

It is plainly the nation of Israel which is here
styled the Servant of Jehovah. This honourable
title is given in the Old Testament to individuals
who were raised up to do special work, such as
Moses the lawgiver, Joshua the conqueror of the
Promised Land, David the founder of the true
theocratic monarchy. ~ And here the nation is
regarded as a unity, chosen, called, preserved, for
a special purpose of service to God. In spite of all
appearances, God has not cast away His Servant.
XUL THE SERVANT OF JEHOVAH 383

Israel has nothing to fear. Its enemies are the
enemies of Jehovah, and they will be utterly
destroyed. Behold, all they that are incensed against
thee shall be ashamed and confounded: they that
strive with thee shall be as nothing, and shall perish
(xli. 11).

Here the emphasis is on the choice of Israel and ne ser-_
its ultimate success in its mission. In the next sion, eh
chapter the character and object of that mission are rene
described. Jehovah is the speaker. He is address-
ing the world. He introduces to them His Servant,
and describes his work and its method :

Behold My servant, whom I uphold ; My chosen, in
whom My soul delighteth: I have put My spirit upon
him ; he shall cause right to go forth to the nations. He
shall not ery, nor lift up, nor cause his voice to be
heard in the street. A brwised reed shall he not break,
and a failing wick shall he not quench: he shall cause
right to go forth in truth. He shall not fail, nor break
down, till he have set right in the earth, and for his
instruction shall the coastlands wait (xlii. 1-4).

Then, turning to His Servant, Jehovah addresses
him :

Thus saith God, even Jehovah, that created the
heavens, and stretched them forth, that spread out the
earth, and that which cometh forth of a, that giveth
breath unto the people upon it, and spirit to them that
walk therein ; I Jehovah have called thee in righteous-
ness, and hold thine hand, and guard thee, and give
384 THE SERVANT OF JEHOVAH LECT.

thee to be a covenant of people, a light of nations ;
to open blind eyes, to bring out prisoners from the
dungeon, them that sit in darkness out of the prison
house (xlii. 5-7).

We have here a description of the work of
Jehovah’s Servant. But who is meant? I cannot
think that there is any doubt that, as in the preceding
passage, Israel is meant by this title. The same
terms are employed here as in ch. xli: here, as
there, the Servant is described as divinely uphcli,
chosen, calle’. But it is, as we say, an ideal descrip-
tion, setting forth in the sublimest terms the divine
purpose of Israel’s election. That purpose is nothing
less than the propagation of divine right accord-
ing to truth among all nations. It is nothing less than
to bring universal illumination to the moral dark-
ness of the world, universal liberation to the bond-
slaves of ignorance and error, This victory of right
is not to be won by force, or with pomp of attendant
circumstance: it will not overwhelm but restore the
weak and feeble: and this divine purpose is sealed

1 Much confusion and difficulty have been introduced into the
interpretation of this passage by the failure to recognise that
people in v, 6 does not denote Israel. It must be explained
as in v. 5, where, as in ch. xl. 7, people means mankind in
general. It is through the work of His servant Israel that Jehovah
wills to establish His covenant with all mankind. There is no
reference here to the work which needs to be effected for the
servant himself before he can accomplish the divine purpose,
though already the language of v. 7 may be chosen in view of the

startling paradox that the instrument designed for the world’s
liberation is itself in prison, itself needs to be set free.
XIII THE SERVANT OF JEHOVAH 385

with the solemn words: J am Jehovah: that is My
name; and My glory will I not give to another,
neither My praise unto graven images (xlii. 8).

But the actual state of Israel is a strange contrast
to its splendid destiny. It is this astonishing para-
dox which next occupies the prophet’s attention. The
coming restoration of Israel from exile is described
(xlii, 10-17), and then with startling abruptness
Israel—the actual Israel of the Exile—is addressed :

Ye deaf, hear! and ye blind, look, that ye may see! rhe

Who is blind, but My servant? and deaf, as My fatty
messenger that I would send? Who is blind as My ®F-
devoted one? yeu, blind as Jehovah's servant? Israel,
far from being able to open blind eyes, is itself blind.
Far from being in a position to loose others from
prison, they are themselves snared in holes and hid
in prison houses. And the cause of this strange con-
trast between the actual plight in which Israel lies
and its ideal destiny is the chastisement which
Jehovah has inflicted upon Israel for its wilful sin
and disobedience (xlii. 24, 25)

Yet, utterly as Israel has failed in its calling, sore rie ser-
as has been the punishment inflicted upon it, it has cea os

aliti. 8 ff;

an indelible character as the Servant of Jehovah; in zu. 19;
spite of itself it will be carried on to fulfil its mission.
Yet now thus saith Jehovah that created thee, O Jacob,
and He that formed thee, O Israel: Fear not, for I
have redeemed thee; I have called thee by thy name ;
thow art Mine (xliii. 1). Blind and deaf as are the

20
386 THE SERVANT OF JEHOVAH LECT.

individuals who now compose the nation of Israel,
they are still His witnesses. Their very existence
bears testimony to His plan. Bring forth the blind
people that have eyes, and the deaf that have ears... .
Ye are My witnesses, swith Jehovah, and My servant
whom I have chosen (xliii. 8, 10).

Once more, in ch. xliv., the same thoughts are
repeated. In spite of the repeated sins, for which its
holy princes have been profaned, and Jacob made a
curse, and Israel a reviling, Jehovah has not cast off
His people. Free forgiveness awaits them. He will
quicken them once more with a new life, and the
nations will unite in fellowship with Israel and
Israel's God. Here are the gracious words of
promise :

“et now hear, O Jacob My servant, and Israel whom
I have chosen: thus saith Jehovah, that made thee and
formed thee from the womb, who will help thee: Fear
not, O Jacob My servant, and thou, Jeshurun, whom I
have chosen. For I will pour water upon the thirsty,
and strerms upon the dry ground: I will pour My
spirit upon thy seed, and My blessing wpon thine
offspring: and they shall spring up among the grass,
as willows by the watercourses. One shall say, I am
Sehownh’s; and another shall celebrate the name of Jacob;
and a third shall inseribe himself as Jchovah’s, and
surname himself with the name of Israel (xliv. 1-5).

The instrument of deliverance has already been
prepared. If Cyrus has been raised up and com-
XII THE SERVANT OF JEHOVAH 387

missioned by no less honourable a title than the
Anointed of Jehovah (xlv. 1), it is for the sake of
Jacob His Servant, and of Israel His chosen, that
Jehovah has called him by his name (xlv. 4). And
when the exiles march forth from Babylon in their
new Exodus, the triumph song which is to be re-
echoed even to the end of the earth is this, Jehovah
hath redeemed His servant Jacob (xlviii. 20).

Thus far—to the end of the first division of the The ideat
prophecy—it is plainly the nation of Israel which is ch. alia. 17.
spoken of as the Servant of Jehovah. Israel is the
people which He has chosen to fulfil His purposes
for the world, and in spite of its utter failure in its
mission, Israel remains His Servant; it cannot be
abandoned ; it is to be redeemed and restored to its
own land that it may fulfil its destiny as the bearer
of salvation to the ends of the earth. Jehovah's
essential character and His relation to Israel are
the guarantees that Israel’s mission must, in some
way or other, be accomplished.

But how can this be? Israel itself needs to be
converted ; atonement must be made for Israel’s sin
before it can fulfil its mission to the world; and
thus in a second group of passages, extending from
ch. xlix. to ch. lili, we have a fresh presentation of
the Servant’s work. That work is now described as
beginning with Israel itself, and extending from
Israel to the nations. In spite of Israel’s failure
and humiliation the true Servant of Jehovah is
388 THE SERVANT OF JEHOVAH LECT.

hidden within it. In the opening of this new divi-
sion of the prophecy he speaks, addressing the
nations, and describing his calling and his work, his
seeming present failure and his certain ultimate
success.

Listen, O coast-lands, unto me; and hearken,
ye peoples, from far: Jehovah called me from the
womb ; from the bowels of my mother He made men-
tion of my name: and He hath made my mouth like
a sharp sword, in the shadow of His hand hath He
lid me; and He hath made me a polished arrow, in
His quiver hath He concealed me ; and He said unto
me, Thowart my servant ; Israel, in whom I will be
glorified. But I—TI said, I have laboured in vain, I
have spent my strength for nought and vanity: yet
surely my judgement 1s with Jehovah, and my recom-
pence ts with my God. And now saith Jehovah that
formed me from the womb to be His servant, to bring
Jacob back to Him, and that Israel may be gathered
unto Him... yea, He saith, It is too light a thing
that thou shouldest be My servant to raise up the tribes
of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel: yea,
I will make thee a light of the nations, that thou
mayest be My salvation unto the end of the earth (xlix.
1-6).

At first sight it might be supposed that the pro-
phet is the speaker. But this is clearly not the
case. The Servant of Jehovah who speaks is still
identified with Israel (v. 3). But in what sense?
XIII THE SERVANT OF JEHOVAH 389

For this Servant’s first work is for Israel itself, ¢o
raise up the tribes of Jacob and to restore the pre-
served of Israel. He is therefore at once identified
with and distinguished from Israel; and it would
seem that Jsrael must be used in a narrower and a
wider sense of the ideal Israel according to the
divine calling and purpose, and the actual Israel
sunk for the most part in indifference and unbelief.
Hidden within the nation there is the true Israel,
ready to fulfil its calling as the Servant of Jehovah ;
the faithful few, who alone really deserve the name
of Israel; and it is through this element within the
nation that it can be saved and restored and led on
to fulfil its calling. This element corresponds to the
holy seed which Isaiah foretold would preserve the
life of Israel through the time of desolating catas-
trophe (vi. 11-13) ; and in the name of this element
which he represents, and not for himself alone, or
for any single individual, the prophet speaks.

Once more in ch. 1. the Servant speaks, describ- wis er-
ing his divine equipment, his vocation, his experience thet hb
of shameful rebuff and persecution, his certainty of
ultimate triumph in the divine strength.

The Lord Jehovah hath given me a disciple’s tongue,
that I may know how to sustain the weary with a
word: He wakeneth morning by morning, wakeneth
mine ear to hear as disciples do. The Lord Jehovah
hath opened mine ear, and I—I was not rebellious, I
turned not away backward. TI gave my back to the
390 THE SERVANT OF JEHOVAH LECT.

smiiters, and my cheeks to those who pluched out the hair ;
I hid not my face from insult and spitting. But
the Lord SIchovah will help me: therefore have I
not been confounded ; therefore have I set my face like
a flint, and I know that I shall not be ashamed. He
is near that justifieth me; who will contend with me ?
let us stand wp together: who is mine adversary? let
him approach me. Behold, the Lord Jehovah will help
me: who is he that shall condemn me? behold, they all
shall wax old as a garment ; the moth shall eat them
up (1. 4-9).

It is the Servant who speaks; and God Himself,
addressing the faithful few, sets His seal to the
Servant’s mission. Who is among you that feareth
Jehovah, that obeyeth the voice of His servant? though
he hath walked in darkness, and hath had no light, let
him trust in the name of Jehovah, and stay himself
upon his God (1. 10).

If this passage stood alone we might again sup-
pose that it referred to the prophet himself; but it
must be taken along with the other passages of the
series ; and when we remember the strong sense of
solidarity in ancient Israel, we shall find no difficulty
in seeing that the prophet speaks not for himself
only, but as the mouthpiece and representative of
that true Israel, which, as we have seen, is spoken of
in ch. xlix. as Jehovah’s Servant.

Thus, step by step, we are led up to that sacred
passage in which the prophet’s teaching concerning
XI THE SERVANT OF JEHOVAH 391

the Servant of Jehovah culminates. The exodus
from Babylon is assumed to have taken place (lil.
7-12). Jehovah hath made bare His holy arm in the
sight of all the nations, and all the ends of the earth
see the salvation of our God (lii. 10). Then once
more the prophetic discourse reverts to the Servant ;
but whereas before he was himself introduced as
speaking, it is now Jehovah Who speaks, and
describes the issue of his work. His success and
exaltation will be proportionate to his humiliation,
exciting the astonishment of nations and kings, who
are struck dumb with amazement at this unexpected
sight (lii, 13-15). But itis not to the nations only
thatitis a surprise. Speaking in the name of his com-
. patriots the prophet laments the general incredulity
with which he had been received. Who in Israel
had believed the announcement made to them? For
he had no outward attractiveness; nay, he was de-
spised and rejected of men, he was as some loathsome
sufferer, from whom men turn in abhorrence (liii. 1-3).
Penitently they confess their blindness as they re-
cognise that he suffered not for his own sin but for
the people, on behalf of those who thought him the
mark of God’s especial wrath (liii. 4-6).

The grossest maltreatment he met with uncom-
plaining resignation: he perished, unregarded, by a
violent death, and innocent as he was, he shared the
grave of oppressors and malefactors (vv. 7-9).

But in sharpest contrast to his apparent fate is his

Victory
through
suffering,
ch. ii. 13-
litt.
392 THE SERVANT OF JEHOVAH LECT.

real destiny, for he suffered by Jehovah’s will, and
through death victorious over death he makes atone-
ment for the transgressors with whom he was
reckoned; and he whom men condemned as a
malefactor proves their Saviour and Intercessor
(wv. 10-12).

Of whom speaketh the prophet this? Is the portrait
here drawn that of “an individual figure in which
all the attributes of the Servant culminate,” or is it
“an ideal figure, which is the impersonation of Israel’s
ideal character, and which he represents as accom-
plishing what Israel, as he knew it, had left un-
achieved ”??

To attempt precise definition may perhaps be too
great a refinement, a drawing of distinctions which
would not have been present to the prophet’s mind.
Person or personification, this at least is the culmina-
tion of the idea of Israel as the Servant of Jehovah,
whether he expected the features of the portrait to
be realised in a single individual or in the restored
and purified nation. It represents the ideal Servant
perfectly fulfilling his work. It shews how that
work must be accomplished in the face of misunder-
standing and opposition and persecution ; how re-
demption can only be achieved through vicarious
suffering, life can only be won through death. It is
possible that some features in that portrait were
taken from the actual experience of prophets and

1 Driver, Isaiah, p. 178.
XIIL THE SERVANT OF JEHOVAH 393

other faithful servants of God, and united in an
ideal combination ; that it sums up the experiences
of the past, and through them points forward to the
future. The significance of that portrait for the
prophet’s contemporaries was that it expressed the
certain assurance that the purpose for which Israel
had been created and chosen and preserved would
not fail of its accomplishment. It is upon the basis
of the atonement made by the Servant that the glow-
ing description in chap. liv., of Zion’s restoration in a
covenant which is never to be broken, rests. When
Israel has confessed its sin, and recognised the work
of the Servant in and for it, it can fulfil its mission
and become the mother of the universal church. It
is noteworthy that the Servant of Jehovah is not
mentioned again. Instead of “the Servant,” collective
or individual, we meet with “the servants,”! as though
in the restored Israel every individual would in his
part fulfil the vocation of the whole.

Whatever may have been the precise idea which
the prophet’s portrait of the suffering and triumphant
Servant of Jehovah conveyed to himself and his con-
temporaries—and it is impossible for us to tell how
far they were allowed to see into the mysterious
truth which it foreshadowed—it is impossible for us
who read it in the light of its fulfilment to doubt
that it was intended by the Holy Spirit to point
forward to Christ. In Him alone it receives its com-

1 liv. 17; lvi. 6; lxiii. 17; Ixy. 8, 9, 18, 14, 15; Ixvi. 14.

Fulfilment
tn Christ.
394 THE SERVANT OF JEHOVAH LECT.

plete explanation. He takes up the work which
Israel could not do. As Israel’s ideal representative,
He sums up in Himself and carries out to its fullest
development all that every true Israelite, every
faithful prophet, every patient martyr had foreshewn,
in many parts and in many fashions, of the Servant’s
work. Israel was “the Messianic nation” ; and the
Messiah who came in the fulness of times was the
true and perfect Servant, whose redemptive work
was exercised for His own people first, and then for
the world. He was the final outcome and develop-
ment of Israel; yet no mere natural product or
spontaneous development, but the divinely fore-
ordained and divinely given crown and consumma-
tion of the nation’s history.

There is no prophecy in the whole of the Old
Testament which offers a more convincing proof,
not only of God’s foreknowledge and purpose, but of
His communication of it to men through His
prophets; and when a recent historian of Israel
can say that “when the ancient Church interprets
the passage of the sufferings and death of the
Messiah it does it violence, taking what is said about
the past history of Israel for a prophecy of the future
destiny of the Messianic King,”* he betrays that he
has failed to grasp the fundamental principle of the
organic unity of the Old and New Testaments, and
the relation of the history of Israel to that gradual

1 Stade, Grsch. des Volkes Israel, ii, p. 79.
XIII THE SERVANT OF JEHOVAH 395

unfolding of salvation which is consummated in
Christ.

But we must not hastily conclude that because,
in the light of its fulfilment, this meaning of the
prophecy is clear to us, it was also clear to the
prophet. Nay, we know that the idea of a suffering
Messiah was abhorrent to the minds even of the
disciples. All their thoughts were concentrated on
the type of the Messianic King, and it was only as
they pondered on the facts of the Lord’s life in the
early days after Pentecost that they were brought to
see how the prophecies of the suffering Servant and
the victorious King were united in the one Person of
Him who reigned from the tree.

It is natural for us to regard this great prophecy,
and indeed the whole series of prophecies, in the
light of its fulfilment only, as it applies to Christ.
It is easier to do so; but in so doing we lose some-
thing of the full understanding of the methods by
which God taught His people of old, and revived
and strengthened their faith. For once more be it
observed that this whole exposition of the calling and
the work and the victory of the Servant of the Lorp
was a truth for the time. At this crisis in Israel’s
history those who had ears to hear needed to be
taught what was the calling of their nation, what
was the purpose for which it had been so wonderfully
created and preserved through all vicissitudes. They
needed to be assured that in spite of Israel’s failure,
Eschato-
logy.

The Exodus
Jrom Baby-
lon.

396 ESCHATOLOGY OF ISAIAH XL.-LXVI. LECT.

the divine purpose would be victoriously accom-
plished.

More than they could have hoped has already
been fulfilled; and in that fulfilment is the guarantee
for us that God’s purposes are moving towards a
consummation greater and more glorious than aught
that we can dare to imagine.

VI

The immediate purpose of the prophet was, as we
have seen, to comfort the exiles in Babylon with the
assurance of their speedy deliverance, to interpret
to them the significance of Israel’s vocation, to pre-
pare them to rise to the occasion, and, responding to
the call of God, fulfil their destiny. So, while the
restoration of the exiles to their own land occupies
the foreground of his picture, the distance is radiant
with a splendid vision of the glorious future which
awaits Zion when it achieves its mission to the world.

In the first division of the prophecy (chaps. xL-
xlviii.) which forms the Book of Consolation in the
stricter sense, the coming deliverance from Babylon
is naturally most prominent; but the thoughts of
the ultimate consequences of that deliverance are
already present in germ and outline, to be developed
and expanded in the later chapters of the book.

The approaching deliverance will be a second
Exodus. Jeremiah had predicted that its fame would
XIII ESCHATOLOGY OF ISAIAH XL,-LXVI. 397

eclipse that of the first Exodus. Behold the days
come, saith Jehovah, that it shall no more be said, As
Jehovah liveth, that brought up the children of Israel
out of the land of Egypt; but, As Jehovah liveth, that
brought up the children of Israel from the land of the
north, and from all the countries whither He had driven
them (Jer. xvi. 14, 15; xxiii. 7, 8). Our prophet
repeatedly refers to the comparison.’ It is a signifi-
cant one. The nation was “born” in the first Exodus:
in this second Exodus it is to be born again. This
restoration is to be the initiation of a new order.
Behold, the former things are come to pass, and new
things do I declare: before they spring forth I tell you
of them (xlii. 9; xlill, 19; xlvili. 6). Jehovah will
once more lead His people through the wilderness
with signs and wonders (xl. 3 ff.) ; but whereas in the
first Exodus they came forth in haste (Deut. xvi. 3;
Exod. xii. 11), and carried with them the contamina-
tion of the land of their sojourn, they are not to go
out in haste or by flight; they are to touch no unclean
thing (lii, 11, 12), Those who bear the vessels of
Jehovah are bidden to be clean. Jehovah will return
to Zion, and once more establish His kingdom there
in the sight of all the nations (lii. 7-10). Babylon is
to be put to eternal shame; Zion is to be glorified
with everlasting glory. Babylon’s gods are dethroned
and dishonoured; Zion’s God is supremely exalted
and recognised as the sole sovereign of the world.

1 See xl. 3 ff. ; xlviii. 20 f.; li. 9 ff; lit, 11, 12; lv. 12.
398 ESCHATOLOGY OF ISAIAH XL.-LXVI. LECT.

The restora Spiritual revival follows upon outward restoration ;
ton of Zion

ey but the greatest glory of the restored Zion will be

nations. the accession of the nations, which crowd to do her
homage, and confess that Jehovah is the only true
Deity. Surely God is in thee; and there is none
clse, there is no god. The universal homage which
He demands will ultimately be paid Him (xliv. 3 ff. ;
xly. 14, 18-25).

In the later chapters of the book the restoration
and its consequences are depicted in fuller detail
in a series of passages, each of which surpasses the
preceding one in glowing enthusiasm and magnificent
anticipation,

The first work of the true Servant of Jehovah,
hidden within the nation, is, as we have seen, to ratse
up the tribes of Jacob and restore the preserved of Israel
(xlix. 6). Zion’s children are restored to her (xlix.
14 ff). She can scarcely believe the sight; but
Jehovah’s love is inalienable; and her waste and
desolate places and her land that has been destroyed
shall now be too strait for the inhabitants. At
Jehovah’s summons the nations bring them back,
and their great ones wait to do them service (xlix.
22 ff). Nature welcomes them; the curse of barren-
ness is removed; and Jehovah makes Zion’s wilder-
ness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of
Jehovah (li. 3).

Jerusalem’s persecutors will receive their just
recompence ; she will no more be profaned, but hence-
XIII ESCHATOLOGY OF ISAIAH XL.-LXVI, 399

forth will be the holy city, into which there shall no
more come the uncircumcised and unclean (li. 17 ff.;
li. 1 ff).

A still more glowing picture of Zion’s restoration ch. tiv.
follows immediately upon the culminating descrip-
tion of the suffering and victory of the Servant ot
Jehovah. She is to exult once more in the multitude
of her children: she will spread abroad on the right
hand and on the left; and her seed will possess the
nations, Jehovah’s wrath has rested upon her for a
moment, but His mercy will be everlasting. The
mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed ; but
My kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall
My covenant of peace be removed, saith Jehovah that
hath mercy on thee (liv. 10). The outward beauty of
the new Jerusalem, glistening with precious stones,
will find its counterpart in the spiritual perfection of
her children, when they realise in fact the character
and calling of the servants of Jehovah (liv. 11-17).

Strangely different indeed, the prophet knows, has
been and is the character of the mass of the nation
which bears the honourable title the Servant of
Jehovah, yet his faith is unshaken that Jehovah
cannot desert His people or fail in His purpose.
When there is none to interpose, His own arm brings
salvation unto Him, The covenant cannot be broken.
A redeemer shall come to Zion, and unto them that turn
from transgression in Jacob, saith Jehovah. And as
for Me, this is My covenant with them, saith Jehovah :
Ch, lx.

400 ESCHATOLOGY OF ISAIAH XL.-LXVI. LECT-

My spirit that is upon thee, and My words which I have
put in thy mouth, shall not depart out of thy mouth,
nor out of the mouth of thy seed, nor out of the mouth
of thy secd’s sced, saith Jehovah, from henceforth and
for ever (ix, 20, 21).

It is under these conditions that the divine glory
dawns upon Zion, and as she shines with that
celestial brightness, she becomes the light of the
world which les in darkness. She draws the nations
to herself, and they bring back her scattered children.
The treasures of the world are offered to do honour to
Jehovah. All that is most costly and beautiful is
brought to beautify the place of His sanctuary.
Strangers build up her walls, and their kings minister
to her, The sons of those who once oppressed her
now pay her homage. Prosperity, peace, divine
illumination, universal righteousness, distinguish the
restored city and people. Her glory and her blessed-
ness know neither limit nor end. The vision reaches
into the far distance; and then the prophet, return-
ing to the present, celebrates the ministry of
restoration which has been committed to him.’ He

? Opinions are divided whether the speaker in ch. Ixi. 1 ff. is
the prophet himself or the Servant of Jehovah. The Targum
assigns the words to the prophet, and this I believe to be the
correct view. It is true that the Servant is endowed with the
Spirit, commissioned to raise up the downcast and release the
prisoners. But nothing here goes beyond what the prophet might
say of himself. The office of the speaker here is to proclaim, not
to mediate, salvation. Elsewhere, when the Servant is introduced,
he is designated by his title. He disappears from the book after
XIII ESCHATOLOGY OF ISAIAH XL.-LXVI. 401

assures his fellow-exiles of the double recompence of
honour which awaits them for the shame they have
suffered. Israel will fulfil its calling as a nation of
priests) and the nations will serve them. The
patriarchal promise will be realised. All that see
them shall acknowledge them, that they are the seed
which Jehovah hath blessed (1x1. 9).

Glorious as are these hopes for the future, they Chaps.taiti.
cannot remain unchequered and unqualified. The ~
actual state of Israel forbids such optimism. The
nations may still persist in antagonism to Jehovah
and His people. And so in the closing chapters of
the book the thoughts of judgement and salvation
alternate with strange abruptness. Jehovah’s
triumphant return from executing vengeance upon
Edom is a type and example of the universal judge-
ment which awaits His adversaries. And when the
prophet pleads in the name of the church of the
Exile for the speedy fulfilment of the promises of
restoration (ch. Ixv.), Jehovah points him to the
apostate and rebellious element in Israel which
hinders the coming of salvation, and warns them
that for them nothing but judgement is in store
(xvi. 1 ff.) It is not all Israel that will be saved:

chap. liii., and it would be strange that he should be reintroduced
here without being named. And in these closing chapters the
personality of the prophet does not lie so entirely in the back-
ground as it does in the earlier part of the book. This view does
not affect the application of the prophecy by our Lord to Himself
(St. Luke iv. 21).

1 Isaiah lxi. 6; cp. Exod. xix. 6.

2D
The fulfil-
ment.

402 FULFILMENT OF ISAIAH XL.-LXVI. LECT,

the enemies of Jehovah within His people will share
the fate of those outside it. But the remnant of the
nations which survives the judgement will declare
Jehovah’s glory to the yet more distant nations.
They will bring the dispersed Israelites home to
Jerusalem as the most acceptable offering they can
present, and Jerusalem will be at once the centre of
universal worship and the scene of a final judgement
(ixvi. 18 ff).

The prophet’s picture of the future contemplates
the inauguration of a new age with the restoration of
Israel. He looks for new heavens and a new earth
(Ixv. 17, 18). The restored Jerusalem is a new
creation. It is radiant with a splendour which is
more than earthly. The peace of paradise is restored
(ixv. 25). The curse of sin is annulled. Yet even
so death is not abolished, though its penal character
is at an end (Ixv. 20). The final consummation and
restoration of all things is not yet attained.

VII

When we compare the prophet’s glowing antici-
pations of Israel’s future with the actual course of
history we are disappointed. The prophet’s antici-
pations appear to be closely connected with the
Return. The immediate result fell far short of
them. Much was long deferred. Much still
remains unrealised. Was he not then a_ true
XI FULFILMENT OF ISAIAH XL,-LXVI. 403

prophet? Here as elsewhere it is necessary to con-
sider carefully the character, limitations, and con-
ditions of prophecy. First, it is clear that some of
the language used is not plain matter-of-fact prose,
but highly imaginative poetry. It is not necessary
to suppose that the prophet expected that a road
would be actually levelled through the desert, or
that miraculous springs of water would burst forth
on the track of the returning exiles, or that the
walls of Jerusalem would be adorned with precious
stones, Next it is necessary to take account of
what has been called the perspective of prophecy.
The prophet was taught to see the immense signifi-
cance of the Return as ushering in a new era and
marking a fresh step in the evolution of God’s
purposes of salvation for the world. But he was not
instructed to distinguish the successive moments in
that great vision of salvation which rose before his
view. He connected the complete realisation of all
the promises to Israel with the Return from Babylon,
as his predecessors had connected the establishment of
the Messianic kingdom with the deliverance from
the Assyrian troubles. As vast ages of the past
are concentrated into the vision of successive days
in the story of creation, so long ages of the future are
foreshortened in a series of pictures which seem to
be immediate and simultaneous, until the course of
events shews that they represent successive ages of
long duration and slow development. The prophet’s
404 FULFILMENT OF ISAIAH XL.-LXVI. LECT.

language is that of the immediate hopes and circum-
stances of the time. Jerusalem is regarded as the
centre of all the world’s worship: to the actual
Jerusalem is attached all the vision of glory which
fills the prophet’s mind with its splendour. But the
truths which his words convey reach far beyond the
local and material city. They supply much of the
language and the imagery which is adopted in the
Apocalypse to describe the spiritual Jerusalem; and
only in the spiritual city of the perfected church will
they find their complete fulfilment.

Once more, in comparing prophecy with fulfil-
ment the conditional character of prophecy must be
taken into account. How far the nation as a whole
was from thorough repentance is evident from the
words of the prophet himself. Indeed it seems
plain from the later chapters of the book that as
the time of deliverance drew near, he saw with
increasing clearness that the sin and apathy of the
mass of the exiles were a fatal bar to the immediate
and complete realisation of all that he had foretold.
It was only a fraction of the Israelites in Babylon
who had faith to accept the challenge of Cyrus, and
return to build the house of God. Those who did
return were for the most part, as the pages of Haggai
and Zechariah abundantly shew, slack and selfish
and slow to realise the great issues which depended
on their action, and to draw upon the treasury of
divine power which was open to their prayers. The
XIII FULFILMENT OF ISAIAH XL.-LXVI. 405

pages of Nehemiah and Malachi bear witness how
soon they fell into graver offences. Thus Israel’s
failure hindered the free action of divine grace.
God could not do His mighty work then because of
their unbelief.

Yet shall we think him less a true prophet
because the picture of the future which he drew
was possibility rather than actuality, the divine
ideal (albeit expressed in terms of the circumstances
of the time) rather than the reality to which men
were capable of attaining ?

Nay, surely : for when to human foresight Israel’s
return was at best uncertain, he predicted it with
unwavering confidence. When to human view the
return of a few thousands of Jews from Babylon to
Judea must have seemed a matter of absolute in-
difference, he affirmed that it was fraught with
world-wide consequences for the salvation of man-
kind. When the work of Israel as the Servant of
Jehovah seemed to have ended in blank failure, he
drew that marvellous portrait of Him in whom
Israel’s history culminated ; who Himself achieved
the work in which Israel failed, wrought out salva-
tion for the world, and through death brought life
to all mankind. Israel returned ; Israel survived ;
out of Israel came salvation for mankind in
Him who is the true representative of Israel.
Israel, though she knows it not, is greater in the
offspring who trace their spiritual descent to her
406 FULFILMENT OF ISAIAH XL.-LXVI. Lect. x11

than she ever could have been in her isolation.
Such a prophecy was not mere human aspiration
or bold guesswork, but the voice of the Spirit of God
revealing beforehand, as men could receive it, the
purpose of the ages. Truly he is the Evangelical
Prophet, the herald of the good news of deliverance,
not to the Israelites in Babylon only, but to the
captives of sin in every age and country. Rightly
are these chapters regarded as one of the most
precious parts of the Bible, full of meaning as we
study them in the light of their origin, fuller still
of a larger meaning and a present significance for
ourselves as we study them in the light of the
revelation of God’s eternal purpose of salvation in
Christ Jesus.
THE PROPHETS OF THE RESTORATION

HAGGAI AND ZECHARIAH—
ZECHARIAH IX.—XIV.—ISAIAH XXIV.—XXVIL
—MALACHI
maca % Oela ypapy diddoxanbs eorw dperis kal mlarews ddnBobs.
S. ATHANASIUS.
LECTURE XIV

HAGGAI AND ZECHARIAH

Who hath despised the day of small things ?—ZECHARIAH iv. 10.

I

WIrtH unwavering faith the prophets who watched ne timits of
the ruin of the Temple and the destruction of Jeru- predicted,
salem proclaimed that this catastrophe was not
destined to result in a frustration of the divine pur-

pose for the chosen people. Jeremiah, while he
foretold the inevitable certainty of the impending
Judgement, fixed the limits of it. Thus saith Jehovah :

After seventy years be accomplished for Babylon, I will

visit you, and perform for you My good word, to cause you
toreturn to this place. For I know the thoughts that I

think toward you, saith Jehovah, thoughts of peace, and

not of evil, to give you an hereafter and a hope (Jer.

xxix. 10,11). Ezekiel, as he gazed in spirit from

the land of his banishment upon the deserted ruins

of the Temple, saw rise before him the vision of a
nobler building and a more perfect order of worship.
Cyrus the
deliverer,

410 THE RETURN FROM BABYLON LECT.

As surely as he had beheld the departure of the
glory from the desecrated Temple and city, so surely
he beheld its return to dwell in the Holy Place
once more (Ezek, xi. 23; xlii. 2 ff).

The seventy years of the Babylonian supremacy !
were drawing to their close, when the strains of the
greatest poet-prophet of Israel rang out in the ears of
the waiting exiles: Comfort ye, comfort ye My people,
saith your God. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and
ery unto her, that her time of service is accomplished, that
her punishment is accepted; that she hath received of
Jehovah's hand double for all her sins (Isa. xl. 1, 2).

Already the deliverer was in full career of con-
quest. As Nineveh had fallen before the power of
Babylon, so Babylon yielded to the advance of
Persia, and Cyrus became supreme monarch in
Western Asia? One of his first acts was to issue
the proclamation which permitted the Jews to return
to Jerusalem and rebuild the Temple (Ezra i. 1-3).

1 Seventy years is named asthe duration not of the Exile but of
the Babylonian supremacy (Jer. xxv. 11, 12; xxix. 10). It is ob-
viously a round number, but from the battle of Carchemish to the
capture of Babylon was very nearly seventy years. Only fifty years
intervened between the destruction of Jerusalem and the first
Return.

? According to the Annalistic Tablet of Cyrus recently dis-
covered, ‘‘ Nabonidus fled, and the soldiers of Cyrus entered Baby-
lon without fighting.” Nabonidus had rendered himself unpopular
by his religious policy, and Cyrus was welcomed by the Babylonian
priests and people as adeliverer. The siege ascribed to the reign
of Cyrus by Greek and Roman historians really took place in the
reign of Darius. See Sayce, Records of the Past, new series, vol. v.
pp. 144 ff.
XIV THE RETURN FROM BABYLON 411

This permission was in accordance with his general
policy. It is not improbable that he had received
help in the conquest of Babylon from the conquered
peoples who had been transported thither by the
Babylonian kings, and discerning in the presence of
such peoples a source of weakness to his empire, he
‘determined to restore them to their old homes. The
statement of Josephus (Ant. Jud. xi. 1, 2) that Cyrus
had read the prophecies of Isaiah, and was inspired
with an ambition to fulfil them, rests upon no sure
foundation, and is probably nothing but that his-
torian’s own conjecture. It can indeed neither be
proved nor disproved; and it is certainly possible
that Cyrus was aware that the Jews in exile regarded
him with eager expectation as their appointed de-
liverer. But even if he was acting unconsciously, he
was none the less the chosen instrument of Jehovah
for carrying out His purposes of mercy toward His
people.

The account of the actual circumstances of the The Return.
Return is disappointingly meagre, and we are left to
fill in many details by inference or conjecture. The
response to the invitation was by no means universal.
But the Return was distinctly a national act. All the
families settled in Babylon seem to have taken part
in it. With one or two possible exceptions, those
who accompanied Ezra eighty years later belonged
to the same families as those who followed Zerubbabel.
The new community was intended to represent all
412 THE RETURN FROM BABYLON LECT.

Israel. The twelve elders at its head (Neh. vii. 7),
and the sacrifice offered for the twelve tribes of
Israel at the dedication of the Temple (Ezra vi. 17),
were significant of the spirit in which the enterprise
was undertaken.

But though most if not all of the families settled
in Babylon were represented, the choice of their.
representatives was no doubt mainly determined by
personal faith and zeal. It was those whose spirit God
had stirred who volunteered for an undertaking which
needed no small measure of courage and energy.
Many shrank from the effort, and preferred to remain
where they were. But they were not by any means
all of them indifferent or careless of the success of
the movement. They supported it by rich gifts (Ezra
i. 6), and from time to time continued to send offer-
ings to Jerusalem (Zech. vi. 9 ff); and the fact that
men like Ezra and Nehemiah could arise among the
exiles is proof that diligent study of the Law and
generous zeal for the welfare of the nation continued
to flourish among the exiles who remained behind.

The leaders The numbers of the returning exiles are precisely
Return. given as 42,360 in all, together with 7337 servants,
and 200 or 245 singing men and singing women
(Ezra ii. 64 f.; Neh. vii. 66 f.). The leaders of the
company were Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and
Joshua (or Jeshua) the son of Jozadak. Zerubbabel,
as the actual or legal heir of Jehoiachin, was the
representative of the house of David, and had been
XIV THE RETURN FROM BABYLON 413

appointed governor of Judah by Cyrus (Ezra v. 14)
Joshua, who held the office of High Priest,was grandson
of Seraiah, the last High Priest who had ministered
in the Temple at Jerusalem before its destruction.
With them were associated ten colleagues, and this
council of twelve elders* was doubtless intended to
represent, under the altered circumstances of the
time, the ancient tribal division of the nation.
Zerubbabel and Joshua however were the prominent
leaders ; of the other ten nothing further is recorded,
unless they are to be identified with the elders of the
Jews mentioned in Ezra v. 5,9; vi. 7, 8,14,to whom
the satrap Tattenai addressed himself as the respon-
sible authorities of the community at Jerusalem. To
the special charge of the new governor were com-
mitted the sacred vessels of the Temple which had
been carried to Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar, and
were now restored by Cyrus to their proper use.

IT

A perilous journey of perhaps four months (ep. Significance
Ezra vii. 8,9) brought the exiles to their ancient Hater,
home. It may well be imagined that some sense of
disappointment depressed their spirits, as they com-

1 See Note A, p. 431.

* The lists in Neh. vii. 7 and 1 Esdras v. 8 agree in giving
twelve names. That in Ezra ii. 2 only contains eleven, and no

doubt one has been accidentally omitted. The variations in the
lists need not be discussed here.
414 THE RETURN FROM BABYLON LECT.

pared the glowing pictures of the prophets with the
actual circumstances of their march. Yet to the
eye of faith, which could penetrate to the inner mean-
ing of the work in which they were engaged, it must
have seemed a triumphal procession, worthy to be
accompanied by the most joyous songs of thanks-
giving and the loudest Hallelujahs. As we look back
upon it in the light of history, we see in it a move-
ment which has shaped the destinies of the world ;
and we know that the universal joy of nature was
not too strong a figure to express its supreme im-
portance. The mountains and the hills shall break
forth before you into singing, and all the trees of the field
shall clap their hands (Isa. lv. 12).

Restoration The exiles returned from Babylon to found not a

yuo? \ingdom but aChureh, If ever Israel had cherished
the hope of taking its place among the great powers
of the world, as the world measures greatness, that
hope had now been shattered utterly and for ever.
They returned to found a Church: and their first
care, after they had settled themselves in their cities,
probably so far as was possible in their ancestral
homes, was to restore the worship of Jehovah. In
the seventh month of the first year of the Return,
the people gathered themselves together as one man to
Jerusalem (Ezra ii. 1). They re-erected the altar of
burnt offering in its place, possibly upon its ancient
foundation; rest red the daily sacrifice, and celebrated
the Feast of Talernacles (iii. 1-6).
XIV THE RETURN FROM BABYLON 415

Without delay they proceeded to take in hand rebuitding
the great object of their mission, the Rebuilding of Pemple
the Temple. This had been specified in the decree
of Cyrus; and for this their countrymen who re-
mained in Babylon had freely contributed their
offerings (Ezra i. 2 ffi; vi. 3 ff). Preparations were
made, which seem like a shadowy reflection of
Solomon’s vast assemblage of workmen and accumu-
lation of materials; and in the second month of the
second year of the Return the foundation of the
Temple was laid with solemn ceremonial of praise
and thanksgiving. The old doxology, For Jehovah
is good, for His mercy endureth for ever toward Israel,
rang out with a new depth of meaning, for it had
received a fresh verification from the strange vicissi-
tudes of the people’s history. Some however who
had seen the house in its former glory wailed aloud
as they contrasted these humble beginnings with
the ancient magnificence to which their memories
fondly clung.’

The work did not proceed far without opposition. The stan
The heathen or half-heathen Samaritans? claimed opposition.

1 See Note B, p. 482.

2 These Samaritans must not of course be confused with the
Samaritans of later times. They were the descendants of Assyrian
colonists, who had mingled with such Israelites as had been left
behind after the deportation of the northern tribes. They com-
bined a corrupt worship of Jehovah as the God of the land with their
own heathen worship (2 Kings xvii. 24-41), Bodies of such
colonists seem to have been settled in Samaria by Sargon, 722-705
(2 Kings xvii. 24 ff.); Esarhaddon, 681-669 (Ezra iv. 2); and
Assur-bani-pal, 668-626 (=Osnappar, Ezra iv. 10).
416 HAGGAI AND ZECHARIAH LECT.

the right to join in it. Their offer was rejected by
Zerubbabel and Joshua in council with the chiefs of
the people. That rejection has been stigmatised as
the act of a narrow and short-sighted ecclesiastical
bigotry ; but it is hard to see how the Samaritan offer
could have been accepted without at once exposing
the small and weak community to the danger of a
corrupting idolatry.1 Irritated by this refusal, the
Samaritans adopted an attitude of active hostility.
Partly by threats of violence, partly by intrigues at
the Persian court (Ezra iv. 4 ff), they sueceeded in
their spiteful opposition, and for some fifteen years
the work stood still. Of the details of the history of
that time we know nothing; but it may be inferred
from the language of Haggai that the stoppage of the
work was due at least as much to want of energy on
the part of the returned exiles themselves, as to the
opposition which they had to encounter. Their
courage was daunted by the first shew of difficulty ;
and care for their own comfort and even luxury
diverted their attention from the higher duty. Their
own houses were ceiled and panelled, while the house
of God still lay in ruins (Haggai i. 4). They excused
their apathy by questioning whether the time ap-

1 Jt should be noted that although they were compelled to
refuse the co-operation of the Samaritans as a body, individuals
were not repelled from sharing the religious privileges of the new
community. Not only the returned exiles, but ‘‘all such as had
separated themselves unto them from the filthiness of the heathen
of the land,” took part in the dedication of the Temple (Ezra
vi, 21)
XIV HAGGAI AND ZECHARIAH 417

pointed in the divine counsels for the restoration of
the Temple had yet arrived. The time is not come,
they said, for Jehovah's house to be built. Perhaps
they satisfied their consciences with the thought that
the full term of seventy years had not yet run its
course since the destruction of the Temple.

Ill

It was a grave crisis in the history of the com- siistry of
munity. They were rapidly reconciling themselves ae a
to an existence without a Temple: yet existence
without a Temple would have meant (humanly speak-
ing) the extinction of the national religion.

The catastrophe was averted by a providential
combination of circumstances. The prophets Haggai
and Zechariah were raised up to recall the people to
the sense of their duty. Drought and famine aroused
their consciences, and disposed them to listen to the
prophets’ message. The recent accession of Darius
gave at least a hope of a changed policy on the part
of the government.

The extant prophecies of Haggai were delivered
within a period of four months, in the sixth, seventh,
and ninth months of the second year of the reign of
Darius, p.c. 520. Zechariah’s first prophecy falls
within the same period, in the eighth month of the
same year; his great series of Visions is dated just
two months later than the last of Haggai’s utter-

25
Iaggai.

The work
resumed.

418 MINISTRY OF HAGGAI LECY.

ances; and the last of the prophecies which can be
assigned to him with certainty followed after an
interval of two years.

Haggai’s commission was, as we have seen, mainly
concerned with the rebuilding of the Temple. His
first message (i. 1-11) was addressed to the people
through their civil and spiritual leaders, Zerubbabel
and Joshua. It was delivered on the first day of the
sixth month (Alul = Aug.-Sept.), when the people
would be assembled for the festival of the New Moon.
He censured them for their culpable delay in rebuild-
ing the Temple. They pleaded that the time was
not yet come for it; but they could build and
decorate houses for themselves, while Jehovah’s
house still remained in ruins. The drought and
scarcity from which they had suffered were the
chastisement of their negligence.

The reproof bore fruit. Before the month expired,
the work was resumed. The obedience of the people
was encouraged by the assurance of the divine co-
operation. Jam with you, saith Jehovah, was the
brief but sufficient message which Hagyai, Jehovah's
messenger, Was commissioned to deliver (i. 13).

But as when the foundation of the Temple was
laid, hope for the future could not efface regret for the
past, and the loud wailings of the old men were

1 The last six chapters of the Book of Zechariah are wholly
different in style and character. They appear to be the work of
another writer or, more probably, of two writers, and will be con-
sidered separately in Lecture XV.
XIV MINISTRY OF HAGGAI 419

mingled in strange discord with the joyous shouts
of the younger and more sanguine, so now there were
not wanting pessimists who daunted the spirit of the
builders by contrasting the humble beginnings of
their work with the magnificence of the former
Temple which they could still remember. This new
Temple was in their eyes as nothing.

And so, a month after the work had been recom-
menced, on the twenty-first day of the seventh month
(Tisrt or Ethanim = Sept.-Oct.), a fresh message came
to Haggai. It was the seventh day of the Feast of
Tabernacles, and Haggai doubtless spoke publicly to
the assembled people. The assurance of the con-
tinued Presence of Jehovah and His spirit’ with
them, in fulfilment of the covenant made with the
nation at the Exodus, was repeated ; and a prediction
was added that through the offerings of the Gentiles
the latter glory of the house should be greater than
the former. Jehovah would overrule impending
convulsions among the nations of the world to effect
His purposes, and in that place He would give peace.

Zechariah now came forward to support Haggai;

1 The meaning of ch. ii. 4, 5 has been obscured by an unfor-
tunate division of the verses. Render, For Iam with you, saith
Jehovah of hosts (according to the word that I covenanted with you
when ye came out of Egypt), and ny spirit abideth among you: fear
ye not. The clause, according to the word .. . Egypt, may be a
gloss, for it is omitted by the LXX., and is very loosely attached
to the rest of the sentence. But in any case it must be taken as
parenthetical, and we must connect the clauses, J am with you,

.. and my spirit abideth among you. With the latter clause, cp.
Zech. iv. 6.

Zechariah.
Zechaviah's
visions.

420 ZECHARIAH’S VISIONS LECT.

and appealine to the lessons of history, exhorted the
people not to be as their forefathers, who turned a
deaf ear to the warnings of the former prophets
(Zech. i. 1-6).

On the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month
(Chislev = Nov.-Dec.) Haggai spoke again. By the
analogy of an instance taken from the ceremonial
law he shewed the people how both they and the
land had been defiled by neglect of their most press-
ing duty, and promised them a blessing on their
return to it.

The same day he brought a special message to
Zerubbabel, the founder of the Temple, assuring
him that he, and the community which he repre-
sented, were the chosen objects of divine care, and
would be preserved unharmed in the midst of the
convulsions which would destroy surrounding nations.
Zerubbabel is addressed by the lofty title of Jehuruh’s
servant, The doom pronounced on Jeconiah (Jer.
xxi. 24) is reversed, and Zerubbabel, as the re-
presentative of the house of David, is restored to
the position of Jehovah’s signet ;—His most highly-
prized and carefully-guarded possession, in closest
contact with its owner, His means of attesting His
words and utterances.

IV

Here the recorded ministry of Haggai ends.
Just two months later, upon the twenty-fourth day
XIV ZECHARIAH’S VISIONS 421

of the eleventh month (Shebat = Jan. -Feb.),
Zechariah saw his great series of visions, directed in
the main to enforce the same truths which Haggai
had proclaimed.

In the first vision (i, 7-17) he saw Jehovah’s (The
messengers, who had traversed the earth, reporting
to the angel of Jehovah that the whole earth was at
rest ; and when the angel interceded for Jerusalem
he was answered by the assurance of Jehovah's
displeasure at the malicious delight which the
heathen had taken in Israel’s affliction, and of His
jealous love for the people of His choice. The time
has come for Temple and city to be rebuilt. J have
returned to Jerusalen in mercy; My house shall be
built in rt, saith Jehovah of Hosts, and a line shall be
stretched forth over Jerusalem. ... Jehovah shall
again comfort Zion, and shall again choose Jrrusalem
(i. 16, 17).

The scene changed, and four horns of iron met (The
the prophet’s eye, symbols of the powers which had the smiths.
scattered Israel. Beside them stood four smiths—
each we may imagine with uplifted hammer—ready
to shatter the horns in pieces. So should the
nations which had destroyed Israel be themselves
destroyed.

The vision faded, and in its place appeared a man Cea ciiaty
with a measuring line in his hand, going to measure eanuing
Jerusalem. But he is told by an angel that his
task is futile, for Jerusalem will spread beyond the
of

The trial
Joshua.

422 ZECHARIAH’S VISIONS LECT.

limit of walls, and will need no such material
defences. or J, saith Jehovah, will be unto her a
wall of fire round about, and I will be the glory in
the midst of her (ii. 5). Jerusalem is to be the
centre of the world’s worship, when Jehovah’s
Presence is manifested in her midst. Sing and
rejoice, O daughter of Zion: for lo, I come, and I will
dwell in the midst of thee, saith Jehovah. And
many nations shall join themselves to Jehovah in that
day, and they shall be unto Me for a people: and I
will dwell in the midst of thee (ii. 10, 11).

But Israel’s present humiliation was in sharpest
contrast to that future glory, and comfort for the
present distress was urgently needed. Accord-
ingly in the next vision the prophet saw Joshua the
Hizh Priest, the people’s spiritual representative,
arraigned at the bar of heaven, and Satan or the
Adversary standing at his right hand to accuse him.
His sordid garments marked him as the sinful
representative of a sinful people, but the Adversary
who demanded his condemnation was sternly rebuked.
Jehovah rebuke thee, O Satan; yea, Jehovah that
chooseth Jerusalem rebuke thee: ts not this a brand
plucked out of the fire (iii. 2)?

The nation which Joshua represented had just
been saved by an act of divine grace from being
utterly consumed in the furnace of the exile Was
it fitting then, that Satan should challenge God's
purpose of mercy, and seek to bring Tsrael’s sin to
XIV ZECHARIAH’S VISIONS 423

remembrance? So the sentence of pardon is pro-
nounced, Joshua’s filthy garments are exchanged
for rich apparel, and a fair mitre is set upon his head,
as the outward token of his acceptance. He is
promised the right of access among those who stand
round the heavenly throne; and he and his com-
panions are declared to be types of One greater
than themselves; even the Branch, the Shoot or
Sprout from the stock of David, of whom prophecy
had spoken nearly a century before (iii. 4 ff).

Thus Joshua was encouraged in his work of priestly @ The

to give similar encouragement to his colleague
Zerubbabel. A golden chandelier rose before the
prophet’s eye. Each of its seven lamps was con-
nected with the central reservoir of oil, Beside it
stood two olive trees. From two overhanging
branches of the trees, a perpetual supply of oil was
distilled into the reservoir. The precise meaning of
the details of the vision is obscure ;! but its general
purpose cannot be mistaken. It conveyed Jehovah’s
message to Zerubbabel, Not by might, nor by power,
but by My spirit, saith Jehovah of Hosts. Tattenai
either had challenged or was ‘on the point of
challenging the Jews to produce their authority for
proceeding with the work. An unfavourable answer
might come from the Persian court. The enmity of
neighbouring nations was always to be feared.

1 See Note D, p. 484.

‘ . att ; ; golden
intercession. The next vision (ch. iv.) was designed cha

ndelier
424 ZECHARIAH’S VISIONS LECT.

Zerubabbel’s heart may well have quailed at the
task before him. But he is assured that there is an
unfailing supply of divine grace and strength at
hand for the nation; he is taught that there is no
need to appeal to worldly power and material force.
Every obstacle will be removed. Who art thou, O
great mountain ? before Zerubbabel thou shalt become a
plain. He will carry the work to its completion;
he shall bring forth the top stone of the temple in
the midst of the shouts of joy which invoke the
divine favour upon it. It was a day of small
things, measured by external appearances; but the
success of Israel’s mission depended not on material
force, but on the power of the spirit.

(6) The But restoration would be incomplete indeed with-

ne eee spiritual reformation. Holiness was the aim of
Israel’s calling, and the land of Israel was to be
the holy land (ii. 12). Two visions follow, symbolis-
ing the attainment of this purpose. The flying
roll is the emblem of the curse which goes forth to

(The exterminate sinners; the woman in the ephah borne

the ephah. away to the land of Shinar prefigures the entire
removal of the spirit of wickedness, and its banish-
ment to the typical land of unholiness (v. 1-11).

Ch Dike For Finally, the powers of heaven are seen going
forth to execute judgement on the heathen who
have rejoiced in the humiliation of Cod’s people
(vi, 1-8).

Thus the visions of the seer conveyed a message of
XIV ZECHARIAH’S VISIONS 425

encouragement to the people and their leaders; they
held out the assurance that the country should be
repeopled, the temple rebuilt, the land purged from
all iniquity, the heathen judged,

One symbolical act of deepest significance re-
mained to be done. The prophet was commanded
to crown the High Priest Joshua, and declare him to
be the type of One greater than himself who was
still to come ;—the Branch of the house of David;
the royal priest, who should build the spiritual
temple, of which the material temple was the figure,
and rule in perfect harmony with God whose repre-
sentative he would be (vi. 9-15).

For two years Zechariah was silent, and then, in
answer to an inquiry whether it was still obligatory
to observe the fasts instituted to commemorate the
destruction of Jerusalem, he directed the attention
of his questioners from outward observances to the
real substance of Jehovah’s demands. He pointed
once more to the warnings given by the past history
of the nation; and bade them obey the commands
which their fathers had disregarded. Reaftirming
Jehovah’s burning love for His people, he pictured
the prosperity in store for them; culminating in the
pilgrimage of the nations to Zion as the spiritual
centre of the world, and their eagerness for fellow-
ship with Israel, in order that they might share in
Israel’s fellowship with God (vii., viii).

1 See Note E, p. 435.

The corona-
tion of
Joshua.
Success and
importance
of the work
of Haggai

and
Zechariah.

426 IMPORTANCE OF THE WORK OF LECT.

Vv

The preaching of the two prophets bore the
desired fruit. The building of the Temple was
carried on with vigour. Tattenai, the Persian
governor of the province, challenged their authority ;
but though he felt it his duty to refer the matter to
Darius, he did not think it necessary to interfere
with the work. In this the Jews rightly recognised
a proof of God’s favour. The reference to Darius
led to the discovery of the decree of Cyrus in the
archives at Ecbatana; and Darius issued a fresh
decree directing Tattenai to provide materials for
the work, and to furnish the Jews with animals and
other requisites for sacrifice. In less than four anda
half years from the recommencement of the work the
temple was completed, and dedicated with solemn
ceremonies, amid general rejoicings, on the third day
of the twelfth month (Adar = March-April) in the
sixth year of Darius (Ezra, vi. 14 ff).

Haggai has met with rough treatment and scant
justice at the hands of critics, who have scornfully
stigmatised his plain and unadorned utterances as
thin and meagre. Certainly he is neither orator nor
poet like Isaiah ; but the prophet’s real importance
is not to be measured by the brilliance of his periods.
Plain straightforward words of warning, exhortation,
and encouragement—Consider your ways (i. 5, 7; ep.
ii. 15,18): Be strong, O Zerubbabel . be strong, O
XIV HAGGAI AND ZECHARIAH 427

Joshua... be strong, all ye people of the land, and
work: (ii. 4) :—the lesson of doing the duty that lies to
hand with unwavering faith and steady perseverance
in spite of appearances and opposition: these are the
substance of Haggai’s preaching: and measured by
its practical success, the work which he and his
colleague Zechariah accomplished was of the first
importance.

For it was due under God to their efforts that
the rebuilding of the Temple was recommenced and
carried to a successful issue. This was a service of
incalculable moment. The Temple was the outward
symbol of the dwelling of God in the midst of Israel.
To let it lie neglected was, alike for themselves and
in the sight of the nations around, a practical denial
of the truth which gave meaning to their return
from exile, the truth which in different forms Haggai
and Zechariah are never weary of repeating, that
Jehovah had not cast off His people but had in very
deed returned to dwell in the city of His choice.
The Temple was the necessary centre for the people
whose bond of unity must henceforth be their re-
ligion. A common place of worship must be the
outward expression of that religious unity, the point
to which the heart of the faithful Israelite might
turn, even in his remotest land of exile. And
yet again; though the destruction of the Temple
had closed for ever one volume of Israel’s history,
the re-erection of it must bear witness to the con-
428 MESSIANIC PROPHECIES OF LECT.

tinuity of that history. The house of Jehovah in
Jerusalem was one and the same, though its material
form had been altered. The great herald of the
Restoration had indeed taught his hearers that no
earthly temple could represent the majesty of Him
Whose throne is heaven and Whose footstool earth
(Isa. Ixvi. 1), but the time had not yet come for
dispensing with this outward and visible sacrament
of God’s Presence among His people. Five centuries
of preparation had still to pass before the full time
came for God to tabernacle in man, and for the needs
of that period the Temple was indispensable.

VI

Their rem But if Haggai and Zechariah concentrated their
' efforts on promoting the rebuilding of the Temple, it
was in no narrow spirit of national exclusiveness or
relivious bigotry. The glory of that Temple was,
they predicted, to be its catholicity. They watch
the nations bringing their offerings to adorn the
Temple, and to make its outward splendour signi-
ficant of the still greater glory which was in store
for it (Hage. ii. 7; Zech. vi. 15). They see them, as
Isaiah and Micah had seen them, streaming thither
to worship Jehovah, and eaverly claiming a share in
the privileges of the chosen nation (Zech. ii. 11;
viii. 20 ff). There is to be consummated the final
reconciliation of man to God and man to man. For
XIV HAGGAI AND ZECHARIAH 429

to nothing less than this, though the prophet may
not have perceived their full import, do the words
reach forward, In this place will I give peace, saith
Jehovah of hosts (Hage. ii. 9). And dimly shadowed
out beyond the material Temple, rises the mysterious
outline of a spiritual temple, which the priestly king
of David's line will build (vi. 12, 13). It is the
strangest misconception of the teaching of these
prophets to charge them with a heartless and un-
spiritual formalism.

It is abundantly clear that they looked for
holiness as the true goal of Israel’s training. The
Lord’s inheritance is to be the holy land; all evil
doers and Wickedness itself are to be banished from
its boundaries. Again and again the truth is
emphasised that moral failure had been the cause
of their fathers’ rejection, and that obedience to
God’s moral requirements is the necessary condition
of acceptable approach to Him, and of the bestowal
of His blessing.

Hardly second in importance to their practical ne.
service in securing the restoration of the Temple, Hove.
was their work in handing on the torch of Messianic
hope under the altered conditions of the time. The
kingdom had passed away. The representative of
David’s house was only a provincial governor
appointed by a foreign power, with no security of
office. Yet once again the hope of Israel is directed
to the house of David; Zerubbabel is distinguished
430 MESSIANIC PROPHECIES OF LECY.

by the lofty title of Jehovah's servant, the object of
His choice and care (Hagg. ii. 23); he is invested
with an importance far beyond his personal and
individual consequence, as the type of One to
come,

Side by side with Zerubbabel as the representative
of David’s line, the high priest as the spiritual repre-
sentative of the people gains a new prominence.
He and his companions are a sign. They are a
pledge that Jehovah will fulfil His purpose to bring
forth His servant the Branch (Zech. iii. 8 ff). With
this promise of the advent of the Messianic king is con-
nected the assurance of the completion of the Temple
and the removal of the iniquity of the land. The
mysterious stone which is set before Joshua appears
to be the top stone of the Temple (cp. iv. 7). It is
the object of Jehovah’s special care. The connexion
of this double assurance with the promise of the
coming of the Messiah is explained by ch. vi. 12 ff,
where the priestly character of the Messiah is sym-
bolically set forth, and it is predicted that He will
build the Temple. As priest, He will make atone-
ment for the sin of the land. But how will He take
part in the building of the Temple? Does Zechariah
expect His coming immediately in connexion with
present circumstances, or does he already anticipate
the building of the spiritual temple of living stones ?
Probably it was only through the course of events
that the spiritual character of the work of the
XIV HAGGAI AND ZECHARIAH 431

Messiah could be fully realised, but the truth is there
in germ.

But further, Joshua is crowned as a type of the
Branch, symbolising a royal priest who was yet to
come: and thus in his Messianic prophecy Zechariah
makes an advance towards the idea of the union of
the priestly office with the royal office in the person
of the Messiah. In the next lecture I hope to shew
that the other prophets whose writings now form
part of the Book of Zechariah make other significant
advances towards the union of distinct, and as it
must have seemed, incompatible, lines of Messianic
prophecy. Thus the Book of Zechariah occupies a
position of singular importance towards the close of
the prophetic period by its contributions towards a
more complete conception of the true character of the
Deliverer, for whose coming men were bidden to
wait, through centuries of trials in patience and
faith.

Note A.—SHESHBAZZAR = ZERUBBABEL.

It is here assumed that Sheshbazzar (Ezra i. 8,11; v.
14, 16) is to be identified with Zerubbabel. It has indeed
been maintained by some recent critics that Sheshbazzar was
a Persian officer, and that Zerubbabel was not placed in a
position of authority as governor until some years had
elapsed after the Return. But a comparison of Ezra v. 14,
16 with iii, 8 ff. seems to leave no doubt that the compiler
of the Book of Ezra identified Sheshbazzar with Zerubbabel,
and he would scarcely have styled « foreigner the Prince of
Judah (i. 8). That Zerubbabel should have had a Persian or
432 HAGGAI AND ZECHARIAH LECT.

Babylonian name is in no way improbable (cp. Dan. i. 7),
and that the Hebrew name should be used in the narrative
(Ezra v. 2), while the foreign name appears in Tattenai’s
letter (v. 14, 16) is perfectly natural. The reasons alleged
for supposing that the compiler was mistaken in this identi-
fication, and has confused the events which took place in B.c.
520 with those which happened immediately after the Re-
turn, are not convincing.

Note B—Own tHe HistorrcaAL ACCURACY OF THE
NARRATIVE IN EZRA IIL, Iv.

In an elaborate article on “The Duration of the Building
of the Second Temple” in the Studien und Kritiken for 1867,
pp. 460 ff., Schrader has argued that the Temple was not com-
menced until po. 520. This view has been adopted by
many critics, most recently by K. Marti, Der Prophet Sacharja,
1892, p. 53. It is urged that Hagyai speaks of the founda-
tion of the Temple being laid on the 24th day of the ninth
month of the second year of Darius (ii. 18); and that the
corresponding account in Ezra (v. 2) describes Zerubbabel and
Joshua as then biginning to build the house of God. The com-
piler of the Book of Ezra is supposed to have antedated the
commencement of the work in his account in ch. iii, and
placed the events of the second year of Darius (b.c. 520) in
the second year of the Return. The grounds alleged for
supposing that he thus misunderstood his authorities, and
produced an inaccurate and inconsistent narrative are, how-
ever, insufficient. The meaning of Haguai ii. 18 is obscure.
It is by no means certain that Haggai there identifies the
day on which he was speaking with the day on which the
Temple was founded. The preposition used (R.V. since the
day) more naturally imphes a terminus @ quo remote from the
day on which he was speaking. But even if it be granted
that he does speak of that day as the day on which the foun-
XIV HAGGAI AND ZECHARIAH 433

dation of the Temple was laid, his language may perfectly
well refer to the resumption of the work. This was, to all
practical intents and purposes, the foundation of the Temple.
Similarly the language of Ezra v. 2 may be explained, as it
usually has been, of the recommencement of the work,
Moreover Haggai ii. 3 implies that in the seventh month
(two months before the date of ch. ii. 18) the building had
already progressed so far that disparaging comparisons could
be made between it and the old Temple ; and it is improbable
that the laying of the foundation stone would have been de-
layed in modern fashion until the walls were beginning to
rise.

Nore C.—Haaeatl 1. 7.

It is perhaps scarcely necessary to remark that the per-
sonal Messianic reference, to which the rendering of the Vul-
gate, veniet desideratus cunctis gentibus, has long given a wide
currency, cannot be maintained. The verb shall come is in
the plural, and the word rendered in the A.V. the desire
means, as in 1 Sam. ix. 20, the desirable things or choicest
treasures, such as the silver and gold spoken of in v. 8 as be-
longing to Jehovah, and therefore at His disposal for the
adornment of the Temple. This tribute of the nations is the
outward expression of their recognition of Jehovah, and
accordingly the passage may rightly be regarded as having a
Messianic reference, though it cannot be understood as a pro-
phecy of the Messiah Himself. Construction and sense are
both illustrated by Isa. 1x. 5, to which this passage may very
possibly be an allusion. The abundance of the sea shall be
turned unto thee, the wealth of the nations shall come unto thee.

The interpretation of the words as the choicest of the nations
is attractive. It seems to be supported by the verb come,
and the LXX. 7a éxAexta. rdvtwv Tov éOvov might be so
understood. Similarly in Isa. lx. 5 it is tempting to render,
the multitude of the sea (i.e. the countries round the Mediter-

2F
434 HAGGAI AND ZECHARIAH LECT.

ranean) . . . the host of the nations. But the context decides
against this interpretation; for v. 8 must refer to the
treasures mentioned in v. 7 ; and a comparison of Isa, ]xi. 6
shows that the wealth and not the host of the nations is the
meaning of the passage in Isaiah. Cp. Zech, xiv. 14.

Notr D.—Own ZecnH. Iv.

The chandelier must certainly represent the nation of
Israel, not the Temple. If the reading of the Massoretic
Text in v. 2 is retained, the seven pipes to each of the lamps
(R.V.) symbolise the ample supply of oil conveyed to them.
But the Sept. and Vulg. may be right in reading seven
pipes to the lamps. But what is meant by the two olive trees
and their two branches? The trees are generally explained to
mean the Aaronic priesthood and the house of David, the
two branches being their present representatives, Joshua and
Zerubbabel. They are supposed to be called the two sons of
oil (v. 14), either as being anointed, or as the instruments
through whom is ministered the supply of divine grace which
enables Israel to fulfil its mission. But sons of oi! is not a
natural paraphrase for anointed ones; and the description
that stand by the Lord of the whole earth would apply more
naturally to heavenly beings (cp. iii. 7) than to Joshua and
Zerubbabel. The intention of the vision is to represent, by
the figure of the perpetual supply of oil furnished to the
chandelier, the unfailing supply of Jehovah’s strength to
Israel ; and it is best to suppose that the interpreting angel
avoids giving a hwman meaning to the branches, and intends
by the two sons of oil that stand by the Lord of the whole earth
to suggest the idea of mysterious heavenly ministers of divine
grace to Israel. See the note in Perowne’s Comm, in the
Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges,
XIV HAGGAI AND ZECHARIAH 435

Notr E.—Own Zecu. vi. 9-15.

The meaning of this important passage has been much
disputed, and requires further examination. Heldai, Tolijah,
and Jedaiah, had come from Babylon, bearing offerings of
gold and silver. Zechariah is bidden to take some of the
gold and silver from them, and to make a crown or crowns of
it. Which was he todo? The word atardth rendered crown
is plural, but it may denote a crown composed of two or more
circlets, and is used of a single crown in Job xxxi. 36. Now
as only one person is crowned, and the verb shall be in
v. 14 is in the singular, it seems best to render the word in
the singular, crown. (The object of the verb set (v. 11) is not
expressed in the original. Them is supplied in A.V. and
R.V.) It has been supposed by some that two crowns were
to be placed on the head of Joshua, one representing the
priestly, the other the regal dignity, but the crown was not a
priestly ornament. Zechariah is to place the crown on the
head of Joshua, and to speak to him saying, Thus saith Je-
hovah of hosts, Behold, a man whose name 1s Shoot [Tsemach],
and he shall shoot wp out of his place, and build the temple of
Jehovah : yea it is he that shall buald the temple of Jehovah, and
shall bear majesty ; and he shall sit and rule upon his throne ;
and he shall be a priest wpon his throne; and the counsel of
peace shall be between them.

Jeremiah had applied the term Tsemach (E.V, Branch)
meaning Shoot or Sprout, to the Messiah as the shoot from
the stock of David (Jer. xxiii. 5; xxxili. 15). Zechariah
takes it up and treats it as a recognised title of the Messianic
King. In ch, iii. 8 Joshua and his companions are spoken
of as a sign that Jehovah will bring forth His servant
Tsemach, and fulfil the ancient prophecy of his coming.
Here Joshua is crowned as a type of Tsemach. Joshua is not
himself T'semach ; the title has been definitely appropriated to
the Messiah. Obvious reasons would have prevented the
436 HAGGAI AND ZECHARIAH LECT.

coronation of Zerubbabel, which would have seemed more
natural. Such an act would have appeared suspicious to the
Persian satrap, and however harmless in intention, might have
been interpreted as a claim of independence. But the im-
possibility of crowning Zerubbabel leads to an act of the highest
significance. The point of the act lies in its anomalous and
exceptional character. It was, however little its full signiti-
cance may have been understood at the time, a foreshadowing
of the future union of the royal and priestly offices in the
person of the Messiah. Jeremiah had already taught that
the Messianic king would have a priestly right of access to
God (Jer. xxx. 21); and the present passage offers the con-
ception of the Messiah as a royal priest.

The Shoot will shoot up from his appointed place, as a rod
out of the stem of Jesse. He will complete the building of
the Temple, fulfilling the prophecy of 2 Sam. vii. 13. He
will bear royal majesty—hdéd is specially used of kingly and
divine majesty (1 Chron. xxix. 25). Now, if the words of
Jeremiah are rightly understood to mean that the Messianic
king will have priestly privileges, is it surprising that
Zechariah, whose prophecy is founded on those of Jeremiah,
should go further and say, he shall be a priest upon his throne?

But to whom does the pronoun his refer? At first sight
it seems simplest to refer it to Tsemach. But the interpreta-
tion of the next clause will then be involved in serious
difficulty. Who are the parties between whom the counsel
of peace will be maintained? “The King and the Priest,”
answers Delitzsch, “whose dignities and offices the Messiah
unites in His own person. The antagonism and rivalry of
the two offices will be removed and vanish in his person, in
the king, who is a priest for ever after the order of Melchisedek.”
But it is difficult to see how between them both can fairly be
explained not of two persons, but of two characters or offices
united in one person. It is more satisfactory to refer the
pronoun his to Jehovah. Solomon’s throne is called th:
XIV HAGGAI AND ZECHARIAH 437

throne of Jehovah (1 Chron. xxix. 23; cp. xxviii. 5). Much
more might the throne of the ideal theocratic king, the per-
fect representative of Jehovah, be called Jehovah’s throne.
But if it is Jehovah’s throne upon which this priestly king
sits to rule, the difficulty of v.13 ¢ disappears. It is Je-
hovah and the priest-king Tsemach between whom there will
be counsel of peace. Jehovah’s perfect representative will
rule in entire harmony with Him.

The crown which had been placed on Joshua’s head was
to be laid up in the temple as a memorial of the liberality of
those who had brought their offerings. It was an earnest of
other offerings from those afar off, both Jews and Gentiles,
who would contribute to the building of the temple.

If this view of the passage is correct, there is no need
to follow Ewald in inserting and upon the head of Zerubbabel
in v.11; and to alter speak unto him to speak unto them.
Such alterations are not emendation but reconstruction of the
text ; and in fact the change does not suit the context; for
v. 12 distinctly implies the coronation of one person not of
two.
Critical
problems of
Zech, i.-
xiv.

LECTURE XV

ZECHARIAH ix.—Xiv.

Rejoice exceedingly, O daughter of Zion; shout triumphantly,
O daughter of Jerusalem: behold thy King shall come to thee ;
righteous and saved is He; lowly, and riding upon an ass, even
upon a colt, the foal of an ass, —ZECHARIAH ix. 9.

THE last six chapters of the Book of Zechariah
present critical problems of singular interest and
unusual difficulty. When we pass from the eighth
chapter to the ninth, it is evident that we have
entered a fresh region of thought. The distinctive
characteristics of the first part of the book have
disappeared. They are replaced by new and equally
distinctive characteristics. The differences are great ;
the resemblances few and unimportant. In the
first part of the book the prophet is repeatedly
mentioned by name. We are told to whom he
is speaking. His utterances are precisely dated.
Their object is plain. They have an intimate con-
nexion with the historical circumstances of the age.
LECT. XV ZECHARIAH IX.-XIV. 439

Zechariah is emphatically a teacher raised up to
meet the peculiar needs of a particular generation.
But in the second part the author’s name is never
mentioned. The data for determining his age and
the circumstances under which he speaks are un-
certain. They elude us by their indefiniteness and
baffle us by their inconsistency. The didactic ele-
ment gives way almost entirely to the apocalyptic.
After every allowance has been made for the differ-
ence of subject, it seems in the highest degree
improbable that these chapters can be the work of
Zechariah, the coadjutor of Zerubbabel and Joshua
in their great work of rebuilding the Temple.

But further, these chapters fall into two divisions rwo aivi-
so dissimilar in style and substance that in spite of Zech.
an unquestionable connexion between the prophecies
as they are at present arranged it seems doubtful
if they can be regarded as the work of the same
writer. The title at the beginning of the twelfth
chapter marks off chaps. xii—xiv. as a distinct pro-
phecy, and although ch. xiii. 7-9 appears to form
the sequel to ch. xi, it is so isolated that it may
well be doubted whether it now stands in its original
position. For our present purpose however it is less
important to determine whether these chapters are
the work of one author or of two, than to fix, if
possible, the period or periods to which they belong.
The two parts are so distinct in their characteristics
that it will be necessary to examine them separately
440 DATE OF ZECHARIAH IX.-XI. LECT,

for this purpose ; and it will be necessary to do this
in some detail, in order to justify the position here
assigned to them in the succession of the prophets.

Dates gener- It has very generally been maintained that internal

Cae evidence proves chaps. ix—xi. to be the work of a

sions, prophet who flourished shortly after the death of
Jeroboam IT., and was therefore contemporary with
Hosea and Isaiah. It has even been proposed to
identify him with that Zechariah, the son of
Jeberechiah, whom Isaiah selected to attest his
prophetic message (Isa. viii. 2). Chaps. xii.-xiv. have
been assigned to the period between the death of
Josiah at Megiddo in Bc. 609 and the Fall of
Jerusalem in B.c. 586. Their author would accord-
ingly have been the contemporary of Zephaniah and
Jeremiah, Some critics, however, and critics who
have approached the question from widely different
points of view, have maintained that these chapters,
whether proceeding from one author or two, belong
to the age after the Exile. This view seems to me
to be the true one. While I am fully conscious of
the difficulties, especially with regard to chaps. ix.-xi.,
I believe that it is easier to offer an explanation of
the apparent references to pre-exilic circumstances
upon the theory of a post-exilic date, than to account
for the apparent references to post-exilic circum-
stances upon the theory of a pre-exilic date.
xv DATE OF ZECHARIAH IX.-XI. 441

Il

Let us consider first the positive indications in (i.) chaps.

chaps. ix.—xi. which point to a date after the Captivity. (D Indi
They are briefly as follows. The exile, not only of #7sherlic
Ephraim but of Judah, appears to be presupposed
(ix. 11,12; x. 6-11). Judah has been partly restored
to its own land (ix. 9, 11), and is to expect more
complete restoration (ix. 12). Ephraim, still in exile,
is to be brought back and re-united to Judah (x. 6 ff).
The land of Judah has been overrun by a foreign
enemy,and, apparently, the temple has been desecrated
(ix. 8). Judah is, it would seem, without a king, and
is bidden to rejoice at the approaching advent of the
Messianic King (ix. 9). The mention of Greece (ix.13)
I reserve for consideration presently (pp. 450, 472).
Further, it is difficult to resist the impression that
various parts of the prophecy aredependent upon earlier
prophets, especially Hosea, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel.)

Now let us consider the indications which are Co Ena
thought to point to a date before the Captivity. It vre-erivie
is urged (a) that the references to Ephraim and
Judah in chaps. ix. 10, 13; xi. 14 distinctly imply
that the Northern kingdom was still in existence, and

1 Stade in his elaborate essay in the Z..4. 7. W. for 1881, p. 1 ff.,
has damaged his case by overstatement and exaggeration ; but he
appears to me, in spite of Kuenen’s criticism (Hin/, p. 397), to have
made out a strong case for the dependence of ix. 1-8 on Ezek.
xxviii. 1-5 ; of x. 83-12 on Ezek. xxxiv.; of xi. 1-17 and xiii. 7-9
on Hos. ii. ; Jer. xxv. 84-38 ; xii, 3-5 ; Ezek, xxxiv. 2-10.
442 DATE OF ZECHARIAH IX.-XI. LECT,

that the relations between Judah and Ephraim were,
or had been till recently, friendly: (4) that the
parable of ch. xi. 4 ff. finds its best explanation in
the circumstances of the Northern Kingdom after the
death of Jeroboam II. (2 Kings xv. 15 ff), when
Shallum murdered Zechariah after a brief reign of
six months, and was himself in turn slain by
Menahem, after enjoying the fruits of his treachery
for a single month: (c) that the worthless shepherd
(ch. xi. 15 ff) may best be identified with Menahem
or Pekah: (d) that the political horizon closely
corresponds to that of Amos and Hosea: Syria,
Pheenicia, and Philistia being threatened (ix. 1-7)
as in Amos i. 3-10; Egypt and Assyria being coupled
together (x. 10, 11) as in Hos. vii. 11; ix. 3; xi. 11;
xii. L: (e) that the closest parallels to the description
of the Messianic King in chap. ix. 9 are to be found
in Isaiah and Micah: (/) that the mention of tera-
phim and diviners (x. 2) is inconsistent with a date
after the Exile, when idolatry and superstition had
been eradicated. Other arguments, which rest upon
amore or less precarious exegesis, need not be con-
sidered here. On the strength of these indications
ch. ix. is placed towards the close of the reign of
Jeroboam IT. (8.c. 755-749); chaps. x., xi., somewhat
later, after the hostilities between Israel and Judah
in the reign of Ahaz, and the deportation of the
northern Israelites to Assyria by Tiglath-pileser in
b.c. 734 (2 Kings xv. 29).
XV DATE OF ZECHARIAH IX.-XI. 443

We have accordingly two sets of indications Proposed
pointing in opposite directions. How can they best os
be reconciled? A hypothesis which has recently
found considerable favour supposes that in these
chapters “really old, pre-exilic fragments are pre-
served, which for the most part come down from the
eighth century B.c., but have been arranged by a
post-exilic redactor, and amplified with additions
from his own hand.”! This hypothesis is certainly
plausible, and it helps to account for the abrupt
transitions which are so perplexing. But it is not
satisfactory, and after repeated consideration it
seems to me that while the indications of a post-
exilic date are clear and definite, and refuse to be
explained away, the supposed indications of a pre-
exilic date all admit of a reasonable explanation.

The clue to the solution of the apparent contra-_ supposea

evidence for

dictions is to be found in the secondary and apo- preexilic
date ex-

calyptic character of the whole section.? It takes up 7"
and reaffirms the prophecies of Amos and Hosea,
Jeremiah and Ezekiel, which look forward to the
restoration and reunion of Israel and Judah under
the Messianic King, the Prince of the house of
David. Its interest is wholly in the future—a future

1 Kuenen, Hind. § 81, with whom agree Prof. Cheyne, in
the Jewish Quarterly Review, Oct. 1888, p. 82; and, with some
hesitation, Prof. Driver, Jntrod., p. 328.

2 Op. Delitzsch, Messianische Weissagungen, p. 149 ff.; and for
some remarks on the difference between Apocalypse and Prophecy,
see Bishop Westcott, Introd. to the Study of the Gospels, p. 73, n. 3.
Ch. ix. 10
13.

Ch. xi. 1h.

444 DATE OF ZECHARIAH IX.-X1, Ler,

which may in part be still remote. Assuming then
for the moment that the standpoint of the writer is
post-exilic, and the character of his prophecy apo-
calyptic, let us see whether the supposed evidence
for a pre-exilic date does not vanish upon a careful
scrutiny.

(a) The references to Ephraim and Judah in
ch. ix. 10, 13 do not necessarily imply that the old
kingdoms were still in existence. In ch. ix. 10
the prophet is speaking of the Messianic age. He
assumes that the restoration of Ephraim as well
as Judah, which the ancient prophets foretold, is an
accomplished fact. In accordance with the prophecies
of Hosea (ii. 18), of Isaiah (ix. 5 ff.), and of Micah (v. 10
ff.), the Messiah’s kingdom will be a kingdom of peace.
All the instruments of war will be destroyed from
the midst of the restored people. Then, with splendid
inconsistency, the prophet describes Judah as
Jehovah’s bow and Ephraim as His arrow, Zion as
His sword and her sons as His spear? (ix. 13), in the
final conflict which must precede the reign of uni-
versal peace.

The historical reference of ch. xi. 14 is quite
uncertain. It can scarcely be said that the relations
between Israel and Judah in the middle of the eighth
century B.C. were those of brotherhood. The words
may equally well contain a warning against history
repeating itself in a second disruption and a dis-

1 See Note A, p. 472.
XV DATE OF ZECHARIAH IX.-XI. 445

solution of the restored brotherhood which the
prophet contemplates.

(6) The allegory of ch. xi. 4 ff. is far too obscure on. ai. 4 ¢.
of interpretation to allow of any argument being
based upon it. It is at least as reasonable to explain
it as a symbolical prediction of the rejection of a
divinely-appointed ruler by an ungrateful people as
it is to treat it as a symbolical account of historical
events. Of course it may be admitted, even upon
the hypothesis of a post-exilic date, that some of the
features in the picture may have been suggested by
the history of the Northern Kingdom.

(c) Here, too, the same remarks will apply. The oy, «i, 15-
identification of the worthless shepherd with Pekah ””
or Menahem is precarious. The argument is not
one which can be pressed.

(d) It is true that Syria, Phoenicia, and Philistia cn. ix. 17.
are among the nations threatened by Amos ; but his
outlook is much wider; and there is a special reason
for the mention of these particular nations here,
with the significant addition of Hamath, which is not
included by Amos. They are just the nations which
came within the limits of the Promised Land, from
the wilderness to the river Euphrates (Exod. xxiii. 31 ;
cp. 1 Kings iv. 24, viii. 65, where note from the
entering in of Hamath).

These nations must be destroyed, or reduced to a
condition of friendly dependence, as a preliminary
to the establishment of the Messianic kingdom,
Ch. iz, 9.

Ch. a. 2.

446 DATE OF ZECHARIAH IX.-XI. LECT.

which will include their territories, from the River to
the ends of the carth (ix. 10). Egypt and Assyria
are not mentioned as present enemies; but they are
naturally mentioned in connexion with Ephraim’s
restoration (x. 10), exactly as Hosea had mentioned
them in connexion with Ephraim’s captivity. As-
syria was the actual, Egypt the typical, land of bond-
age ; and if the language of v. 11 may seem to imply
that the Assyrian empire was still standing, it must
be remembered that the term Assyria is used both
for Babylon (Lam. v. 6) and for Persia (Ezra vi. 22),
as the successors to the power and territories of
Assyria.

(e) It will be seen, when we come to consider the
characteristics of the Messianic King, that the por-
trait here drawn differs in significant features from
that of the pre-exilic prophets, and really forms a
strong argument for the post-exilic date.

(f) The reference in ch. x. 2 to teraphim and
diviners is best understood as a reference to past
history, and not to the circumstances of the prophet’s
own time. But even if it is so taken, we know from
Malachi that sorcery was prevalent in his day (iii. 5) ;
it is scarcely conceivable that the mixed marriages
which Nehemiah so fiercely denounced did not intro-
duce Philistine superstitions (Neh. xiii. 23 ff.);1 and

1 If the Philistine meon%nim (Isa, ii. 6) were really cloud-com-
pellers or rain-makers, there would be a remarkable link of connexion
with the present passage, where the point is that Jehovah sends the
xv DATE OF ZECHARIAH IX.-XI. 47

Josephus gives an elaborate account of the practices
of exorcism in his own time (Ané. viii. 2, 5).
Thus, then, the indications which have been sup- Preponder-

ance of

posed to prove the pre-exilic date of these chapters ee
are partly inconclusive, partly capable of an ex-
planation consistent with the post-exilic date. If
this is so, the positive references to the Captivity
and to the partial restoration of Judah may be
allowed their full weight, and we may decide in
favour of fixing the date of these chapters in the
period after the Return from Babylon. Undoubtedly

the prophecy bears a striking resemblance to the
earlier prophets, but this may be accounted for by
the author’s familiarity with the writings of his pre-
decessors. But he is no mere servile plagiarist. He
has a commission to reaffirm the old hopes under
new circumstances, and to add warnings of no trifling
significance.

Il

We pass on to consider the date of the second (.) chaps.
Tr...
division (chaps. xii-xiv.). The Northern Kingdom ( rgu-

. . ’ ments for a
has entirely disappeared from view. All the interest dale between
centres in Judah and Jerusalem. If the mourning $i ®°
of Hadadrimmon in the valley of Alegiddon (xii. 11)
refers, as is generally supposed, to the national mourn-

ing for the death of Josiah at the battle of Megiddo

rain which incantations cannot procure. Cp. Jer. xiv. 22, But the
derivation is doubtful.
(2) The
arguments
examined,

448 DATE OF ZECHARIAH XII.-XIV. LECT.

(2 Chron. xxxv. 24, 25), the prophecy must be re-
ferred to a date subsequent to B.c. 609. It is com-
monly argued (a) that the way in which this mourning
is spoken of indicates that it was still fresh in the
popular recollection : (+) that the references to the
house of David (xii. 7, 8, 10, 12; xiii. 1) imply that
the kingdom of Judah was still in existence : (c) that

the allusions to the earthquake in the days of Uzziah  -

(xiv. 5) and to the extirpation of idolatry and false
prophecy point to the time before the Exile : (d) that
the predictions of the siege and capture of Jeru-
salem (xii. 2 ff; xiv. 1 ff.) refer to the impending
destruction of Jerusalem by the Chaldeans (B.c. 586).
On these grounds the prophecy has been assigned to
the period between the death of Josiah and the
destruction of Jerusalem. Supposed allusions to the
hostility of Egypt in the reigns of Josiah and Jehoi-
akim (xiv, 18), to the persecution of the prophets by
Manasseh, or the murder of Uriah by Jehoiakim
(xii. 10), and to a king of Judah, possibly Josiah
(xiii. 7), are far too precarious to be taken into
account.

But it is very doubtful whether these arguments
will bear examination. (a) The interpretation of
ch. xii. 11 is uncertain, but if it does refer to
Josiah, it must be remembered that the tragic fate
of the last good king of Judah, and the popular
grief for his death, long excited an especial interest.
It is in the later history of Chronicles, not in
xv DATE OF ZECHARIAH XII.-XIV, 449

Kings, that the account of the mourning for him
is given. (6) There is no explicit reference to a
king, and though parallels to the expression house of
David are found in Isa. vii. 2, 13; Jer. xxi. 12,
the mention of the house of David in xii. 12 ff. by
the side of the house of Levi suggests rather the
position of co-ordinate pre-eminence which it held
after the Exile than that of absolute supremacy as the
reigning house. (¢) The allusion to the earthquake
cannot be pressed. In any case it was too remote
for personal reminiscence; and it may be questioned
whether the touch of expression which seems to
treat it as comparatively recent (as ye fled) does not
rest upon a wrong reading.1 The prediction of the
final extirpation of idolatry appears to be a repetition
of Hosea’s prediction (ii. 17), and does not necessarily
imply the prevalence of idolatry, while false prophets
were, as we know from Nehemiah (vi. 10 ff), by no
means limited to the period before the Exile.

On the other hand, it is at least doubtful whether
the house of Levi would have been placed, as it is
here, by the side of the house of David before the
Exile ; it seems certain that the author draws largely
from earlier prophets, especially Ezek. xxxviii.,xxxix.;?
and the apocalyptic character of the prophecy points
to alate rather than an early date. We have only

1 See Note B, p. 473.

? Kuenen, who disputes Stade’s conclusions as to chaps. ix.-xi.,
admits that he has proved the dependence of chaps. xii.—xiv. on
earlier prophets, “though not without some exaggeration,”

2a
450 DATE OF ZECHARIAH IX.-XIV. LECT.

to contrast Jeremiah’s predictions uttered on the eve
of the destruction of Jerusalem by the Chaldeans
with these generalised predictions of a final muster
of the heathen against the city of God, in order to
feel the entire dissimilarity between them.

Righetti If then we may adopt the conclusion that chaps.

diferent TERY, all belong to the period after the Exile, can
we go further and (1) decide whether they are the
work of one writer or of two ; and (2) ascertain more
precisely the date or dates to which they are to be
assigned ?

(1) The balance of probability seems to me in favour
of assigning these chapters to two authors. The argu-
ment from style and subject-matter is undoubtedly
precarious, but chaps. xii—xiv. appear to be distin-
cuished from chaps. ix.-xi. by characteristics of style
and contents at least as marked as those which distin-
guish chaps. ix.-xiv. as a whole from chaps. i—viii.

Dieceuats (2) To the second question it is impossible to give
poille pert a definite answer. It has been suggested that ch.
mea ff, was written in view of Alexander the Great's
march southward after the battle of Issus (B.c. 332),
and that we here obtain a clue to the date. But the
passage contains no distinct reference to the Greek
period, and no secure inference can be drawn from a
mere conjecture. Of more weight would be the men-
tion of the sons of Greece in ch. ix. 13, if we could
be certain that the text is sound. It would seem
to imply the existence of the Graeco-Macedonian
XV DATE OF ZECHARIAH IX.-XIV. 451

empire, if Greece is spoken of as the great enemy
which the restored Israel has to confront, and so to
bring the prophecy down to the time of Alexander
the Great at the earliest. But the reference is an
isolated one ; nothing else in the prophecy seems to
point to so late a date, and I cannot help feeling that
there is a strong probability that the words against
thy sons, O Greece, are a gloss or interpolation added
in the Maccabaean age’ Stade (7.4.7.W., 1882,
p. 805) comes to the conclusion that these chapters,
which he assigns to one author, were written between
Bc. 306 and Bc. 278; but his arguments seem in-
sufficient to establish either the unity of authorship
or so late a date.

In so difficult a question it is necessary to speak
with hesitation ; but at present it seems to me that
these chapters belong to the same class of apocalyptic-
eschatological prophecy as Isaiah xxiv.—xxvii., and
may with considerable probability be assigned to the
same period, the first sixty or seventy years after
the Return. In this case they stand in their right
position between Zechariah and Malachi. For our
present purpose this will be sufficient ; and though
it seems most probable that they are the work of two
writers, there are links of connexion which will make
it convenient to treat them together in examining
their distinctive teaching.

How came these chapters to be appended to the

1 See Note A, p. 472.
Position of
these pro-
phecies.

Analysis of
Zech, iz.-
xiv.

(i) Chups.
1.21.
Ch, ix, 1-8.

452 CONTENTS OF ZECHARIAH IX.-XI. LECT.

Book of Zechariah if they were by a different author
or authors? The clue to an answer to this question
is to be found in the similarity of the titles prefixed
to the two sections and to the Book of Malachi. It
has been conjectured with much probability that
these three pieces came into the hand of the editor
of the collection of the Minor Prophets as anonymous
writings. He appended them at the close of his
volume, and prefixed to the second (Zech. xii. 1) and
third (Mal. i. 1) titles imitated from that which he
found, partly or altogether, prefixed to the first
(Zech. ix. 1); and supposing that Mal. iii. 1 might
contain the author’s name, he added it to the title.
Hence “Malachi” was treated as a separate book,
while the anonymous pieces which followed the
Book of Zechariah came in time to be regarded as
part of it, and attributed to the pen of Zechariah.

IV

Before proceeding to consider the characteristic
doctrines of these prophecies, it will be well to give
an outline of their contents. This, it is hoped, will
illustrate and confirm the view which has been taken
of their date, and prepare for the consideration of
their teachings.

The first section (ix. 1-8) announces that the
nations which dwell within the promised boundaries
of Israel’s land (Exod. xxiii, 31) must be destroyed,
xv CONTENTS OF ZECHARIAH IX.-XI. 453

or reduced to a position of friendly dependence.
Jehovah’s providence is guiding the course of the
world’s history with special regard to the destiny of
His own people.’ His doom falls upon Damascus
and Hamath. The wisdom of Zidon, the strength
and wealth of Tyre, cannot avail to save them. The
judgement sweeps southward. The cities of Philistia
are terror-stricken. Gaza loses her independence.
Ashkelon is deserted. The purified remnant which
is left is converted to the worship of Jehovah, and
lives in friendly if subordinate association with
Judah, like the Jebusites of old.2 Jehovah will
protect His own people; enemies shall no more
invade their land (ix. 1-8).

Thus the way is prepared for the advent of the Ch.

Messianic King. Zion is bidden to welcome Him
as He comes, victorious after suffering, in the garb
of peace. He destroys the implements of war,? which
are no longer needed, from the midst of the reunited
nation, proclaims universal peace, and rules over the
full extent of the Promised Land. Words of comfort
are addressed to Zion. In virtue of the covenant
sealed by sacrifice (Exod. xxiv. 8) her children have
already been in part restored from the cheerless
dungeon of exile. Those who are still prisoners

1 Render v. 1 with R.V. marg., the Lorp hath an eye upon men
and upon all the tribes of Israel.

2 Perhaps we should read, by a simple change of vowel points,
thousand for chieftain in v. 7. Cp. Mic. v. 2.

3 Read perhaps, with the LXX., and he shall cut of.

ia. 9-
Gedy Ss
Ch. x. 3-12.

454 CONTENTS OF ZECHARIAH IX.-XI. LECT,

hoping for release, are bidden to return ; and a double
recompence is promised them. Yet conflict must
precede the final peace. Judah will be Jehovah's
bow and Ephraim His arrow, Zion His sword and
her sons His spear’ He will Himself appear to
lead them to victory. Triumphantly they vanquish
their foes. He re-establishes them in their own
land. Plenty and prosperity make their youths
strong and their maidens beautiful (9-17). The
fertility of the land is Jehovah’s bounty; to Him let
them turn with prayer for its continuance. Idols
and diviners have proved a delusion ; it is because
they sought help from them that Israel has been
scattered like an unshepherded flock (x. 1, 2). Nay,
worse, it has fallen into the hands of false shepherds.

But the day of retribution for these tyrants has
come.” Jehovah has visited His people. He will
appoint them new rulers, under whose guidance
they will discomfit their foes. Judah will be
strengthened ; Israel will be restored from exile.
The sea of calamity will be divided, like the Red

1 See Note A, p. 472.

2 The shepherds and he-goats of x. 3 are commonly taken to
mean bad native rulers. But it gives a better sense to understand
the words of foreign tyrants, here and in xi. 3. That this mean-
ing is possible is certain from Jer. xxv. 34 ff., which the prophet
certainly has in his mind. From him in x. 4 may mean from
Jehovah, as the source of authority (cp. Hos. viii. 4; Jer. xxiii.
1-4) ; but it seems preferable to suppose that it means from Judah,
and that it is an echo of Jer, xxx. 21, Native rulers will take the
place of alien oppressors.
xv CONTENTS OF ZECHARIAH IX.-XI. 455

Sea of old. Assyria and Egypt will be humbled.
Jehovah will be Israel’s strength, and Israel will
order its life in accordance with His revealed will
(x. 3-12),

With ch. xi. a fresh prophecy opens. A forest cn. ai. 18.
fire devours the cedars of Lebanon; a crashing
storm lays low the oaks of Bashan. In other words,
the rulers and potentates of the nations are swept
down by the storm of war. The rulers are heard
lamenting the loss of their magnificence; the poten-
tates mourning for the destruction of their strong-
holds (1-3).

In this crisis the prophet receives a commission of. xi. 4-14.
from God to feed “the flock of the slaughter,” which
has been so barbarously maltreated by its rulers;
for a pitiless judgement is coming upon the earth, in
which nations will be sacrificed to the arbitrary
ambition of their rulers.”

The prophet enters on his task, and takes as the
insignia of his office two staves, to which he gives
the names of Graciousness and Union, to signify the
gracious care of God for His people and the union

1 These verses are commonly explained to refer to the unworthy
leaders of Israel. But Jer, xxv. 34 ff., on which it appears to be
based, refers to the judgement of the nations, and this seems to
be the right explanation here.

2In xi. 6 for land render earth, and for neighbour read, by
simple change of vowel points, shepherd. The judgement is ap-
parently identical with the war figuratively described in vv. 1-38.
Ch, wi. 15-
1.

(7) Chaps.

awit. -aty,
Ch. wii 1.
aiti. 6.

456 CONTENTS OF ZECHARIAH XIL-XIV. LECT,

of Judah and Israel. He deposes evil rulers ; but
the ungrateful people grow weary of his rule, and
he leaves them to their fate. Contemptuously they
give him for his hire the sum fixed as compensation
for a common slave ; and in token that he is acting
as Jehovah’s representative he puts it into the
Temple treasury. He breaks his staves, as a sign
that Jehovah’s protection is at an end and the
brotherhood between Judah and Israel dissolved
(4-14). The whole passage is an allegory, describ-
ing the rejection of the divinely-appointed Good
Shepherd by His ungrateful flock, and the fatal con-
sequences to the flock.

But stern judgement is in store for the guilty
people. The prophet is bidden to assume the
character of a worthless shepherd, in token that
they will fall into the hands of a cruel ruler, who
will make havoc of them for his own advantage
and will eventually meet with a just retribution
(15-17).

Vv

Ch. xii. is distinguished by its title as the com-
mencement of a separate prophecy. We are intro-
duced to fresh scenery and different circumstances.
The nations are seen mustering to fight against

1 For sword, which does not agree with the next clauses, read, by
a simple change of vowel points, burning heat (as in Job xxx. 30).

Burning heat be upon his arm, and upon his right eye : let his
arm be clean shrivelled up, and his right cye be utterly dimmed.
XV CONTENTS OF ZECHARIAH XII.-XIV. 457

Jerusalem; but Jerusalem will be to them a bowl
of reeling and a burdensome stone; they will gain
nothing but confusion and injury to themselves.
Judah at first appears in the hostile ranks ; but
while Jehovah smites the horses of the peoples
with blindness, He opens His eyes upon Judah.
They recognise their error, and, turning against
their allies, destroy the enemies of Jerusalem.
Jerusalem will not only be delivered : it will turn
to Jehovah in mourning, sincere and universal, for
having rejected Him and slain Him in the person
of His representative. A fountain of cleansing will
be opened for them. The very names of idols will
be abolished. False prophets will be cut off. Nay,
the pretender will be slain by his own parents in
their righteous zeal for truth (xii. 1—xiii. 6).

With xiii. 7 a new section begins, which appears to oh. xiii. 7-9.
be at once the sequel of the allegory in ch. xi. and
the key to the cause of the people’s mourning in
ch, xii. Why it stands here is an unsolved enigma.
The sword is summoned to smite the divinely-
appointed shepherd of the people. In other words,
the ungrateful nation is to be punished by the
removal of the faithful ruler. Two-thirds of the
people will perish. The remainder will be purified
by trial, until they once more deserve the name
of Jehovah’s people and acknowledge Him as their
God (xiii. 7-9).

Finally, the book closes with the vision of a
Ch, xiv, 1-
I.

Vo. 12-15.

Vo. 16-21.

458 DISTINCTIVE IDEAS LECT.

great day of judgement and redemption. Jehovah
gathers the nations against Jerusalem; the city is
taken and plundered ; half of its inhabitants are
carried away into captivity. Then Jehovah comes
forth to battle against the nations, and at the
touch of His feet the Mount of Olives is cleft
asunder. He comes with His attendant angels in
a weird day of gloom’ which ends in light. From
Jerusalem shall go forth an unfailing stream of
living waters to fertilise the land. Jehovah will
be undisputed King. Jerusalem will be exalted in
the midst of a vast plain, rebuilt in its old extent,
and once more securely inhabited. There will be
no more curse or ban (1-11).

Meanwhile horrible plagues have overtaken the
nations which fought against Jerusalem. They
have perished by internecine warfare and by the
hands of Judah’s warriors (12-15).

But the survivors of the nations will come year
by year to worship Jehovah at Jerusalem. There
will no longer be any need to distinguish between
things sacred and profane, for all things alike will
be consecrated to Jehovah. The ungodly and pro-
fane will no more enter the Temple (16-21).

1 In xiv. 6 read, with R.V. marg., there shall not be light, the
bright ones shall contract themselves; i.e. sun, moon, and stars
are darkened. Cp. Joel ii, 10.
xv OF ZECHARIAH IX.-XIV. 459

VI

The distinctive ideas of Zech. ix—xiv. may be Distinctive
grouped under the heads of—(1) the Messianic King; Zech. ix.-
(2) the rejected shepherd; (3) the restored and
penitent people; (4) the divine sovereignty.

(1) The familiar passage which predicts the The

advent of the Messianic King requires careful Kivy, ch.
consideration.

Rejoice exceedingly, O daughter of Zion ;

Shout triumphantly, O daughter of Jerusalem -
Behold thy King shall come to thee ;

Righteous and saved is He ;

Lowly, and riding upon an ass,

Even upon a colt, the foal of an ass.

And He shall cut off! the chariot from Ephraim,
And the horse from Jerusalem,

And the battle bow shall be cut off ;

And He shall proclaim peace unto the nations -
And His dominion shall be from sea to sea,
And from the River unto the ends of the earth.

In days when Zion had no king, if we are right
in assigning this prophecy to the post-exilic period,
the prophet, in the inspiration of unshaken faith,
reiterates the promises of his predecessors. While
in the course of divine judgement the king perishes
Jrom Gaza (ix. 5), Zion’s King shall come to her. He
comes as the Prince of Peace. The features of the

1So the LXX. for Z will cut off.
460 DISTINCTIVE IDEAS LECT,

portrait are repeated from Isaiah and Micah, but
with significant differences. He is righteous; for as
righteousness is an essential attribute of Jehovah,
so it must be an attribute of that king who is His
true representative, and of the age in which His will
is to be realised. Jehovah is our righteousness is the
name alike of the Messianic King and of the re-
deemed city (Jer. xxiii. 6; xxxiii. 16). And He is
saved! As Israel is a people saved by Jehovah
(Deut. xxxili, 29), so Israel’s King comes to her
victorious over all His enemies by Jehovah’s help.
By that deliverance Jehovah publicly attests His
righteousness in the sight of the world. But—
strange paradox!—this victorious King is lowly.
Literally the word means afflicted; but it is used
of one who has passed through the school of
suffering, and learnt in it the lesson of humility,
and it may fairly be rendered lowly. He comes
in the guise of peace, riding, not upon a horse,
which would have been suggestive of war and
worldly power (cp. x. 5), but upon an ass, the
animal ordinarily used even by kings and princes
in time of peace. It is a colt, unused _ before,
and therefore fit for the sacred service of bearing
Jehovah’s representative. The purpose of His ad-
vent is to destroy the implements and furniture of

1 The participle is passive, and cannot be rendered actively as
in the ancient versions. Having salvation (A.V. and R.V.) is

ambiguous. Contrast Isa. xlv. 21 (a God who is righteous and a
saviour) where the active participle of the same verb is used.
xv OF ZECHARIAH 1X.-XIV. 461

war from the reunited nation over which He is
to rule in the full extent of the Promised Land
(Exod. xxiii. 31), and to proclaim peace to all the
nations. It is not wholly clear whether the prophet
regards the war of which he speaks in ix. 13 ff
as preceding and preparing the way for the advent
of the King, or whether he foresees that even the
Prince of Peace must fight before He can secure
the peace which it is His purpose to establish, and
can settle His people in undisturbed security in
their land. But peace is the true note of His rule;
it is put in the forefront as the final purpose of His
coming.

In the main the prophet repeats the picture
drawn by his predecessors, but the new features
which he introduces are significant. All that is
implied in the words saved and lowly is fresh. They
speak of triumph through suffering, and sum up
in brief the ideas connected with the suffering Ser-
vant of Jehovah described by the Isaiah of the Exile.
That new revelation of the way in which God’s
purposes of redemption were to be worked out has
modified the expectation of the Messianic King.
It may be uncertain whether the prophet himself
foresaw that the parallel lines of prophecy of the
triumphant King and the suffering Servant were
destined ultimately to meet and be fulfilled in one
Person; but it is clear that he was guided by
the Spirit to give a new turn to the hope of Israel
(2) The
rejected
shepherd,
ch. xt. 4-175
aiii. 1-9,

462 DISTINCTIVE IDEAS LECT.

which might guide thoughtful minds in Israel to
welcome as their King Him who came in lowliest
guise as a servant.

(2) Jeremiah had prophesied of the divine judge-
ment which was to be executed upon the faithless
shepherds of Israel, a term which includes not
kings only, but all the ruling and leading classes
—kings, princes, priests, prophets—to whom the
charge and oversight of the people was committed,
He had promised that Jehovah would raise up
faithful shepherds in the time of the restoration
of Israel, and, in particular, the righteous Shoot of
the house of David (Jer. xxiii. 1-8).

Ezekiel in the land of exile had echoed the
same warning and the same promise. The selfish
shepherds who cared only for their own interests
must be punished, and in their place Jehovah will
set wp one shepherd, even His servant David (Ezek.
xxxiv.; xxxvil. 2+ ff).

These prophecies lie in the background of ch. xi.,
and it is necessary to bear them in mind in order
to understand this difficult passage. As in ch. ix.
the prophet resumes with significant modifications
the earlier prophecies of the Messianic King, so
here he resumes the earlier prophecies of the true
Shepherd, in a form which was a most pregnant
warning to his countrymen. The warning is thrown
into the form of a parable or allegory, which sets
forth the divine purpose for Israel, and its frustration
xv OF ZECHARIAH IX.-XIV. 463

by the wilful and contemptuous ingratitude of the
people.

At Jehovah’s command, and as His representative,
the prophet takes charge of the flock which has
been so cruelly neglected and maltreated by those
who were responsible for its care. The impending
judgement upon the inhabitants of the world, in
which nations will be sacrificed to the ambition and
caprice of their rulers, makes this the more necessary.
As the insignia of his office, the prophet takes two
pastoral staves. One he names G'raciousness, to
signify Jehovah’s goodwill towards His people; the
other he names Union, to indicate the reunion of
Judah and Israel. As speedily as possible he
removes the three faithless shepherds. It is un-
necessary to attach a precise meaning to the three
shepherds, and interpret them to mean the three
leading classes of kings, prophets, and priests; or
the three world-kingdoms ; or some three particular
oppressors of Israel, such as Antiochus Epiphanes,
Antiochus Eupator, and Demetrius. They are a
part of the furniture of the allegory, and their
removal by the prophet within a month is intended
to signify God’s intention to deal promptly and
effectually with the oppressors of His people, who-
ever they may be. But His purpose is frustrated
by the wilfulness of the people. The prophet-
shepherd’s soul was vexed with their obstinacy,
and their soul also loathed him. He determines
464 DISTINCTIVE IDEAS LECT.

to leave them to their fate, as they deserved.
He breaks the staff Graciousness in token that
the covenant which had been made with all
the peoples not to injure Israel was annulled.
These most miserable of sheep knew of a truth,’ as
they observed their shepherd’s action, that he was
only obeying the divine command. But they re-
fused to take warning. When he asks whether they
wish him to give up or retain his charge, they bid
him go, and in evident contempt weigh out to him
the thirty pieces of silver which were the legal
compensation for an injured slave (Exod. xxi. 32),
By divine command he casts them into the Temple
treasury,? intimating thereby in the most public
manner that the insult was not offered to him so
much as to his master Jehovah, Whose representative
they had thus contumeliously rejected (cp. 1 Sam.
viii. 7). His service at an end, he breaks his
second staff Union, in token of the dissolution of
the union between Judah and Israel which would

1 There does not seem to be any ground for supposing that
either in v, 7 or in v, 11 2 faithful minority are spoken of as the
poor of the flock, If the text is sound, the flock destined by its
owners for the slaughter is described as the most miserable of sheep.
The mention of their miserable condition emphasises their folly in
rejecting the good shepherd. But the text is suspicious, and the
LXX. suggests that we should read in v. 7, So J fed the flock of
slaughter for them that made merchandise of it: and in v. 11, So
they that made merchandise of the flock knew, ete.

2 This rendering, which is supported by the Syriac Version,
gives an intelligible sense. No satisfactory explanation of cast it
unto the potter can be given.
XV OF ZECHARIAH IX.-XIV. 465

follow upon their rejection of the divinely-appointed
ruler.

A second act in the allegory follows. The
prophet is commanded to assume the character of a
foolish shepherd, in token that, as a judgement upon
these misguided sheep who refuse their true shep-
herd, Jehovah will not merely leave them to them-
selves, but abandon them to the pitiless cruelties of a
worthless shepherd, who, nevertheless, in the end
will not escape the retribution he deserves.

The prophet’s message is clearly conveyed in the
form of an allegory. It is not necessary to suppose
that the prophet actually personated the good and
the bad shepherd, any more than it is to suppose
that Jeremiah presented the cup of Jehovah’s wrath
against the nations before his auditors in some visible
form (xxv. 17). It was, no doubt, common for the
prophets to use symbolical action, but it is difficult
to see how some of the features of this transaction
could have been actually represented, and it is best to
regard the whole as simply an allegory or parable.

It is a solemn warning of the way in which divine
grace may be frustrated by human obstinacy. The
truth which it conveys had been abundantly illus-
trated in the past history of Israel. It was to receive
a more terrible illustration in the subsequent history
of the nation. What may have been to the prophet’s
mind the precise connexion between this prophecy
and the one which precedes is obscure. Very prob-

2H
Ch, witi. 7-9,

466 DISTINCTIVE IDEAS LECT.

ably they were written at a wide interval of time,
and under wholly different circumstances. Perhaps
he did not intend to place the rejection of the Good
Shepherd in any precise chronological relation to
the advent of the Messianic King and the reunion
of Judah and Ephraim. But its significance cannot
be mistaken. By the side of the splendid promises of
chaps. ix. and x. he is taught to set this solemn
warning, that even in the age to come Israel might
choose the evil and refuse the good, and frustrate the
fulfilment of the promise.

A third and concluding act in the tragedy still
remains. Strangely isolated as these verses are where
they now stand, it cannot be doubted that vv. 7-9 of
ch. xiii. must be read in connexion with the allegory
which we have been considering. For a judgement
upon the guilty people the sword is summoned to
smite the good shepherd. The consequence of his
death is the dispersion of the flock. Yet in the
midst of calamity a remnant is preserved ; it is re-
fined in the fire of trial, and finally brought once
more into covenant-relation with Jehovah.

It has been suggested that these verses originally
formed the conclusion of ch. xi, and should be
restored to that position. Whether this is done or
not, it is clear that they must be taken in connexion
with that chapter. Their present position is an un-
explained enigma. But they cannot refer to the
judgement upon the worthless shepherd. It is incon-
xv OF ZECHARIAH IX.-XIV. 467

ceivable that Jehovah should call him My shepherd,
and the man that is My fellow. Does the prophet
then see the good shepherd prematurely slain in
battle, like Josiah at Megiddo, or does he foresee that
the people will crown the ingratitude which has
already rejected him by murdering their deliverer ?
The words in themselves give no answer to the ques-
tion, But it is hard not to see in them the key to
the obscure allusion in ch, xii. 10 ff to the murder
for which the penitent nation must mourn. And
thus the prophecy of the Good Shepherd, like that
of the Messianic King, is linked with that of the
suffermmg Servant in Isa. liu, The murder, which is
the guilty nation’s sin, and by which it brings to pass
its own punishment, is in its other aspect an atoning
sacrifice, accomplishing the divine purpose of redemp-
tion (Isa. iii, 10).

(8) The ninth and tenth chapters foretell the re- (s)7ne
storation and reunion of Israel and Judah. The penitent”
eleventh chapter appears to sound a note of warning, one
that through the obstinate folly of the people that
brotherhood might again be dissolved and the nation
subjected to long and severe chastisements. In chaps.
xii—xiv. the scene changes. Jerusalem is the centre
of interest. Resuming the prophecies of Ezekiel, the
writer tells of the final muster of all the nations of
the earth for one desperate effort to destroy the city
of God. In one act of the drama they appear to be
triumphantly repulsed (ch. xii. 2 ff); in the other
468 DISTINCTIVE IDEAS LECT.

Jerusalem is captured and plundered (xiv. 2). Then
and not till then does Jehovah Himself interpose
(xiv. 3). Butin both cases the ultimate result is the
same. Her assailants are discomfited and destroyed.
But the day of Jerusalem’s deliverance is a day of
national mourning. Jerusalem is not only to be out-
wardly delivered but inwardly cleansed. Repentance
is the condition of cleansing, and it is brought about
by a special outpouring of divine grace. And wt
shall come to pass in that day, that . . L will
pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabi-
tants of Jerusalem, a spirit of grace and of suppli-
cation ; and they shall look unto Me, even him whom
they thrust through ; and they shall lament for him,
as men lament for an only son, and mourn bitterly
for him, as men mourn bitterly for the firstborn
(xii. 10). As the text stands,! the words can have
but one meaning, startling as that meaning is. It is
Jehovah who has been thrust through and slain in
the person of His representative. In the guilt of
this murder all the nation has participated, and for
it the whole nation must mourn with a solemn and
universal mourning, in which all take part, The
house of David with its subordinate branches, of
which the family of Nathan is instanced as one, and

1 The difficulty of the text is very great. Could the prophet
have spoken of thrusting Jehovwh through? The construction, too,
excites suspicion. The change to wnto him is easy ; it is supported

by some MSS., and seems to be required by the next clause. But
all the versions attest the reading wnto me.
xv OF ZECHARIAH IX.-XIV. 469

the house of Levi with its subordinate branches, of
which the family of the Shimeites is instanced as
one, set the example to the whole nation. This peni-
tence is the fruit of the spirit which has been poured
out upon them; and the divine response to this
penitence is the opening of a cleansing fountain for
sin and for impurity. The ceremonial law provided
from time to time lustrations for those who were
defiled by touching the dead (Num. xix.), but here
shall be a perennial fountain, ever open to cleanse
away this guilt of murder and all sin. Idolatry
and false prophecy will be finally and entirely
eradicated from the land.

But who, we ask, is it for whose murder the
nation needs an atonement? The passage as it
stands is an unsolved enigma. Must we not, as has
already been suggested, find the key to its solution in
ch. xiii. 7-9? whether we assume that these verses
originally preceded, and for some unknown reason
have been transferred from their original position at
the close of ch. xi; or that the prophet, with
the crime in full view in his own mind, does not
interrupt his narrative in order to explain, and only
returns afterwards to give the needful clue when he
has completed his vision of the future.

(4) It may be questioned whether the prophet 1) The
intended ch. xiv. to be understood as parallel to chaps. sovereignty,
xii, xii, or as a sequel to them. Perhaps the question
would not have presented itself to his mind, whether
470 ZECHARIAH IX.-XIV. LECT.

these two acts in the great world-drama of Judgement
and Redemption were to be simultaneous or succes-
sive. However that may be, in ch, xiv. we have
presented to us the vision of a great day of Jehovah.
It is a weird day of gloom, but at evening time there
shall be light. In the last extremity, when Jeru-
salem has been taken and plundered, Jehovah comes
with His attendant angels, in storm and earthquake,
and routs Jerusalem’s foes, who perish by terrible
plagues and internecine strife. Then Jehovah shall
become king over all the earth. No other gods will
dispute His sovereignty. No ambiguous names will
divide His unity. Under the figure of physical
change, which leaves Jerusalem towering majestically
in the centre of a level plain, is indicated the supreme
importance of the city. The living waters which
issue from her symbolise her life-giving energies.
The remnant of the nations which once menaced her
existence now come to worship the King, the Lorp
of hosts, and to keep the Feast of Tabernacles. There
shall be no more anything accursed. There will no
longer be a distinction between things sacred and
things profane, where all will bear the stamp of
consecration. Jerusalem will be, not in name but
in reality, the holy city. The goal will be attained
towards which one prophet after another had strained
his eyes. The seer of Patmos almost repeats the
words as he bids us still look forward to it.
xv THE FULFILMENT 471

VII

Zion’s King came to her. Deliberately Jesus The fuss.
presented Himself to the people as their King by
riding into Jerusalem upon the ass’ colt. The
outward form was not the essential part of the
prophecy. He might have fulfilled the prophecy
without thus acting it out to the letter. But He
would have the people know by a sign which the
most ignorant could not mistake what He claimed
to be. They knew Him and they welcomed Him ;
and yet within one short week they fulfilled the
other prophecy of the rejected shepherd. For
whatever minor meaning or previous fulfilment the
allegory of the true shepherd may have had, we
cannot doubt that it pointed forward to the Good
Shepherd who was rejected, betrayed, and crucified
by those whom He came to save! The warning of
the allegory fell unheeded upon their ears. Of Him,
as of no other, could God speak as the man that is
My fellow. The penitent looking unto Him whom
they had pierced began upon the day of Pentecost,
when three thousand were pricked in the heart. It
will be consummated when He comes with the clouds,
and every eye shall see Him, and they which pierced
Him, and all the tribes of the earth shall mourn over
Him.

1 This is not the place to enter upon the complicated difficulties
of the quotation in Matt. xxvii. 9.
Conclusion,

472 MESSIANIC PROPHECY IN ZECHARIAH _ txrcr.

If the view which has here been taken of the
later chapters is correct, the Book of Zechariah as a
whole occupies a position of remarkable importance
in the development of Messianic prophecy. It knits
together lines of thought and hope which before were
separate. In the first part, as we have seen, the
union of the offices of Priest and King in the person
of the Messiah is prefigured (p. 435 ff.). In the second
part, we have at least a hint and suggestion of the
union of the prophecies of the Royal Messiah and
the Servant of Jehovah (p. 461), and a dark shadow of
warning falls across the brightness of the prospect.
When Israel’s true shepherd comes he will be con-
temptuously rejected, nay, put to death by an un-
grateful people.

Thus step by step prophecy moved towards the
appointed goal. And so it came to pass, in fulfilment
even more strangely tragical than could ever have
been anticipated. He came, and they made the crown
of thorns His diadem and the Cross His throne.

Note A, on of. ix. 13.

Kuenen (Zinl. § 81, n. 6) justly remarks that the read-
ing of this verse is not above suspicion, and with equal
justice rejects two emendations which have been proposed,
neither of which can be said to be at all plausible. But he
does not suggest what seems to me the true remedy, the
omission of the words against thy sons, O Greece. The allu-
sion to Greece is quite isolated. Its definiteness is unlike
the generality which in the main characterises the passage.
XV ZECHARIAH IX. 13 473

The words disturb the balance of the clauses. Nothing
could have been more natural than the insertion of such a
gloss in the Maccabaean times, and it was facilitated by a
misunderstanding of the meaning of the clause to which it
was added. Lastly, the difference of reading represented by
the LXX., against the sons of the Greeks, is an indication,
though slight, that the words were not part of the original text.
Now for the meaning of the words. ‘n7p) is usually

rendered and stir up. But this rendering interrupts the
series of metaphors. Judah is the bow which Jehovah
bends ; Ephraim is the arrow which He places upon its string ;
Zion He will make as a hero’s sword. Now, is it not clear
that ‘nv7y1 ought to be taken in the sense of brandishing or
hurling a spear, which it bears in 2 Sam. xxiii. 18 (cp. Isa. x.
26)? Zion’s sons are Jehovah’s spear, and the series of
metaphors is complete. Next observe the gain to the rhythm
by the omission of the words }}) 7.2 by. The verse will then
consist of four equal clauses, which may thus be represented
in translation, though in the Hebrew bow belongs to the
second line :

For I bend me Judah for a bow,

Lay Ephraim on it for an arrow,

Wield thy sons, O Zion, for a spear,

And make thee as a hero’s sword.
How easy for a scribe in the Maccabaean age, not recognising
the metaphor of the third line, and understanding the verb
to mean stir up, to think that the clause required a supple-
ment, and to add his interpretative gloss,. against thy sons, O
Greece.

Note B, on cu. xiv. 5.

The first word of this verse is one of the very few cases in
which the difference between the “ Eastern” and “‘ Western ”
tradition as to the reading affects the sense. The Western
reading, which is that of our printed texts, is DAD, and ye
474 ZECHARIAH XIV. 5 LECT. XV

shall flee ; the Eastern reading is BND), and 2t shall be stopped.
This is the reading followed by the LXX., Aq., Symm.,
Theod., and the Targum. The LXX,Aq., Symm.,and Theod.,
but not the Targum, render the word in the same way where it
recurs in the verse. It seems to me that there is much to
be said in favour of adopting this reading. The verse will
then run: And the valley of My mountains shall be blocked wp

yea it shall be blocked up as it was blocked up by the
saveliguadle in the days of Uzziah king of Judah. Even if the
pre-exilic date is adopted for these chapters, the expression
as ye fled in reference to an event which happened 150 years
before would be strange. But it would not be strange for
a writer, even after the Exile, to point to some great landslip,
by which the memory of that terrible earthquake was still
visibly preserved,
LECTURE XVI

ISAIAH XXIV.—XXVII.

Then the moon shall be confounded and the sun ashamed ; because
Jehovah of hosts is become King in mount Zion and in Jerusalem,
and in the presence of His elders shall be glory.—IsAIAH xxiv. 23.

I

THESE chapters form a connected whole, distinguished character.
by marked characteristics of style and contents. facia
They contain a sublime drama of judgement and
redemption, which forms an appropriate finale to the
collection of prophecies concerning the nations. The
various acts of Jehovah’s government of the world
culminate in the visible manifestation of His sover-
eignty, and in the blessings of His reign not Israel only
but the nations participate.

The contents of these chapters are rightly described
by Delitzsch as “eschatological and apocalyptic.”
They draw aside the veil which hides the ultimate
accomplishment of the divine counsels; they point
forward to the final consummation of all things;

they present a vision of glory which may serve at once
476 APOCALYPTIC CHARACTER LECT,

as a consolation and an encouragement in a time
of distress and disappointment.

It is to this apocalyptic character that they owe
their peculiar difficulties. The standpoint of the
writer is shifted from the present to the future, and
from the future back to the present. It is often
almost impossible to determine whether he is speak-
ing of what is actually past, or only of what is past
from some assumed standpoint in the future. Again
and again the historical circumstances under which
he writes seem on the point of disclosing themselves,
only to elude us like a mirage when we try to fix
their details. The truth is that he has drawn his
materials from past history, but has generalised and
idealised those materials as he recombines them into
a new picture upon a grander scale. It is not to be
wondered at that there has been the widest diverg-
ence of views as to the interpretation and the date
of this prophecy. There is much in it which may
seem to confirm the tradition that Isaiah was the
author; but there is more which points to a date
shortly after the Return from the Captivity. “This
cannot be denied,” is the verdict of Delitzsch in
the last edition of his Isaiah, published less than a
year before his death, “that the contents, in order to
be assigned to their proper place in the development
of Old Testament revelation, point to an age later
than that of Isaiah. The author is not Isaiah, but a
disciple of Isaiah, who here surpasses his master.
XVI OF ISAIAH XXIV.-XXVII 477

Isaiah is great in himself, greater in his disciples, as
rivers are greater than the source from which they
spring.”

II

The justification of this view must be based upon
a careful examination of the contents of these chapters
and of their characteristic teaching. The prophecy
opens with a vision of universal judgement upon the
inhabitants of the earth, because they have transgressed
laws, violated statutes, broken the primeval covenant.
It falls upon all ranks and classes of society alike.
All festivity is at an end. The country is desolate ;
the cities are deserted. A few scattered inhabitants
only are left, like the scattered berries which remain
on the olive trees after they have been beaten, or the
scanty remnant of grapes which gleaners find when
the vintage is done.

But on them judgement has done its work. They
recognise Jehovah as its author and pay Him homage.
These shall lift wp their voice, they shall shout ; for the
majesty of Jchovah they cry aloud from the sea. As
they glorify Jehovah, they chant the praises of His
people, which reach the ears of the prophet and his
companions. Irom the ends of the earth have we heard
songs, ‘ Honour to the righteous.’ But the actual state
of that people is in sad contrast to what it should be.
As he thinks of all that Israel has suffered from its
persecutors, he can only cry, 7 pine away, I pine

Contents of
hese
chapters,

(1) Ch. xxiv.
2) Ch. wav.

478 CONTENTS OF ISAIAH XXIV.-XXVII. LEOT,

away, woes me! The treacherous dealers have dealt
treacherously ; yea, the treacherous dealers have dealt
very treacherously. The rift in the clouds closes, and
the vision of judgement returns in more terrible form
than before. It is described as a second deluge. The
windows on high are opened, and the foundations of
the earth do shake. Crushed under the weight of the
transgression of its inhabitants the earth perishes.
Lt shall fall and not rise again. At the same time
Jehovah will punish the host of the high ones on high
—heavenly beings which are in some mysterious
way connected with the history of the world, and
have misused their power and authority — and
the kings of the carth upon the earth: and when all
authorities and powers have been judged according
to their deserts, Jehovah will manifest Himself as
King in Zion. The elders of His people will be
admitted to His immediate presence and see His
glory, as of old the elders of Israel saw it in the
wilderness.

Transported in spirit into that glorious future, the
prophet praises Jehovah for the wonders which He
has wrought. He has proved Himself the strong-
hold of His people; while the city which was the
impersonation of hostility to Judah is laid in ruins.
As they see these judgements, the fiercest and most
despotic nations pay Him reverence. All peoples
are admitted to share the blessings of His kingdom.
Right royally He entertains them in His capital.
XVI CONTENTS OF ISAIAH XXIV.-XXVII. 479

There He destroys the veil of ignorance, of suffering,
of sin—all that has darkened the life of humanity—
nay, death itself. He hath swallowed up death for
ever; and the Lord Jehovah will wipe away tears from
off all faces; and the reproach of His people shall He
take away from off all the earth.

And while glad songs resound from this ransomed
community, Moab, the typical example of contemptu-
ous pride, which had rejoiced with malicious joy over
Judah’s fall, is reduced to helpless ignominy, and its
strong cities levelled to the ground.

Once more the ransomed community raises its () Ch. aavi.
voice of praise. While the lofty city of worldly
power is laid low, they can sing We have a strong
city, guarded by no perishable defences, for salvation
doth He appoint for walls and bulwarks. It is to be
peopled with worthy citizens. Open the gates, that a
righteous nation may enter which keepeth faithfulness.
Its confidence is in the Rock of Ages. In grateful
retrospect the redeemed recount how they had waited
for Jehovah to come in judgement, for only through
judgement would the inhabitants of the world learn
righteousness. Though they refuse at first to see it,
they will be compelled to recognise Jehovah’s uplifted
hand, and to acknowledge His zeal for His people.
For a time He had surrendered them to the dominion
of other masters, but now through His grace, and
through this alone, they can once more celebrate His
praises. Their enemies have perished for ever; and
CA) Ch, xxvii.

480 CONTENTS OF ISAIAH XXIV.-XXVII. LECT.

Jehovah has glorified Himself by multiplying His
people and extending the boundaries of their land.

They recall the prayers which they offered in the
time of chastisement: the birthpangs which seemed
so ineffectual for the production of a regenerate
nation, And the divine answer comes that by a
supreme act of grace the dead shall live. Thy dead
shall live; thy dead bodwes shall arise. Awake and
sing, ye that dwell in dust: for thy dew is dew of
lights, and the earth shall cast forth the dead.

But before that glorious future is attained, the
world must be judged. The people of God are bidden
to take refuge as Noah took refuge in the Ark from
the rising Flood, as the Israelites in Egypt took refuge
in their houses from the destroying angel, for a little
moment, until the indignation be overpast. For Jehovah
will appear to punish the crimes of the world, and
in particular its wanton bloodshed, which cries aloud
for vengeance and can no longer be concealed.

The great powers of the world, represented as the
huge and terrible monsters of fable, will be destroyed.
Then, breaking once more into song, the prophet
furnishes Israel of the future with a hymn of praise
to celebrate Jehovah’s care of His vineyard. That
vineyard will at length respond to His care, and
produce the fruit which He desires. Israel will once
more flourish, for Jehovah has not smitten it to
destroy it as He smote its persecutors. The iniquity
of Jacob will be blotted out by this chastisement, in
XVI CONTENTS OF ISAIAH XXIV.-XXVII. 481

which his altars have been utterly destroyed. Never
again will his idolatrous emblems be set up. For
his fortified cities! have been broken down; cattle
feed and women gather firewood among their ruins.
And why? Because Israel has no discernment ; it
does not know its Maker, and therefore He shews
them no compassion.

Yet in the distant future Jehovah will gather
every grain of corn in the garner of His land, and
summon His banished outcasts to return from the
lands of their captivity. The King will receive the
homage of His subjects. They shall worship Jehovah
in the holy mountain in Jerusalem,

Il

This rapid survey may suffice to shew how
various scenes in the great drama of judgement and
redemption are passed in review to strengthen faith
and kindle hope by pointing forward to the final
crisis. The unity of the prophecy is not the unity
of an orderly chronological succession, but the unity
of the divine purpose, which determines all Jehovah's

1 The context requires that the defenced city in ch. xxvii. 10
should be understood of Jerusalem, including perhaps other cities
of Judah. The people of no discernment must be Israel (ep. i. 3) :
the conclusion of the verse leaves no doubt on this point. The
terms he that made them, . . . he that formed them, would not be
used in reference to a heathen nation. Cp. xliii. 1; xliv. 2, 24,
ete. Moreover, as v. 9 is clearly a reminiscence of xvii. 8, so v. 10
is suggested by xvii. 9.

21

Distinctive
ideas.
482 DISTINCTIVE IDEAS OF LECT.

dealings with His people and with the world. The
same thoughts recur again and again in different
connexions; and it may be worth while to en-
deavour to gather together and present in a con-
nected form, the characteristic ideas of these
chapters, with the caution that they are not to be
regarded as a historical chart of the course of events,
but rather as an exposition of the principles of the
divine government of the world, leading up to the
final consummation of all things, in the manifestation
of Jehovah’s undisputed sovereignty.

(1) It is through an universal judgement that the
way for the reign of Jehovah must be prepared.
The world’s guilt demands a signal retribution; and
it is only through judgement that the inhabitants of
the world can be taught righteousness. Typical
examples of judgement are given. The great cities
in which the world’s power and the world’s guilt
are concentrated are laid in ruins. Moab, notori-
ous for its pride, is ignominiously humuliated.
Ferocious nations, for which falulous monsters are
the only fitting symbols,’ are destroyed.

(2) But while the cities of the world perish, the
city of God arises with a new splendour. While
Israel’s oppressors perish to revive no more, Israel’s

1 “Yeviathan the swift serpent, and leviathan the crooked
serpent, and the dragon that is in the sea” are commonly inter-
preted to mean Assyria, Babylon, and Egypt. But the apocalyptic

imagery is designedly indefinite, and is intended to describe the
enemies of God and His people, whoever they may be.
XVI ISAIAH XXIV.-XXVII. 483

dead are raised to life. While pride is humbled,
humility is exalted. The scattered Israelites will be
gathered. Not one sound grain of wheat will be lost
in the Lord’s harvest. The boundaries of the land
will be enlarged, and it will be peopled by more
numerous inhabitants than ever before.

(3) Israel is not only restored, but regenerated.
The discipline of punishment has done the work for
which it was designed. Correction not destruction
was its purpose. Throughout the dark night of
sorrow faithful souls were waiting patiently for
Jehovah to come and save them. Nor was their
hope misplaced. At length He ordains peace for
them. It is of His grace that they can once more
celebrate His praises. A righteous nation returns
to occupy the city in place of the sinful nation
which was exiled from it. The vineyard which
once disappointed its Owner, and provoked Him to
break down its fences, and leave it to lie waste, now
yields abundant fruit.

(4) But Israel does not enjoy the blessings of
Jehovah’s reign alone. Judgement has taught the
nations as it has taught Israel. The scanty rem-
nant which escapes in the great catastrophe pays
Him homage. Mighty nations glorify Him when
they see His power manifested upon nations no less
powerful than themselves. All antagonism to Him and
to His people is at an end. Zion becomes the centre
of blessing for all the world. The participation of all
Authorship
and date.

484 DATE OF ISAIAH XXIV.-XXVII. LECT.

nations in the blessedness of Jehovah’s people is
described under the figure of a rich feast which
Jehovah makes for them there.

But this is not all. Zion is the scene of their
deliverance from that veil of ignorance and sorrow
and sin which has darkened human life. While
Jehovah removes the reproach of His people from
off all the earth, so that their relation to Him and
His to them is fully known, He swallows up death
for ever, and wipes away tears from of all faces. The
attainder of the Fall is reversed. Paradise is
restored.

IV

Why should this remarkable prophecy not be
regarded as Isaiah’s? and what are the grounds for
placing it in the period after the Return from
Babylon? A majority of modern critics agree in
thinking that this prophecy cannot have come from
the pen of Isaiah, because the style and language,
the distinctive ideas, and the historical background,
are all unlike those of the acknowledged prophecies
of Isaiah. Style and language might no doubt have
altered with advancing years, and with the character
of the subject.  Isaiah’s spiritual vision might
doubtless have been strenethened, and the veil drawn
aside that he might gaze into the future, when in
old age he retired from active life, to contemplate
the final issues of the divine counsels to which the
XVI DATE OF ISAIAH XXIV.-XXVII. 485

great movements of his own age had been leading up.
The historical allusions are confessedly indefinite,
because they are generalised and used as symbols of
more marvellous deliverances, and more stupendous
catastrophes. Yet when every allowance has been
made, it is difficult to resist the cumulative force
of the combined arguments, which point to another
prophet than Isaiah, and to a later age than the
commencement of the seventh century.

Historical events, it can hardly be doubted, form
the groundwork of the prophet’s eschatological
pictures, though these events are not historically
described but generalised and idealised. Some great
catastrophe which has actually happened, serves as
the model for the picture of the judgement of the
world. Heavy as was the blow inflicted upon Judah
by Sennacherib’s invasion, it is a more terrible
disaster than that. It can scarcely be any less
calamity than the destruction of Jerusalem, and
the desolation of the land which followed upon
Nebuchadnezzar’s deportation of the people.

Some great city has fallen, whose fall serves as a
type of the fall of the imperial city or cities which
are contrasted with the city of God. The city may
be Nineveh or Babylon ; but no other city of earlier
times occupied the relation to Judah which these
did, There was no other city whose fall could have
offered so signal an example of divine judgement, or

1 Ch. xxiv. ; xxvii. 10 f.
486 DATE OF ISAIAH XXIV.-XXVII. LECT.

have been regarded, even typically, as the prelude
to such far-reaching consequences.

Israel has been punished for its sins. It has
been scattered in distant lands. But punishment
has borne fruit im penitence. Idolatry will never
again be revived. Now although the standpoint of
the writer is often an ideal one, it is difficult to
resist the impression that the actual experience of
the exile lies behind this language. A partial restora-
tion appears to have already taken place, which is the
earnest of a complete and perfect restoration. But
it is still a day of reproach and distress. Calamities
are impending upon the world in which God’s
people can hardly escape, which will nevertheless
prepare the way for their complete redemption.

All these indications point to the period after the
Return from Babylon, as the time at which the
prophecy was written. The place of writing was
unquestionably Jerusalem, Zion is repeatedly spoken
of as this mountain (xxv. 6, 7, 10).

At what precise date after the Return it should be
placed is more doubtful. But it may with some
probability be assigned to the early part of this
period’ The sufferings of the exile seem to be still

1 Dillmann places it ‘in the first sixty or seventy years of the
new Jerusalem”: Driver, with whom I am glad to find myself in
agreement, though upon somewhat different grounds, in “the
early post-exilic period” (Zutroduction, p. 210); the date formerly
suggested by him, ‘‘on the eve of the Babylonian captivity”
(Isaiah, p. 119), seems to me very unsuitable: Delitzsch, Messi-
anische Weissagungen, p. 145), ‘in the exile or later,” suggesting
XVI DATE OF ISAIAH XXIV.-XXVIL. 487

comparatively recent. The idolatries of the pre-
exilic period have not been forgotten. The indica-
tions of the actual circumstances and hopes of the
people, so far as they can be traced, correspond
remarkably with the circumstances and hopes of the
time of Haggai and Zechariah. It is a day of small
things, but the restoration which has already been
effected, insignificant as it may appear to the out-
ward eye, is the pledge of a brilliant future. The
judgement of the world, which prepares the way for
the establishment of Jehovah’s kingdom, corresponds
to the shaking of nations and the overthrow of
kingdoms and the punishment of Israel’s oppressors,
which are prominent features in Haggai and
Zechariah. Yet there as here the union of the
nations with Israel in the worship of Jehovah is con-
fidently predicted. There too as here, the presence of
Jehovah among His people is contemplated as their
‘glory and their security.

v

Some of the prophecies concerning the nations
incorporated in the Book of Isaiah appear to date
from the period of the exile. The collection was
therefore probably not completed until after the
Return from Babylon. May it not be conjectured
that a disciple of Isaiah, deeply read in his master’s

the possibility, which seems to me unlikely, that the author was
the author of Isa. xl.-lxvi.

Position
and purpose
of these
chapters.
488 PURPOSE OF ISAIAH XXIV.-XXVIL. LECT.

prophecies and in the works of the other great pro-
phets of the earlier period, composed this apocalyptic
prophecy of judgement and redemption, as a fitting
finale to the prophecies upon the nations? Revela-
tion or Apocalypse is the last stage in the develop-
ment of Prophecy; and the writing which we are
considering belongs to the transition stage between
Prophecy and Apocalypse. If Revelation is “the
most attractive form in which hope can be offered to
a people which has learnt to feel even in the deepest
afflictions that they form a turning - point in the
world’s history,”! the timeliness of this particular
utterance is obvious. The temptation to despair
must have pressed heavily even upon faithful souls
in that first half century of the Return. The reality
corresponded but meagrely to the glowing visions
of the Book of Consolation. Could it be, they must
often have asked, that through this weak and
despised community Jehovah was working out His
purposes? Could this be the Zion of which it had
been said that nations shall come to thy light and
kings to the brightness of thy rising? In such a crisis
this prophet was raised up to reanimate fainting
hearts by reasserting in a new form the old truth
that the course of God’s dealings with Israel and the
world is through judgement to redemption, through
death to life; and that His unchanging principles of
action must result in the final manifestation of His

1 Bishop Westcott, /ntvod. to the Study of the Gospels, p. 73.
XVI PURPOSE OF ISAIAH XXIV.-XXVII. 489

absolute sovereignty. This seer was gifted by the
Spirit with a power of vision which looks right
onward to the end, foreshortening the intervening
distance. St. Paul can but quote his words to
describe the final triumph: Then shall come to pass
the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in
victory (1 Cor. xv. 54).’ The great voice out of the
throne which the seer of Patmos heard does but
echo them, and stamp them with the seal of the
New Covenant as still the goal of Christian hope,
when it proclaims, Behold the tabernacle of God is with
men, and He shall dwell with them, and they shall be
His peoples, and God Himself shall be with them, and
be their God: and He shall wipe away every tear
From their eyes; and death shall be no more; neither
shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain, any
more: the first things are passed away (Rev. xxi. 3, 4).

1 St. Paul’s rendering victory is based upon the Aramaic méan-

ing of the root from which is derived the word more correctly
rendered for ever.
Blank in
the history

of Judaec,
458.

B.O. 516-

LECTURE XVII

MALACHI

The Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to His Temple.—
Mauacui iii. 1.

I

AFTER the Dedication of the Temple in B.c. 516 the
curtain falls upon the fortunes of the little com-
munity in Judaea. Momentous events were happen-
ing which shaped the course of the world’s history
for all time. The revolt of the Ionians from the
supremacy of Persia (B.c. 500) led eventually to the
Persian invasion of Greece. The names of Marathon
(B.c. 490), Thermopylae, Salamis (p.c. 480), Plataea
(z.c. 479), recall the memories of the heroic struggle
which drove back the flood of Asiatic barbarism
from the shores of Europe. For the most part the
scene of the conflict was remote from Judaea. But
the revolt of Egypt from Darius in Bc. 487, and
again from Artaxerxes in B.c, 462-456 brought the
clash of arms nearer. The Persian forces marched
LECT. XVII SILENCE OF HISTORY 491

through Syria. It is scarcely possible that Judaea
can have escaped without feeling some effects from
the proximity of the Persian armies. Increased
taxes, compulsory supply of provisions and baggage
animals, possibly even personal impressment for the
service of the Great King, pressed hardly on the
struggling community.’

But to what extent the Jews were involved in
these movements, and what were their mingled
feelings of hope or fear as they watched the shaking
of the nations around them, can only be conjectured.
Tt has been suggested that the later chapters of
Zechariah and Isaiah xxiv.-xxvii. may be voices
which break the silence. But the suggestion has only
a certain degree of probability ; and only two notices
have come down to us of events which happened
during the period of nearly sixty years which inter-
vened between the completion of the Temple and
the mission of Ezra.” (1) A brief note in Ezra iv. 6
records the fact that in the beginning of the reign
of Xerxes (B.c. 485) the enemies of Judah wrote an
accusation against them to the Persian court. Were

1 See Neh. v. 4; ix. 37. Syrians of Palestine are mentioned by
Herodotus (vii. 89) as serving in the army of Xerxes.

2 Ezra iv. 6-23 is certainly: parenthetic. After relating the
successful opposition of ‘‘the people of the land” to the building
of the Temple, the compiler quotes other instances from later
history in which they shewed a similar spirit of malicious opposi-
tion. The narrative can only be regarded as continuous by the help
of the violent expedient of identifying Ahasuerus with Cambyses,
and Artaxerxes with Pseudo-Smerdis.
The mission
of Ezra,

492 EZRA AND NEHEMIAH LECT.

they charged with complicity or at least sympathy
with the Egyptian revolt? (2) After the death of
Xerxes (B.c. 465) it would seem that the Jews com-
menced to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. The
Persian officials in Syria, instigated by the enemies
of the Jews among the mixed population of Samaria,
and prompted rather by hatred of the Jews than by
the loyalty to the king of which they made such
profuse professions, wrote to Artaxerxes to warn him
of the mischief which might ensue if the work was
allowed to proceed. They obtained a decree to stop
the building, and lost no time in enforcing it. The
restoration of the walls was peremptorily suspended.

Not many years however can have passed before
Ezra went up from Babylon to Jerusalem. We do
not know what were the causes which induced
Artaxerxes to change his policy. Possibly circum-
stances connected with the Egyptian revolt (B.c. 462-
456) may have influenced him. Be that as it may, in
the seventh year of his reign (B.c. 458) Ezra was
despatched with full authority from the king and his
seven counsellors, to inguire concerning Judah and
Jerusalem. All Israelites who wished to return were
permitted to jo him. He bore rich presents for
the Temple and its services from the king and from
his own fellow-countrymen. Orders were given to
the treasurers of the trans-Euphratensian provinces
to furnish supplies for the Temple. The ministers of
religion were exempted from the payment of taxes.
XVII EZRA AND NEHEMIAH 493

Ezra was commissioned to reorganise the civil govern-
ment of the country, by appointing judges and magis-
trates.

After a journey of four months Ezra arrived at
Jerusalem. The treasures which had been brought
were deposited in the Temple; solemn sacrifices were
offered by the returning exiles; and the royal com-
missions were delivered to the Persian officials, who
Surthered the people and the house of God.

After these preliminaries, the princes of the people
proceeded to call Ezra’s attention to the prevalent
evil of intermarriage with the heathen, which was
threatening to destroy the distinctive character of
the nation. If we may judge from his consternation
at the account which they gave, Ezra had -had no
conception of the extent to which the practice had
spread. Encouraged by promises of support from
the right-minded members of the community, he
summoned the people to Jerusalem, and upbraided
them with their trespass. In spite of some isolated
attempts at opposition (Ezra x. 15, R.V.), he carried
his point. A commission of inquiry was appointed,
and the guilty parties were compelled to put away
their heathen wives.

Again the curtain falls upon the history. A gap rhe mission

of Nehemiah

of thirteen years separates the opening of the Book x.. 442.

of Nehemiah from the close of the Book of Ezra.
What had happened in the interval we do not know,
but apparently grave disasters had befallen Jeru-
494 EZRA AND NEHEMIAH LECT.

salem, and Ezra’s work of reformation had been
abruptly suspended. The Egyptian rebellion had
been suppressed, but Megabyzos, the satrap of Syria,
had defied the king, and secured a measure of inde-
pendence.’ Possibly under these circumstances Ezra
was no longer supported by the authority of Arta-
xerxes, and the opposition which the dissolution of
the heathen marriages must have excited, found
means to display itself. Possibly Jerusalem was
in some way or other involved in the revolt of
Megabyzos.

At any rate the report which was brought by
Hanani to his brother Nehemiah, who was cupbearer
to Artaxerxes at Susa, shewed that Jerusalem was in
a deplorable plight. The gates of the city had been
burnt, and breaches had been made in the walls.”
Three or four months later he was enabled to lay
before Artaxerxes the wish of his heart. He obtained
leave to go to Jerusalem and restore the ruined city.
His first care on his arrival at Jerusalem was to
repair the walls and the gates of the city. While
this work was in progress, complaint was made to
him of serious social evils which had sprung up.
Many of the poorer Jews had been compelled by

1 See Sayce, Jutrod. to Ezra, ete. p. 64.

* It is plain that a recent disaster must be referred to in Neh.
i, 2, 3. The wall must have been rebuilt previously, for it is de-
scribed not as broken down (2 Kings xxv. 10), but as breached (ep.
Noh. iv. 7); and the fact that the repair of the wall was completed
in fifty-two days (vi. 15) makes it plain that it was not now entirely
rebuilt for the first time.
XVII EZRA AND NEHEMIAH 495

the recent scarcity to mortgage their lands in order
to get food, or to pay the royal tribute. Some had
even been forced to surrender their children to
their creditors as slaves. Nehemiah summoned an
assembly, and persuaded the wealthy Jews to restore
the lands of their poorer brethren, and to reduce or
forego the interest which they had been exacting.

Ezra now reappears upon the scene. A week
after the completion of the wall, an assembly was
held at which he publicly read the Book of the Law.
The Feast of Tabernacles was solemnly celebrated in
accordance with its provisions (Neh. viii.).

A solemn fast was then held. The people con-
fessed their sins, praised God for His mercies to the
nation in past times, and entreated the continuance
of His favour. They then pledged themselves by a
covenant to obey the law, and in particular to avoid
mixed marriages, to keep the Sabbath and holy days,
and to observe the regulations of the Sabbatical year.
They agreed to pay a poll-tax for the service of the
Temple; they cast lots for the duty of providing
wood for the altar; and they pledged themselves
duly to offer the first-fruits and to pay tithes for the
support of the Levites. Provision was made for
securing a sufficient population for Jerusalem, and
the walls were dedicated with universal rejoicings.

Once more the narrative breaks off abruptly. wenemian's
Nehemiah was recalled to the Persian court, and Be 8.
when he once more returned to Jerusalem he found
496 DATE OF MALACHI LECT.

that much of his good work had been undone.’
Eliashib the high priest had established Tobiah the
Ammonite, with whom he was connected by mar-
riage, in one of the chambers of the Temple. The
portions assigned to the Levites had not been given
to them, and consequently the service of the Temple
had been suspended. Nehemiah expelled Tobiah,
and restored the chamber to its proper use. He
enforced the payient of the tithes, and committed
the distribution of them to trustworthy treasurers.
Next he took steps to put an end to the desecration
of the Sabbath; once more he condemned the pre-
valent evil of mixed marriages; and finally after
purifying the congregation enacted regulations for
securing the due maintenance of the Temple services.

II

eee’ Tt is generally agreed that Malachi prophesied
at some time during the period of which the history
has been briefly sketched in the preceding pages.
The mention of the governor of Judah (i. 8) proves
that Judah was at the time a province of the Persian
empire. The Temple was standing, and the sacrificial
service was being carried on. The alsence of any
allusion to the Return from the Exile makes it prob-
able that some time had elapsed since that event,
and the distressed condition of the people, as well as

™ See Note A, p. 507,
XVII DATE OF MALACHI 497

the character and contents of the book, confirm this
conclusion.

The precise date of Malachi’s ministry is ee
however uncertain. Of the various dates which
have been suggested two deserve particular con-
sideration.

(1) The first of these is the interval between
Nehemiah’s two visits to Jerusalem. The abuses
which Nehemiah found on his second visit were, as
we have seen, the selfish and irreverent behaviour of
the high priest, the general neglect of the Temple
service, the non-payment of tithe, the desecration of
the Sabbath, and mixed marriages. The evils which
Malachi denounces are almost exactly the same :—
the negligence of priests and people in the Temple
service, the robbery of God by the withholding of
tithes and offerings, the reckless divorce of Israelite
wives and marriage of foreign women. Nehemiah
does not mention divorce, and Malachi does not
speak of the desecration of the Sabbath: but for the
rest the correspondence is remarkably close.’ On
these grounds it is natural to connect the prophecy
of Malachi with the times of Nehemiah, and parti-
cularly with the interval between his two visits to
Jerusalem rather than with a time when he was
actually there, for the allusion to the governor in
ch. i. 8 points to the presence of a foreign governor,

1 Comp. especially Mal. ii. 10-16 with Neh. xiii. 23 ff: Mal.

jii, 8-10 with Neh. xiii, 10-12, 31; Mal. ii. 8 with Neh. xiii. 29.
2k
Is Malachi
@ proper
name?

498 PERSONALITY OF MALACHI LECT.

rather than Nehemiah who refused to avail himself
of his official allowances (Neh. v. 14 ff).

(2) On the other hand it has been urged that
Malachi must have preceded Ezra, because he
does not refer to Ezra’s measures against mixed
marriages, vr to the publication of the law. His
language is that of Deuteronomy. He does not shew
the familiarity with the Priests’ Code which might be
expected from one who came after Ezra, for, whatever
view be taken of its origin, it can hardly be questioned
that Ezra’s Book of the Law was substantially the
same as our present Pentateuch.}

It may be doubted whether these considerations
are sufficient to outweigh the close correspondence
with the cirewnstances found by Nehemiah on his
second visit. Malachi’s severe reproof of the mixed
marriages and the neglect to pay tithe gains force if
these were matters in regard to which the people
had made a solemn covenant some ten years before.
It is not surprising that his language should agree
most closely with the popular law-book of Deuter-
onomy, with which he would naturally be most
familiar. The balance of the evidence appears to be
in favour of the later date.

Nothing whatever is known of the history of
the prophet. It is even questionable whether we

1 See Robertson Smith, Old Testament in Jewish Church, 2nd ed.
p. 425 ff., in favour of the earlier date. He concludes that he may
have written after 458, but certainly wrote before 444. On the
other side see Kuenen, Hinl. p. 412 ff.
XVII PERSONALITY OF MALACHI 499

know his name. Malachi occurs nowhere else as
a proper name; and it is identical with the
Hebrew word for my messenger in ch. iii. 1. If it
is a proper name, it can hardly mean my messenger,
but must be regarded as a shortened form for
Malachiah, messenger of Jehovah. But the oldest
versions do not recognise it as a proper name.
The LXX., representing a slightly different read-
ing, renders the title, Oracle of the word of the
Lord against Israel by the hand of his messenger ;
and the Targum adds the gloss, by the hand of
my messenger, whose name ts called Ezra the seribe.
The identification of the author with Ezra can
scarcely be more than a conjecture; but it is
important to observe the oldest exegetical tradition
embodied in these versions. It is possible that the
collector of the Minor Prophets had no information
as to the name of the author of this prophecy, and
prefixed to it a title suggested by ch. ui. 1, regarding
the messenger who is there spoken of as the prophet
himself. By the second century a.D. however,
‘Malachi’ had come to be regarded as a proper
name,” and though it must remain uncertain whether
it originally was so, it is convenient to continue to
use it.

1 Cp. Hagg. i. 18.
° Tn the versions of Aquila, Symmachus, and Theodotion.
Contents of
the book.

Reproof of
the priests.

500 TEACHING OF MALACHI LECT.

IIL

Malachi’s prophecy is in the main, as we have
seen, a reproof of the sins of his contemporaries.
The ground of his appeal to Israel is, like that of his
predecessors, the relation of Jehovah to the nation.
Jehovah had loved them. He had chosen Jacob,
while He rejected Esau. Did they ask for a proof
of His love? It was before their eyes in the fate
of Edom. Isracl had been restored to its own land,
but Edom’s heritage lay desolate, and Edom’s inten-
tion to restore his ruined cities was doomed to be
frustrated (i. 2-3).

Malachi’s first reproof is addressed to the priests
for the negligent performance of their duties. They
openly expressed their contempt for the altar which
they served. They offered, or permitted the people
to offer, blemished animals for sacrifice. It was a
deliberate insult to Jehovah. Better close the Temple
altogether than profane Jehovah’s Name in His own
sanctuary! Let them not delude themselves into
fancying that the Temple at Jerusalem was the only
place where acceptable worship could be offered.
Already Jehovah's Name was held in honour through-
out the world, and acceptable worship was being
offered to Him everywhere even in heathen lands
(i. 6-14).

But the priests were the teachers of the nation
as well as the guardians of its ritual; and this
XVI TEACHING OF MALACHI 501

responsible part of their duties they had neglected
not less than the other. They had misled those
whom they ought to have directed. Their practice
was in startling contrast to the ideal of Levi’s
functions as the keeper of divine knowledge and the
expounder of the Law (ii. 1-9).

Here too Malachi bases his reproof upon the
relation of Jehovah to the people as their Lord and
Father (i. 6), and to the priests in virtue of the
covenant He had made with Levi (i. 4 ff). The
reverence of the son for his father, the fear of the
servant for his master, were wholly wanting. For
this the priests were to blame. They had corrupted
the covenant of Levi. And their contempt for
Jehovah had recoiled upon themselves. He had
made them contemptible and base before all the

people.
Then, turning from the priests to the people, he reproor of
denounces the heathen marriages by which the formed
marriages

holiness of the nation was being contaminated, and «nd divorce.
condemns the heartlessness of their conduct in
repudiating their Israelite wives (ii. 10-16). Once
more he bases his reproof upon the relation of Israel
to God. It was the purpose of Jehovah for Israel,
and the mutual relation of all the members of the
nation to one another as children of one God,
which made the perfidy of their conduct so heinous.
Nay, it was the original plan and intention of the
The day of
judgement.

502 TEACHING OF MALACHI LECT.

creation which made these causeless divorces contrary
to the Divine Will

There were sceptics among the people who
denied God’s justice, and doubted whether He would
ever come to judge and to discriminate between
the evil and the good. For them the message is
that the day is speedily coming when the Lord, the
Judge whose Presence they thoughtlessly desired,
will suddenly appear in His Temple, in the person
of the Angel of the Covenant. He will separate
between the righteous and the wicked, and purify
the ungodly nation in the furnace of judgement
(ii, 17—-iii. 6).

How could they expect a blessing when they
robbed God by withholding tithes and offerings ?
Murmurers might complain that there was no
advantage in serving God; but that day would
distinguish between those who served Him, and
those who served Him not. Destruction would be
the lot of the one, happiness and prosperity of the
others (iii, 7-iv. 3).

In his parting words he commends to them the
law of Moses as the standard and the safeguard of
conduct. By this Israel is to rule its life, and so
await the fulfilment of the promise (iv. 4-6).

1 The meaning of ch. ii. 15 is obscure: but on the whole I
incline to the rendering: And did not One (i.e, God ep. it. 10),
make [youboth]?.... And why [did] the One [do so]? Seeking a
godly seed. The purpose of marriage was the maintenance of the
race as the people of God, and this was defeated by mixed
marriages and by divorce.
XVIT TEACHING OF MALACHI 503

IV

In Malachi, we are already on the threshold of a Style of
new age. The characteristic peculiarity of his style ,
marks the transition from the free discourse of the
prophets to the didactic dialectic of the schools of
the scribes. Some general truth is affirmed, or some
ground of complaint is alleged; the people’s objec-
tion to it is stated; the objection is refuted, and
warning or promise is pronounced.!

But Malachi’s voice is still a true voice of
prophecy. “ With its clear insight into the real wants
of the time, its stern reproof even of the priests
themselves, and its bold exposition of the eternal
truths and the certainty of a last judgement, this
book closes the series of prophetic writings contained
in the Canon in a manner not unworthy of such lofty
predecessors.” 2

It has seemed strange to some that a prophet zea sor
should lay so much stress upon the external precepts pees
of the law. But the ritual law was one of the means
by which Israel was to be kept separate from the
nations during the period upon which it was now
entering. Men’s attitude towards it could not be a
matter of indifference. The neglect or observance of
ritual rules was a measure of their regard for God.

The offering of blemished or imperfect animals in

1 Seoeg. 1. 2H. 6f.3 if, 10, 14, 175 ii. 7 f 13.
? Ewald, Hist. v. 176 (E.T.).
True
worship not
limited to
Jerusalem,

504 TEACHING OF MALACHI LECT.

sacrifice indicated the irreverence of the worshipper’s
heart. And it is no mere formal compliance with
ritual ordinances which Malachi enjoins. It is the
whole law which he commends to his countrymen as
the divinely authorised standard of action. Those
against whom Jehovah will be a swift witness when
He comes to judgement are the sorcerers, the
adulterers, the false swearers, those that oppress the
hireling, the widow, and the fatherless, and defraud
the stranger; all, in fact, whose conduct shows that
they do not fear Jehovah (iii. 5). There was no
antagonism between the law and the prophets; and
it was not unworthy of the latest voice of prophecy
that it should bid Israel put its conscience to school
with the law, during the centuries in which the voice
of prophecy was to be silent, and a life and death
conflict was to be waged with heathenism.

It was the lesson needed for the age; and if Israel
misused the law, and forged fetters for itself out of
what God designed for its support, the fault lay in
them, and not in the prophet.

But while Malachi insists upon obedience to the
ritual precepts of the law, and the importance of the
Temple service, with true prophetic breadth of view
he looks beyond the bounds of a narrow Judaism
with its centre in Jerusalem to the prospect of a
worship coextensive with the world. Whether the
true meaning of the famous passage in ch. i. 11 is
that the nations already in their worship paid an
XVII TEACHING OF MALACHI 505

unconscious tribute to Jehovah as the Supreme
Sovereign of the universe; or that the Jews of the
Dispersion, scattered throughout the world in the
midst of the Gentiles, rendered by their offerings of
prayer and praise a more acceptable service to
Jehovah than the careless priests in the Temple at
Jerusalem by their heartless and contemptible sacri-
fices, and that thereby Jehovah’s Name was being
magnified among the heathen, the lesson is the same.
It is that these negligent priests were to know that
Jehovah was not, as they might fancy, dependent
upon them and upon the Temple at Jerusalem for
acceptable service, for the world was His Temple,
and even the heathen were learning to fear Him.’
Again, if Malachi lays stress on the importance of puties of

priests as

the sacrificial functions of the priests, he lays equal teachers.
stress on the importance of their functions as teachers.

1 The passage must be rendered as in R.V., My name is great
among the Gentiles, and in every place incense is offered unto My
name, and a pure offering: for My name is great among the
Gentiles. Comp. v. 14: I ama great King. . and My name is
terrible among the Gentiles. It speaks of the present, and although
it was to find a larger fulfilment in times to come, it is not simply
a prediction of the future. But the first of the two interpretations
mentioned above can hardly be right. The name of Jehovah, as
Oehler rightly observes (Theol. of O.T. § 228), presupposes the
divine revelation, and cannot refer to an unconscious worship.
Probably some of the Jews at Jerusalem despised the Jews of the
Dispersion (cp. Ezek. xi. 15), and refused to recognise their worship
in heathen countries as true worship. They are rebuked by the
emphatic declaration that in every place Jehovah can be acceptably
worshipped, and that while His Name is despised in the city of
His choice by His own people, it is magnified among the heathen.
The words are an anticipation of John iv. 21.
The coming
of the Lord.

506 TEACHING OF MALACHI LECT,

In noble words he describes the lofty ideal of Levi’s
calling. My covenant was with him of life and peace ;
and I gave them to him that he might fear, and he
feared Me and stood in awe of My name. The law of
truth was in his mouth, and unrighteousness was not
found in his lips; he walked with Me in peace and
uprightness, and dul turn many away from iniquity.
For the priest's lips should keep knowledge, and they
should seek the law at his mouth: for he is the mes-
senger of Jehovah of hosts (ii. 5 ff.), That is not the
language of a petrified legalism.

Lastly, the closing prophecy of the book calls for
special notice. The prediction of the messenger, who
should come to prepare the way for the advent of the
Lord, Elijah the prophet, the mediator between the
old and the new, the herald of the day of judgement,
was as our Lord teaches, fulfilled in the mission of John
the Baptist. In bidding us recognise John as the mes-
senger He bids us recognise Himself as the Lord, the
angel of the covenant. He bids us remember that if
the primary object of His Coming was not judgement
but mercy, yet none the less judgement must follow
upon His coming (John ix. 39). He was the touch-
stone by which the hearts of men were tried, and

1 It seems best to identify Elijah the prophet (iv. 5) with the
messenger who is to be sent to prepare Jehovah’s way before Him
(iii. 1). This messenger is to be distinguished from the messenger
(or angel) of the covenant. As the angel of Jehovah represented
Jehovah to Israel of old, so the angel of the covenant represents
the Lord as He comes to judge.
XVII TEACHING OF MALACHI 507

the distinction between the righteous and the wicked
made manifest.

As we turn the page in our English Bibles,
which, unlike the Hebrew canon, place the prophets
last in the Old Testament, and read of the fulfilment
of the words of Malachi in the mission of the
Baptist, we are apt to forget the four centuries of
history which intervened, centuries of discipline
through struggle and suffering and weary waiting
and baffled hopes, until the fulness of the times was
come and the Christ was born. The Lord came to
His temple; not, as men might have expected, with
outward shew, and visible manifestations which none
could mistake. He came, to be even now a refiner
and purifier of silver, to try the hearts of men; to be-
gin that work of judgement which will not be finally
consummated till He has come again and judged the
world in righteousness.

Note A.—On N&HEMIAH’s GOVERNORSHIPS.

It is commonly supposed that Nehemiah remained at
Jerusalem as governor from 445 to 433, that he then re-
turned to Susa, and after a year or so went back to Jerusalem.
It seems however most improbable that the evils described in
Neh. xiii. can have become so serious during so short an
absence, and accordingly some have thought that certain days
(xiii, 6) denotes a much longer period, and that Nehemiah’s
second visit to Jerusalem was not till several years later. It
must however have been before 425, the date of Artaxerxes’
death.
508 ON NEHEMIAH’S GOVERNORSHIPS LECT.

It may however be questioned whether the common
view that Nehemiah remained at Jerusalem from 445 to 433
is correct. (1) His request to the king (Neh. ii. 5, 6) con-
templates absence from the court for.a limited time only.
(2) The events recorded in Neh. ii-xii. appear to be consecu-
tive, and to occupy a space of less than a year. (3) As has
been already remarked, it seems impossible to suppose that
the abuses detailed in ch. xiii, had sprung up during a brief
absence ; and yet it is certainly unnatural to understand cer-
tain days to mean several years.

May not the meaning of ch. xiii. 6 be as follows? And
in all this I was not at Jerusalem: but in the two and thirtieth
year of Artaxerxes king of Babylon I came to the king, and at
the end of certain days I obtained leave of the king, and came to
Jerusalem, etc. Nehemiah’s first mission was temporary ;
when he had completed the work for which he came, he re-
turned to Susa, after an absence of perhaps not more than a
year in all. He remained at Susa until the thirty-second
year of Artaxerxes, when he again obtained leave to go to
Jerusalem. I render ‘3 by but, after the negative of the
preceding clause, according to the regular Hebrew idiom. I
understand the words I came to the king not of his return from
Jerusalem, but of his going to the palace to serve in his turn
as cupbearer. It may be inferred from chaps. i, ii. that his
attendance was not constant, as he does not appear to have
been in the royal presence until some months after he re-
ceived his brother’s deplorable account of the condition of
Jerusalem. At the end of certain days will then naturally
mean when his term of attendance was over. If then Nehe-
miah went back to Susa after only a few months’ stay at
Jerusalem, it is casy to understand how the enthusiasm which
he excited may have rapidly cooled, and the old abuses sprung
up till they reached the extent which he found when he re-
turned after twelve years’ absence.

At first sight ch. v. 14 appears to be irreconcilable with
XVII ON NEHEMIAH’S GOVERNORSHIPS 509

this view. It is, however, not impossible that the dates have
been inserted by the compiler who misunderstood ch. xiii.
6; or that Nehemiah continued to be nominally governor,
and was entitled to the governor’s allowances though not
resident in Judaea.
CONCLUSION
mdvra kal ev wacw XPIZTOS.
CoLosstANns iii. 11,

iva f 6 OHO rdvra ev wéow,

1 CoRINTHIANS xy. 28,
LECTURE XVIII

CHRIST THE GOAL OF PROPHECY

Think not that I came to destroy the law or the prophets: I came
not to destroy, but to fulfil.—Sr. Marrurw vy. 17.

I
I HAVE endeavoured in this course of lectures to ex- Cireum-
ast . stantial
hibit the work of each successive member of the origin af
prophecy,

goodly fellowship of the prophets in relation to the
circumstances of his own age. I have endeavoured
to show how the utterances of the prophets arose
naturally (as we speak) out of those circumstances,
though at the same time they claimed to be the
authorised spokesmen and accredited ambassadors
of Jehovah ; and by the loftiness of their morality
and the spirituality of their religion, by the depth of
their insight and the sureness of their foresight, they
justified their bold claim to be filled with the Spirit
of God. The teaching of the prophets took its rise
out of the particular needs of different ages, as the
teaching of the Apostles recorded for us in the Epistles
21
Its unity in
variety.

514 CHRIST THE GOAL OF PROPHECY LECT.

took its rise out of the particular needs of the different
churches to which they wrote. The utterances of the
prophets are no abstract declarations of doctrine, or
expositions of morality, or predictions of the future,
unconnected with life and history. They have
strength and reality and permanence because they
deal with living men, because they shew God work-
ing in the world, because they let us see how “in
every age He takes man as he is that He may make
Him what he is not.” !

We have seen that the prophets necessarily spoke
the language of their own times, and must be inter-
preted and estimated in relation to them. It was not
given to them all severally to declare the whole
counsel of God: one enforces one truth, another em-
phasises another: here we see progress, sudden and
startling; there to all appearance, retrogression,
as though the people were unable to bear the full
truth, and must be taken back to more rudimentary
instruction. But with all the variety of gifts and
powers in the series of prophets whose writings have
come down to us from a period of at least three cen-
turies and a half, with all the difference of the special
circumstances under which they laboured, and the
audiences which they addressed, there is a unity of
purpose which bespeaks a common source and origin
for the message which is one in essence, though mani-
fold in form,

V Lux Mundi, p. 82,
XVIII CHRIST THE GOAL OF PROPHECY 515

II

Prophecy was no premature unrolling of the his-
tory of the future to gratify an idle curiosity ; it was
never separated from its ethical end.! But from first
to last it pointed forward to a great divine purpose
slowly being evolved in the course of ages, to “some
far off divine event,’ towards which the history of
Israel and the history of the world were moving.
At one time that event seemed close at hand, as
though the clouds might break at any instant and
reveal the splendour of the divine presence: and
then the hope was disappointed, only to be reaffirmed
with fresh confidence. Some partial accomplishment
of promise served as an earnest of greater things to
come, and gave assurance that it must yet find a
more complete fulfilment. But who could rise from
the study of the Old Testament prophets if the his-
tory of their hopes had finally ended there, without a
keen sense of disappointment and failure? as one
who might find in some lonely desert the foundations
of a vast building laid, and costly materials prepared
in abundance, with plans and sketches suggestive of
majestic perfection, but all abandoned, unused, for-
gotten.

Truly if the work of the prophets had ended with
their own age, it would have been a splendid testi-
mony for the truths of morality which find their re-

1 Cp. Tholuck, Die Propheten, § 2.

Its goal.
516 CHRIST THE GOAL OF PROPHECY LECT.

sponse in the enlightened conscience, and for the
aspirations towards lofty ideals of which man is
capable; yet we should have felt—if we can con-
ceive the possibility—a numbing sense of incom-
pleteness and want and failure; we should have
been compelled to say that they could not really
have been what they claimed to be, the mouthpieces
of an unique divine revelation. We should have
been forced to confess that the words of prophecy
were, after all, human ideals and not divine ideas.

For if prophecy was as it professed to be, an in-
spired glimpse into the eternal present of the divine
mind, it must needs foresee the divine purpose for
mankind unfolding itself in time, and that foresight
must in due course be realised in facts. When the
curtain falls on the stage of Old Testament pro-
phecy at the close of the fifth century B.c., we feel
that the riddle waits for its answer, the drama lacks
its denouement.

Those strange centuries of silence! How wait-
ing faith must have been tried in the days when there
was no prophet, and the vision seemed to tarry while
generation after generation passed away! Yet they
were doing their appointed work. Slowly the people
were absorbing the spirit of the old truths, and being
prepared for the new revelation. Slowly they were
learning throuvh the discipline of failure that they
could not save themselves; false ideals were being
swept away ; the spiritual sense was being developed
XVIII CHRIST THE GOAL OF PROPHECY 517

in the faithful ‘remnant’ which would enable them
to receive the Christ.

Then in the fulness of the times, the Christ came,
gathering up into Himself and uniting in His own
Person all those lines of prophecy which had seemed
so strangely inconsistent and irreconcilable, filling
them with a new meaning, vivifying them with a
new energy. Here was the answer to all men’s
hopes ; nay, vastly more; a combination, unique,
unthought of, beyond the boldest venture of faith
and hope to anticipate, needing the humblest teach-
ableness to receive when offered for acceptance.

Il
The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. It oe
re JUlfu-
was the function of prophecy to prepare for Him, mentor
prophecy

It is the function of prophecy to bear witness to
Him. ‘Through the scriptures of the prophets the
mystery kept in silence from times eternal but now
manifested, is made known unto all the nations unto
obedience of faith (Rom. xvi. 25, 26). Prophecy
first becomes fully intelligible in the light reflected
from His Person and offices; His teaching; His life
and work ; His kingdom.

(i.) The kings of Judah ruled as the representa- nts
tives of Jehovah, Who was the true King of Israel. Ogices ;
Not seldom their Conduct was in flat contradiction
to their calling. But Prophecy pointed steadily
518 CHRIST THE GOAL OF PROPHECY LECT.

forward to an ideal King, Who should be a true
representative of the nation to Jehovah, and of
Jehovah to the nation; the worthy head of the
divine kingdom upon earth. In that future age to
which the gaze of every prophet is directed, Zion
becomes the centre of instruction for the world.
From Zivon shall go forth instruction, and the word of
Jehovah from Jerusalem. In the days when the
kingdom was tottering to its fall, and Israel was
about to pass under the yoke of a heathen power,
the advent of a native ruler is predicted who would
have priestly rights of access to the presence of God
(Jer, xxx. 21): and when the kingdom had finally
passed away, the same idea is presented by a sym-
bolical action of deepest significance, and the hopes
of the restored community are directed towards the
figure of a royal priest who should rule as the perfect
representative of Jehovah (Zech. vi. 12, 13). The
scene changes; and mysteriously there arises out of
the nation which had failed to fulfil its mission that
unique figure of the Servant of the Lord who renders
the obedience which Israel had refused, and through
suffering and death and life makes atonement for the
sin of many.

Yet again, by the side of these varied anticipations
of a great Deliverer, prophecy speaks of an Advent of
Jehovah Himself, to judge the world and reign
among His people.

Already, even in the Old Testament, some of
XVI CHRIST THE GOAL OF PROPHECY 519

these lines of prophecy had seemed to meet in a
single person. The king is invested with a divine
character: the offices of priest and king are sym-
bolically united: still more startlingly, Zion’s king
comes to her in the guise of the Servant of Jehovah,
who has triumphed through suffering.

But it was reserved for the fulfilment to shew
how God’s thoughts are greater than man’s thoughts,
for in the Person of Jesus Christ the various lines
all meet, in a way unimaginable beforehand to human
reason. In Him God comes to visit His people.
He Who is very God fulfils as man the Servant’s
work, and passes through suffering and humiliation
to glory. The royal Priest offers Himself as victim
for the world, and, exalted to His throne, lives to
make eternal intercession.

Men could not have drawn from the Old Testa-
ment prophecies the portrait of Him who was to
come. To many the guise in which He came was a
bitter disappointment. Those who had formed their
conception of what the Messiah must be from a
partial study of the Scriptures, refused to acknow-
ledge Him at all. But surely if slowly, the Church
of the First Days, as under the guidance of the Holy
Ghost it pondered on the Person and the Work of
the Lord, recognised in Him the union of the various
elements which had been foreshadowed in many
fragments and in many fashions, weleomed Him as
her Priest, her Prophet, her Example, her King,
in His teach-
ing;

520 CHRIST THE GOAL OF PROPHECY LECT.

her God; and worshipped in adoring love and
wonder.

(i.) And as Christ in His Person and His Office
summed up and fulfilled all that prophecy had fore-
shadowed ; so in His teaching He took up, united,
deepened, vitalised, the old doctrines of the prophets.
For He came not to annul or abrogate the Law and
the Prophets, but to fulfil. He reaffirmed the great
moral and religious demands which God had made of
old, of truth and righteousness and love and reverence
and humility, and all that combines to make up the
holiness to which Israel was called, the perfection
which is the aim of the Christian life (Matt. v. 48).
He concentrated and animated with a new intensity
“the passion for righteousness and the hatred of
iniquity ” which had been growing through successive
ages in strength and purity.’ In the old days the
prophets had pointed to the knowledge of God as the
source of life; and now He came to bring a new idea
of the relation of God to man, and to base man’s
duty of loving obedience on “the revelation of the
Father.” .

The prophets had ever been turning men’s thoughts
inwards, teaching that no formal observance of out-
ward ceremonies could satisfy the requirements of the
Searcher of hearts. He re-enacts the old Law in
positive precepts, and pierces to the inward motives
of thought and will as the essential criterion of

1 Dean Church, Discipline of the Christian Character, p. 78.
XVIII CHRIST THE GOAL OF PROPHECY 521

character and conduct. The new covenant of the
law written in the heart finds its fulfilment in the
dispensation of the Spirit (Jer. xxxi. 31 ff). God ts
spirit, and they that worship Him must worship Him
in spirit and in truth. It was only by gradual stages
that individual rights and responsibilities came to be
recognised in the old time; but Christ proclaims the
personal relation to Himself which consecrates the
meanest, the inalienable sanctity and responsibility
of each separate life, each single soul, without isolating
one from another, or weakening the truth of that
corporate unity and responsibility which were so
clearly understood of old.

(il.) Again, as we study the life and work of
Christ, the fulfilment of prophecy meets our view
throughout. Step by step the prophets had taught
a fuller knowledge of the nature and the character
of God, and as men came to know more of His
transcendent majesty and holiness, the gulf between
Him and sinful man appeared to widen. He seemed
to be farther and farther withdrawn from the world
of sense; till in the days when prophecy had ceased,
and men were pondering on the contrast between the
present and the past, they ceased to pronounce the
sacred Name of revelation which had been the pledge
of the living Presence and Power of God in the midst
of His people.

Side by side with that deeper knowledge of God
was developed a clearer recognition of the nature of

in His life
and work ;
522 CHRIST THE GOAL OF PROPHECY LECT.

sin. The prophets affirm the possibility and the
efficacy of repentance, and hold out the offer of for-
giveness. Yet how was the fountain to be opened
for sin and for uncleanness? Just as men grew to
realise the unapproachable awfulness of God, they
came to recognise their own corruption and alienation
from Him. The gulf between God and man seemed
widening hopelessly.

And then Christ came; and in His own Person
united man to God—mysterious truth, the full
meaning of which is only slowly being apprehended
in the course of ages: by His life of perfect obedi-
ence He showed to man a new ideal and a new
possibility : by His atoning death He reconciled man
to God, and removed the barrier which hindered
them from approaching Him with filial confidence.

And then by His triumphant Resurrection He
swallowed up death for ever, and destroyed the veil
spread over all the nations. Little, strangely little,
have the prophets to say about a personal immor-
tality: yet this was the necessary conclusion from
the premiss of that fellowship with God which they
were constantly proclaiming as the goal of Israel’s
calling: this, however dimly they may have antici-
pated it, was the necessary fulfilment of their hopes.

And thus, in a larger sense than they could
themselves have foreseen, the prophet’s promise of
peace—peace for Israel, peace even for the nations,

4 Tea. ix. 6, 7 3 Zech, im, 10,
XVIII CHRIST THE GOAL OF PROPHECY 523

was realised in the work of Christ for the world, in
Him Who came to guide our fect into the way of
peace.

(iv.) Yet once again: the Kingdom of Christ is in His king-
the fulfilment of prophecy. The ruling idea of the
Old Testament is the establishment of God’s King-
dom in the world. The divine purpose for Israel was
that they should be Jehovah’s people, and that He
should be their God, in the fullest sense of the words.
But this is but a fragment of God’s counsel : it is but
the means to the establishment of His universal
Kingdom throughout the world. Whatever may
have been the spirit of later Judaism, no one can
truly charge the prophets with a ‘narrow particul-
arism’ or a ‘ nationalistic bigotry” They may indeed
at one time have looked forward to Israel’s becoming
the visible and temporal centre of the divine Kingdom
in the world, yet it soon becomes plain that it is a
spiritual supremacy which Israel was to attain. They
could but embody the essential truth in the language
of their own time. But Christ came, and again pro-
claimed the fulfilment of all and more than all for
which the prophets had looked with yearning eyes,
founding a spiritual Kingdom which knows no limits
of race or country or class or space or time ; uniting
all men in an equal fellowship of blessing and
privilege and hope.
524 PERMANENT VALUE OF LECT,

IV

eee The manifold outlines, types, foreshadowings,
ment, hopes, aspirations of the Old Testament were gathered
together in Christ; they were filled with a larger
sense, and animated with a new spirit. The fulfil-
ment did not come in the form which might have
been expected, and which many did expect, who were
content to look at some partial aspect of Israel’s
hope, and to leave out of account other elements
which they could not reconcile into one consistent
picture. Indeed it was only slowly, through the
teaching of the Holy Spirit, that the Apostles them-
selves came to see how truly and completely Christ
had fulfilled the ancient prophecies. The corre-
spondence of the fulfilment with the prophecy is not
(as some would urge) forced and arbitrary. It is
“the consummation in life of that which was pre-
pared in life.” It does not depend on an exact
equivalence of circumstantial details. Such details
there are. They serve to attract attention, and invite
to a deeper study. But it is not on these that we
ought to dwell. They are but the frame of the
picture, the setting of the jewel. Rather it is to the
great lines of thought, the underlying principles, the
ruling ideas, that our attention should be directed.
We watch them in the Old Testament, working for-

1 Bishop Westcott, Hebrews, p. 480,
XVIII OLD TESTAMENT PROPHECY 525

ward to an unknown, unseen, unimaginable end;
and we see them meeting in Christ, not in mere
mechanical or formal union, but in a wholly new
combination, the spring of fresh forces and larger
hopes for the world. The old things are passed aavay :
nay rather, behold, they are. become new.

Old Testament prophecy is still a living message
for the Christian Church. Its fulfilment does not «
mean that its use is at an end, so that it may be laid”
on one side, because its purpose and significance are
exhausted. Nor does it mean that for us the sole use
of prophecy is as one of the credentials which attest
Christ’s mission. It is this, and as such it would
claim our reverent study; but it is far more. It is
not fulfilled and exhausted, but fulfilled and illumin-
ated, and we must read it in the light of that
illumination.

Thence we may derive comfort and courage, as we
watch the methods by which God works out His
purposes, educates the world, establishes His king-
dom in it. There we may see that He is indeed the
living God, Who rules in the affairs of men: the
Alpha and the Omega, the Lord God, which is and
which was, and which is to come, the All-Sovereign
(Rev. i. 8). The inspired optimism of the prophets,
maintained in the teeth of present appearances by
their resolute faith in Jehovah, supplies a wholesome
antidote to the temptation to a despairing pessimism,
so commonly felt in the present day. That optimism

Permanent

ore
‘ophecy,
A26 PERMANENT VALUE OF LECT.

was justified in the event, though the event was long
delayed ; and it bids us look forward with confidence,
though the vision may yet tarry long.

And the ethical teaching of the prophets still
abides for our instruction. It is illuminated,
elevated, fulfilled by the teaching of our Lord, but
it is not superseded. Some rudimentary elements
there are in it, which fall away in the fuller growth;
some temporary forms which belong only to the old
order. But the foundation of eternal truth abides
and lives. “ As long as the world lasts,” wrote one
whose view of the Old Testament is often stimula-
ting if inadequate, “all who want to make progress
in righteousness will come to Israel for inspiration,
as to the people who have had the sense for right-
eousness most glowing and strongest ; and in hearing
and reading the words Israel has uttered for us,
carers for conduct will find a glow and a force they
could find nowhere else.” ! Yes! for they are gleams
from the eternal Sun of Righteousness, who has
arisen upon us with healing in His wings.

Those sacred writings are still able to make wise
unto salvation through faith which is in Chiist Jesus
(2 Tim. 111.15). And whatsoerer things were iritten
aforetime were written for our learning, that through
patience and through comfort of the scriptures we might
have our hope (Rom. xv. 4).

The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy ;

1M. Arnold, Literature and Dogma, ). 42.
“XVIII OLD TESTAMENT PROPHECY 527

and in the light of historic experience it bids us rest
assured that the work of Redemption which we see
carried to a point of completion which is in itself a
new and unique beginning, will not fail or be frus-
trated, but will finally reach that supreme conclusion,
when Gop shall be al ti all.
528 CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE

 

 

 

PROPHETS Kings | B.c. Kinas PROPHETS
or Ju|DAH. OF | ISRAEL,
I. PRE-ASSYRIAN |PERIOD.
Jehoram | 848
Obadiah c. 846 (?)
Ahaziah | 844
Athaliah | 843 \Jehu
Joash 837
Joel c. 837-817 (2)
815 |Jehoahaz
798 |Joash
Amaziah | 797
II. THE ASSYRIAN |PERIOD.
Uzziah | 792
790 |Jeroboam IT,
760 Amos c. 760.
755 BN
749 |Zechariah
Shallun
Hosea
Jotham | 750 ce. 755-740.
(regent)
748 |Menahem
745 | (Tiglath-pile-
Jotham ser IT.)
(king) 740

 

 

 

 

 

 
 

CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE

529

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

PROPHETS Kines | B.c. Kincs
OF JU/DAH. OF | ISRAEL.
Jotham | 740
(king)
738 |Pekahiah
Isaiah 740-700 4 736 |Pekah
Ahaz 735
Judah 7384
invaded
by Pekah
Micah andRezin| f
c. 735~725 (2) 4 732 | Fall of Dam|ascus
| 731 |Hoshea
| Hezekiah] 728
L 727 |(Shalmaneser | IV.)
722 |(Sargon)
Fall of Samfaria and end
of the Northjern Kingdom
720 |Battle of Raphia
711 |Siege of Ashdod
705 |Sennacherib
Sennach-| 701
erib’s in-
vasion of
Judah
Manasseh| 697
681 |Esarhaddon
668 |Assur-bani-pal
c.662 /Sack of Thebes
Amon 642

2M

 
 

530 CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE

PROPHETS Kincs B.C.

|
OF Tu pan. |

 

III. THE CHALDEAN | PERIOD.

Nahum c 640 losiah 640
( Commencement of, 628
| Reformation
Zephaniah |
c. 630-622 } 627
I
l ' Reformation 622
Jehoahaz 609
Habakkuk { Jehoiakim 609
¢ 609-607 | 607 |Fall of Nineveh

605 |Battle of Carchem-
ish
Nebuchadnezzar’s 601(?)
first invasion of
Judaea
Jeremiah 627-577 (?) 4
Jehoiachin 597
Siege of Jerusalem :
first deportation

Zedekiah 597
592
Fall of Jerusalem ;| 586

second deporta-

tion

Third deportation] 581

 

Ezekiel 592-570 |
|
\

Release of Jehoiachin) 561

 

 

 

 

 
CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE

531

 

 

IV. THE RESTORATION.

Isaiah xl.-lxvi.
c. 546-540

Haggai 520
Zechariah 520-518

Zechariah ix.-xiv. (?)

Isaiah xxiv.—xxvii. (?)

Malachi c. 435

 

520

516
500
490
487
485
480
479
465
462-456
458
445
433
425

Cyrus conquers Astyages
Conquests of Cyrus in W. Asia
Capture of Babylon

Return of the Exiles
Foundation of the Temple
Cambyses

Pseudo-Smerdis

Darius Hystaspes

Dedication of the Temple
Ionian Revolt

Marathon

Revolt of Egypt

Xerxes

Thermopylae and Salamis
Plataea

Artaxerxes I. Longimanus
Revolt of Egypt

Mission of Ezra

Mission of Nehemiah
Second Mission of Nehemiah

Xerxes IT.

 

 

 
532 CHRONOLOGY

Note

The decipherment of the Cuneiform Inscriptions has raised
considerable difficulties in regard to the chronology of the
cighth century Bc. The Assyrians had what the Hebrews
had not, an exact system of chronology ; and if the decipher-
ment of the inscriptions is to be trusted, account must be
taken of the following dates. Jehu is mentioned on the
“black obelisk” of Shalmaneser c. 842; Uzziah was still
reigning c. 740 ; Menahem paid tribute to Tiglath-pileser in
738; the invasion of Judah by Pekah and Rezin took place
in 734; Samaria fell in or about 722; Sennacherib’s inva-
sion of Judah took place in 701. No reconstruction of the
chronology is free from considerable arbitrariness ; and the
tables given here, which are derived from various sources,
can only claim to offer a provisional and tentative solution.
A few points may be noticed. According to the revised
chronology the fall of the Northern Kingdom after the death
of Jeroboam II. was much more rapid than the Ussherian
chronology represents it to have been. The two interregnums
of eleven years after the death of Jeroboam IL, and nine
years after the death of Pekah, which that chronology
interpolates, have no support in the history and must
certainly be struck out, reducing the period by twenty
years. But further, if Menahem, who reigned ten years, was
still on the throne in 738, Jeroboam II. must have reigned
till 749 or even later, and at the most, less than thirty years
elapsed between his death and the capture of Samaria.

The Fall of Samaria is dated in the sixth year of
Hezekiah, and the invasion of Sennacherib in his fourteenth
year; but obviously both dates cannot be right, if these
events happened in 722 and 701. I prefer to regard the
first date as correct, so that the sixth year of Hezekiah
=722; and to svppose that the date of fourteenth year of
CHRONOLOGY 533

Hezekiah in 2 Kings xviii. 13, is misplaced, and should
really refer to Hezekiah’s illness, and not to Sennacherib’s
invasion. Hezekiah’s life was prolonged fifteen years, and
he reigned twenty-nine years, so that his illness falls in his
fourteenth year.

The chronology of the later period presents fewer difficul-
ties. The dates given by different chronologers vary by a
year or two, according as 588, 587, or 586 is taken for the
date of the Fall of Jerusalem.
INDEX OF SOME PASSAGES
COMMENTED ON

PAGE
Ezra iii. iv. . x é 2 432
Isaiah iv. 2). ‘ zi é 184
%. 20 x j % 4 . . 157
vii. 14 ff. i : é 185
ix. Tf, . - 189
xy 1 fi. x ‘ . . 190
Xxvili.—xxxi. i - 162
li, 13 ff. . ‘ ‘ 391
Ie. 2 i ‘ ‘ ; . 400
Hosea i. 10 ff, ‘ - 188
#1 4 : ‘ 125
iii, ‘ ~ Se
xuid4t . ¥ , » 182
xiv. y ‘ é » 134
Joel ii, 2800, " és 4 ‘ 77
Obadiah 12 ff. : x ‘ ‘ 5 é 39
Micah ii. 6. ri s ‘ ~) 218
ii 8 . . Z 211
ii, 12, 13 9 a é 214
v.26. “ 2 ‘ 230
Habakkuk ii. 4 ‘ ‘ 3 . 272
iii, ‘ ¥ ‘ é - 276 ff. 283
Haggai ii. 7. é ‘ : . 4383
Zechariah iv. . ¢ f 3 434
vi Off. . x 435
ix. 9, 10 % 5 é . 459
ig ie 4 i : x * ~ 472
xiv.5 ‘ : 5 i . 473

Malachi i. 11 : » 505
GENERAL INDEX

AHAZ, 157
Amos, date, 82; contrasted with
Hosea, 83, 135 ff.; circum-

stances of the time, 84 ff. ;
personal history, 88 ff.; pro-
phecies against nations, 91 ff. ;
view of Israel’s sins, 93 ff. ;
attitude towards the calf-wor-
ship, 94; Jehovah’s require-
ments, 97; promises of the
restoration of Israel, 98, 101;
theology, 98 ; allusions to his-
tory of Israel, 102; lessons of
the book, 104 ; structure of the
book, 105; names of God in,
106

CARCHEMISH, battle of, 291

Christ the goal of prophecy, 515
ff. ; in His Person and offices,
517; in His teaching, 520; in
His life and work, 521; in His
kingdom, 523

Chronology, 534

Criticism of O.T., 21, 147

Cyrus, 352, 410

Day of Jehovah, 73, 96, 156, 470,
502, etc.

Exites in Babylonia, their con-
dition, 322; their character,
362

 

Ezekiel, his history, 322; influ-
ence of his position on his work,
324 ff.; methods of teaching,
326 ff. ; compared with Jere-
miah, 329; arrangement of
book, 330; importance of his
work for his age, 332; prin-
ciples of his teaching, 337 ff.;
doctrine of individual respon-
sibility, 840; attitude towards
ceremonial, 341 ; no mere for-
malist, 342

Ezra, 492

FALsE prophets, 217
Fulfilment of prophecy,
515 ff., 524, ete.

15 ff,

HABAKKUK, date, 266; contents
of book, 269 ff.; its lessons,
279; integrity and structure,
280; translation of ch. iii.,
283

Haggai, cireumstances of the
time, 410 ff.; his ministry,
418 ; importance of his work,
426 ; universalism, 428; Mes-
sianic hope, 429

Hezekiah, 161

Holiness, 173 ff.

Holy One of Israel, 175 ff.

Hosea, date, 107 ff.; circum-
38 INDEX

stances of time, 110; a native
of Ephraim, 115; his personal
history the key to his teaching,
117 ff.; the moral difficulty of
his story, 119 ff.; view of
Israel as Jehovah’s wife, 123
ff. ; and son, 127 ; the covenant
with Israel, 127 ff.; Jehovah’s
requirements, 129 f.; Israel’s
sins, 130 ff., punishment, 132,
and restoration, 133 ff. ; Hosea
contrasted with Amos, 83, 135
ff.; silent about the nations,
135; depth of his teaching,
136; analysis of the book,
188 ff.

Isa1AH, Book of, non - Isaianic

portions, 146; structure of,
196 ff., 365 ff.

Isaiah the son of Amoz raised up

at a critical epoch, 141 ; modes
of work, 143; call, 148; cir-
cumstances of time, 152 ff. ;
leading ideas of his theology,
169 ff., the majesty of Jehovah,
170 ff., and holiness of Jehovah,
173 ff. ; the Holy One of Israel,
175 ff. ; Messianic prophecies,
182 ff. ; prophecies against the
nations, 193 ff.; contrasted
with Micah, 201

Isaiah of the Exile (xl.-Ixvi.)

date, 849 ff. ; place of writ-
ing, 353; authorship, 354;
style, 356; distinctive ideas,
ib. ; timeliness of the pro-
phecy, 361; character of the
exiles, 362

plan of the book, 365 ff.
theology of Isaiah xl.-lxvi.,
370 ff. ; contrast between God
and man, 371; between Je-
hovah and idols, 373; Je-
hovah’s righteousness, 378 ;
holiness, 379; name, 380;
glory, 1b.

the Servant of Jehovah, 381
ff. ; eschatology, 3896 ff.

Isaiah xxiv.-xxvii., characteristics,

 

475; contents, 477 ff; dis-
tinctive ideas, 481 ff. ; author-
ship and date, 484 ff. ; position
and purpose, 487 ff.

JEHOAHAZ, 289

Jehoiachin, 292

Jehoiakim, 289

Jehovah, ix., 106; glory of, 169,
337, 380; majesty of, 170;
holiness of, 173 ff., 339, 379;
Name of, 339, 380; righteous-
ness of, 378

Jeremiah, history of his times,
287 ff.; call, 296; character,
297; mission, 7).; modes of
work, 298; sufferings, 300;
complaints, 301; a type of
Christ, 304; his teaching,
ib. ; Israel’s sins, 305 ff,
and punishment, 309;  pre-
dictions of restoration, 310
ff.; the Messianic king, 312;
the regenerate city, 313;
the new covenant, 314; the
Presence of Jehovah, ;
doctrine of personal respon-
sibility, 815; destiny of the
nations, 316; compared with
Ezekiel, 329

Jeroboam ii., 85 ff.

Joel, a native of Judah, 46 ; con-
tents of book, 48 ff. ; occasion,
51 ff.; allegorical interpreta-
tion discussed, 53 ff.; apoca-
lyptic theory untenable, 55;
date, 57 ff. ; relation to Obad-
jah, 40; to Amos, 63; to
Ezekiel, 65; to Zechariah xii.—
xiv., 71; teaching, 72 ff. ; its
limitations, 76

Josiah, 287

Jotham, 153

Judah, kingdom of, internal con-
dition under Jotham, 153 ff.
210; under Ahaz, 212, 219 ff. ;
history and condition during last
half century of its existence,
236 f1., 257, 287 ff.
INDEX

Ma.acul, date, 496 ; personality,
498; contents of book, 500;
style, 503; zeal for the
law, ib.; universalism, 504;
Messianic prophecy, 504 ff.

Messianic prophecy, in Amos, 101 ;
Haggai, 428 ff. ; Hosea, 136;
Isaiah, 182 ff., 381 ff., 482 ff. ;
Jeremiah, 312 ff. ; Malachi,
504 ff. ; Micah, 213 ff. ; Zech-
ariah, 428 ff., 435 ff. 459 ff ;
Zephaniah, 261

Micah, contrasted with Isaiah,
201; his home, 202; share in
Hezekiah’s reformation, 204 ;
length of ministry, 206 ; message
of judgement, 208, 213; its
causes, 209 ; social sins, 210;
prophecies of restoration, 213
ff. ; Messianic prophecies, 213
ff.; conflict with false pro-
phets, 217 ; popular and pro-
phetic religion, 219; con-
tents and integrity of book,
225 ff.

Nanom, date, 239; place of writ-
ing, 244; contents of book,
246 ff.; teaching, 250 ff. ; its
limitations, 251; contrasted
with Zephaniah, 253

National personality, 129

Nations, judgement of the, 75,
etc., moral responsibility of,
91; destiny of, 193 ff, 213
ff., 261, 316, 396 ff., 428, 481
ff. 504, ete.

Nehemiah, 493 ;
ships, 507

Nineveh, 246 ff.

Northern Kingdom, internal con-
dition under Jeroboam, 86;
after his death, 113 ff. ; rapid
decline of, 110 ff.

his governor-

OpavraH, contents of book, 33;
occasion and date, 34; relation
to Jeremiah, 35; to Joel and
Amos, 40; teaching, 41; ful-
filment, 43

 

539

Old Testament, to be studied as
the record of the preparation
for the Incarnation, 4 ff. ;
critically and historically, 12,
358 ; fulfilment of, 524; per-
manent value, 525

PRIESTLY type of the Messiah,
313, 425, 430, 435 ff.
Prophecy, the argument from, 7
ff. ; fulfilment of, 15, 515 ff.
524, etc. ; limitations of, 76,
251; circumstantial origin of,
355, 514; conditional character,
404 ; perspective of, 403; per-
manent significance of, 525
Prophets, their work, 13 ff. ;
chronological order of, 18 ff. ;
character and arrangement of
books, 23 ff. ; importance of
studying, 26 ff. ; to be studied
historically, 29 ff.
Pul=Tiglath-pileser, 109

Rabsaris, 166

Rabshakeh, 166

Return from Babylon, 411; its
significance, 413

ScYTHIAN invasion, 236
Servant of Jehovah, 381 ff.
Shalman, 110
Sheshbazzar, 431

Tartan, 166
Temple, its importance after the
Return, 427

Uzzian, 152

ZECHARIAH, circumstances of the
time, 410 ff.; his ministry,
419 ff. ; visions, 420 ff. ; im-
portance of his work, 426;
universalism, 428; Messianic
hope, 429

Zechariah ix.—xiv., critical pro-
blems, 438; divisions, 439;
540 INDEX

date, 441 ff. ; contents, 452) Zedekiah, 292

ff.; distinctive ideas, 459 ff.; | Zephaniah, contrasted with Na-
the Messianic king, 459; the hum, 253; date, 254; occasion,
rejected shepherd, 462; the 256; condition of Judah, 257;
penitent people, 467; the breadth of view, and depth of
divine sovereignty, 469 insight, 258 ff.; future of the
importance of the book of] nations, 261

Zechariah in Messianic pro-| Zerubbabel, 431

phecy, 431, 472

THE END.

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November 1892

 

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Printed by R. & R. Crark, Edinburgh
v.10. 10.92
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