uld have swallowed them, if the Romans had not swept
them from its face?" No iniquity in the ages since; throughout the
cities of the dispersion, where they are proverbially dishonest, and
professedly unfaithful." &c.. &c.

Now all this eloquent invective can be set aside so far as it affects
my application of this prophecy by this simple remark; that this
prophecy neither relates to the wicked Jews of the time of Isaiah,
nor of Josephus, nor the ages since, but refers to "God's servant
Israel" i. e., not to the rebellious and reprobate of the Jewish
nation, but to those of the house of Jacob, who have, who do, and
who shall adhere to God's law, and obey his commandments; for
no others of them will God acknowledge as "his servants."[fn54]

I would also observe, that the stress which Mr. Everett lays upon
the phrase "no iniquity," shows either great carelessness, or great
ignorance of the idiom of the Hebrew Scriptures; because every
man, familiar with those writings, knows that this expression is one
of those called Hebreisms, which must be understood in a
restrained sense. In proof of which, and a decisive one too, I
would refer him to the prophecy of Balaam, recorded, Num. ch.
xxii. 21. where Balaam exclaims in his prophetic enthusiasm, "He
[i.e. God] hath not beheld iniquity in Jacob, neither hath he seen
perverseness in Israel."

Now I suppose that the 53rd. of Isaiah, is a representation of what
may be the reflections of the nations, who have despised and
persecuted "God's servant Israel," through the influence of the
prejudices of their mistaken religion, but who had become
sensible of their error by seeing the tremendous interference of
God himself in their behalf, predicted over and over again by the
prophets as to happen. The natural consequence of this
conviction in the minds of those nations, would be a revulsion of
the feelings to the opposite extreme. They would exaggerate the
merits, and extenuate the demerits of "God's servant." They would
reflect with astonishment and commiseration on their past
sufferings. "We considered them," they might exclaim, "as a God-
abandoned race, and devoted to wretchedness by him for having
crucified their king. But instead of being the victims of God's wrath,
they were wounded through our cruelty, they were bruised through
our iniquitous treatment. It is we who have sinned more than they.
We having gone astray in our ignorance, being without the
knowledge of God and hi