that the prophet follows
Cyrus in the details of his conquests. On the contrary, his
notices of him are few and general. As to the sins of the people
which he rebukes, they may be all naturally referred to the
times of Isaiah, while some of them, as the neglect of the
established sacrifices and oblations (43:23, 24), and the
offering of sacrifices in connection with an impure heart and
life (66:3), presuppose the existence of the temple and altar at
Jerusalem, where alone sacrifices could be lawfully offered. The
sin of seeking heathen alliances (57:9) points also unmistakably
to the same period. Although the prophet is carried forward in
vision to the future of the covenant people, he does not wholly
forget the men of his own generation, but occasionally
administers to them severe rebukes, thus mingling the present
with the future, after the manner of all the prophets.

The other arguments which have been urged against the genuineness of
this part of Isaiah are only of secondary importance, and can readily be
answered. It is said that the style is more diffuse and flowing than in
the first part. The answer is that this agrees well with both the
altered circumstances of the prophet and the altered character of his
theme. Most of his earlier prophecies were delivered under the pressure
and excitement of public life, when he went before rulers and people
charged with specific messages from Jehovah, and these, too, mostly of a
denunciatory character. But the part now under consideration was written
in the serenity of retirement, with the general purpose of comforting
God's people by a view of the future glory in reserve for them. It is
entirely natural, then, that the style of the first part should be more
concise and abrupt, that of the latter more diffuse and flowing; even if
we do not make allowance for the influence of age. But notwithstanding
this difference between the two parts, both have the same general
costume, and the same peculiar expressions and turns of thought, by
which they are sufficiently marked as the productions of the same pen.
It should be added that the Hebrew of this second part of Isaiah is in
general as pure as that of the first part. The few Chaldaisms which it
exhibits may be explained as belonging to the poetic diction. Such
Chaldaisms exist, moreover, in the earlier books. "Some words, as
_seganim_ (_princes_, 41:25), may be explained by