tradiction. _Farther_--Everywhere else
Isaiah always connects, with the description of the sin, that of the
punishment following upon it, but never that of the punishment which
has followed it.--In chap. v. 13, in a prophecy from the first time of
his ministry, the _future carrying away_ of the people presents itself
to the Prophet as present. Similarly, in vers. 25, 26, the Praet. and
Fut. with _Vav Conv._ must be understood prophetically; for in chap.
i.-v., the Prophet has, throughout, to do with future calamity. In the
Present, according to ver. 19, the people are yet in a condition of
prosperity and luxury,--as yet, it is the time of _mocking_; it is only
of future calamity that vers. 5 and 6 in the parable speak of, the
threatenings of which are here detailed and expanded.--In the prophecy
against Tyre, chap. xxiii., the Prophet beholds as present the siege by
the Chaldeans impending over the city, and describes [Pg 172] as an
eye-witness the flight of the inhabitants, and the impression which the
intelligence of their calamity makes upon the nations connected with
them. From the more immediate Future, which to him has become present,
he then casts a glance to the more distant. He announces that after 70
years--counting not from the _real_, but from the _ideal_ Present--the
city shall again attain to its ancient greatness. His look then rises
still higher, and he beholds how at length, in the days of Messiah, the
Tyrians shall be received into the communion of the true God.--The
future dispersion and carrying away of the people is anticipated by the
Prophet in the passage, chap. xi. 11, also, which may be considered as
a comprehensive view of the whole second part.--It is true that, in the
second part, as a rule, the misery, and not the salvation, appears as
present; but, not unfrequently, the latter, too, is viewed as present
by the Prophet, and spoken of in Preterites, comp. _e.g._, chap. xl. 2,
xlvi. 1, 2, li. 3, lii. 9, 10, lx. 1. If, then, the Prophet is to be
measured by the ordinary rule, these passages, too, must have been
written at a time when the salvation had already taken place.--In chap.
xlv. 20, the escaped of the nations are those Gentiles who have been
spared in the divine judgments. They are to become wise by the
sufferings of others. The Prophet takes his stand in a time when these
judgments, which were to be inflicted by Cyrus, had already been
completed. Even those who maintain the spuriousness