ng and sending Koresh (Cyrus), ver. 10, 11; "Declaring
the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are
not yet done, saying: My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my
pleasure. Calling from the East an eagle, from a far country the man of
His counsel; I have spoken it, and will also bring it to pass; I have
formed it, and will also do it." To the [Hebrew: rawnvt], the former
[Pg 187] events, the fulfilled prophecies from former times (comp.
xlii. 9), here the new proof of the sole divinity of the God of Israel
is added, in that He sends Koresh: God _now_ declares. The Prophet, by
designating the time in which the announcement was issued as [Hebrew:
rawit] and [Hebrew: qdM], as beginning and ancient times, and by
founding the proof of the divinity of the Lord just upon the high age
of the announcement, again puts an insurmountable obstacle in the way
of the opponents of the genuineness. The announcement and declaration
prove any thing in connection with the execution only; the bringing
to pass, therefore, is connected with the declaring, the doing with
the speaking. These words are _now_ spoken, since, from the ideal
stand-point, the carrying out is at hand; they form the antecedent to
the _calling_, of which ver. 11 treats. [Hebrew: qvM] properly "to
rise," opposed to the laying down, means "to bring to stand," "to bring
about," "to be fulfilled." "The counsel," _i.e._, the contents of the
prediction which was spoken of before; it is the divine counsel and
decree to which Koresh served as an instrument.--_Finally_--In chap.
xlviii., the same subject is treated of; the divinity of the Lord is
proved from His prophecies, in three sections, ver. 1-11, ver. 12-16,
ver. 22. Here, at the close of the first book of the second part, the
argumentation occurs once more in a very strong accumulation, because
the Prophet is now about to leave it, and, in general, the whole
territory of the lower salvation. First, in ver. 1-11: Israel should
return to the Lord, who formerly had manifested and proved His sole
divinity by a series of prophecies and their fulfilments, and _now_ was
granting new and remarkable disclosures regarding the Future. Ver. 6:
"New things I shew thee from this time, hidden things, and thou didst
not know them, ver. 7. Now they have been created and not of old, and
before this day thou heardest them not; lest thou shouldest say:
Behold, I knew them." The deliverance of Israel by Cyrus--an