rd first speaks _to_ His
servant. In chap. xlix., on the contrary, the Servant of God, being
already known from chap. xlii., is, without farther remark, introduced
as speaking.

In the whole section, the Lord is speaking. It falls into three
divisions--First, the Lord speaks _of_ His servant, vers. 1-4; then He
speaks to His servant, ver. 5-7; finally. He addresses some closing
words to the Church, ver. 8, 9. The representation, in harmony with the
nature of the prophetic vision, bears a dramatic character.

In ver. 1-4, the Lord, as it were, points to His servant, introduces
Him to His Church, and commends Him to the [Pg 197] world: "Behold my
Servant," &c. He, the beloved and elect One, upheld by God, and endowed
with the fulness of the Spirit of God, shall establish righteousness
upon the whole earth, and bring into submission to himself the whole
Gentile world, by showing himself meek and lowly in heart, an helper of
the poor and afflicted, and combining with it never-failing power. The
aim: He shall bring forth right to the Gentiles. is at once expressed
at the close of ver. 1. In ver. 2-4, the means by which He attains this
aim are then stated. The bringing forth, or the establishing of right,
recurs again in ver. 3 and 4, in order to point out this relation of
ver. 2-4 to ver. 1.

In ver. 6 and 7, after having pointed to His Omnipotence as affording a
guarantee for the fulfilment of a prophecy so great that it might
appear almost incredible, the Lord turns to His Servant and addresses
Him. He announces to Him that it should be His glorious destination,
partly to bring, in His person, the covenant with Israel to its full
truth, partly to be the light for the Gentile world,--to be, in
general, the Saviour of the whole human race.

In the closing verses, 8, 9, the Lord addresses the Church, and directs
its attention to the object which the announcement of the mission of
His Servant, declared in the preceding context, serves: God, because He
is God, is anxious for the promotion of His glory. In order, therefore,
that it may be known that He alone is God, He grants to His people
disclosures as regards the distant Future, as yet fully wrapped up in
obscurity.

There is no doubt, and it is now generally admitted, that the Servant
of the Lord, here described, is the same as He who is brought before us
in chap. xlix. 4; liii., lxi. It is, hence, not sufficient to point out
an individual to whom, apparently, the attr