d. On the contrary, the Servant of God is
everywhere, from His very origin, brought before us as the absolutely
just. No more glaring contrast can really be imagined than that which
exists between that which the Prophet says of the ordinary Israel
(whose outward state, as it is described in chap. xlii. 22: "This is a
people robbed and spoiled, they are all of them snared in holes, and
hid in prison-houses," is only a faithful image of the internal
condition), and the Son of God in whom His soul delighteth, who in
exuberant love seeks [Pg 204] that which is lost, whose overflowing
righteousness justifies many, and who, as a substitute, can suffer for
others. It is in Christ only, that Israel attains to its destination,
both in a moral point of view, and as regards the Divine preservation
and glorification. To this it may still be added, that neither here,
nor in the parallel passages is [Hebrew: ebd ihvh] ever connected with
a Plural, but always with the Singular only; while elsewhere, in the
case of collective nouns and ideal persons, the real plurality not
uncommonly shines forth from behind the unity; and in those passages,
especially, where Israel appears personified as a unity, the use of the
Singular is interchanged with that of the Plural. Comp., _e.g._, chap.
xli. 8: "And thou Israel, my servant, Jacob whom I have chosen, seed
(_posterity_) of Abraham, my friend," chap. xliii. 10: "_Ye are my
witnesses._ saith the Lord, and my servant whom I have chosen." But a
circumstance, which alone would be sufficient for the proof, is the
fact, that in chap. xli. 6, (comp. chap. xlix. 5, 6) the Servant of the
Lord is plainly distinguished from the people. How can the Lord say of
the people, that He will give it for a covenant of the people, that in
it He will cause the covenant with the people to attain to its truth?
The fact, that this passage opposes an insurmountable barrier to the
explanation which makes the people the subject, sufficiently appears
from the circumstance, that the expositors saw themselves obliged to
set aside its natural sense by a forced, unphilological explanation.
_Finally_,--In understanding the people by the Servant of God, the
prophecies of the Servant of God are brought into irreconcileable
contradiction with all other prophecies, with the first part of Isaiah,
and even with the second part, inasmuch as things would then be
prophesied of the people which, everywhere else, are constantly
assigned t