t is immediately brought more
distinctly to view, what [Pg 213] will be the spirit and character, the
mode of operation, by which this aim is to be brought about."

Ver. 2; "_He shall not cry nor lift up, nor cause His voice to be heard
in the street._"

After [Hebrew: iwa] "he shall lift up," "His voice" must be supplied
from the context. The words must not be understood in such a manner, as
if they stood in opposition to chap. lviii. 1: "Cry with thy throat, do
not refrain, lift up thy voice like the trumpet, and show my people
their transgression, and to the house of Jacob their sins." The
Prophet, in that passage, encourages himself; and he cannot mean to
represent that as objectionable, by the circumstance that, in the case
of the Servant of God, the very ideal of all the servants of God, he
points out and praises the very opposite. And, in like manner, every
interpretation is to be avoided according to which "dumb dogs which
cannot bark" find a pretext in this passage. According to Prov. i. 20:
"Wisdom crieth aloud without, she uttereth her voice in the streets."
Just as the prohibition of swearing in Matt. v. 34 is qualified by the
opposition to Pharisaic levity in cursing and swearing, so here, also,
the antithesis to the loud manner of the worldly conqueror must be kept
in view,--the contrast to his violence which stakes every thing upon
carrying his own will, which cries and rages when it meets with
opposition and resistance, (Matt. renders [Hebrew: iceq] by [Greek:
erisei], "He shall contend"), to the earnestly sought publicity, to the
intention of causing sensation, as it proceeds from vanity or pride.
The [Greek: kraugasei], by which Matthew renders the [Hebrew: iwa], has
nothing in common with the [Greek: ekraxe] which, in John vii. 28, 37,
is said of Christ. With the passionate restlessness, with which the
conqueror from the East seeks to carry through his human plans, and to
place himself in the centre of the world's history, is here contrasted
the inward composure and deportment of the Servant of God, His
equanimity, His freedom from excitement,--all of which are based upon
the clear consciousness of His dignity and mission, upon the conviction
of the power of the truth which is of God, of the power of the Spirit
which opens up the minds and hearts for it, and which has its source in
the declaration: "I put my Spirit upon Him," by which the great wall
of separation between Him and the conqueror from th