ady brought low, but,
in a gentle, affectionate manner, raises him up," (_Umbreit_); or say
with _Knobel_: "These poor and afflicted He does not [Pg 217] humble
still more by hard, depressing _words_, but _speaks_ to them in a
comforting and encouraging way, raising them up and strengthening
them." But in this explanation everything is, without reason, drawn
into the territory of speech, while Matthew rightly sees, in the
healing of the sick by Christ, a confirmation by deeds of the prophecy
before us. In chap. lxi., also, the Servant of God does not only bring
glad tidings, but _creates_, at the same time, the blessings announced.
According to chap. lxi. 3, He gives to them that mourn in Zion beauty
for ashes, joy for mourning, garment of praise for a weak ([Hebrew:
khh]) spirit. Verse 6 of the chapter before us most clearly indicates
how little we are allowed to limit ourselves to mere speaking; for,
according to that verse, the Servant of God is himself the covenant of
the people, and the light of the Gentiles, and according to ver. 7, He
opens the eyes of the blind, &c.

Ver. 4. "_He shall not fail nor run away until He shall have founded
right in the earth, and for His law the isles shall wait._"

On: "He shall not fail," properly, "He shall not become dim," comp.
Deut. xxxiv. 7, where it is said of Moses, the servant of God: "His eye
had not become dim, nor had his strength fled." The [Hebrew: la irvC]
"He shall not run away" (properly, "He shall not _run_") is qualified
and fixed by the parallelism with [Hebrew: la ikhh] "He shall not
fail." [Hebrew: rvC] in other passages also, several times receives, by
the context, the qualified signification "to run away," "to take to
flight," "to flee;" comp. Judges viii. 21; Jer. xlix. 19. The words:
"He shall not fail nor run away" imply that, in the carrying out of His
vocation, the Servant of God shall meet with powerful _obstacles_, with
obstinate _enemies_, and shall have to endure severe sufferings. That
which is here merely hinted at, is carried out and detailed in chap.
xlix., l., liii. How near He was to failing and running away (David,
too, was obliged to say: "Oh! that I had wings like a dove, then would
I fly away and be at rest") is seen from His utterance in Matt. xvii.
17: [Greek: o genea apistos kai diestrammene, heos pote esomi meth'
humon; heos pote anexomai humon.]--According to the current opinion,
[Hebrew: irvC] is here assumed to be the Future of [Heb