ass, and new_ (things) _do I declare; before
they spring forth, I cause you to hear._"

We have here the solemn close and exhortation. At the close of chap.
xli. it had been pointed out, how the prediction of the _Conqueror from
the East_ serves for the glory of Jehovah, [Pg 225] who thereby proves
himself to be the only true God. Here the zeal of God for His glory is
indicated as the reason which has brought forth the prediction of the
_Servant of God_ and His glorious work,--a prediction which cannot be
accounted for from natural causes. It is thus the object of the
prophecy which is here, in the first instance, stated. It is intended
to manifest the true God as such, as a God who is zealously bent on His
glory. But the same attribute of God which called forth the prophecy,
calls forth also the events prophesied, viz., the appearance of the
Servant of God, and the victory over the idols accomplished thereby,
the bringing forth of the law of God over the whole earth through Him,
and the full realization of the covenant with Israel. The thought is
this:--that a God who does not manifest and prove himself as such, who
is contented with the honour granted to Him without His interference,
cannot be a God; that the true God must of necessity be filled with the
desire of absolute, exclusive dominion, and cannot but manifest and
prove this desire. From this thought, the prophecy and that which it
promises flow with a like necessity.--According to _Stier_, [Hebrew:
rawnvt], "the former (things)" means "the redemption of the exiled by
Cyrus," which in chaps. xli. xlviii. forms the historico-typical
foreground, whose coming is here anticipated by the Prophet. But the
parallel passages, chaps. xli. 22, xliii. 9, xlviii. 3, are conclusive
against this view; for, according to these passages, it is only the
former already fulfilled predictions of the Prophet and his colleagues,
from the beginnings of the people, which can be designated by "the
former (things)." By "the new (things)" therefore, is to be understood
the aggregate of the events which are predicted in the second part, to
which belongs the prophecy of the Servant of God which immediately
precedes, and which the Prophet has here as pre-eminently in view
(_Michaelis_: _et nova, imprimis de Messia_), as, in the parallel
passage chap. xli. 22, the announcement of the conqueror from the East.
Both of these verses seem to round off our prophecy, by indicating that
such disclosu