gnity of
the saints of God is out of the question. For that, it is absolutely
essential that exertions be made that the high destination of the
people: "Ye shall be holy for I am holy," become a truth; that in
a moral point of view it show itself as truly separated from the
world,--and that is something so infinitely great, that men are utterly
unable for it, that it can proceed from God only, with whom nothing is
impossible.--The last words of the verse are commonly explained: "by
the spirit of _judgment_, and by the spirit of destruction or burning."
In that case the putting away of the filth and blood by the judging
activity of the Lord, by the destruction of sin, would be spoken of
[Hebrew: mwpT], however, may also be taken in the sense of "right:" by
the spirit of right which lays hold of, and changes the well disposed
(comp. Mic. iii. 8: "But I am full of power by the Spirit of the Lord,
and of _right_ and might"), and by the spirit of destruction which
consumes the disobedient. In favour of the latter view are the parallel
passages; above all, chap. xxviii. 6, where it is said of the Messianic
time, "In that day the Lord will become, &c.," "And for a spirit of
right to him that sitteth for right;" farther, chap. i. 27, 28: "Zion
shall be redeemed by right, and her converts by righteousness. But the
transgressors and sinners are destroyed together, and they that forsake
the Lord are consumed." Comp. Matt. iii. 11: [Greek autos humas
baptisei en pneumati hagio kai puri], where likewise a double washing,
that of grace and that of wrath, is spoken of. In chap. xxxii. 15:
"Until the Spirit be poured out upon us from on high," Isaiah likewise
points to the regeneration which, in the Messianic time, will be
accomplished by the Spirit; and it is, according to the whole _usus
loquendi_ of the Old Testament, most natural to think of the Spirit
transforming from within The Spirit of God scarcely occurs elsewhere in
the Old Testament as the executor of God's judgments; so that the
supposition is [Pg 23] very natural that the spirit of destruction has
been brought in by the spirit of right only.--The word [Hebrew: ber]
is, by some, understood as "burning," by others, as "destruction." We
ourselves decide in favour of the latter signification, which occurs
also in chap. iv. 13, for this reason, that it is in that signification
that [Hebrew: ber] is, in Deuteronomy, used as the _terminus technicus_
of the extirpation of the wick