ld Testament prophecy would be gone;
the authority of the Lord himself would be endangered, inasmuch as He
always recognizes, in these prophets, organs of divine inspiration and
power._ A vain attempt is made at mitigating this usurpation, by
imperceptibly substituting the collective body of the prophets for the
single prophet. This view thus leads to, and interferes with another
which we shall immediately examine. But if we would not give up the
sole argument by which this [Pg 231] exposition is supported, viz., the
use of the first person, everything must, in the first instance, apply
to and be fulfilled in Isaiah; and the other prophets can come into
consideration only as continuators of his work and ministry. He is
entitled to use the first person in that case only, when he is a
perfect manifestation of prophetism.--4. According to _Gesenius_, the
Servant of the Lord is to be _the collective body of the prophets_, the
prophetic order. In opposition to this view, _Stier_ remarks: "We
maintain that, according to history, there did not at that time (the
time of the exile, in which _Gesenius_ places this prophecy) exist any
prophetic order, or any distinguished blossom of it; that hence it was
impossible for any reasonable man to entertain this hope, when viewed
in this way, without looking farther and higher." Ver. 1 is decisive
against a mere personification. The name of Israel, too, in ver. 3, is
very little applicable to the whole prophetic order. This is
sufficiently evident from the fact that _Gesenius_, in his Commentary,
declared this word to be spurious; and it was at a later period only,
when he had become bolder, that he endeavoured to adapt it to his self-
chosen subject. Nowhere in the Old Testament do the prophets appear
like the Servant of God here--as the Covenant of the people, ver. 8, as
the Light of the Gentiles, ver. 6.

* * * * * * * * * *

Ver. 1. "_Listen, O isles, unto me, and hearken ye people from far; the
Lord hath called me from the womb, from the bowels of my mother hath He
made mention of my name._"

As the stand-point which the Messiah occupies in the vision of the
Prophet, we have to conceive of the time, at which He had already
entered upon His office, and had already experienced many proofs of the
Jews'unbelief and hardness of heart,--an event of the Future, the
foresight of which was, even in a human point of view, very readily
suggested to the Prophet a