nce. For it belongs to God to slay by the
words of His mouth, Hos. vi. 5." The same applies to chap. ii. 16. On
Rev. xix. 15: "And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it
He should smite the nations," we remarked: "the sharp sword is not that
of a teaching king, [Pg 235] but that of omnipotence which speaks and
it is done, and slayeth by the breath of the lips. How Christ casts
down His enemies by the word of His mouth is seen, in a prophetical
instance, John xviii. 6; Acts ix. 4, 5." With the sword, Christ appears
even where He does not mean to destroy, but to bring salvation; for,
even in those who are to be blessed, hostile powers are to be overcome.
The image, however, is here, in the fundamental passage, occasioned by
the comparison of the Servant of God with the conqueror from the East,
whose sword, according to chap. xli. 2, the Lord makes as dust, and his
bow as the driven stubble. Where the mere _word_ serves as a sword, the
effect must be much more powerful. The conquering power throwing down
every opposing power, which, in the first clause, is assigned to the
mouth, is, in the third clause ("And He hath made _me_ a sharpened
arrow"), attributed to the whole person. He, of whom it was already
said in Ps. xlv. 6: "Thine arrows are sharp, people fall under thee,
they enter into the heart of the king's enemies," is himself to be
esteemed as a sharp arrow.

Ver. 3. "_And He said unto me: Thou art my Servant, O Israel, in whom I
glorify myself._"

"My Servant" stands here as an honorary _designation_; to be the
Servant of God appears here as the highest privilege, as is evident not
only from the analogy of the parallel passages, which treat of the
Servant of God (comp. remarks on chap. xlii. 1), but also from the
parallel second clause. In it, the Servant of God is called _Israel_ as
the concentration and consummation of the covenant-people, as He in
whom it is to attain to its destination, in whom its idea is to be
realized. (It is evident from ver. 5, and from those passages in the
second part in which the people of Israel is spoken of as the Servant
of God [comp. remarks on chap. xlii.], that Israel must here be
understood as the name of the people, not as the name of the ancestor
only.) _Haevernick_ rightly remarks that the Messiah is here called
Israel, "in contrast to the people to whom this name does not properly
belong." Analogous is Matt. ii. 15, where that which, in the Old
Testament, is writ