; so that accordingly the great mass of the
people must have been unsusceptible of it.--In the view that a great
portion of the people would reject the salvation offered in Christ, and
thereby become liable to judgment, the Song of Solomon [Pg 238] had
already preceded our Prophet. As regards the natural grounds of this
foresight, we remarked in the Commentary on the Song of Solomon, S.
245: "With a knowledge of human nature, and especially of the nature of
Israel, as it was peculiar to the people from the beginning, and was
firmly and deeply impressed upon them by the Mosaic laws,--after the
experience which the journey through the wilderness, the time of the
Judges, the reign of David and of Solomon also offered, it was
absolutely impossible for the enlightened to entertain the hope that,
at the appearance of the Messiah, the whole people would do homage to
Him with sincere and cordial devotion." How very much this was the
case, the very first chapter of Isaiah can prove. It is impossible that
one who has so deeply recognized the corrupted nature of his people,
should give himself up to vain patriotic fancies; to such an one, the
time of the highest manifestation of salvation must necessarily be, at
the same time, a period of the highest realization of judgment. The
same view which is given here, we meet with also in chap. liii. 1-3. In
harmony with Isaiah, Zechariah, too, prophesies, in chaps. xi., xiii.
8, that the greater portion of the Jews will not believe in Christ.
Malachi iii. 1-6, 19, 24, contrasts with the longed-for judgment upon
the heathen, the judgment which, in the Messianic time, is to be
executed upon the people itself.--On the words: "My right is with the
Lord, and my reward with my God," compare Lev. xix, 13: "The reward of
him that is hired shall not abide with thee all night until the
morning." The God who watches that among men the well-earned wages of
faithful labour shall not be withheld, will surely himself not withhold
them from His Servant. The right, the well-deserved reward of His
Servant is _with Him_; it is there safely kept, in order that it may be
delivered up to Him in due time. That which the Servant of the Lord
here, in the highest sense, says of himself, holds true of His inferior
servants also. Their labour in the Lord is, in truth, never in vain.
Their right and their reward can never fail them.

Ver. 5. "_And now, saith the Lord that formed me from the womb to be a
Servant to hi