re is the sorrow over the many in Israel who do not
believe this message.--The _arm of the Lord_ comes into consideration
as the seat of His divine power; comp. chap. xl. 10, li. 5-9, lii. 10.
[Pg 277] According to the context, the manifestation of this power in
Christ is here spoken of _Stier_ says: "In this Servant, the redeeming
arm manifests itself, personifies itself Christ himself is, as it were,
the outstretched arm of the Lord." In Rom. i. 16, the Gospel is
designated as [Greek: dunamis Theou eis soterian panti to pisteuonti.]
[Hebrew: glh] is elsewhere commonly construed with [Hebrew: al] or
[Hebrew: l], here with [Hebrew: el]. This indicates that the revealing
of the arm of the Lord is of a _supernatural_ kind, such an one as
conies down from above. The Lord has revealed His arm, His power and
glory, as He has manifested them in the mission of His servant, _in the
eyes of all_ (comp. chap. lii. 10: "The Lord hath made bare His holy
arm in the eyes of all the nations, and all the ends of the earth see
the salvation of our God"); but it is really seen by those only whose
eyes God opens. The deeds of God, even the most manifest, always retain
the nature of a mystery which remains concealed to the worldly
disposition. God can be recognised only by God. Of the ungodly it holds
true: "With seeing eyes they do not see, and with hearing ears they do
not hear." What was the _cause_ of this unbelief in the Son of God, we
are told in the sequel. It is the appearance of the Divine in the form
of a servant, which the gross carnal disposition cannot understand, and
by which it is offended. This offence which, according to the sequel,
even the God-fearing had to overcome, is, for the ungodly, a lasting
one.

Ver. 2. "_And He grew up as the sprout before Him, and as the root from
a dry ground. He had no form nor comeliness: and we see Him, but there
is no appearance that we should desire Him._"

The relation of this verse to the preceding one was correctly seen by
_Michaelis_: "The cause of the offence is this, that He does not rise
or stand out like the cedar, but He grows up gradually," &c. The
subject, the Servant of God, is easily inferred from [Hebrew: eliv] in
ver. 15. This is the more admissible that ver. 1, too, indirectly
refers to Him. He is the subject of the report in whose appearance the
arm of the Lord has been revealed. The _sprout_, the twig, designates,
even in itself, the poor condition; and, notwithstandin