ll the fowls of heaven dwell. The Jews, in
opposition even to ver. 22 of Ezekiel, expected that He should appear
so from the very beginning; and since He did not appear so, they [Pg
279] despised Him. The [Hebrew: vnrahv] is, by most of the modern
interpreters, in opposition to the accents, connected with the first
member: "He had no form nor comeliness that _we should have seen Him_."
But from internal reasons, this explanation must be rejected. "To see,"
in the sense of "to perceive," would not be suitable. For, how could
they have such views of the condition of the Servant of God, if they
overlooked Him? But it is not possible to adduce any real demonstrative
parallel passage in support of [Hebrew: rah] with the Accusat., without
[Hebrew: b], ever having the signification, "to look at," "to consider
with delight." The circumstance that the Future is used in the sense of
the Present: "and we see Him," is explained from the Prophet's viewing
it as present.--The statement that the Servant of God had no form, nor
comeliness, nor appearance, must not be referred to His lowliness
before His sufferings only; we must, on the contrary, perceive, in His
sufferings and death, the completion of this condition; in the _Ecce
Homo_, the full historical realization of it. _Calvin_ rightly points
out that that which here, in the first instance, is said of the Head,
is repeated upon the Church; He says: "This must not be understood of
Christ's person only, who was despised by the world, and was at last
given up to an ignominious death, but of His whole Kingdom which, in
the eyes of men, had no form, nor comeliness, nor splendour."

Ver. 3. "_Despised and most unworthy among men, a man of pains and an
acquaintance of disease, and like one hiding His face from us,
despised, and we esteemed Him not._"

In the preceding verse, we are told what the Servant of God had _not_,
viz., anything which could have attracted the natural man who had no
conception of the inward glory, and as little of the cause why the
Divine appears in the form of a Servant and a sufferer. Here we are
told what He had, viz.: everything to _offend_ and _repulse_ him to
whom the arm of the Lord had not been revealed,--the full measure of
misery and the cross. Instead of "the most unworthy among men," the
text literally translated has: "one ceasing from among men" ( [Hebrew:
Hdl] in the signification "ceasing" in Ps. xxxix. 5), _i.e._, one who
ceases to belong to men,