re and afterwards, but, in a material point
of view, the circumstance also, that offerings for sin, and, generally,
all sacrifices, were never offered up _by_ God, [Pg 299] but always
_to_ God. The fact also, that according to the sequel, the Servant of
God receives the reward for His meritorious work, proves that it is He
who offers up the sacrifice. But, on the other hand, it is, in point of
fact, the soul only which can be the _offering_, the _restitution_;
for it could scarcely be imagined that, just here, that should be
omitted on which everything mainly depends. It is sufficiently evident,
from what precedes, _who_ it is that offers the restitution; what
the restitution was, it was necessary distinctly to point out.
_Farther_--In the case of sacrifices, it is just the soul upon which
every thing depends; so that if the soul be mentioned in a context
which treats of sacrifices, it is, _a priori_, probable that it will be
the object offered up. In Lev. xvii. 11, it is said: "For the soul of
the flesh is in the blood, and I give it to you upon the altar, to
atone for your souls, for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for
the soul," viz., by the soul "_per animam, vi animae in eo sanguine
constantis_" (_Gussetius_).[8] The soul, when thus considered as the
passive object, is here therefore in a high degree in its proper place;
and there can the less be any doubt of its occurring here in this
sense, that it occurs twice more in vers. 11 and 12, of the natural
psychical life of the Servant of God, which was given up to suffering
and death. But, on the other hand, if the soul be considered as the
active object, it stands here at all events rather idle,--a
circumstance which is sufficiently apparent from the supposition of
several interpreters, that [Hebrew: npw] "soul," stands here simply for
the personal pronoun,--"His soul," for "He," a _usus loquendi_ which
occurs in Arabic, but not in Hebrew. And, strictly speaking, the
offering of the sacrifice does not belong to the soul, but to the
spirit of the Servant of God, compare Heb. ix. 14, according to which
passage, Christ [Greek: dia pneumatos aioniou heauton prosenenken
amomon to Theo]; and on the subject of the difference between soul and
spirit, compare my Commentary on Ps. iv. p. lxxxvii. But how will it
now be possible to reconcile and harmonize [Pg 300] our two results,
that, in a formal point of view, the soul is that which offers up, and,
in a material poi