rings of the Servant of God, since that character is peculiar to
Christ, and excludes every comparison. "Of a priestly self-sacrifice of
the Servant of God"--says _Hofmann_, S. 101, 2--"I cannot find
anything. The assertion that the words [Hebrew: izh gviM], denote a
priestly work, no longer requires a refutation. His [Pg 325] vocation
is to be the mediator of a revelation of God in words; and although the
fulfilment of this vocation brings death upon Him, without His
endeavouring to escape, this is not a proof nor a part of His priestly
vocation. In just the same case is the assertion that the Messiah
appears here as a King also." As long as we proceed from the
supposition that the Prophet predicts truth, we are, by that very
supposition, forbidden to distribute the property of the one among the
many; but that is thus violently set aside. The Rationalistic
interpreters have in this respect an easier task. They allow the
substitution to stand; but they consider it as a vain fancy. The fact
that _Hofmann_ does not recoil from even the most violent
interpretations, in order to remove the exclusive reference to Christ,
appears, _e.g._, from his remark, S. 132, that "the chastisement of our
peace" designates an actual chastisement, which convinces them of their
sin, and of the earnestness of divine holiness, and thus serves for
their salvation. Surely _Gesenius_ and _Hitzig's_ explanations are far
more unbiassed.

2. Among the interpretations which refer the prophecy to a single
individual other than the Messiah, scarcely any one has found another
defender than its own author. They are of importance only in so far, as
they show that most decidedly does the prophecy make the impression,
that its subject is a real person, not a personification; and, farther,
that it could not by any means be an exegetical interest which induced
rationalism to reject the interpretation which referred it to Christ.
The persons that have been guessed at are the following: King Uzziah,
(_Augusti_), King Hezekiah, (_Konynenburg_ and _Bahrdt_), the Prophet
Isaiah himself, (_Staeudlin_), an unknown prophet supposed to have been
killed by the Jews in the captivity (an anonymous author in _Henke's
Magazin_, Bd. i. H. 2), the royal house of David, which suffered
innocently when the children of the unhappy king Zedekiah were killed
at the command of Nebuchadnezzar (_Bolten_ on Acts viii. 33), the
Maccabees (an anonymous writer in the _Theologische Nachr