vant of God, and of the shedding of His blood. Several
interpreters have endeavoured to explain away this feature which they
dislike. _Kimchi_ says: "One must not imagine that the case really
stands thus, that in Israel the captivity actually bears the sins and
diseases of the heathens (for that would be opposed to the justice of
God), but that the Gentiles at that time, when seeing the glorious
deliverance of Israel, would thus judge concerning it." A futile
evasion! It is not the Gentiles who speak in chap. liii. 1-10, but the
believing Church. Every sincere reader will at once feel, that it is
not the foolish fancies of others which the Prophet communicates in
these verses, but the divine truth made known to him. The doctrine of
the substitution, the Prophet, moreover, states in his own name, by
saying, "He shall sprinkle many nations;" and so likewise in the name
of God, in chap. liii. 11, 12. According to _Martini_, _De Wette_, and
others, the expressions are to be understood figuratively, and the
contents and substance to be this only, that those severe calamities
which that divine minister would have to sustain would be useful and
salutary to His compatriots. But the fact that the same doctrine
constantly returns under the most varied expressions, is decidedly in
favour of the literal interpretation. Thus, it is said in chap. lii.
15, that the Servant of God should sprinkle many nations; in liii. 4,
that He bore our diseases and took upon Him our pains; in ver. 5, that
He was pierced for our transgressions; in ver. 8, that He bore the
punishment which the people ought to have borne; in ver. 10, that He
offered his soul as a sin-offering; in ver. 11, that by His
righteousness many should be justified; in ver. 12, that He bore the
sins of many, and poured out His soul unto death, and that He could
make intercession for transgressors, because He was numbered with them.
To this it may still be added that in chap. lii. 15 ([Hebrew: izh]),
liii. 10 ([Hebrew: awM]), and ver. 12: "He bears the sins of many,"
(compare Levit. xvi. 21, 22; _Michaelis_: "_Ut typice hircus pro
Israelitis_") the Servant of God appears as the antitype of the Old
Testament sin-offerings in which, as has been proved (compare my
pamphlet: _Die Opfer der heil. Schrift_, S. 12 ff.), the idea of
substitution in the doctrine of the Old Testament finds its foundation.
There cannot be the least doubt, that the Prophet could not express
himself more clear