imate that the Servant of the Lord is an ideal
person, a collective, _e.g._, xlii. 24, 25; xlviii. 20, 21; xliii.
10-14.

3. The first condition of the vicarious satisfaction which, according
to our prophecy, is to be performed by the Servant of God, is,
according to ver. 9 ("Because He had done no violence, neither was any
deceit in His mouth"), but more especially still, according to ver. 11
("He, the righteous one, my Servant, shall justify the many") the
absolute righteousness of the suffering subject. He who is himself
sinful cannot undergo punishment for the sins of others. He is, on the
contrary, visited for his own sins, both as a righteous retribution,
and for sanctification. Of such an one that would indeed be true which,
according to the second clause of ver. 4, was only erroneously supposed
in reference to the Servant of God. All the three interpretations,
however, are unable to prove that this condition existed. All the three
interpretations move on the purely human territory; but on that,
absolute righteousness is not to be found. At the very threshold of
Holy Writ, in Gen. ii. and 3, compare v. 3, the doctrine of the
universal sinfulness of mankind meets us; and how deep a knowledge of
sin pervades the Old Testament, is proved by passages such as Gen. vi.
5, viii. 21; Job xiv. 4, xv. 14-16; Ps. xiv., li. 7; Prov. xx. 9. That
is not a soil on which ideas of substitution could thrive.--The
doctrine of a substitution by men is indeed nowhere else found in the
Old Testament; and _Gesenius_, who (l. c., S. 189) endeavoured to prove
that "it is very general" has not adduced any arguments which are
tenable or even plausible. The guilt of the fathers is visited upon the
children, only when the latter walk in the steps of their fathers, and
the latter are first punished; comp. _Genuineness and Authenticity of
the Pentateuch_, Vol. ii. p. 446 ff. The same holds true in reference
to 2 Sam. xxi. 1-14, The evil spirit which filled Saul, pervaded his
family, at the same time, as we here see in the instance of Michal. It
was probably in the [Pg 336] interest of his family, and with their
concurrence, that the wicked deed had been perpetrated. (_Michaelis_
says: "In order that he might appropriate their goods to himself and to
_his family_, under the pretext of a pious zeal for Judah and Israel.")
As Saul himself was already overtaken by the divine judgment, the crime
was punished in the family who were accomplices. In 2