And set up my standard to the nations ;

And they shall bring thy sons in their arms,

And thy daughters shall be carried upon their shoulders;
And kings shall be thy nursing fathers,

And their queens thy nursing mothers, &c.

And all flesh shall know that I, the LORD, am thy Saviour,
That thy Redeemer is the Mighty One of Jacob."

Let the student of prophecy notice particularly these expressions, "despised of men and abhorred of the people," and the contrast, "kings shall see and stand up." Similar contrasted expressions occur soon after in reference also to the "servant of God," where interpreters differ much as to the meaning. Here it is plainly the restored Jewish people that is thus personified, or rather, perhaps, the faithful part of them, who were restored. And there is no notice of any change of subject, though the particular topic and illustration is varied again and again, through the succeeding chapters. Now it is, "Awake, awake, clothe thyself with strength, O arm of the Lord!" and now, "Awake, awake, put on thy strength, O Zion! Put on thy beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the holy city!" "Shake thyself from the dust; Arise and sit erect, O Jerusalem." Now again the strain is changed, and still the subject the same:

"How beautiful appear upon the mountains

The feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that announ

ceth peace;

That bringeth good tidings, that announceth salvation!
That saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth."

(lii. 7.)

"The LORD hath redeemed Jerusalem. He hath made

bare his holy arm in the sight of all nations." He says to Israel in Babylon:

"Depart, depart ye; go ye out from thence;

Touch no unclean thing!

Go ye out from the midst of her;

Be ye clean that bear the vessels of the LORD.
Verily ye shall not go out with haste,
Nor shall ye pass along in flight;

For the Lord God will go before you,

And the God of Israel will bring up your rear."

(9-12.)

And this introduces the beautiful passage, so often quoted without regard to its context:

"Behold, my servant shall prosper;

He shall be exalted and extolled, and be very high.
As many were astonished at him

(So disfigured and scarcely human was his visage,
And his form was so unlike that of a man),

So shall he sprinkle many nations,*

The kings shall shut their mouths before him;

For that which had not been told them shall they see,
And that which they had not heard shall they perceive.
Who hath believed our report? (the prophet ejaculates,
and pursues):

And to whom hath the arm of the LORD been manifested?
For he groweth up in their sight like a tender plant,

And like a root from a thirsty soil;

He hath no form nor comeliness that we should look upon

him,

Nor beauty that we should take pleasure in him.

He is despised and rejected of men,

A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief," &c.

The whole passage is well known, as it is beautiful, tender and affecting. Our question just now is, what the prophet meant by it. Did he mean by this "servant of God," long afflicted, and now about to be made glorious, the redeemed Israelitish nation? That is one interpretation. Or did he mean a leader or representative of that nation on their return from Babylon? That

So shall many nations exult on account of him. Noyes.

is a second, yet similar, interpretation. Or did he mean the future, far distant, Christian Church? Or did he mean Jesus Christ personally? These are other interpretations. The last of all is the most common. It is my duty to say plainly, that, with all respect for other theories of interpretation, I accept the first, being guided purely by the connection of ideas in the prophet's own pages, and his previous use of the term "servant of God," and of some other striking expressions similar to those which occur here. The "servant of God" is the Jewish people personified, or perhaps their king or priest, as the emblem of the nation.

Whether these high and exhilarating expectations were realized by the Jews on their return from captivity, is another matter. Our question now relates merely to their expectations as founded upon, or as in turn suggesting, the representations of their prophet. Did they expect what he meant to lead them to expect? Their hope was, in fact, sadly disappointed; and they learnt from their disappointment to look onward still for another fulfilment; which being again and again denied (as their further history shews), their hope revived once more at the coming of him of Nazareth; in whom, as regards all the purest religious hopes connected with the Messiah's kingdom, they found a higher fulfilment than they had before imagined; while the nation in general was utterly disappointed once more as to the outward attributes of the Prince who, they believed, should "scatter many nations," and before whom "kings should shut their mouths."

Immediately after this familiar passage, the prophet goes on (liv. lv., "Sing, O barren, thou that didst not bear," &c.) to describe, as almost all interpreters agree, the approaching blessings of the restored Jewish people. Then he calls with generous importunity and

zeal to those who hesitate and linger in the lands of their exile:

"Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters.

I will make an everlasting covenant with you,

Even the sure mercies of David," &c.

This beautiful chapter is generally well known. “Instead of the thorn shall grow up the fir-tree; and instead of the briar the myrtle; and it shall be to the LORD for a name, for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off." Strangers shall find an open welcome in this New Jerusalem (lvi. 3-8); but idolatry and sin can have no place (lvii.); feasts and fasts without holiness are all in vain (lviii., a noble chapter for all time).

The remainder of the book is a repetition of the same round of ideas, with wonderfully varied imagery and poetical power and beauty;-the promised deliverance; the glory of the New Jerusalem, expressed in every exuberance of thought and feeling (a "new heavens and new earth" one of its descriptions, lxv. 17); the wolf and the lamb to feed together, and the lion to eat straw like the bullock, and nothing to hurt or destroy in all the holy mountain* (25). There is a voice of tumult heard, indeed, from the city and the temple. It is the LORD rendering recompence to his enemies. But all that love Jerusalem may be glad with her; all that have mourned for her may now rejoice greatly with her. The Gentile nations shall hasten to send the dispersed brethren home, and the new heavens and new earth shall remain, and all flesh shall come to worship before the Lord Jehovah, God of Israel.

In this faith the captives returned from Babylon to the land of their fathers. Beautiful vision of what might

* The same imagery is used by the first Isaiah, xi. 6—9.

be! The highest human aspiration, in strictly Jewish form! The vision, how soon again clouded! The aspiration, how sorely again disappointed! But, by the trial of their faith, how many gained a deeper spiritual perception! Still better things were reserved for the world.

HAGGAI.

(B.C. 521.)

THE time of Haggai and Zechariah is exactly marked, both in the inscriptions to their respective prophecies, and in the book of Ezra (v. 1, vi. 14), as falling in the second year of the reign of Darius (Hystaspes), king of Persia, that is, B.C. 521. Their function was, to encourage and urge on the rebuilding of the temple, amid much apparent laxity on the part of their countrymen, and also amid great external discouragements, arising from the opposition of their idolatrous neighbours and the fluctuating protection afforded them by their Persian masters.

The decree of Cyrus, permitting their return and the rebuilding of the city and temple, was issued B. C. 536, and the first band of captives returned under prince Zerubbabel, the grandson of Jeconiah, called also Sheshbazzar by the Persians (Ezra i. 8, &c.). But in the reign of Cambyses, the Artaxerxes of the book of Ezra (529–522), the building was stopped, through the ascendancy of hostile counsels in the Persian court. Darius Hystaspes (522) removes the prohibition and republishes the decree of Cyrus. And it is to the renewal and completion of the work under these more favourable circumstances, that the prophets Haggai and

But