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Cast up, cast up the causeway,

Clear away the stones,

Raise high a standard for the nations.

11. Behold, Jehovah hath caused it to be heard
To the extremities of the earth:

Say ye to the daughter of Zion,
"Behold, thy Saviour cometh."

Lo, his hire is with him,

And the reward of his labour before him.

12. And they shall be called " the holy people," "The redeemed of Jehovah."

And thou shalt be called "Sought out,"

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City that is not forsaken."

All this most clearly relates to the final establishment of the restored Jerusalem. This is the acceptable year of the Lord, the year of his delighting to favour Zion.

SECTION XV.

On the First Part of the Sixty-third Chapter.

BUT the same epocha, as we have seen in every prophecy, is also "the day of vengeance of our God," and, as before, the country spiritually called "Edom," is the scene of the dreadful judgment. This is remarkably represented in the part of the vision that follows:

1. WHO is this that cometh from Edom,

With wine-stained garments from Bozrah ?

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This that is glorious in his apparel,
Triumphing in his great might?'

I who speak in righteous vengeance,
Contending to bring salvation!2

These two lines may be illustrated from chap. xxxiii. 3, "At thy terrible voice the peoples fled, at thine uprising the nations were dispersed :" and from chap. xlii. 13, "Jehovah shall come forth as a champion, and like a warrior shall he rouse his ardour. He shall call out and 'raise the shout, and upon his enemies he shall exert his strength."

2. Why this' red on thine apparel ?

And why thy garments like him that treadeth the wine-press? 3. I have trodden the press alone,

And of the nations no man was with me:

And I trod them in mine anger,

And trampled them in mine indignation:

And their life's blood spirted on my garments,
And I have stained all my apparel.

4. For the day of vengeance was in my heart,
And the year of my redeemed was come:

5. And I looked, and there was no helper,
And I found myself alone without an upholder:

And mine own arm hath wrought salvation for me,
And mine indignation hath upholden me.

6. And I have trodden down the nations in mine anger,
And I have crushed them in my indignation,

And I made their life's blood to run down on the ground.

"Striding in his great strength." -BP. STOCK. yx, caput reflectens, (reclinato capite incedens ut

victor triumphans. - SIM. Ler. Heb.

2 So Bp. Lowth. See his Note.

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The prophecies referred to in the margin✶ have rendered it so clear to what this vision is to be applied, and the connecting circumstances are so distinctly marked,› that it seems impossible not to understand it, with the ancient Jews, of the destruction of their European or Roman adversary. This, then, is the day of vengeance,! But how awful and alarming the intimation:" Of the nations there were none with me!"

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SECTION XVI.

The latter Part of the Sixty-third and the Sixty-fourth

Chapters.

« The re

A REMARKABLE break is to be carefully observed in this place as Bishop Lowth has observed, maining part of this chapter, with the whole chapter following, contains a penitential confession and supplication of the Israelites in their present state of dispersion, in which they have so long marvellously subsisted, and still continue to subsist, as a people cast out of their country; without any proper form of civil polity or

Jude, xiv.; Job, xix. 23, and Deut. xxxii. 40, 41; Numbers, xxiv. 24; 1 Sam. ii. 10; Psalms lxviii., cx., and cxlix.; Isaiah, ii. 10; xiii.; xxv.; xxvii. 1; xxix. 5; xxx. 30; xxxiii.; xxxiv.; xlix. 24, &c.; lix. 17, &c.; lxii. 8.

--

1 "Judæi". "hic vident finale judicium Romæ, cum sua liberatione copulandum." — VI

TRINGA.

"6 Hieronymi verba — multi

nostrorum referant ad finem mundi in quo sive carnaliter sive spiritualiter (diversa enim sententia plurimorum est) explenda contendunt."- IDEM.

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religious worship, their temple destroyed, their city desolated and lost to them, and their whole nation scattered over the face of the earth, apparently deserted and cast off by the God of their fathers, as no longer to be his peculiar people."—" It seems designed as a formulary of humiliation for the Israelites in order to their restoration." The seventh verse I conceive not to be a part of the confession, but to contain its title.

7. The loving-kindnesses of Jehovah.

8.

I will record the praises of Jehovah, according to all that Jehovah hath bestowed upon us, and his great goodness towards the house of Israel, which he bestowed upon them through his tenderness and great kindness: and he said:

Surely these are my people!

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They are' sons! let them not prove false:

And He became their Saviour.

9. In all their distress, his "hand" was not closed,'
But the angel from his presence saved them.

In his love and in his indulgence he redeemed them,
And he took them, and bare them all the days of old.

10. But they rebelled, and grieved his Holy Spirit,

And he became their enemy, and himself hath fought against them.

1 Literally, "He was not closed;" ut, "uter à pariendo cohibitus et sterilis." "In all their affliction he was afflicted." Our translators have followed the Keri instead of the Cetib x. Bishop Lowth, in the interpretation of the passage, follows the

LXX. Houbigant, following the Cetib, (which, I doubt not, is the true reading,) renders, —“In all their straits, he was not strait" [in goodness.]" In omnibus angustiis ipsorum non fuit angustâ bonitate."-HORSLEY.

11. But let him be reminded of the ancient days, of Moses ' and' his people;'

How he brought them up from the sea, the shepherd with

his flock:

How he placed his Holy Spirit within him,

12. Leading the right hand of Moses with his glorious arm: Cleaving the waters before them,

To procure him an everlasting name:

13. Leading them in the deep places,

As a horse in the desert, that they should not stumble,

14. As the herd descendeth into the valley,

The Spirit of Jehovah conducted them;

So didst thou lead thy people,

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procure thee a glorious name.

15. Look down from heaven, and behold, From thy holy and glorious dwelling.

Where is thy jealousy, and thy might?

The yearning of thy bowels, and thy tender affections?
Are they restrained from us?

16. Surely thou art our Father,

Though Abraham knoweth us not,

And though Israel doth not acknowledge us,

Thou, O Jehovah, art our Father;

Oh, redeem us for the sake of thy name. 1

17. Wherefore hast thou made us, O Jehovah, to wander from

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