cheenc03a.pdf

SERVANT OF THE LORD
3. IS. 50 1.9. The Servant (whose title, however, is
not expressly mentioned) describes the perrecution which
le has suffered, and his sure confidence that Yahrvh will
soon appear to put down his enemies. In the preface
Lo this monologue he represents himself as one who
-xpoundi YahwSs word (i.r., the Torah?) to the weary,
.n accordance with the revelations which come to him
2. 15.492-6. The Servant of Israel summons the dirtan1
peopier to hear something in which they are specially
afresh every morning. The collectivirtic interpretation
appears to Duhm plainly impossible.
concerned. From his very birth he has been singled
'To this Budde answers that what the Servant rays of
out and endawed with a sharp, incisive speech, ruch as
himself in 507-9 agrees with what Yahw& utters in 51,s
befits the expounder of YnhwCs word (cp Jer. 2319).
xs an encouragement to thepeie. while, he might have
'Ti11 the right moment for his appearance shall come, be
~dded, the language of u. 6a rerembier that in 51 23
has been carefully hidden from the world that he may
Ps. 1293.
And even if the monologue of the Servant
ripen in seclusion. Such war the honour put upon
maken no mention of a mirsion to the heathen, who art
him: ruch the strength which was at his dirposd as
,"deed,
Ynhwe'r Servant. But
so far as they are enemies of Israel, to be
his recent experience has been
destroyed, yet the experiences described in 501f: are
so sad that ne has seemed to himself to have lived in
just those which would be necessal). for mission work
vain and to he near his end. But whenever these
among the heathen. The parrage is, therefore, not
thoughts have plagued him,' tokens have come to him
inconsistent with the other passages, and Ley and Lane
from above that his God both jusrihen and is rewarding
do wrong to omit it fro," the series of passages.
him. And now a fresh revelalion visits him. The
4. Is. 5213-53x2. Wondrous is the contrast between
God who had orieinailv " eiven him a mission to Israel
2 -
the Servant's future exaltation and his part humiliation.
alone, now extends that mission to the Gentile world.
See the kings paying reverence to him whose distorted
It is Yahwe's purpose, not only to restore Israel as a
visage once struck all observers with horror! But who
people, but also to rave or deliver the other peoples
can believe' the mwvelr revealed to us? Only thore
through the Servant's instrumentality. The restoration
who can see the invisible operation of God in history
of the twelve Tribes will be the work of Yahwh, but
153,). Mean were the circumstances in which the
not a purely miraculous work (as the Second Isaiaha
Servant grew up, nor had his person any external
thought), ;md the Servant of Yahwb an co-operate
attractions. For society apart from his daily vocation
with him by persuading as many Jews as possible la
he cared not (cp Jer. 1517); he was despised and, as it
migrate to the Holy Land. And the illumination or
would seem, in the latter part of his life afflicted with
instruction of the 'peoples' devolves upon the Servant.
iicknerr and with pain. ltwas the punishment for sin,
They are to be saved from destruction by becoming
and the sufferer not only knew it but inwardly gave full
converted to the true religion-that of Yahwh. This is
assent and consent to it. He himseif was innocent ; no
the highest function of the Servant (note the significant
sins of speech or of act could justly be impnted to him.
$p), and it is entirely his-except, of course, that
Bui his fellow-Jews (including the poet) assumed that
Yahwb himrelf har trained and eauiooed . .. his servant for inch sins he mut have committed, for was not
his noble work.
iicknes~ the punishment of sin? And this man's
There are two points in Duhm's 'extended dircurrion ' affliction was nothing less than leprosy (u. jo is metaof
this passage to which Budde takes special exception : phorical); how great, then, must his sin have been !
(I) the omission of ' Ismel' in v 3 a5 an interpolati0n.J But the strange truth was that for high reasons the
and (2) the e~planation of ,ma. (u. 5) as meaning a punishment deserved by the Jews in general waz diverted
soiritual brineine-back - - of the Israelites to God bv in- lo this willing substitute. Before this, afflictions may
struction, exhortation, consolation. On the firs1 point. have fallen on those guiltyones ; but they had no moral
effect. The time came, however. when the ever of
men'$ understandings were opened to the meaiing of
the rufferingr of the innocent one, and so ,by his
addressing his own people' ; 5x7.. is therefore simply stripes we were healed.' But while the sad spectacle
the second piedicateof ,nx' On the second, he points war before them, the poet and his companions confess
out that in Ezek. 3917 Jer. 50x9 3sv means the physical that they lived purely seifi~h liver, like wandering sheep.
restoration of Israel from exile, precisely as 29mg. He The sufferer, too, was like a sheep, but in another
also elnphasises the fact that the active and the passive sense-he bore his lot without a murmur, even though
conceptions of the Servant are combined in this mono- by the manifest judgment of God he was cut off. His
logue of the Servant, just as they are in the undisputed dirhonoured body was laid apart with the wicked and
work of 11. Isaiah. It ir a mistake to sav that the the deceiver^.^ hut he himrelf was graciously released-
Servant in 11. Isaiah plays only a passive, and in 'taken' by God to some unknoivn place of sojourn.
the Songs of the Servant ' only an active part. 49 rf: For very different in this carewere Cids thoughts from
shows that the Servant in the Isones' " was not and those of man. For the servant himself, those sufferings
could not be free from a 'wise passiveness' ; he had lo were a purification. He was to come back to the
wait for Yahwe to recompense him, and his restoration world, to reach a good old age (cp Job42 zaj?), and
to his home war to be Yahwe's work. And not less see his children prolonging their days. Having had
clear is it from 4Y78, where Yabwb informs the his innocence recognired, he should live in the light of
Servant (i.r., unquestionably, Israel) of the honour joy and prorperity.3 & a reward for his atoning work
which he shall receive as the result of his successfvl he should 'inherit among the grcat, and divide spoil
mission to the nations.
with the strong'-a proverbial phrase meaning 'he
. shall hold intercourse as an equal with the mighty ones
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