cheenc03a.pdf

~~~~~
RIGHT, RIGHTEOUSNESS
'salvation' (46~~). It is significant that when gd&@&h
retains its older and ethical force, ir is "red of a iighteousness
ahich comer ar a divine grace being ' rained
down fromabove' (458). In thesecond Isaiah. however.
this purely ethical sense is rare, occurring only two or
three times out of some twentv-five in which theHebrew
The Second Isaiah, as we have seen, assumed that
the sufferiner inflicted bv Babvlon had sufficed to ~urifv
period oi his work he war a pastor of souls, a preacher
addressing individuals rather than a prophet with a
message to the nation. Naturally, thm, he insists on
individual righteousness. Each man is to be tried on
his own merits ; however righteous he may be, he can
secure the due reward for himself and only for himrrlt
Nay, even with the individual Yahwb deals according
to his present actions, admitting no appeal to the
riehteousness " of the oust. and on theother hand forgiving
iniquity in case of repentance and amendment
(Ezek. 181 141, f. 33ra f ). His ideal of righteousness
in the individual conforms on the whole to the ornohetic
standard of individual righteournes, though it' inrludes
external glory of which he had fondly dreamt, and the
exile had failed to produce that righteousness of the
whole nation which war still the cherished aim of
religious reformers in the Jewish Church How was it
to be acconrpiishrd? Finally and completely by the
judgment of the last days, which is to fall on unfaithful
Jews as well as the heathen. This isthe favourite theme
of Apocalyptic writerr (see esp. Is. 1022 which ir a late
insertion: Ma1 3- Zech.90 126 13-Toe1 and Daniel
, , \Icalish#le i..c A#. . .!I> l~~rr..~t~#c fiu;hl u.111
I(r..Llcl chat G , 1 lhen. :xnl 810s. thou