The Methodist Quarterly Review

9. He made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death; because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth.

is here used either impersonally, as we often find the Hebrew verb, or a subject, as 7, may be supplied. Hengstenberg says the meaning of the passage is: "Men fixed for him the ignominious grave with criminals; by the providence of God he received the honorable grave with the rich, and that for the sake of his innocent suffering."

We learn from Josephus that criminals were not only ignominiously executed, but an honorable burial was not allowed them. Thus in Antiq., b. iv, ch. 8, sec. 6, we read: "He who has blasphemed God shall, after having been stoned, be hung up for a day, and be buried quietly and ignominiously." Maimonides also says: "Those who have been executed in accordance with the decree of the court are not buried in the graves of their ancestors; but there are two graves appointed for them: one for the stoned and burned, the other for the beheaded and strangled."

The different expositions of this verse require notice. Lowth translates the first clause:

"And his grave was appointed with the wicked;
But with the rich man was his tomb."

This reading views, which our version renders in his death, as a plural noun with the pronominal suffix. Whereas our version considers it composed of the preposition, with the noun and the suffix. Gesenius considers it as the plural of , a sepulchral mound, like the Greek βωμός.

Gesenius makes to mean the ungodly, and thus the clause forms a more perfect parallelism than either Lowth's translation or our version. Martini translates it: "They prepared for him a sepulcher with the wicked, a sepulchral mound with the violent." Hengstenberg gives it: "And they gave him his grave with the wicked, and with a rich man in his death." But he considers in his death equivalent to "after he had died;" and to sustain his view quotes 1 Kings xiii, 31: "In my death you shall bury me in the sepulcher."

should be rendered although, and not because, as in our version.

10. Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him; he hath`put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.

FOURTH SERIES, VOL. XII.-7

As the copula and suffix are both wanting in, it is hardly in accordance with the Hebrew idiom to translate the first clause as our version has it. Gesenius in his translation makes it: "It pleased Jehovah to grievously wound him." Hengstenberg says: The Lord was pleased painfully to crush him."

when thou shalt make " אִם־תָּשִׂים אָשָׁם נַפְשׁוֹ Our version renders

his soul an offering for sin." Now i can be made either in the third singular feminine, or in second singular masculine of the imperfect. If we make it third singular feminine the clause would read, "when his soul hath given restitution," which answers better to the context. Our Lord says, in John x, 12: ó тоμηv ó kaλOÇ τὴν ψυχὴν αὐτοῦ τίθησιν ὑπερ τῶν προβάτων; and in Matt. xx, 28, δοῦναι τὴν ψυχὴν αὐτοῦ λύτρον ἀντὶ πολλῶν—expressions which seem to have this very passage in view.

He shall see his seed. here refers to the followers of the Messiah. Thus, in Matt. ix, 2, Christ addresses the paralytic by TÉKVOV; and in John xiii, 33, his disciples as TEкvía. The apostles counted those who had been converted through their ministry as their spiritual children. "The thought," says Hengstenberg, "is this: That in the sacrificial death of the servant of God there will be an animating power; that just thereby he will found his Church."

He shall prolong his days, is to be taken, not as referring directly to long life, but to that life which is imparted to his spiritual children. "Because I live," says Christ, "ye shall live also.”

The pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. yn in the last clause corresponds to 7 in the first. As it pleased the Lord to bruise him for the salvation of sinners, so it is his pleasure that sinners should be justified through his vicarious sufferings, and this salvation shall go on successfully under his dominion.

11. He shall see the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities.

The in denotes the cause, and the passage may be rendered, On account of the suffering of his soul, he shall see, he shall be satisfied. There is an ellipsis of the object after the verbs, which may be readily supplied. is here used very much as dià in Heb. ii, 9: "We see Jesus crowned with glory and honor, διὰ τὸ πάθημα τοῦ θανάτου, on account of his suffering death."*

See Stuart's Commentary on Hebrews, in loco.

By his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many. iny means by their knowledge of him, the suffix i being an objective genitive. For he shall bear their iniquities. D is rather to be rendered by the punishment due to their iniquities.

12. Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong: because he hath poured out his soul unto death: and he was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors. The expression Gesenius translates by "I will assign him a portion among the great." Hengstenberg renders it: "I will give him a portion in the many." Lowth's is nearly the same: "I will distribute to him the many for his portion."

This first clause has reference to the ultimate triumph of the servant of God.

Because he hath poured out his soul unto death, the Hiphil. The expression implies that he gave himself up voluntarily to death. And he was numbered with transgressors. In Luke xxii, 37, our Lord, referring to this passage, says: "This that is written must yet be accomplished in me: And he was reckoned among the transgressors." And in Matt. xxvi, 56, after reproaching those who came to seize him, for coming with swords and staves, he says: "But all this was done, that the Scriptures of the prophets might be fulfilled."

And he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors. Here Christ is represented as the offering for sin, and as interceding for transgressors not by prayer alone, but also by his atoning sacrifice. "His vicarious suffering," says Hengstenberg, "is pointed out as the ground of his intercession." What was foreshadowed under the old dispensation by the high priest, who went in with blood to make intercession for the sins of the people, was fulfilled in Christ. In Heb. ix, 24-26, Christ is represented as having entered heaven to appear before God for us, to remove the punishment due to our sins by the sacrifice of himself. So in Rom. viii, 34, it is said: "It is Christ that died, yea rather that is risen. again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.”