Homer, with one of the Wars of Sallust and the Acts of the Apostles.

5. Logic and the Philosophy of the Mind; or the first six books of Euclid.

At the same time might be required a certificate of attendance at a course of lectures on the physical sciences, and the writing of a thesis.

This, I think, will obviate the difficulty mentioned. I can see no reason why a regulation should be adopted, which would exclude from the ministry all those whom God may please to call by his grace after their marriage; especially as Paul, in his memorable letter to Timothy, does not regard the fact of marriage a disqualification, but the reverse, "For if a man know not how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the church of God?"

R. R.

NEW TRANSLATION AND EXPOSITION OF PART OF THE BOOK OF ISAIAH.

(To the Editor.)

THERE are few passages in the prophetic writings of the Old Tes tament more interesting or important than one which is contained in the seventh, eighth, and part of the ninth chapters of Isaiah. A good deal of diversity prevails both in the translation and interpretation of this section of the prophet; and I have not been happy enough to find any thing respecting it which appears to me to be entirely satisfactory. There are, I imagine, few even of the best informed readers of the Holy Scriptures who will not be glad to acquire some additional elucidation of it. The chief difficulty which I feel in transmitting some remarks upon it, arises from the length to which I am apprehensive they must be extended, in order to their being perspicuous; and the inconvenience of having them divided, to adapt them to the usual dimensions of the articles which acquire a place in the Congregational Magazine. On these accounts, I shall endeavour to write as succinctly as is consistent with being intelligible but as it is impossible for me to do justice to my conceptions of the sense of the paragraph, without making several deviations from the common version, I shall translate the whole anew, and then subjoin the observations which seem to me to be requisite to a just interpretation of it.

CHAPTER VII.

1. Now it came to pass in the days of Ahaz, the son of Jotham, the son of Uzziah king of Judah, that Rezin the king of Syria, and Pekah the son of Remaliah, king of Israel, went up to Jerusalem to war against it, but 2. could not prevail against it: and it was told to the house of David, saying, Syria is confederate with Ephraim; so that his heart was agitated, and the heart of his people like the agitation of the trees of a wood by the wind. 3. Then Jehovah said to Isaiah, go forth now to meet Ahaz, thou and Shearjashub thy son, to the end of the conduit of the upper pool, at the causey

N. S. VOL. IV.

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4 of the fuller's field; and say to him, "observe and be quiet, fear not, nor be faint-hearted for the two tails of these smoking fire-brands, for the anger 5. of Rezin and Syria, and the son of Remaliah; because Syria, Ephraim,

and the son of Remaliah have formed an evil device against thee, saying, 6. let us go up against Judah and distress it, and let us divide it for ourselves, 7. and make a king in the midst of it—the son of Tabeal." Thus saith the Lord of Hosts," it shall not stand, nor shall it be." 8. Though the head of Syria be Damascus, And the head of Damascus, Rezin; Though the head of Ephraim be Samaria, 9. And the head of Samaria, Remaliah's son ; Yet within threescore and five years

Ephraim shall be broken, that it be no more a people.

If ye will not believe, surely ye shall not be established.

10. 11. Jehovah spake farther again to Ahaz, saying, ask for thyself a sign 12. from Jehovah thy God, go deep to Hades, or go up on high above. But 13. Ahaz said, I will not ask, neither will I tempt Jehovah. Then he said, hear now, O house of David! is it little for you to weary men, but will ye 14. also weary my God? Therefore the Lord he will give you a sign;-behold, O virgin! thou shalt conceive, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his 15. name, God-with-us, (Immanuel, Heb.) Butter and honey shall he eat, when he knoweth how to reject what is bad, and to choose what is good. 16. Surely before the child shall know how to reject what is bad, and to choose what is good, the country at whose two kings thou art disquieted, shall become desolate.

17. Jehovah will bring upon thee and upon thy people, and upon thy father's house, days such as have not been from the time that Ephraim separated from 18. Judah-the king of Assyria. And it shall come to pass at that day,

Jehovah will whistle for the fly that is on the border of the rivers of Egypt, 19. and for the bee that is in the land of Assyria. And they shall come, and shall alight all of them, upon the hollow vallies, and upon the crevices of 20. the rocks, and upon all the thickets, and upon all the glittering flowers. In that day the Lord will shave with a hired razor,-by those who are beyond the river, by the king of Assyria, the head, and the hair of the feet; and 21. even the beard shall be destroyed. And it shall come to pass at that day, 22. if a man feed a young cow, and two sheep, through the abundant pro

duction of milk he shall eat butter: assuredly butter and honey shall every 23. one eat who is left in the midst of the land. It shall happen also at that day,

that every place where there are a thousand vines, worth a thousand pieces 24. of silver, shall become briars and thorns. With arrows and bows shall men 25. come there, for all the land shall become briars and thorns: and all the hills which they dress with the mattock, where the fear of briars and thorns never cometh, shall be for the sending forth of the ox, and for the treading of sheep.

CHAPTER VIII.

1. Then said Jehovah to me, take to thee a large roll and write upon it with a man's pen concerning Maher-shalal-hash-baz. (Eng. Making speed to the 2. spoil, making haste to the prey.) So I took faithful witnesses,-Uriah the priest, and Zechariah the son of Jeberechiah, to bear witness for me, 3. and I approached to the prophetess, and she conceived, and brought forth a son and Jehovah said to me, call his name Maher-shalal-hash-baz; 4. for before the child shall know how to call, my father, and my mother, the wealth of Damascus, and the spoil of Samaria shall be carried away before the king of Assyria.

5. 6. Jehovah farther spake to me, saying, because this people reject the waters of Shiloah which flow gently, and delight in Rezin, and Remaliah's son; 7. therefore, behold! the Lord will bring upon them the waters of the river,

Part of the Book of Isaiah.

435

strong and many, the king of Assyria and all his glory, and he shall come up over all their channels, and overflow all their banks; he shall also pass 8. through Judah, overflowing and passing on he shall reach even to the neck, and the extension of his wings shall fill the breadth of thy land. God-is-with-us. 9. (Heb. Immanuel.) Associate ye, O peoples! and be ye dismayed; and 10. hearken all ye of distant lands; gird yourselves and be dismayed; gird your

selves and be dismayed. Form a concerted purpose, but it shall be dissolved; 11. speak a word but it shall not stand; for God is with us. (Heb. Immanuel.) For thus hath Jehovah spoken to me with a strong impulse, and warned me not 12. to walk in the way of this people, saying, ye shall not say, a confederacy,

concerning all of whom this people say a confederacy; neither fear ye what 13. they fear, nor be ye terrified. Jehovah of Hosts, him sanctify ye; let him 14. be the object of your fear and of your dread. For he will be for a sanc

tuary, but for a stone of stumbling and for a rock of offence to the two houses of Israel; for a trap, and for a snare to the inhabitants of Jeru15. salem. And among them many shall stumble, and fall, and be broken, and 16. snared and taken. Bind up the testimony, seal the law among my dis17. ciples; and I will wait for Jehovah, who hideth his face from the house of Jacob: I will even wait for him.

18. Behold! I and the children whom Jehovah hath given to me, to be signs and portents in Israel, from Jehovah of Hosts, who dwelleth in Mount Sion. 19. But when they shall say to you, seek ye to the necromancers, and to the diviners, who chatter and mutter; should not people seek unto their 20. God? for the living to the dead? To the law and to the testimony; if they 21. speak not according to this word, in which there is no obscurity, then they pass through it, (Scil. the land,) in anguish and hunger; and when 22. they shall be hungry, they will fret, and curse their king, and their God; and they shall look on high; but when they look upon the land, lo! trouble and darkness, obscurity, anguish, and thick darkness.

shall

CHAPTER IX.

1. Yet there shall not be (intell. perpetual) darkness to the land to which there has been anguish: as the former time rendered vile the region of Zabulon, and the region of Naphtali; so the latter time will render glorious, 2. the way of the sea, beyond the Jordan,-Galilee of the Gentiles: the people which walk in darkness shall see a great light; to them that dwell in a land 3. of the shadow of death, light shall shine forth. Thou increasest the nation, thou conferrest on it great joy: they rejoice before thee like the joy of 4. harvest, as those who exult, when they divide the spoil. For the yoke of his burden, the rod of his shoulder, the staff of his oppressor thou destroyest, 5. as in the day of Midian. For all the armour of the warrior in conflict, and the vesture rolled in blood shall be for burning, and fuel for the fire. 6. For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called wonderful, councillor, 7. the mighty God, the Father of the coming age, the prince of peace. Of the increase of the government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and in his kingdom to establish it, and to maintain it, in justice and righteousness, from now, and for ever. The zeal of Jehovah God of Hosts will effect this.

The verses which are thus translated form a distinct portion of narrative and prediction, and should be taken together as a complete paragraph. The occasion on which it was written was an attempt made by Pekah king of Israel, in concert with Rezin king of Syria, to conquer the kingdom of Judah, to dethrone Ahaz, and to put the son of Tabeal in his place, as a dependant and tributary prince. This attempt terrified Ahaz, and the royal family, the house

of David, to the utmost; so that the prophet Isaiah was instructed to give a divine assurance to Ahaz, that the efforts of his adversaries should prove abortive; for that they themselves should be overcome, within a short period, by the overwhelming power of the king of Assyria. To inspire confidence into the bosom of Ahaz, the prophet directed him to ask for a sign or miracle from God, by which his faith might be confirmed; and on his declining to do so, the prophet proceeded to give a sign, and to deliver a prediction to the effect that, within two or three years, the adversaries of Judah should be vanquished by the king of Assyria.

It appears that Ahaz was an impious and idolatrous prince; he paid no regard to the assurances of God's protection, but sent to Tiglath-Pileser the king of Assyria, to intreat his aid against Pekah and Rezin. His conduct was so displeasing to God, that the prophet was instructed to address another communication to him to inform him, that as he and his house confided in the aid of Assyria, and despised God's protection, they should be made to feel the consequences of their folly and wickedness; for that though the Assyrians should succeed in demolishing the power of Israel and Syria, this should be productive of no advantage to Judah, as the country should be stripped of its treasures, and reduced to desola. tion by the perfidious ravages of its professed deliverers. Isaiah was commanded to confirm this prediction by a sign taken from the birth of a son that should be born to him; and who was to be called by the significant name, Maher-shalal-hash-baz. He then reiterates his prediction respecting the calamities which would be brought upon both Israel and Judah, by the irresistible invasion of the Assyrians; he connects with this, an earnest exhortation addressed to those inhabitants of Judah and Israel, who trusted in God to support them during the heavy distress that was about to be inflicted upon their country; and terminates this part of his subject by a frightful representation of the horrors of desolation and captivity, in which the two kingdoms of Israel and Judah were soon to be involved.

The last clause of the paragraph that is before us consists of an express prediction of the birth of the Messiah, which is descriptive of his illustrious characters, and the endless glories of his reign. This prediction is introduced immediately after the denunciation of punishment against Israel and Judah, which was verified in relation to Israel, by the entire overthrow of the kingdom, and the transportation of its inhabitants to distant lands, by the conquering arms of the Assyrians. As great numbers of the Israelites were dwelling in the regions of Zabulon and Naphtali, and underwent the fiercest effects of the Assyrian invasion, the prophet was commissioned to declare that these countries, which were reduced to the lowest degree of degradation and misery, should, at a future period, be raised from their abject condition, by the appearance among them, of that great and triumphant Saviour and King, who should sit upon the throne of David for ever and ever.

The brief summary of the contents of the paragraph, which is here set down, will contribute to a clear and distinct interpretation of the entire passage, and to this we will now proceed.

I. In the version of the 8, 9 verses, chap vii. I have altered the arrangement of the lines, which appear to have been misplaced, by some unassignable means.

text.

II. In ver. 14, chap. vii. I have adhered strictly to the Hebrew "Behold O virgin! thou shalt conceive," &c. The letter prefixed to virgin, is a frequent indication of the voc. case: and the verb n thou shalt bring forth," is 2d pers. sing. which determines the rendering of the infinitive 7 which precedes. The sense appears to me to be, that among the persons to whom the prophet addressed himself, there was an unmarried female, betrothed to the prophet, and soon to become his wife. He foretells the birth of a son, the offspring of his marriage, and appoints the infant for a sign of the overthrow of the kings of Israel and Syria: declaring that before this child should be able to discriminate good from evil, the portended event would be accomplished. Such, in my opinion, is the full and entire meaning of this passage.

The readers of the Congregational Magazine need not be informed that very different interpretations from this have been given of it. Almost, if not quite universally, it has been represented to be a prediction of the miraculous birth of Christ; and the reason for this general agreement is to be found in the citation of the words in Matt. i. 22, 23. But though such an agreement is found almost in all the interpreters, they have been very far from uniting in the mode by which they endeavour to free the passage from the extreme difficulties that attend such an interpretation; as it does by no means appear how the birth of a child, born in the days of Ahaz, can be regarded as a sign significant of events that were to happen within two or three years, and at the same time, should be taken for a prediction of an event that would be several hundred years subsequent. The theory of a double sense, which cannot be admitted without imperious necessity, has been employed by many most learned and accomplished theologians to solve the difficulty; while by many other learned persons, the most enigmatical and unintelligible interpretations have been given, such as one scarcely knows how could appear to be satisfactory to those by whom they have been patronised, and which certainly do little honor to the sacred volume, but serve rather to strengthen the prejudices of infidelity against it, as a repository of delphic or sybilline enigmas, which admit of any construction which their dupes may be disposed to put upon them. From considerations of this kind, I am induced to believe that the words in question were not meant to be a prediction of the birth of Christ, nor to relate to any other child, or to any other event than those which are clearly indicated by the Prophet. We are thus liberated from all perplexity in affixing an intelligible interpretation to the passage, which stands divested of all mystery, a manifest instance of the prophetic foresight of Isaiah, and perfectly adapted to answer the purposes for which it was given, by confirming the faith of such as believed in God, and expected the fulfilment of his declarations. It is requisite for me to assign the reason of the opinion which I have expressed, that the child spoken of was a son of the Prophet; and