over.

TRITO-ISAIAH (Chaps. 56-66)

I. THE BACKGROUND OF THE PROPHECY

A period of about eighty or ninety years seems to separate Deutero-Isaiah (Chaps. 40-55) from the group of prophecies contained in Chaps. 56-66, now frequently called for convenience' sake Trito-Isaiah (third Isaiah). The scenery of this group is Palestinian. The exile is More than three quarters of a century had elapsed the date of the group is probably about 450 B.C. since the Jews, or some of them, had returned from Babylon to the home-land, and endeavored to reconstitute their national life at least along ecclesiastical lines, for of political power they had none; they were but a tiny dependency of the great Persian empire.

Encouraged by the brilliant promises of the great exilic prophet (Chaps. 40-55), they had come back with the highest hopes in their heart. But these hopes were doomed to speedy and cruel disappointment. Nature and man were alike unkind. There were bad seasons, and the neighboring peoples seem for long to have given the little community much trouble by border forays and in other ways. Even as late as the time when the chapters we are considering were written, large tracts of Judah are desolate (614), the enemies upon their borders are raiding their fields and their vineyards (62:8), and the ruined walls of Jerusalem are still unbuilt (60: 10). Under the stimulus of the preaching of Haggai and Zechariah, the second temple, to replace the one destroyed nearly seventy years before by Nebuchadrezzar, was begun in 520 and completed in four years. This temple is several times referred to in the course of the prophecy (60:7; 62:9; 65:11;

66:6), but it is very plain that throughout the period religion was at a low ebb. Externals, such as fasting (583), received careful attention: it is characteristic of the period that even our prophet himself solemnly insists upon the importance of Sabbath observance (56:2, 6; 58: 13 f.); but as in the days of Isaiah (29: 13), the hearts of the worshippers were far enough from their God. The service of God was completely dissociated from the service of man. The men who so scrupulously fasted were guilty of bad temper and violence towards their employees (58:3 f.). Bloodshed, falsehood, and injustice reigned (593 f.). Little could be expected of the rank and file when the leaders themselves were worthless and greedy, self-indulgent, and careless of the welfare of the people for whom they were responsible (56:9-12).

On its religious side, the situation was still further complicated by the presence of men in the community whose practices were nothing short of pagan. These would be in part descendants of the people who had not been carried into exile, but who, remaining in the land, had perpetuated many an idolatrous local custom; in part, however, they may have been Samaritans, and possibly other neighbors, with lower religious ideals, who in various ways had intruded into the Jewish community. Their idolatrous practices are alluded to in some curious and interesting passages. Sometimes these consisted in the deliberate worship of other gods, for example, Milcom 1 (579), Fortune, Destiny (65: 11); sometimes in secret and mysterious rites, conducted in groves (65: 4) or gardens (653; 66: 17), and involving superstitious ideas and practices which were abhorrent to the true Jew, such as the eating of swine's flesh (65: 4; 66: 17). This idolatrous party is sharply contrasted with the strict and faithful few notably in 65: 13 ff., where four times within two verses the latter are honored with the title "my servants."?

1 See the commentary. 2 Plural. In this prophecy we hear no more of the Servant, who figured so prominently in Chaps. 40-55.

II. THE PROPHET'S MESSAGE

It is, as we have seen, to a very guilty people that the prophet speaks. It is their iniquities that have separated them from their God, and their sins that have hidden his face (59: 2); and the demand of Trito-Isaiah,1 as of most of the prophets, is for a religion that expresses itself in just and kindly relations between man and man. Fasting was regarded by his contemporaries as one of the important exercises of religion, but the fast that is approved by God and this prophet of his is a fast, not from meat, but from oppression. Or, to be more accurate, the true service of God and the real exercises of religion are not negative at all, but positive; they consist in the effort, as he describes it in ever memorable words, "to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the bands of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, to deal thy bread to the hungry, to bring the vagrants home, to cover the naked, to satisfy the afflicted soul" (58:6, 7, 10). In other words, the only religious service worth much is social service; and only a community which is prepared to serve God in this way may hope to be happy and prosperous and divinely guided (58: 10-12). There could be no possible fellowship between the righteous God and the rapacious leaders; it was only with men of broken and humble spirit that the holy God could dwell (57: 15; 66: 2). This prophet lays considerable emphasis upon material prosperity as an element in the reward of Jehovah's faithful servants (65: 13 ff.), but better still it was to know that Jehovah took up his abode with them (57:15) and turned his gracious face upon them (66: 2).

The hope of Trito-Isaiah is astonishingly bold. There was indeed little in the Jerusalem with which he was familiar to kindle hope or to touch the imagination. With her demolished walls and her meagre population, some wicked,

1 This word is used to cover Chaps. 56-66, though it is not impossible that the group is composed of fragments from more hands than one.

thers crushed and disconsolate, she must have lain as A very heavy burden upon his heart. But he looked beyond the shame and sorrow of the present to new heavens and a new earth (65:17); beyond the guilty city he saw the new Jerusalem, which was to be "a rejoicing, and her people a joy" (65: 18). Upon the description of this Jerusalem to be, the prophet lavishes all the resources of his imagination. Her people, who are to be all righteous (60:21), shall know no fruitless toil or tears, no early death or sudden sorrow (65: 19-25). Her prosperity shall flow like a river, and her children, gathered from the ends of the earth, shall be comforted for evermore (66: 12-14). Through her gates, which are to be open day and night, will stream the wealth of distant peoples, and over her will rest continually the wondrous light of the glory of her God, so that she shall need the light of sun and moon no more (Chap. 60).

Almost the only feature that mars the beauty of this vision is the place which the prophet assigns in it to the foreigner. Less generous than his great predecessor Deutero-Isaiah, he gives to the heathen, in comparison with the Jew, a place of not only subordinate, but almost menial, service. The Jews, as the mediators of the true religion, are regarded with a perhaps not unnatural pride as "the priests of Jehovah, the ministers of our God" (61:6). But in contrast with this high honor accorded to the Jew is the destiny assigned to the foreigner: "Strangers shall stand and feed your flocks, and foreigners shall be your plowmen and your vine-dressers" (61:5); and it is foreigners who are to rebuild the ruined walls of Jerusalem (60: 10). Not only their service but their wealth is to be made tributary to the Jews, and to go to the embellishment of Jerusalem. Through the gates men are to bring to her the wealth of the nations (60: 11), and "the wealth of the nations ye shall eat" (61:6). The Jews are to be the lords of the world, the other nations are their cringing vassals (60:12).