In chap. xxvi., the rejoicing and shouting for the salvation are continued. A characteristic Messianic feature is contained in ver. 19 only, in which, as in chap. xxv. 8, the ceasing of death and the resurrection of the righteous appear as taking place in the Messianic time. Ver. 19. "_Thy dead shall live, my dead bodies shall arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in dust! For a dew of light is thy dew, and thou makest fall to the earth the giants._" The saints are raised from the earth; the giants are sunk into the earth. The רפאים "giants" are identical with the ישבי תבל in ver. 18. There it was said in reference to the time of wrath: "We have not wrought any deliverance in the land, neither have the inhabitants of the world fallen;" compare vers. 9 and 21; Numb. xiv. 32. Parallel is the announcement of the defeat of the world's power in ver. 14. רפאים, it is true, is there used of the dead; but the signification of the word remains the same: The bodiless spirits were called _giants_, because they were objects of terror to the living; comp. remarks on Ps. lxxxviii. 11. The word is, in ver. 14, used [Pg 154] with a certain irony.--"Light" is equivalent to "salvation." The Plural signifies the fulness of light or salvation. The complete fulfilment which the words, "Thy dead shall live," will find in the resurrection of the body, affords a guarantee for the fulfilment of the previous stages. In chap. xxvii., it is especially ver. 1 which attracts our attention: "_In that day the Lord with His sword, hard, great, and strong, shall visit the leviathan, the tortuous serpent, and killeth the dragon that is in the sea._" We have here three designations of one and the same monster. _Gesenius_, on the other hand, rightly brings forward the accumulation of the attributes of the sword: With the three epithets applied to the sword, the three epithets of the monster to be killed by it pertinently correspond. The leviathan, the dragon, is, as it were, the king of the sea-animals, compare remarks on Ps. lxxiv. 13, 14. In the spiritual sea of the world, its natural antitype is the conquering world's power; comp. remarks on Rev. xii. 3. But that which is meant is the whole world's power, according to all its phases, which is here viewed as a whole; comp. ver. 13, where it is designated by Asshur and Egypt. The special reference to Babylon rests, here also, on a mere fancy. * * * * * * * * * *