not be able to see, in these facts, the complete fulfilment of the prophecy, in so far as it refers to the healing of the bodily blind and deaf--inasmuch as it promises the healing of all, not of some only--but only a pledge of the complete fulfilment of it; just as Christ's raising some from the dead only prefigures what He shall do in the end of the days. The complete fulfilment belongs to the time of the resurrection of the just, of which it is said: Whatever is here afflicted, groans, prays, shall then go on brightly and gloriously. More comprehensive was the fulfilment which the prophecy received, in reference to spiritual blindness and deafness, immediately at the first appearance of Christ, who declared that He had come into the world, that they which see not, might see (John ix. 39). But even here the completion as certainly belongs to the future world, as βλέπομεν ἄρτι δι' ἐσόπτρου ἐν αἰνίγματι. Ver. 6. "_Then shall the lame leap as an hart, and the tongue of the dumb shall shout; for in the wilderness shall waters be opened, and streams in the desert._" The _leaping and shouting_ imply that they have obtained deliverance from their bodily defects,--at this deliverance the preceding verse stopped--and proceed from the natural delight at the appearance of this salvation, personal as well as general, of which these are an emanation. On the first words especially. Acts iii. 8 is to be compared, where it is said of the lame man to whom Peter, in the name of Jesus spoke. Arise and walk: καὶ ἐξαλλόμενος ἔστη καὶ περιεπάτει, καὶ εἰσῆλθε σὺν αὐτοῖς εἰς τὸ ἱερὸν, περιπατῶν καὶ ἀλλόμενος καὶ αἰνῶν τὸν θεόν; farther. Acts viii. 7: πολλοὶ δὲ παραλελυμένοι καὶ χωλοὶ ἐθεραπεύθησαν; xiv. 8; John v. 9. Of _spiritual_ lameness, Heb. xii. 13 is spoken. It appears especially in dark times of affliction, as _Vitringa_ says: "In the time of wild persecution, and when the Church languishes, [Pg 162] not a few men begin to halt, to vacillate in their views, to suspend their opinions," &c. On the words: "the tongue of the dumb shall shout," compare Matt. xii. 22: τότε προσηνέχθη αὐτῷ δαιμονζόμενος, τυφλὸς καὶ κωφός· καὶ ἐθεράπευσεν αὐτόν, ὥστε τὸν τυφλὸν καὶ κωφὸν καὶ λαλεῖν καὶ βλέπειν. _Spiritual_ dumbness is the incapacity for the praise of God which, in the time when salvation is withheld, so easily creeps in, and which is removed by the bestowal of salvation. The words: "For in the wilderness," &c., state the ground of the leaping and shouting, point to the bestowal of salvation, which forms the cause. The _waters_ are the waters of salvation, compare remarks on chap. xii. 3. The words contain, moreover, an allusion to Exod. xvii. 3 ff.; Numb. xx. 11, where, during the journey through the wilderness, salvation is represented by the bestowal of water. The desert here is an image of misery.