looked chiefly to the theocratic disposition on which the nationality of Israel rested. To this we are led by Jer. xxiv. also, where those carried away are designated as the flower of the nation, as the nursery and hope of the Kingdom of God. Incomprehensible, for the time of the exile, is also the _strict antithesis_ between the servants of the Lord, and the servants of the idols--the latter hating, assailing, and persecuting the former--an antithesis which meets us especially in the last two chapters; comp. especially chap. lxv. 5 ff. 13-15; lxvi. 16. That such a state of things existed at the time of the Prophet is, among other passages, shown by 2 Kings xxi. 16, according to which Manasseh shed much innocent blood at Jerusalem, and, according to ver. 10, 11, especially the blood of the prophets, who had borne a powerful testimony against idolatry. _If it be assumed that the second part was composed during the exile, then those passages are incomprehensible, in which the Prophet proves that the God of Israel is the true God, from His predicting the appearance of the conqueror from the east, and the deliverance of the people to be wrought by Him in connection with the fulfilment of these predictions._ The supernatural character of this announcement which the Prophet asserts, and which forms the ground of its probative power, took place, only if it proceeded from Isaiah, but not if it was uttered only about the end of the exile, at a time when Cyrus had already entered upon the stage of history. These passages, at all events, admit only the alternative,--either that Isaiah was the real author, or that they were forged at a later period by some deceiver; and this latter alternative is so decidedly opposed to the whole spirit of the second part, that scarcely any one among the opponents will resolve to adopt it. Considering the very great and decisive importance of these passages, we must still allow them to pass in review one by one. In chap. xli. 1-7, the Lord addresses those who are serving idols, summons them triumphantly to defend themselves against the mighty attack which He was just executing against them, and describes the futility of their attempts at so doing. The address to the Gentiles is a mere form; to work upon Israel is the real purpose. To secure them from the allurements of the world's religion, the Prophet points to [Pg 183] the great confusion which the Future will bring upon it. This confusion consists in this:--that the prophecy of the conqueror from the East, as the messenger and instrument of the Lord--a prediction which the Prophet had uttered in the power of the Lord--is fulfilled without the idolators being able to prevent it. The answer on the words in ver. 2: "Who hath raised up from the East him whom righteousness calleth whither he goes, giveth the nations before him, and maketh kings subject to him, maketh his sword like dust, and his bow like driven stubble?" is this: According to the agreement of prophecy and