The LXX. already understood Israel by the Servant of the Lord. They translate in ver. 1: Ἰακὼβ, ὁ παῖς μου, ἀντιλήψομαι αὐτοῦ, Ἰσραήλ, ὁ, ἐκλεκτός μου, προσεδέξατο αὐτὸν ἡ ψυχή μου. Among the Jewish interpreters, _Jarchi_ follows this explanation, but with this modification, that, by the Servant of the Lord, he understands the collective body of the righteous in Israel. In modern times, this view is defended by _Hitzig_. It appeals especially to the circumstance that, in a series of other passages of the second part, Israel, too, is designated by the Servant of God, viz. in chap. xli. 8: "And thou Israel, my servant, Jacob whom I have chosen, seed of Abraham my friend," ver. 9: "Thou whom I have taken from the ends of the earth, and called thee from its sides, and said unto thee: Thou art my servant, I have chosen thee, and not cast thee away," chap. xlii. 19, xliii. 10, xliv. 1, 2: "And now hear, O Jacob my servant, and Israel whom I have chosen. Thus saith the Lord that made thee, formed thee from the womb and helpeth thee: Fear not, O Jacob, my servant, and thou Jeshurun, whom I have chosen;" chap. xliv. 21, xlv. 4, xlviii. 20; "Say ye, the Lord hath redeemed His servant Jacob." In the face of this fact, we shall not be permitted to refer to "the general signification of the expression, and its manifold use." For, generally, it is of very rare occurrence that Israel is personified as the Son of God (in Ps. cv. 6, it is not Israel, as _Köster_ supposes, but Abraham who is called Servant of God; Jer. xxx. 10, xlvi. 27; Ezek. xxxvii. 25 are, in all probability, dependent upon the second part of Isaiah, by which this designation first obtained a footing), and never occurs in such accumulation as here. For this very reason, we cannot well think [Pg 202] of an accident; and if there was an intention, we can seek it only in the circumstance that there exists a close reference to those prophecies which, _ex professo_, have to do with the Servant of God. To this we are led by another circumstance, also. While those passages in which Israel or Jacob is spoken of as the servant of God, occur in great numbers in the first book of the second part of Isaiah, they _disappear_ altogether in the second book, which is the proper seat of the detail prophecies of the Servant of God in question, who, in the first book was, by way of anticipation only, mentioned in chap. xlii. After chap. xlviii. 20, where the words: "The Lord hath redeemed His servant Jacob," occur with evident intention, once more at the close of the first book, Jacob, the servant of God, is, in general, no more spoken of, but the Plural is used only of the Israelites as the servants of God in chap. lxiii. 17: "For thy servants' sake, the tribes of thine inheritance;" lxv. 8, 9-13, lxvi. 14,--passages which make it only the more evident that the Prophet purposely avoids bringing forward Jacob as the ideal person of the Servant of the Lord.