It is so obvious that בצדק must be translated by "in righteousness," that the explanations which disagree with it do not deserve to be even mentioned. The mission of the Servant of God has its root in the divine _righteousness_, which gives to every one his due,--to the covenant-people, salvation. Even apart from the promise, the appearance of Christ rests on the righteousness of God. For it is in opposition to the nature and character of a people of God to be, for any length of time, in misery, and shut up to one corner of the earth. That which is to be accomplished for Israel by the Servant of God, forms, in the sequel, the first subject of discourse. But even that which He affords to the _Gentiles_ is, at the same time, given to Israel, inasmuch as it is one of their prerogatives that salvation for the Gentiles should go forth from them. As, here, the mission of the Servant of God, so, in chap. xlv. 13, the appearance of the lower deliverer appears as the work of divine righteousness: "I have raised him up in righteousness, and all his ways I will make straight." Similarly also in chap. xli. 2: "Who raised up from the East him whom righteousness calls wherever he goes," _i.e._, him, all whose steps are determined by God's righteousness, who, in all his undertakings, is guided by it.--The seizing by the hand, the keeping, &c., are the consequence of His being called, and are equivalent to: just because I have called him, therefore will I, &c. Luther remarks: "Namely, for this reason, that Satan and the world, with all their might and wisdom, will _resist_ thy work." In the words: "For the Covenant of the people, and for the Light of the Gentiles," עם and גוים form an antithesis. The absence of the article shows that we ought properly to translate: "For a Covenant of a people, for a Light of Gentiles." It is thus, in the first instance, only said that the Servant of God should be the personal covenant for a people; but _what_ people that should be, cannot admit of a moment's doubt. To Israel, as such, the name of the _people_ pre-eminently belongs. Israel, in preference to all others, is called עם (compare _Gesenius'_ [Pg 221] Thesaurus _s.v._ גוי), because it is only the people of God that is a people in the full sense, connected by an internal unity; the Gentiles are לא עם, _non-people_, according to Deut. xxxii. 21, because they lack the only real tie of unity. But what is still more decisive is the mention of the _Covenant_. The covenant can belong to the covenant-people only, ὧν αἱ διαθῆκαι, Rom. ix. 4,--the old, no less than the new one. The covenant with Abraham is an everlasting covenant of absolute exclusiveness, Gen. xvii. 7. The Servant of God is called the personal and embodied Covenant, because in His appearance the covenant made with Israel is to find its full truth; and every thing implied in the very idea of a covenant, all the promises flowing from this idea, are to be in Him, Yea and Amen. The