and it is entirely overthrown by the parallel passage in chap. xlix. Scripture knows nothing of a covenant with the Gentiles. According to the view of the Old, as well as of the New Testament, the Gentiles are received into the communion of the covenant with Israel. Others (_Hitzig_, _Ewald_) explain: "covenant-people, _i.e._, a mediatorial, connecting people, a bond of union between God and the nations." But the passage, chap. xlix. 8, is most decidedly opposed to this. _Farther_--The parallelism with אור גוים shows that ברית עם is the _status constructus_. But _fœdus alicujus_, is, according to the remark of _Gesenius_, _fœdus cum aliquo sancitum_. Thus in Lev. xxvi. 45, the covenant of the ancestors is the covenant entered into with the ancestors; Deut. iv. 31; Lev. xxvi. 42 (the covenant of Jacob, the covenant of Isaac, &c.) According to _Knobel_: "the true theocrats are to become a covenant of the people, the restorers of the Israelitish Theocracy, they themselves having connection and unity by faithfully holding fast by Jehovah, and by representing His cause." This explanation, [Pg 223] also, is opposed to the _usus loquendi_, according to which "covenant of the people" can have the sense only of "covenant with the people," not a covenant among the people. And, _farther_, the parallel passage in chap. xlix. 8 is opposed to this interpretation also, inasmuch as, in that passage, the Servant of the Lord is called ברית עם, not on account of what He is in himself, but on account of the influence which He exercises upon others, upon the whole of the people: "That thou mayest raise up the land, distribute desolate heritages, that thou mayest say to the prisoners: Go forth," &c. In that passage the land, the desolate heritages, the prisoners, &c., evidently correspond to the people. _Finally_--A covenant is a relation between two parties standing opposite one another. "The word is used," says _Gesenius_, "of a covenant formed between nations, between private persons, _e.g._, David and Jonathan, between Jehovah and the people of Israel." But here no parties are mentioned to be united by the covenant. Ver. 7. "_That thou mayest open blind eyes, bring out them that are bound from the prison, and from the house of confinement them that sit in darkness._"