_Abenezra_, _Grotius_, _Steudel_, _Umbreit_, _Hofmann_), the Servant of the Lord is to be none other than _the Prophet himself_. No argument has been adduced in favour of this view, except the use of the first person, ("If here, without introduction and preparation, a discourse begins with the first [Pg 230] person, it refers most naturally to the Prophet, who is the author of the Book"),--an argument of very subordinate significance, and the more so that the person of the Prophet, everywhere else in the second part of Isaiah, steps so entirely into the background behind the great objects with which he is engaged. To follow thus the first appearance may, indeed, be becoming to a eunuch from Ethiopia, but not a Christian expounder of Scripture. The contents of the prophecy are decidedly in opposition to this opinion. Even the circumstance that a single prophet should assume the name of Israel, ver. 3, appears an intolerable usurpation. _Farther_--Like all the other prophets, Isaiah was sent to the Jews, and not to the Gentiles; but at the very outset, _the most distant lands and all the distant nations_ are here called upon to hearken. The Lord says to His Servant that the restoration of Israel was too little for Him, that He should be a light and salvation for all the heathen nations from one end of the earth to the other; kings and Princes shall fall down before Him, adoring and worshipping. The Prophet would thus simply have raised himself to be the Saviour. _Umbreit_ expressly acknowledges this: "He is to be the holy pillar of clouds and fire which leads the people back to their native land, after the time of their punishment has expired. But a still more glorious vocation and destination is in store for the prophets; they receive the highest, the Messianic destination." The usurpation of which the Servant of God would have made himself guilty, appears so much the more clearly, when it is known, that the work of the Servant of God comprehends even all that also, which is described in ver. 10-23, viz., the blossoming of the Church of God, her enlargement by the Gentiles, &c. _It is obvious that, if the interpretation which refers this prediction to the prophets were the correct one, the authority of the Old Testament prophecy would be gone; the authority of the Lord himself would be endangered, inasmuch as He always recognizes, in these prophets, organs of divine inspiration and power._ A vain attempt is made at mitigating this usurpation, by imperceptibly substituting the collective body of the prophets for the single prophet. This view thus leads to, and interferes with another which we shall immediately examine. But if we would not give up the sole argument by which this [Pg 231] exposition is supported, viz., the use of the first person, everything must, in the first instance, apply to and be fulfilled in Isaiah; and the other prophets can come into consideration only as continuators of his work and ministry.