people.--"_And Israel, which is not gathered._" Before אשר, לא must be supplied. According to the parallel words: "To bring Jacob again to Him," the not gathering of Israel is to be referred to its having wandered away from the Lord. It was appropriate that this should be expressly mentioned, and not merely supposed, as is the case in: "To bring Jacob again to Him." The image which lies at the foundation, is that of a scattered flock; comp. Mic. ii. 12. Parallel is Isaiah liii. 6: "All we _like sheep_ have gone astray, we have turned every one to his own way."--To the words under consideration the Lord alludes in Matt. xxiii. 37: Ἰερουσαλήμ ... ποσάκις ἠθέλησα ἐπι συναγαγεῖν τὰ τέκνα σου ὃν τρόπον ἐπισυναγει ὄρνις τὰ νοσσία ἐαὐτῆς ὑπὸ τὰς πτέρυγας καὶ οὐκ ἠθελήσατε.; comp. also Matt. ix. 36: ἰδὼν δὲ τοὺς ὄχλους ἐσπλαγχνίσθη περὶ αὐτῶν ὅτι ἦσαν ἐσκυλμένοι καὶ ἐρριμμένοι ὡσεὶ πρόβατα μὴ ἔχοντα ποιμένα. On account of chap. xi. 12, it will not do to take אסף in the signification of "to snatch away," "to carry off," as is done by _Hitzig_. Moreover נאסף means, indeed, "to be gathered," but never "to be carried off" The Mazoreths would read לא for לו: "And that Israel might be gathered to _Him_." Thus it is rendered, among the ancient translators, by _Aquila_ and the Chaldee; while _Symmachus_, _Theodoret_, and the Vulgate express the negation. Most of the modern interpreters have followed the Mazoreths. But the assumption of several of these, that לא is only a different writing for לו, is altogether without foundation, compare the remarks on chap. ix. 2; and the reading of the Mazoreths is just like all the _Kris_, a mere conjecture, owing its origin, as has already been [Pg 241] remarked by _Jerome_, only to a bad Jewish patriotism. The circumstance that, with the sole exception, of 2 Chron. xxx. 3,--an exception which, from the character of the language of that book, is of no importance--the verb אסף in the signification "to gather" has the person to whom it is gathered never joined to it by means of ל, but commonly by means of אל, is of so much the greater importance, that ל has nothing to do with אל. When _Stier_ remarks that ver. 6, where Jacob and Israel were again beside each other in a completely parallel clause, proves that Israel's gathering can be spoken of positively only, he has overlooked the essential difference of ver. 5, which refers to the position of the Servant of God towards the whole people and ver. 6, which refers to His destination for the _election_.--The words: "And I am honoured in the eyes of the Lord, and my God is my strength," _i.e._, my protection and helper, recapitulate what, in ver. 2 and 3, was said about the high dignity of the Servant of God, of which the effect appears, in ver. 6, in His appointment to be the Saviour of the Gentiles, after the mission to Israel has been fruitless. In ver. 6, it is not the decree of the salvation of the Gentiles through Christ which forms the subject (that