The two go together, the doing of wonderful and saving acts for His people and the publishing of them before they come to pass. Israel's past is full of such acts. Ch. xliii. instances the delivery from Egypt (vv. 16, 17), but immediately proceeds (vv. 18, 19): _Remember ye not the former things_--here our old friend ri'shonôth occurs again, but this time means simply _previous events_--_neither consider the things of old. Behold, I am doing a new thing; even now it springs forth. Shall ye not know it? Yea, I will set in the wilderness a way, in the desert rivers._ And of this new event of the Return, and of others which will follow from it, like the building of Jerusalem, the chapters insist over and over again, that they are the work of Jehovah, who is therefore a Saviour God. But what better proof can be given, that these saving facts are indeed His own and part of His counsel, than that He foretold them by His messengers and prophets to Israel,--of which previous _publication_ His people are the witnesses. _Who among the peoples can publish thus, and let us hear predictions?_--again ri'shonôth, _things ahead_--_let them bring their witnesses, that they may be justified, and let them hear and say, Truth. Ye are my witnesses, saith Jehovah_, to Israel (xliii. 9, 10). _I have published, and I have saved, and I have shewed, and there was no strange god among you; therefore_--because Jehovah was notoriously the only God who had to do with them during all this prediction and fulfilment of prediction--_ye are witnesses for Me, saith Jehovah, that I am God_ (_id._ ver. 12). The meaning of all this is plain. Jehovah is God alone, because He is directly effective in history for the salvation of His people, and because He has published beforehand what He will do. The great instance of this, which the prophecy adduces, is the present movement towards the liberation of the people, of which movement Cyrus is the most conspicuous factor. Of this xlv. 19 ff. says: _Not in secret have I spoken, in a place of the land of darkness. I have not said to the seed of Jacob, In vanity seek ye Me. I Jehovah am a speaker of righteousness,_[92] _a publisher of things that are straight. Be gathered and come in; draw together, ye survivors of the nations: they have no knowledge that carry about the log of their image, and are suppliants to a god that cannot save. Publish, and bring it here; nay, let them advise together; who made this to be heard_,--that is, _who published this_,--_of ancient time?_ Who _published this of old? I Jehovah, and there is none God beside Me: a God righteous_,--that is, consistent, true to His published word,--_and a Saviour, there is none beside Me_. Here we have joined together the same ideas as in xliii. 12. There _I have declared and saved_ is equivalent to _a God righteous and a Saviour_ here. _Only in Jehovah are righteousnesses_, that is, fidelity to His anciently published purposes; _and