ther
tribes along with the Jews; for this reason, he says also of the
inhabitants of those countries, that they were walking in darkness, and
speaks of the inhabitants of that land as living in the shadow and land
of death, and promises the brightness of heavenly light." It is of no
small importance to observe that Isaiah does not designate Galilee
according to what it was at the time when this prophecy was uttered,
_but according to what it was to become in future_. The distress by the
Gentiles appears in chap. vii. and viii. everywhere as a _future one_.
At the time when the Prophet prophesied, the Jewish territory still
existed in its integrity. In vers. 4, and 5-7, he announces Asshur's
inroad into the land of Israel as a _future one_; in the present
moment, it was the kingdom of the ten tribes in connection with Aram
which attacked and threatened Judea. The superior power of the world
which, according to the clear foresight of the Prophet, was
threatening, could not but be sensibly felt in the North and East. For
these formed the border parts against the Asiatic world's power; it was
from that quarter that its invasions commonly took place; and it was to
be expected that there, in the first instance, the Gentiles would
establish themselves, just as, in former times, they had maintained
themselves longest there; comp. Judges i. 30-38; _Keil_ on 1 Kings ix.
11. But very soon after this, [Pg 74] the name "Galilee of the
Gentiles" ceased to be one merely prophetical; Tiglathpilezer carried
the inhabitants of Galilee and Gilead into exile, 2 Kings xv. 29. _At a
later period_, when the Greek empire "peopled Palestine, in the most
attractive places, with new cities, restored many which, in consequence
of the destructive wars, had fallen into decay, filled all of them,
more or less, with Greek customs and institutions, and, along with the
newly-opened extensive commerce and traffic, everywhere spread Greek
manners also," this change was chiefly limited to Galilee and Peraea;
Judea remained free from it; comp. _Ewald_, _Geschichte Israels_, iii.
2 S. 264 ff. In 1 Maccab. v. Galaaditis and Galilee appear as those
parts of the country where the existence of the Jews is almost
hopelessly endangered by the Gentiles living in the midst of, and mixed
up with them. What is implied in "Galilee of the Gentiles" may be
learned from that chapter, where even the _expression_ reverts in ver.
15. With external dependence upon the Gentiles