in chap. xliv. 5. The
commentary on the words: "Thou multipliest the nation," is furnished to
us by chap. liv. 1 ff., where, in immediate connection with the
prophecy regarding the Servant of God who bears the sin of the world,
it is said: "Sing, O barren, thou that didst not bear, break forth into
singing, and shout thou that didst not travail with child; for more are
the children of the desolate than the children of the married wife,
saith the Lord." Comp. also chap. lxvi. 7-9, and Ezek. xxxvii. 25, 26:
"And my servant David shall be their prince for ever. And I make a
covenant with them and multiply them." Several interpreters, _e. g._
_Calvin_, _Vitringa_, suppose that the Prophet in this verse (and so
likewise in the two following verses) speaks, in the first instance, of
a nearer prosperity, of the rapid increase of the people after the
Babylonish captivity. _Vitringa_ directs attention to the fact, that
the Jewish people after the captivity did not only fill Judea, but
spread also in Egypt, Syria, Mesopotamia, Asia Minor, Greece, and
Italy. And surely we cannot deny that in this increase, no less than in
the new flourishing of the people after the defeat of Sennacherib also,
there is a _prelude_ to the real fulfilment; [Pg 82] and that so much
the more that these precursory increases, happening, as they did,
regularly after the decreases, were bestowed upon the covenant-people
with a view to the future appearance of Christ. These increases enter
into a still closer relation to the prophecy under consideration, if we
keep in mind that in chap. vii. the Prophet anticipates in spirit the
appearance of Christ, and that it is with this representation that, in
the Section before us, chap. viii. 8, 10 are connected. In order to
refute the explanation of _Umbriet_: "Thou hast multiplied the
_heathen_, and thereby thou hast removed all joy; but now," &c., it
will be quite sufficient to refer to the parallel passage, chap. xxvi.
15: "Thou increasest the _people_, O Lord, thou art glorified, thou
removest all the boundaries of the land," where, just as in the verse
before us, by [Hebrew: hgvi] "the people," Israel is designated; and
that is frequently the case where the notion of the multitude, the mass
only is concerned, comp. Gen. xii. 2.--"_Thou didst not increase the
joy_" stands for: to whom thou formerly didst not increase the joy, to
whom thou gavest but little joy, upon whom thou inflictedst severe
sufferings. The an