servant Jacob." In the face of this
fact, we shall not be permitted to refer to "the general signification
of the expression, and its manifold use." For, generally, it is of very
rare occurrence that Israel is personified as the Son of God (in Ps.
cv. 6, it is not Israel, as _Koester_ supposes, but Abraham who is
called Servant of God; Jer. xxx. 10, xlvi. 27; Ezek. xxxvii. 25 are, in
all probability, dependent upon the second part of Isaiah, by which
this designation first obtained a footing), and never occurs in such
accumulation as here. For this very reason, we cannot well think [Pg
202] of an accident; and if there was an intention, we can seek it only
in the circumstance that there exists a close reference to those
prophecies which, _ex professo_, have to do with the Servant of God. To
this we are led by another circumstance, also. While those passages in
which Israel or Jacob is spoken of as the servant of God, occur in
great numbers in the first book of the second part of Isaiah, they
_disappear_ altogether in the second book, which is the proper seat of
the detail prophecies of the Servant of God in question, who, in the
first book was, by way of anticipation only, mentioned in chap. xlii.
After chap. xlviii. 20, where the words: "The Lord hath redeemed His
servant Jacob," occur with evident intention, once more at the close of
the first book, Jacob, the servant of God, is, in general, no more
spoken of, but the Plural is used only of the Israelites as the
servants of God in chap. lxiii. 17: "For thy servants'sake, the tribes
of thine inheritance;" lxv. 8, 9-13, lxvi. 14,--passages which make it
only the more evident that the Prophet purposely avoids bringing
forward Jacob as the ideal person of the Servant of the Lord.
_Finally_--The idea of chance is entirely excluded by chap. xlix. 3,
where the Messiah is called Israel.

From these facts, however, we are not entitled to infer that, in the
prophetic announcement, Israel is simply spoken of as the servant of
God; but on the contrary the context must be viewed in a different and
_nicer_ way. This is evident from the circumstance that, while in the
passages chaps. xli. 7, xlviii. 20, Israel and Jacob are intentionally
spoken of as the servant of God, or, at least, Israel is so distinctly
pointed out that it cannot be at all misunderstood, such an express
pointing to Israel is (with the sole exception of chap. xlix. 3), as
intentionally, avoided in the prophetic a