to be a man, exactly corresponding to "from
man," and "from the sons of men," in the sketch, ver. 14, and to: "I am
a worm and no man," in Ps. xxii. [Pg 280] The explanation: "Forsaken by
men, rejected of men," is opposed by the _usus loquendi_, and by these
parallel passages.--"A man of pains"--one who, as it were, possesses
pains as his property. There is a similar expression in Prov. xxix. 1:
"A man of chastenings"--one who is often chastened. "An acquaintance of
disease,"--one who is intimately acquainted with it, who has, as it
were, entered into a covenant of friendship with it. The passive
Participle has no other signification than this, Deut. i. 13, 15, and
does not occur in the signification of the active Participle
"knowing."--There is no reason for supposing that disease stands here
_figuratively_. It comprehends also the pain arising from wounds, 1
Kings xxii. 34; Jer. vi. 7, x. 19; and there is so much the greater
reason for thinking of it here, that [Hebrew: hHli] in ver. 10,
evidently refers to the [Hebrew: Hli] in this place. As an acquaintance
of disease, the Lord especially showed himself in His _passion_. And
then _every sorrow_ may be viewed as a disease; every sorrow has, to a
certain degree, disease in its train. On Ps. vi., where sickness is
represented as the consequence of hostile persecution, Luther remarks:
"Where the heart is afflicted, the whole body is weary and bruised;
while, on the other hand, where there is a joyful heart, the body is
also so much the more active and strong." [Hebrew: hstir] always means
"to hide;" the whole phrase occurs in chap. l. 6, in the signification
"to hide the face." [Hebrew: mstr] is the Participle in _Hiphil_. In
the singular, it is true, such a form is not found any where else; but,
in the Plural, it is, Jer. xxix. 8. In favour of the interpretation:
"Like one hiding His face from us," is the evident reference to the law
in Lev. xiii. 45: "The leper in whom the plague is, his clothes shall
be rent and his head bare, _and the beard he shall have covered over_,
and shall cry: Unclean, unclean,"--where that which the leper crieth
forms the commentary upon the symbolical act of the covering. They
covered themselves, as a sign of shame, as far as possible, in order to
allow of breathing, up to the nose; hence the mention of the beard. In
my Commentary on the Song of Solomon i. 7, it was proved that covering
has every where the meaning of being put to shame--of bei