“Wherefore, I will give him a portion with the great, and with the mighty shall he divide the spoil, because he poured out his life unto death, and was numbered with the transgressors, and himself bear the sin of many, and interceded for the transgressors.”

Interpretation—­Therefore, their reward shall be exceeding great, because for the sake of their duty, they willingly exposed themselves to death, and were accounted as transgressors, and bore the cruel afflictions inflicted by many, and made intercession for them who afflicted them.

Such is the explication given by the Jews of this prophecy.  I have made no important alterations of the common English translation; except, that in some passages, I have made it more conformable to the original by substituting a verb in the past tense, instead of leaving it in the future, as in the English version.  Those translators have taken certain liberties in this respect to make this prophecy (and several others) more accordant to their own views, which are not supported by the Hebrew:  many of these expressions, however, we have left unaltered, as they are quite harmless.  But if any of our readers desire further information with regard to the propriety of this interpretation of this prophecy of Isaiah, we refer him to the “Munimen Fidei,” contained in Wagenseil’s “Tela Ignea,” where he will find it amply illustrated, and defended.  Here, in this work, we shall content ourselves with proving, that this prophecy can by no means relate to Jesus, from these circumstances:—­1.  Jesus certainly was not exalted and magnified, and made very great upon earth, which, as has been shown, was to be the scene of the exaltation of the Old Testament Messiah; but was put to a cruel and disgraceful death. 2.  He was not oppressed by pecuniary exactions, as is said of the subject of this prophecy. 3.  He was never taken from prison to die, for he was never in one. 4.  He did not “see his seed,” nor “prolong his days,” since he died childless; and we will not permit the word “seed” to be spiritualized on this occasion, for the word “seed” in the Old Testament, means nothing else, than literally “children,” which it is not pretended he ever had; and how could he “prolong his days,” when he was cut off in his 33d year. 5.  Besides, who were “the strong and mighty,” with whom he divided the spoil?  Were they the twelve fishermen of Galilee? and what was the spoil divided?  In a word, the literal application of this prophecy to Jesus is now given up by the most learned Hebrew scholars, who allow, that the literal sense of the original can never be understood of him. [See Priestley’s notes on the scriptures, in loco; and the context before and after.]

We have now come to the last subject proposed to be considered in this chapter, viz., Daniel’s prophecy of the seventy weeks, the “instar omnium” of the prophetical proofs of Christianity, and which was for ages held up to the view of “the unbelieving race,” as cutting off beyond doubt their “hope of Israel” from ever appearing, since the time so distinctly foretold had elapsed.  But such is the instability of human opinions, that it was at length suspected, and at last ascertained-by the learned, that “the stubborn Israelites” had some reason for denying that prophecy, any voice in the affair.