Excerpt: ...Christ, on the part of the Jews, appears to have been a necessary condition of His entering upon His vocation as the Saviour of the Gentiles. Those who understood the people by the Servant of the Lord refer לשיבב to Jehovah, and consider it as a Gerund. Pg 240 reducendo, or qui reducit ad se Jacobum. In the same way they explain also the Infinit. with ל in the following verse, as also in chap. li. 16. But although the Infinit. with ל is sometimes, indeed, used for the Gerund., yet this is neither the original nor the ordinary use; and nowhere does it occur in such accumulation. Moreover, by this explanation, this verse, as well as the following ones, are altogether broken up, and the words לשובב יעקב אליו must indicate the destination for which He was formed. And it is not possible that Jehovah's bringing Jacob back to himself should be a display of Israel's being formed from the womb to be the Servant, inasmuch as the bringing back would not, like the formation, belong to the first stage of the existence of the people.--"And Israel, which is not gathered." Before אשר, לא must be supplied. According to the parallel words: "To bring Jacob again to Him," the not gathering of Israel is to be referred to its having wandered away from the Lord. It was appropriate that this should be expressly mentioned, and not merely supposed, as is the case in: "To bring Jacob again to Him." The image which lies at the foundation, is that of a scattered flock; comp. Mic. ii. 12. Parallel is Isaiah liii. 6: "All we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned every one to his own way."--To the words under consideration the Lord alludes in Matt. xxiii. 37: Ἰερουσαλήμ . ποσάκις...