—something happens which shall inaugurate a still more glorious future. Whether this event be the advent of a person—an ideal Ruler—who shall take the sceptre out of Judah's hands, or a crisis in the fortunes of Judah which shall raise that tribe to the height of its destiny, is a question on which no final opinion can be expressed (see below).—and to him] Either Judah, or the predicted Ruler, according to the interpretation of 10bα.—obedience of peoples] Universal dominion, which, however, need not be understood absolutely.
The crux of the passage is thus 10bα: (
Hebrew characters). For a fuller
statement of the various interpretations than is here possible, see
Werliin, De laudibus Judæ, 1838 (not seen); Dri. J Ph. xiv. 1-28 (and
open to question, and we are free to try any pronunciation of the Kethîb
(Hebrew characters) which promises a solution of the exegetical riddle with which we
are confronted. In spite of the unanimity of the Vns., the pointing
(Hebrew characters) is suspicious for the reasons given above,—the presence of —(Hebrew characters) in
an early document, and the want of a subj. in the relative sentence.
On the other hand, the attempts to connect the word with [root] (Hebrew characters), 'be
quiet,' are all more or less dubious. (a) There is no complete parallel
in Heb. to a noun like (Hebrew characters) from a (Hebrew characters) root. If it be of the type qîtôl,
the regular form would be (Hebrew characters); although Kön. (ii. p. 147) argues that
as we find (Hebrew characters) alongside of (Hebrew characters), so we might have a (Hebrew characters) alongside of
(Hebrew characters). Again, if ô be an apocopated form of the nominal termination
ôn, the [root] would naturally be not (Hebrew characters) but (Hebrew characters) (in Arab. = 'flow,'
whence seil, 'a torrent') or (Hebrew characters). It is true there are a few examples
of unapocopated nouns of this type from (Hebrew characters) verbs ((Hebrew characters), (Hebrew characters) [Ezk.
4015?], (Hebrew characters) [Gn. 316† —prob. an error for the reg. (Hebrew characters), Hos. 911, Ru.
413† ]); and the possibility of deriving the form in ô from a root of this
kind cannot be absolutely excluded (cf. (Hebrew characters) with (Hebrew characters)). (b) But even
if these philological difficulties could be removed, there remains the
objection that (Hebrew characters) (as contrasted with (Hebrew characters)) is in OT at most a negative
word, denoting mere tranquillity rather than full and positive prosperity,
and is often used of the careless worldly ease of the ungodly. For all
these reasons it is difficult to acquiesce in the view that (Hebrew characters) can be a
designation of the Messiah as the Peaceful or the Pacifier; while to
change the pointing and render till tranquillity ((Hebrew characters)) 'come,' is exposed
to the additional objection that the (Hebrew characters) of the following line is left
without an antecedent.—(Hebrew characters)] (Pr. 3017† ) Dag. forte dirimens. The [root]
appears in Ar. waḳiha, 'be obedient'; Sab. (Hebrew characters). That a vb. ((Hebrew characters)?)
would be more natural (Ba.) is not apparent; the vbs. in TOJ paraphrase
the sense given above. The [root] was evidently not understood
by GΘ ((Greek characters)), V (expectatio), Aq. ((Greek characters)), S (Syriac characters) all of which
probably derived from [root] (Hebrew characters) (Aq. from [root] (Hebrew characters), II.: BDB).
