Chapter XXIV.
Some particular testimonies evincing the death of Christ to be a punishment, properly so called.
The two expressions that I chose in particular to consider are nextly to be insisted on.
The first relates to him who did inflict the punishment; the other to him that was punished. The first is in verse 6, “The Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.” The person punishing is Jehovah, the person punished called “him,” — that is, he who is spoken of throughout the whole prophecy, the Messiah, Jesus Christ, as above declared.
For the opening of the words, that the efficacy of them to our purpose in hand may appear, two of them are especially to be considered: *—First, What is meant by that which is rendered “laid on him;”*secondly, What is meant by “iniquity.”
The first by our translation is rendered in the margin, “made to meet:” “He made to meet on him the iniquities of us all.” The Vulgar Latin, “Posuit Dominus in eo,” — “The Lord put upon him,” according to our translation in the text. Montanus, “Dominus fecit occurrere in eum,” — “God hath caused to meet on him,” according to our translation in the margin. Junius to the same purpose, “Jehovah fecit ut incurrat,” — “The Lord made them meet and fall on him.” The LXX. render it, Καὶ Κύριος παρέδωκεν αὐτὸν ταῖς ἁμαρτίαις ἡμῶν, — “The Lord delivered him to our sins,” that is, to be punished for them. By others the word is rendered “impegit, traduxit, conjecit,” — all to the same purpose, importing an act of God in conveying our sins to Christ.
The word here used is הִפְגִּיעַ its root is פָּגַע, to which all the significations mentioned are assigned, “occurrere, obviam ire, incurrere, aggredi, rogare, precari.”
1. The first general signification of it is “to meet,” as the bounds of a field, or country, or house, meet with one another: Josh. xix. 34, וּפָגַע בִּזְבוּלֻן; so all along in that chapter, where the bounds of one country are said to reach to another, that is, to meet with them. It is the word here used. So in voluntary agents it is “obviam ire,” or “to meet,” and that either for good or evil. For good it is spoken of God, Isa. lxiv. 5, “Thou meetest him,” etc; and so for evil, Amos v. 19, “As if a man did flee from a lion, and a bear met him,” וּפְגָעוֹ, — that is, to tear him in pieces. Hence, because men that met others went to them to desire some help of them, the word also signifies “to ask, to pray, entreat, or intercede:” so the word is used, Isa. lix. 16, “There was no entreater,” מַפְגִּיעַ, — none to meet, to come and ask; and in this very chapter, verse 12, “He made intercession for the transgressors.” The word is the same with that here used. To meet the Lord, and intercede for transgressors, to stay his hand against them, is its sense.
2. “To meet,” or “to make to meet” properly, which is the first and most clear sense of the word. It is often used for to meet “animo hostili,” to meet, to fall upon, for hurt. 1 Sam. xxii. 17, “The servants of the king would not put forth their hand לִפְגֹּעַ, to meet, that is, as we have translated it, to “fall upon the priests” and kill them. So 2 Sam. i. 15, David bade his young man arise, פְּגַע, “fall upon” the Amalekite, — that is, to kill him. Samson made the men of Judah swear that they would not תִּפְּגְּעוּן, “meet with him,” or fall on him, themselves, Judges xv. 12.
Nextly, it may be inquired in what sense the word is here used, whether in the first spoken of, “to ask, entreat, intercede;” or in the latter, “to meet,” or “to meet with.”
Grotius interpreteth it (to remove so much of his interpretation by the way), “Permisit Deus, ut ille nostro gravi crimine indignissima pateretur,” that so he might suit what is spoken to Jeremiah, without pretence or colour of proof. For the word, it is forty-six times used in the Old Testament, and if in any one of them it may be truly rendered “permisit,” as it is done by him, or to that sense, let it be here so applied also. And for that sense (which is, that God suffered the Jews by their wickedness to entreat him evilly), it is most remote from the intendment of the words, and the Holy Ghost in them.
First, then, that the words cannot be interpreted “to pray or intercede” is evident from the contexture, wherein it is said (in this sense), “He prayed him for the iniquity of us all;” that is, the Lord prayed Christ for the iniquities of us all. This sense of the word הִפְגִּיעַ, in this place, Socinus himself grants not to be proper nor consistent: “Porro significatio ilia, precari, in loco nostro locum habere non potest; alioqui sequeretur Esaiam voluisse dicere, Deum fecisse, ut omnium nostrum iniquitas per Christum, vel pro Christo precata fuerit, quod longe absurdissimum esse nemo non videt,” Cap. xxi. p. 132, Prælec. Socin.