5. κατανένυγμαι] The word occurs in LXX., Gen. xxxiv. 7, ‘the men
were ’; of Aaron, Lev. x. 3; of Ahab, I Kings xxi. 27, 29
in Psalms iv. 4, xxx. 12: in Leviticus and Psalms, the Heb. word is
the same as, or akin to, that here used. Liddell and Scott give for κατανύσσομαι νύσσω, ‘prick’) the meanings
(i) be sorely pricked, (ii) be stupefied, slumber: “in latter senses,
perhaps corrupted from κατανυστάζω.” Bengel on Acts ii. 37 quotes
the Vulgate ’ sunt, and on Rom. xi. 8, which quotes Isai.
xxix. 10, “κατάνυξις notat πάθος ex frequentissima punctione in stuporem
desinens.” The Heb. verb (or verbs)=(i) be silent, amazed, (ii) be
ruined. Consequently the Heb. and Greek words approach one
another only in the meanings of ‘stupefaction’ and ‘silence.’ Vulg.
has (and here: which Prof. Skinner, on this passage, in Camb. Bible
for 55110013, calls an impossible rendering; but it is hardly certain that
this is so of the Greek, even if it be of the Hebrew; for it is quite
possible that LXX. may have so interpreted the original; and it seems
as easy a sense as any to assign to κατανένυγμαι. The force of the
expression seems to have some similarity to Jerem. i. 6, ‘I cannot
’: and to ’ reluctance, Exod. iv. 10—13; but with Isaiah
it is not so much backwardness as overwhelming surprise and sense

 
of unworthiness. If we take the other meaning,‘I am pricked'
might possibly be for ‘I am sore stricken,’ with a reference to the idea
that a sight of God heralded death: see Judg. vi. 22, xiii. 22, Exod.
xxxiii. 20, Deut. v. 24, 26, and Gen. xxxii. 30; which is the earliest
mention for certain of the feelings, though there it seems already
familiar. 6. λαβίδι ἔλαβεν] Heb. words also cognates. 7. Like Ezekiel (chap. ii., iii.) and St John (Revel. x. 8—10)
Isaiah's experience shows that the work of an apostle or prophet, to
whom the secrets of God are revealed—see Amos iii. 7—has a sweet
and a bitter side. His lips are purified; but he will not be believed.
Yet with Isaiah, more than any other, except St John, the exaltation
of spirit remains dominant; we see no sign, after this, of his confidence
failing. Jeremiah, by nature, seems to stand at the other end of the
scale of temperament; near him, perhaps, Thomas, Hosea, Micah,
Habakkuk. περικαθαριεῖ] The force of the compound is as though the defilements
peeled or sloughed off. The Heb. has passive verbs, or their
equivalent: Vulg. auferetur. . .mundabitur: Aq. Symm. Theod. ἀποστή-
σεται. . .ἐξιλασθήσεται.