So shall he sprinkle many nations... — The words have been very differently rendered by, He shall cause to spring up, i.e., shall startle, He shall scatter, He shall fling away, or, Many nations shall marvel at him. On the whole, however, admitting the difficulty of the passage, the Authorised version seems preferable. The “sprinkling” is that of the priest who cleanses the leper (Leviticus 4:6; Leviticus 4:17), and this was to be done by Him who was Himself counted as a leper “smitten of God” (Isaiah 53:4). We may probably trace an echo of the words in the “sprinkling clean water” of Ezekiel 36:25, in the “blood of sprinkling,” of Hebrews 10:22; Hebrews 12:24. Here it comes as an explanation of the paradox that the Servant of Jehovah was to bring in “many nations” into the holy city, and yet that the “uncircumcised and unclean” were not to enter it (Isaiah 52:1).
The kings shall shut their mouths... — The reverence, as in Isaiah 49:7; Job 29:9; Job 40:4, is that of silent wonder at the change which has passed over the suffering Servant. Wis. 5:1-5 presents an interesting parallel, the reference there being to the person of the ideal righteous sufferer. In that case, as in this, there was, so to speak, a transfiguration “beyond all that men looked for.”