Behold my servant, whom I have chosen; my beloved, in whom my soul is well pleased: I will put my spirit upon him, and he shall shew judgment to the Gentiles.
Ver. 18. Behold my servant] My servant the Messias, as the Chaldee Paraphrast renders and expounds it. The Septuagint somewhat obscure the text by adding to it, "Behold my servant Jacob, and mine elect Israel." They are said to have translated against their wills; no wonder then they deal not so faithfully. Sure it is, that they have perverted various clear prophecies concerning Christ; as this, for instance; which therefore our evangelist and the rest of the apostles allege not out of their translation but out of the Hebrew verity. The Latins drink of the puddles, the Greeks of the rivers, but the Hebrews of the fountains, said Johan. Reuchlin.
Whom I have chosen, my beloved, &c.] Ecce electum, dilectum. The Latins have a proverb, Deligas quem diligas. Choose for thy love, and then love for thy choice. God hath also chosen us in the Beloved, Ephesians 1:6, that we should be the beloved of his soul, or as the Septuagint there emphatically render it, "his beloved soul," Jeremiah 12:7; εδωκα την ηγαπημενην ψυχην μου, Dilectam animam meam, Vulgate.
And he shall show judgment] That is the doctrine of the gospel (whereby is conveyed into the heart that spirit of judgment and of burning, Isa 4:4), or the sweet effect of it, true grace, which is called judgment, a little below, Matthew 12:20 .