Isaiah 40:13

A second question follows in Isa 40:13, Isa 40:14. "Who regulated the Spirit of Jehovah, and (who) instructed Him as His counsellor? With whom took He counsel, and who would have explained to Him and instructed Him concerning the path of right, and taught Him knowledge, and made known to Him a prudent course?" The first question called to mind the omnipotence of Jehovah; this recalls His omniscience, which has all fulness in itself, and therefore precludes all instruction from without. "The Spirit of Jehovah" is the Spirit which moved upon the waters at the creation, and by which chaos was reduced to order. "Who," inquires this prophet - "who furnished this Spirit with the standard, according to which all this was to be done?" תּכּן as in Isa 40:12, to bring into conformity with rule, and so to fit for regulated working. Instead of mercha tifchah athnach, which suggests the Targum rendering, "quis direxit spiritum? Jehova" (vid., Pro 16:2), it would be more correct to adopt the accentuation tifchah munach athnach (cf., Exo 21:24; Exo 23:9), and there are certain codices in which we find this (see Dachselt). In Isa 40:13 we might follow the Septuagint translation, καὶ τίς αὐτοῦ σύμβουλος ἐγένετο ὃς σύμβιβᾶ (Rom 11:34; Co1 2:16, συμβιβάσει) αὐτόν, but in this case we miss the verb היה. The rendering we have given above is not so harsh, and the accentuation is indifferent here, since silluk is never written without tifchahif only a single word precedes it. In Isa 40:14 the reciprocal נוע is connected with את = אם. The futt. cons. retain their literal meaning: with whom did He consult, so that he supplied Him with understanding in consequence (hēbhı̄n, generally to understand, here in a causative sense). The verbs of instruction are sometimes construed with ב…