Commentaries:
Adam Clarke
With the rich in his death "With the rich man was his tomb" - It may be necessary to introduce Bishop Lowth' s translation of this verse before we come to his very satisfactory criticisms: -
And his grave was appointed with the wicked;
But with the rich man was his tomb:
Although he had done no wrong,
Neither was there any guile in his mouth.
Among the various opinions which have been given on this passage, I have no doubt in giving my assent to that which makes the beth in bemothaiv radical, and renders it excelsa sua . This is mentioned by Aben Ezra as received by some in his time; and has been long since approved by Schindler, Drusius, and many other learned Christian interpreters.
The most simple tombs or monuments of old consisted of hillocks of earth heaped up over the grave; of which we have numerous examples in our own country, generally allowed to be of very high antiquity. The Romans called a monument of this sort very properly tumulus; and the Hebrews as properly bamoth , "high place," for that is the form of' the noun in the singular number; and sixteen MSS. and the two oldest editions express the word fully in this place, bamothaiv . Tumulus et collem et sepulchrum fuisse significat. Potest enim tumulus sine sepulchro interpretatione collis interdum accipi. Nam et terrae congestio super ossa tumulus dicitur . " Tumulus signifies a sepulcher with a hillock of earth raised over it. The word is sometimes restrained to the bank of earth; for the heaping up of the earth over the bones is named the tumulus." - Servius, Aen. 3:22. And to make the tumulus still more elevated and conspicuous, a pillar or some other ornament was often erected upon it: -
, ,
ͅ ͅ .
Odyss. sii. 14.
"A rising tomb, the silent dead to grace,
Fast by the roarings of the main we place;
The rising tomb a lofty column bore,
And high above it rose the tapering oar."
Pope
The tomb therefore might with great propriety be called the high place. The Hebrews might also call such a tomb bamoth , from the situation, for they generally chose to erect them on eminences. The sepulcher of Joseph of Arimathea, in which the body of Christ was laid, was upon a hill, Mount Calvary. See Isaiah 22:16 (note), and the note there.
"It should be observed that the word bamothaiv is not formed from bamoth , the plural of bamah , the feminine noun, but from bamothim , the plural of a masculine noun, bamoth . This is noted because these two nouns have been negligently confounded with one another, and absurdly reduced to one by very learned men. So Buxtorf, lex. in voc. bamah , represents bamotey , though plainly without any pronoun suffixed, as it governs the word arets following it, as only another form of bamoth ; whereas the truth is, that bamoth and bamothim are different words, and have through the whole Bible very different significations; bamah , whether occurring in the singular or plural number, always signifying a place or places of worship; and bamothim always signifying heights. Thus in Deuteronomy 32:13; Isaiah 58:14; Amos 4:13; and Micah 1:3, bamothey arets signifies ' the heights of the earth;' Isaiah 14:14, bamothey ab , ' the heights of the clouds;' and in Job 9:8, bamothey yam , ' the heights of the sea,' i.e., the high waves of the sea, as Virgil calls a wave praeruptus aqua mons, ' a broken mountain of water.' These being all the places where this word occurs without a suffix, the sense of it seems nearly determined by them. It occurs in other instances with a pronoun suffixed, which confirm this signification. Unluckily, our English Bible has not distinguished the feminine noun bamah from the masculine singular noun bamoth ; and has consequently always given the signification of the latter to the former, always rendering it a high place; whereas the true sense of the word appears plainly to be, in the very numerous passages in which it occurs, ' a place of worship,' or ' a sacred court,' or ' a sacred inclosure;' whether appropriated to the worship of idols or to that of the true God, for it is used of both, passive. Now as the Jewish graves are shown, from II Chronicles 32:33, and Isaiah 22:16, to have been in high situations, to which may be added the custom of another eastern nation from Osbeck' s Travels, who says, vol. 1 p. 339, ' the Chinese graves are made on the side of hills;' ' his heights' becomes a very easy metaphor to express ' his sepulcher.' " - Jubb.
The exact completion of this prophecy will be fully shown by adding here the several circumstances of the burial of Jesus, collected from the accounts of the evangelists: -
\ri720 "There was a rich man of Arimathea, named Joseph, a member of the sanhedrin, and of a respectable character, who had not consented to their counsel and act; he went to Pilate and begged the body of Jesus: and he laid it in his own new tomb, which had been hewn out of the rock, near to the place where Jesus was crucified; having first wound it in fine linen with spices, as the manner of the Jews was to bury the rich and great."
It has been supposed that kibro , his grave, and bemothaiv , in his death, may have been transposed, as also the prefix be originally placed before reshaim , the wicked. Thus: -
\trowd \trgaph108 \trleft-108 x1260 x2160 x3600 x4950
d
d \row \trowd \trgaph108 \trleft-108 x1260 x2160 x3600 x4950
d mothaiv eth bireshayim vaiyitten
d \row
d
d \row
d
d \row \trowd \trgaph108 \trleft-108 x1260 x2160 x3600 x4950
d kibro ashir veeth
d \row
d \qr
Yea, his death was appointed among the wicked,
And with a rich man, his tomb.
By these alterations it is supposed the text would be freed from all embarrassment. But see the preceding notes of Bishop Lowth, and the various readings of De Rossi, in loc.
Other Adam Clarke entries containing Isaiah 53:9:
Matthew 26:54
Matthew 27:60
John 19:42
Hebrews 5:12
1 Peter 2:22
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