Ver. 5. "_The Lord Jehovah hath opened mine ear, and I was not rebellious, and have not turned back._"
The phrases "to open or uncover the ear" have always the signification, "to make known something to some one," "to reveal to him something." "to inform him," both in ordinary circumstances (comp. 1 Sam. xx. 12; Ruth iv. 4), and on the religious territory, comp. 2 Sam. vii. 27: "For thou, Lord of Hosts, God of Israel, hast opened the ear of thy servant, saying: I will build thee an house;" Isa. xlviii. 8: "Thou heardest not, thou knewest not, nor was formerly thine ear opened;" chap. xlii. 20: "The ear was opened to him." According to this well established _usus loquendi_, "The Lord hath opened mine ear," can only mean: The Lord hath revealed to me, hath informed me inwardly; _Abenezra_: גלה סודו לי "He has made known to me His secret." What the Lord has made known to His Servant, we are not here expressly told; but it may be inferred from ver. 6, where the Servant declares that which, in consequence of the divine manifestation, He did, viz., that He should give His back to the smiters, &c. The words: "The Lord hath opened mine ear" here are connected with: "The Lord wakeneth mine ear, that I may hear," in the preceding verse: The Lord has specially made known to me that, in carrying out my vocation, I shall have to endure severe sufferings. _To this subject the Servant of God quickly passes over, after having, in the introduction, described, by a few features, the vocation, in the carrying out of which these sufferings should befal Him._ As the authors of these sufferings, we must conceive of the party opposed to the weary, viz., the proud, secure, unbroken sinners. On "I was not rebellious," compare what, in Deut. xxi. 20, is written of the stubborn and rebellious son who will not obey the voice of his father; and farther, the words: πλὴν οὐχ ὡς ἐγὼ θέλω ἀλλʼ ὡς σύ, Matt. xxvi. 39.
Ver. 6. "_I gave my back to the smiters, and my cheeks to the pluckers, I hid not my face from shame and spitting._"
The words express in an individualizing manner the thought, that the Servant of God, in His vocation as the Saviour of the _personae miserabiles_, would experience the most shameful and ignominious treatment, and would patiently bear it. In God's providence, part of the contents was literally fulfilled upon Christ. But the fact that this literal agreement is not the main point, but that it serves as a hint and indication only of the far more important _substantial_ conformity which would take place, although the hatred of the world against the Saviour of the poor and afflicted should have manifested itself in forms altogether different,--this fact is evident from the circumstance that regarding the fulfilment of the words: "and my cheeks to the pluckers"--plucking the cheeks, or plucking off of the beard being the greatest insult and disgrace in the East, comp. 2 Sam. x. 4--there is no mention in the New Testament history.