WL. CH AL
doings; becaufe of the fing of the inhabitants of ithe land of J/rae/: the defolation made by the kings of Afyria and Babylon, was for the idolatry of Ifrael and Fudab, and other fins; and the defolation made by the Romans, for the Fews rejection of the Meffiah.
¥.14. Feed thy people with thy rod, &cc.} Thefe are either the words of God the Father to Chrift,the great fhepherd of the fheep, calling upon him to do his of¢
‘fice as fuch; to feed the people he had given him, the converfion to Chrift, and embracing his gofpel;} fheep of his hand, the flock of his pafture, by his Spirit,
| and with his word and ordinances; fee Zech. xi. 5. or of Chrift to his minifters,his under-fhepherds, to feed his fheep and his lambs, the people committed to their care and charge, with wholefome words, with found and good doctrine, by faithfully preaching the gofpel, and adminiftring the ordinances to them: or rather the words of the prophet, a prayer-of his to God or Chrift, to take care of the people of God in their defolate ftate, in captivity; to guide and lead them, protect and defend them, by his power and providence, as a fhepherd directs, leads, governs, and preferves his flock with hig paftoral crook or rod; or as before, to feed the church of God as a fhepherd does his flock, lead them into good paftures, and fecure them from all their enemies: and this being a prayer of faith, may be confidered as a prophecy or prediction of what would be; and fo fome render the words, thou foalt feed thy people, &c*. The Targum is, ‘* feed
“¢ thy people with thy word, the people of thine ‘* inheritance, in the age which is to be renewed;” in the new world, the world to come; plainly referring to the times of the Meffiah. he flock of thine heritage, who are like to fheep for their harmleffnefs and innocence, and to a flock of them, being affociated together, and folded in the church; and tho’ but a little flock, yet the lot, the portion, the inheritance of Chriit; all which is a ftrong reafon for his feeding, keeping, and preferving them,
‘being committed ‘to his care and charge for that purpofe: which dwell folitary in the wood’; dwell
‘alone in the world; which is like a wood and a- wildernefs; feparated from the men of the world; diftinguifhed -by the grace of God, chofen and called out from among them, and different from them both in principle and practice: this may have refpeét tothe ews in their difperfion, living feparate from, and unmixed with the nations of the world; or rather to their dwelling in’ fafety and fecurity under the protection of the great fhepherd, the’Mefliah, David their prince, when they fhall be returned to their own land in the latter day: inthe midft of Carmel, or of a fruitful field, as Carmel was; enjoying all happinefs and profperity, temporal and {piritual: Je? them feed in Bafhan and Gilead, as inthe days of old; places in the.
‘and of J/rael famous for rich and fat pattures;
and fo exprefs the great plenty of good things withed for, and which will'be enjoyed, by the Fews when converted to Chrift, and replaced in their own land; and are an emblem of thofe fpiritual good things; and of thofe rich and green paftures of the word and ordinances, which the great fhepherd is defired to lead, and does lead “his people into; fee P/. xxiii, 1, 2. Ezek. xxxiv. 14. thefe placés are now in the hand of the Zur s, and fo the words may be.a‘petition for their converfion, as well as for the Yews, that this country may no more be inhabited by heathens, but by the J/rae/ of God, as Gulichius ‘ very well obferves.
¥. 15. According to the days of thy coming out of the land of Egypt, &c.| This is an anfwer of the Lord to the prayer of the prophet, affuring him, and the church he perfonates, and on whofe account he applies; that there would be as great a deliverance wrought for them, and as wonderful things done, as when J/rael was brought out of the land of Egypt, which was effected with a mighty hand, and an out-{tretched arm, and was attended with amazing events; as the plagues in Egypt; the paffage of the J/raelites through the Red-/ea, and the deftruétion of the Egyptians in it: will I foew unto him marvellous things; that is, unto the people of the Lord, the flock of his heritage, the folitary and peculiar people, fed and preferved by him: as the deliverance out of Egypt was the Lord’s work, fo the deliverance from Babylon; as the one was the work of his power upon the heart of Pharaoh to let the people go, fo the other as great an act of his power working upon the mind of Cyrus, ftirring him up to let the captives go free, without price or reward; yea, to furnifh them with neceffaries by the way, and to rebuild their city and temple: and as Pharaoh and his hoft were drowned in the Red-/ea, fo the kingdom of Babylon was {wallowed up by the Medes and Perfians, yea, in fome refpects the latter deliverance exceeded the former, and erafed the remembrance of it; fee Fer. Xvi. 14, 15. and that redemption by, Chrift, which both thefe were typical of, was greater and more marvellous than either, being a deliverance from, and an abolition and deftruction of fin, fatan, the law, hell, and death, and attended with things the moft wonderful and furprifing; as. the birth of Chrift of a virgin; the miracles:done by him in life, and at death; the doétrines of the gofpel preached by him and his apoftles, and the amazing fuccefs of them, efpecially in the Gentile world, being teftified and confirmed by figns, wonders, miracles, and gifts of the Holy Ghoft. This paflage, both by ancient and modern Jews *, is applied to the times of the Meffiah. So in an ancient ' book of theirs, fpeaking of the times of the Meffiah, they fay, ‘* from that day all the figns <* and wonders, and mighty works, which the *¢ Lord did in Egypt, he will do for J/raél, as it is _* faid, according to the days. of thy coming out of the _** land of Egypt, &c.” It is alfo faid by a modern writer ™ of theirs, ‘* becaufe of the miracles. © and wonders which fhall be in the days of the ** Meffiah, fuch as the gathering of the captives, “© the refurrection of the dead, and the deftruction ~“ of Gog and Magog, befides other miracles and ‘* wonders, the end of the redemption is called the ** end. of wonders in Dan. xii. 6. and this is that which God has promifed by his prophets, particularly Micah, ch. vii. 15. according to the days, ** &c, and from what follows, with the reft of the verfes to the end of the book, it is manifeft, that thefe promifes are not yet fulfilled, but will be fulfilled in the days of the Meffiah.” From whence it appears, that it was the fenfe of the ancient Yews, as well as fome modern ones, that miracles would be wrought in the days of the Meffiah; tho’ fome of them reject them, and look not for them; particularly Maimonides” fays, << let “¢ it not enter into thine heart, that the king Mef- ‘« fiah hath need to do figns and wonders; as that “¢ he fhall renew things in the world, or raife the ‘¢ dead, and the like; thefe are things which fools ‘¢ fpeak of; the thing is not fo.” certain it is, the ancient Yews expected miracles to be done by the Mefiah; hence fome, in the times of Fefus faid, when Chrift cometh, will he do more miracles than thefe which this man bath done? Fobn vii. 31. and accordingly the miracles Jefus did, were full proofs of his being the Meffiah, and were wrought for that purpofe, and owned as fuch; wherefore the above Yew, tho’ he is right in the application of this paflage to the times of the Meffiah, yet-is wrong in faying thefe promifes are not yet fulfilled, fince they have had a full, accomphifhment in the Meffiah-Jefus; nor is another to be looked for, or fuch miracles to be hereafter y. 16. The nations fhall fee, and be confounded at all their might, &c.] The Chaledans or Babylonians, when they fhall fee the wonderful things done by the Lord in the deliverance of his people out of their hands, fhall be afhamed of their own power and might, in which they trufted, and of which they boafted; but now fhall be baffled and defeated, and not able to ftop the progrefs of the arms of Cyrus, or detain the ews any longer their, captives; or they fhall be confounded at the — power and ftrength the Fews will have to repoffefs ». their land, rebuild their city and temple, under the encouragement and protection of the king of. Perfia; and,as this may refer to a further accomplifhmentin gofpel-times, it may refpect theconfufion » the Gentile world would be in at the mighty power and fpread of the gofpel, in the converfion of fuch multitudes by it, and in the abolition of the Pagaxz religion. Kimchi interprets this of the nations that fhall be gathered together with Gog and Magog againft Ferufalem in the latter day; fee Ezek. XXXViii. 15, 16, 23. and xxxix. 21. They fhall lay their hand upon their mouths be filent, and boait no more of themfelves; nor blafpheme God and his word; nor infult his people; nor contradiét his gofpel, or open their mouths any more againft his truths and his ‘ordinances: their ears fhall be deaf; hearing fo much of the praifes of God, of ° the fuccefs of his intereft, and of the happinefs of his people dinned in. their ears, they will be ftunned with it, and fcarce know what they hear; become deaf with the continual noife of it, which will be difagreeable to them; and will chufe to hear no. more, and therefore through envy and grief will-ftop their ears at what is told them,
y. 17. They fhall lick the duft like a ferpent, 8cc.
Whofe food is the duft of the earth, according to the curfe pronounced on it, Gea. iii. 14. and which is either its natural food it chufes to live on, as fome ferpents however are faid ° to do; or going upon its belly, it cannot but take in a good deal of the duft of the earth along with its food; and hereby: is fignified the low, mean, abject, and curfed eftate and condition of the feed of the ferpent, wicked and ungodly men, the enemies of Chrift and his people; who will be forced to yield fubjection to him and his church, and will pretend the moft profound refpect for them, and the high- fius fays, it is a cuftom in 4fa to this day, that eft veneration of them. The allufion feems to be to the manner. of the eaftern nations, who in complimenting their kings and great men, bowed fo low to the ground with their faces, as to take up with their mouths the very duft of it. Particularly it is faid of the Perfans, that they firft kifs the pavement on which the king treads, before they {peak unto him, as Quiforpius on the place relates; and Valerius Maximus ® fays, that when Darius Hyftafpis was, declared king by the neighing of his horfe, the reft of the fix candidates alighted from their horfes, and proftrated their bodies to the ground, as is the manner of the Perfians, and faluted him king; and Herodotus? obferves the fame cuftom among the Perfians; and to this cuftom the poet Martial ' refers; and Dru- when any go into the prefence of a king, they kifs the ground, which is a token of the great veneration they have for him. The phrafe is ufed of the enemies of the Meffiah, and of the converted Fews and Gentiles at the latter day, and is expreffive of their great fubmiffion to them; fee Pf, Ixxii. 9. If xlix. 23. They fhall move out of their holes like worms of the earth; who put out their heads, and draw them in again upon the leatt notice or approach of danger; or like ferpents, as Farchi and Kimchi, which lurk in holes, and creep out of them on tlfeir bellies, or any other creeping things. The word * here ufed fignifies a tremulous and: tumultuous motion, like the wriggling of a worm out of the earth; or the hurry of ants, when their ‘nefts are kicked or thrown up: this is expreflive of the confufion and perturbation of the enemies of the Lord and his people; of the Babylonians, who were obliged in a hurry to leave their palaces, as the Zargum and Aben Ezra interpret their holes, and their fortrefles and towers, and deliver them to the Medes and Perfians; and of Gog and ‘Magog, and the antichriftian ftates, who will be obliged to abandon their places of abode, -and creep out of fight, and be reduced to the loweft and meaneft condition. They shall be afraid of the Lord our God; becaufe of the glory of his majefty, the greatnefs of his power, and for fear of his judgments: and fhall fear becaufe of thee; O God, or Jjrael, as Kimchi; the church of God, whom they ‘defpifed and reproached before; but now fhall be feized with a pannic, and live in the utmoft dread of, becaufe of the power and glory of God in the midft of them, and left they fhould fall a facrifice to them.
¥. 18. Who is a God like unto thee, &c.| There is no God befides him, none fo great, fo mighty as he; none like him for the perfections of his nature; for the works of his hands; for the bleffings of his goodnefs, both of providence and grace; and particularly for his pardoning grace and mercy, as follows: shat pardoneth iniquity, that /ifts it up, and takes it away, as the word ' fignifies; thus the Lord has taken the fins of his people off of them, and laid them on Chrift, and he has bore them, and carried them away, as the antitype of the fcape-goat, never to be feen and remembred any more; and whereas the guilt of fin lies fometimes as an heavy burden upon their confciences, he lifts it up, and takes it away, by