Exposition of the Whole Bible

from the Lord of hofts, which dweileth in mount Zion Chrift, as man and mediator, is from him, es all that befal him is according to his determina~ tion, will, and pleafure; his children, and their be. ing children, and given to him; and whatfoever they have, or whatioever they meet with, and befal them, is all from the Lord; and this may. ferve to comfort them, that the Lord of bofts, of armies in heaven and in earth, is for them, and on their fide, and therefore need not fear any that fhall be againft them; and that he dwelleth in mount

Zion, the church, which he has chofen for his reft,

¥. 19. And when they foall fay unto yo, &c.}

Thefe are the words of Chrift continued, as making his appearance in J/rae/; and are an addrefs to his people among them, even to his children, difcipless and followers, advifing them what they fhould do, when thofe among whom. they dwelt fhould prefs them to feek unto them that have familiar [pirits, and unto wizards, that peep, and that mutter; meaning the Scribes and Pharifees, the doétors among the Jews, who fat in Mo/es’s chair, and who were very much given to forcery, and the magic art, and ufed enchantments, which were performed by mué« tering; hence we read of muttering over a wound for the healing of it; and muttering over ferpents and fcorpions at the driving of them away’; and of fuch a Raddi muttering in the name of fuch an one*; and of fuch and. fuch a doétor {killed in wonders or miraculous operations; fee the note on Matt. xxiv. 24. yea, even fuch as were chofen into the Sambedrin or great council, were to be {killed in the arts of foothfayers, diviners, and wizards, and the like, that they might know how to judge them *; now the Fews would have had the difciples of Chrift to have applied to thefe men to direct their judgments in religious affairs, and be determined by them concerning the Meffiah and other things: should not a poople feck unto their God? to Chrift, who is the Lord God omnifcient and omnipetent, who knows all things, and whofe name is called wonderful, counfellor, the angel of the great council; and who is able to give the beft peu and direction in matters of moment and) confequence, and able to do every thing for his people they ftand in need of; and who being prefent with them, God manifeft in the flefh, it would be egregious folly to apply to any other, and efpecially fuch as are here defcribed; fee ohn vi. 68 > the living to the dead? that is, fhould men ck fuch who are no other than dead men, for the fak or on the account of fuch who are living? The difciples of Chrift, the children that God had given him, were quickened and made alive by the grace of God, had principles of grace and ipirjaloeane implanted in them, had paffed from death, to life, lived by faith on Chrift, lived holy lives, and were heirs of eternal life; and therefore it does not become them, nor any of them, to confult perfons dead in trefpaffés and fins, who knew no more and were no more capable of judging Ba Fila things, than dead men are, See 1 Cor. il. 145 15+. y. 20. To the law, and to the teftimony, &c.] Kimchi takes this to be an oath, dy the law, ¢ the teftimony, it is fo and fo; but ferves, there is no inftance of this ki ture; it is a direction of Chrift’s to his z to attend to the writings of Mo/es and the pe: st “4 is Oy a race

phets, to fearch the {criptures, as in Yobm v. 39. the prophecies of the Old Teftament, and their re- and particularly what is before faid in this prophecy concerning himielf, the fame is meant as on y. 16: if ye {peak not according to this word; this fure word of prophecy, to which men do well to take heed, as to a light fhining in a dark place, it being the rule of faith and praétice, a lamp to the feet, and alight to the path: it is decaufe there is no light in them, that is, in them that fpeak not according to it, meaning the Scribes and Phariftes; who rejecting the written word, fet up the traditions of the elders above it, and taught the people to walk according to them; and {fo were, as our Lord fays, blind leaders of the blind, Matt. xv. 14. or the words may be read, if wot; if they will not regard the feriptures, and the evangelical doétrine in them, and the teftimony they give concerning Chritt; let them [peak according to this word or inftruction, and counfel, they have from the Scribes and Pharifees; in which there is no light®; but the darknefs of ignorance, infidelity, fuperftition, and will-worfhip; or xo morning; but a night of Fewifh darknefs, even tho’ the fun of righteoufhefs was rifen, and the day-fpring from on high had vifited the earth; yet they had received no light and knowledge from him, which was their condemnation, Fobn i. 4,5. and iii. 19, 20. or thus, to the law, and to the teftimony, tho’ they may fay after this manner, there is no light in it*; in the law and teftimony, preferring the traditions, decifions, and determinations of their doctors, above it. No/ldius 4 renders the words thus, /eeing they [peak not according to this word, certainly they fhall have no morning; that is, feeing the feducers and falfe teachers in the preceding verfe, fpeak not according to the word of God, and teftimony of Jefus, they fhall have no morning of light and joy, of grace and comfort, or any fpiritual felicity; Chrift will be no morning to them, but they will continue in their dark, benighted, and miferable condition, defcribed in the following verfe.

¥. 21. And they fhall pafs thro’ it, &c.] The land, as the Targum and Kimchi fupply it; that is, jection of the Meffiah: hardly beftead and hungry 3 put to the greateft difficulty to get food to eat, and famifhing for want of it; which fome underftand of the time when Sennacherib’s army was before Ferufalem, as Aben Ezra but it feems. betters with others, to refer it to the times of Zedekiah, when there was a fore famine, Jer, lii. 6, tho’ beft of all to the befieging of Feru/alem by the Romans, and the times preceding it, Matt. xxiv. 7, 21, 22. and it may alfo be applied to the famine of hearing; the word before that, when the gofpel, the kingdom of heaven, was taken from them, for their contempt of it: and it foall come to pafs, when they foall. be hungry; either in a temporal fenfe, having no food for their bodies; or in a myftical fenfe, being hungry often, and earneftly defirous of the coming of their vainly-expected Meffiah, asa temporal Saviour of them: they fhall fret themfelves s for want of food for their bodies, to fatisfy their hunger; or becaufe their Meffiah does not come to help them: and curfe their king, and their God 5 the true Meffiah, who is the king of Jrael, and God manifeft in the flefh, whom the unbelieving ews called accurfed, and blafphemed;. and. look upwards; to heayen, for the coming of another Meffiah, but in vain; or for food to eat.

¥. 22. And they fhall look unto the earth, &c.] As perfons in diftrefs, upwards and downwards, backwards and forwards, on the right hand and on the left, particularly into the land of Fudea; a land that ufed to flow with milk and honey, a land of light, plenty, and profperity: and behold trouble and darknefs, adverfity, and miferies of all kinds, expreffed by a variety of words; and even words fail to exprefs the tribulation of thefe times, which were fuch, as were not from the beginning of the world, Mati. xxiv. 22: dimnefs of anguifh; or fleeing from affliftion®, multitudes every where fleeing from one place to another, to avoid the calamities coming upon them, Matt. xxiv, 16— 20: and they fhall be driven to darkne/s; when they endeavour to efcape one calamity, they fhall the’ land of ‘fudea, as Aben Ezra interprets it. Here begins an account of the punifhment that be driven and fall into another;..the whole land fhall be full of nothing elle.

fhould be infli€ted on the Fews, for their neglect of

HIS chapter contains a prophecy, partly of comfort to the church and people of God, againft the calamities predicted in the preceding chapter; and partly of punifhment, to be inflicted upon the ungodly J/raelites by their enemies. The comfort promifed arifes from the appearance of Chrift, the great light, in fome certain places of the land mentioned, faid before to be afflitted, ¥. 1, 2. which would occafion a joy among them; illuftrated by fome fimilies, by the joy in harvett, and at the dividing of fpoils, ¥. 3. the caufe of which is a deliverance from a burdenfome yoke of tyranny and bondage, wrought in like manner as that by Gideon formerly, different from all other falyations, which are ufually obtained with. noife and’ blood, ¥. 4, 5. the author of which is the Meffiah; who is defcribed by his birth as man, and by his divine fonfhip as God; or by his perfon, fin minus, dicant fecundum verbum iftud, cui non eft is, nihil lucis effe, Oleafterin Bootius. ¢E having two natures united in him.;. and by. the go+ vernment devolved on him; and,,.by his feveral names, which exprefs the greatnefs and glory..of his perfon and office; and by the increafe and ‘ad miniftration of his government, ¥..6;.7.. then follows a denunciation of judgment on J/rael, y¥. 8. the inftruments of which are pointed at, ¥. 11, 12. and the perfons defcribed that fhould fuffer, high and low, rich and poor, young and old, y. 14, 15, 17. the. reafons of it, their making light of former corrections, ¥. 9, 10. their impenitence and hardnefs under chaftenings, ¥..13. their going a- {tray by means of their leaders; and their hypocrify and wickednefs, y. 16, 17, 18. all which would occafion the wrath of God to burn againft

| hunger and want of provifions, fhould deftroy one another, ¥. 205 21. sift te x. 2. Neverthele/s, the dimnefs thall net be fuch as was in her vewation, &c.| The words may be rendered, for there fhall be no wearine/s to him that freightens or afflicts them‘; fo Farchi, who interprets it of the king of Afyria; but it is better to underftand it of Titus Ve/pafian, who, would not be weary of, but indefatigable in carrying on the fiege of Ferufalem, and in diftrefling the Fews in all parts: or thus, for there fhall be no fleeing from him that ts oppreffed in it © 5. either that is befieged in Feru alem, or diftreffed in Fudea; and fo the words are a reafon of the former diftrefs, and a continuation and amplification of it; tho’ many interpreters think they are to be underftood by way of comfort, and asa mitigation of it, which is the fenfe of our verfion: when at firft he lightly afflicted the land of Zebulon, and the land of Naphtali, either by Pul king of Afjria, in the reign of Menahem king of J/rael, 2 Kings xv. 19, 20. or rather by Yilgath-pilnezer king of Afiria, in the reign of Pekah king of J/- rael, fince by him Galilee, and all the land of Napbtali, were carried captive, 2 Kings xv. 29. which at the time of this prophecy was paft, and was but a light affliction in comparifon of what followed: and afterwards did more grievoufly offic? her; by Salmanefer king of Affjria, in the reign of Hofbea king of Jrael, who took Samaria, and carried J/- vael or the ten tribes into captivity, from whence they returned not; and yet it is fuggefted, that the tribulation and diftrefs that fhould come upon the Fews by the Romans, fhould be greater than the heavieft of thefe; there fhould be no fleeing, no efcape, no not of any, as at thofe times mentioned, but wrath fhould come upon them to the uttermoft, and particularly in the places following: dy the way of the fea; which fome underftand of the Mediterranean fea, and of that part of the land of J/rae/ which lay next it; but it feems rather to defign the fea of Tiberias or Galilee, as Farchi rightly interprets it: beyond Fordan, a part of the land of Jfrael fo called, known by the name of Perea; fee Matt. iv.25. andthe note there: im Galilee of the nations; which was inhabited not only by ews, but. by perfons of other nations, and therefore fo called; now thefe places fuffered much in the wars between the Jews and the Romans, by fkirmithes, fieges, robberies, plunders, Gc. as appears from the hiftory of Yo/ephus. Some interpreters underftand all this, as before obferved, as an alleviation of thofe times of trouble, as if it would be lefs than-ih fofmer times; but it is certain that it was to. be, and was, greater than ever was known, Matt. xxiv21, 22. itis true indeed, it may be,confidered as an alleviation of it, and as. affording fome'comfort ina view of it, that in thofe very parts where there fhould be fo much diftrefs and. mifery, the Mefjiah, previous to it, would appear, and honour it with his prefence,.who is afterwards fpoken of; and fo, in connexion with the following words, thefe may be rendered thus, as by De Dieu, but obfcurity fhall not be brought to it (the land) to which difirefs is brought, as at the firft time he caufed reproach towards the land of Zebulon, and towards the land of Naphtaliy fo in the laft (time) he will give glory by the way of the fea, beyond Fordan, on the border of the nations: andif it be afked what that glory fhould. be?.the anfwer. is, the people that walked in darkne/s, &c. and fo the fenfe may be, that whereas the inhabitants of Zebulon and Napb- éali, and all Galilee, were lightly efteemed of, be- fq pyi swind Ay wd 15, quia non defatigatio ei anguftanti eos. Quidam in Gataker; fo Jarchi.

* Et non poterit avolare de anguftia fua, Hieron. *