V.L. Pagninusy Montanus,
this claufe by If lxi.5: and they hall tak
Fews; tho’ fome think that thefe were'fuch’ as ‘they? bought. of the Babylonians, that came with thet to be their fervants, and not they themfelves. It? may be underftood of Gentile converts in. golbels
‘times,’ who would willingly and chearfully
> in the fervice of the church of Ged, iad iy lanes ferve his people, and one another. Kimchi explains? } t | Si captives, whofe captives they were, and. they” a rule over their oppreffors; that is, the Babylomans, who had ‘carried the Fews captive, fhould be taken® captives by them, and made flaves of; which might be true of ‘thofe they bought of them, when 1
‘returned to their own land; or as fome think, this’
had its accomplifhment in the times of the Macca bees, when they conquered many people,’ who be-* fore had carried them captive, and opprefled them} and in. a‘ fpiritual and: my‘tical fenfe has been fulfilled in the times of the gofpel, thro” the fpread of it in. the Gentile world, by the miniftry of the apoftles, who were ¥éws; by which means many of the nations of the world were brought, to the obedience, of Chrift and his church, ©, ©
‘¥. 3. And it foall come to pafs in the day that the Lord foall give thee reff from thy forrow, 8cc.| In captivity, and on account of that, being out of ‘their own ‘land, deprived of the free exercife of their religion, and at a diftance from the houfe of God, ‘and continually hearing the reproaches and: blafphemy of the enemy, and fecing their idolatrous: practices, and their ungodly converfation; ail which muft. create forrow of heart to the fincere lovers
‘and worfhippers of God: and from thy fear, of worfe evils, moft cruel ufage,.and death itfelf, under’ ‘the terror of which they lived: and from the bard bon-» dage wherein thou waft made to ferve; as before in Egypt, fo now in Babylou; but what that was, is net particularly expreffed any where, as the former is, fee Exod. i. 13, 14. and when they had reft from all this: in their own land, then they fhould do as follows.
: ¥.4, That thou fhalt take up this proverb againft
the king of Babylon, &c.| Or concerning him, his? ‘fall, and the fall of the Babylonifh monarchy with: him; if we underftand this of any particular king: of Babylon, it feems beft not to interpret it of Nebuchadnezzar, whom Yerom mentions, in whom the empire was in its greateft glory; but of Belhazzar, in whom it ended; the king of Babylon may be here confidered as a type of antichrift, and what is faid of the one, may be applied to the other: the! proverb or parable taken up into the mouth, and exprefiéd concerning him,» fignifies a fharp and acute fpeech, a taunting one, full of ironies and. farcafms, and biting expreffions,. as the following one is. The Septuagint render it, a lamentations and the Arabic verfion, a mournful fong; but) as
‘this. was to be taken up by the church and pec of God, concerning their great enemy, whofe deftruétion is here defcribed, it may rather be ea a triumphant fong, rejoicing at his ruin, and in= fulting over him: and fay, how bath the opprefor ceajed! he who oppreffed us, and other * exacted tribute of us, and of others, and made us to ferve with hard bondage, how is he come to:
nothing? by what means is he brought to ruin? ‘by whom is this accomplifhed? who has been the _ author of it, and by whom effected? this is faid ‘as wondering how it fhould be ht about.
the feveral parts. of the world, called a golden cup, Jer. li. 7.. and the Babylonifh monarchy,, in the times of Nebuchadnezzar, was fignified by a golden head, Dau. ii. 32, 38. fo myftical Babylon, or the Romifh antichrift, is reprefented as decked with gold, and having a golden cup in her hand, and as a city abounding with gold, Rev. xvii. 4. and xviii. 16. The word here ufed is a Chaldee or Syriac word *, and perhaps is what was.ufed by themfelves, and is the name by which they called this city, and is now tauntingly returned; the word city is not in the text, but fupplied. Some render it tribute ¥, a, golden penfion, a tribute of gold, which was exacted of the nations in fubjection, but now ceafed; and when that tyrant and oppreffor, the Romifb antichrift, fhall ceafe, that tribute, which he exacts of the nations of the earth, will ceafe alfo, as tithes, firft-fruits, annates, Perer’s pence, &c. ¥. 5. The Lord hath broken the faff of the wicked, &c.] This is an anfwer to the above queftion, how the exactor and his tribute came to ceafe; this was not by man, but by the Lord himfelf;: for tho’ he made ufe of Cyrus, the work was his own, he broke the power of the wicked kings of Babylon: and the fcepter of the rulers; that were under the king of Badylon; or of the feveral kings themfelves, Nebuchadnezzgr, Evil Meredach, and Belfoazzar;, fo Kimchi interprets it. plied to the kingdom of antichrift, and the antichriftian ftates, which fhall be broken to fhivers as a potter’s veffel by Chrift, the King of Kings, and Lord of Lords, Rev. il..27. and xix. 15, 16. The fiaff and /cepter are emblems of power and government; and dreaking them fignifies the utter deftruction and ceffation of authority and dominion. - y. 6. He who fmote the people in wrath with a continual firoke, &c.| The king of Babylon, who made war with the people and nations of the earth, and conquered them, {mote them with the edge of the fword to gratify his paffions, and fatiate his blood-thirfty mind; and thofe that were fpared, he ruled with rigour, and oppreffed them with tribute and hard bondage; and when he had: conquered one nation, attacked another, and fo went on purfuing his victories without intermiffion, giving no refpite neither to his army, nor to the people: he that ruled the nations in anger, not with juftice and clemency, but in a tyrannical and oppreffive way, even his own nation, as well as the nations whom he fubdued: is perfecuted, is purfued by the juftice of God, overtaken and feized, and brought to condign punifhment: and none hindereth; the execution of the righteous judgment upon him; none of the neighbouring kings and nations, either tributary to him, or in alliance with him, give him the leaft,help or affiftance, or attempt to ward off the blow upon him, given him, under the direction and appointment of God, by Gyrus the Perfian, So the Romifh antichrift, who has made war with the faints, and has {mitten them with the fword, and gone on to do fo without any intermiffion for ages together, and has tyrannized over them in a moft cruel manner, he fhall be perfecuted, and taken, and brought to his end, and there fhall be none to help him; fee Rev. xiii. 4, 10. Dan. xi. 45.
¥. 7. The whole carth is at reft, and is quiet, &c.
The troubier of them being gone; and whith will be the cafe of the people of God, who in the latter
1A. H. ig day will fill the face of the earth, when the beaft and falfe prophet will be taken and caft alive into the lake of fire; and efpecially when fatan fhall be bound, and put in prifon for a thoufand years, that he may deceive the nations no more, ° Rev. XIX. 20, and xx. 2, 35 they break forth into finging; thatis, the inhabitants of the earth, becaufé of the fall of the king of Babylon, they being delivered from fo great a tyrant.or oppreflor; or, u/ler a Jong of praife, as the Targum. Aben Ezra fays, the word in the drabdic language is expreffive of clear nefs, and fo it does fignify to fpeak purely, clearly, and fluently, with open mouth, and a clear voice *; it is rendered in P/- xcviii. 4. make a loud noife, by finging a joyful fong; and fuch a fong will be fung by the church, when the myftical Babylon is fallen; fee Rev. xv. 2,.3. ‘and xix. 1, 2: ¥. 8. Yea, the fir-trees rejoice at thee, and the cedars of Lebanon, &c.] Which by a profopopwia are reprefented as finging and rejoicing, as inanimate creatures often are in {cripture, thefe being now in no danger of being cut down, to make way for his armies; fee J/ xxxvii. 34. or to furnith him with timber for fhipping, or building of houfes: or elfe thefe words are to be underftood metaphorically of kings and princes of the earth, comparable to fuch trees, for their height, ftrength, and fubftance; fee Zech. xi. 2. who would now be no longer in fear of him, or in fubjeGtion to him. So the Targum, “ the rulers alfo rejoiced over *€ thee, the rich in fubftance faid;” not only the common people, the inhabitants of the earth, as before, but the princes of it rejoiced at his ruin; and fo will the kings of the earth rejoice at the deftruction of the whore of Rome, when they fhall hate het, eat her flefh, and burn her with fire; tho’ others, that have committed fornication with _ her, will lament her cafe, Rev. xvii. 16. and xviii. g: faying, fince thou art laid down; or art afleep*, that is, dead; it being ufual in the eaftern nations to exprefs death by fleep: wo feller is come up againft us; or cutter of wood, to whom the king of Babylon is compared, for cutting down nations, and bringing them into fubjection to him, in whofe heart it was to deftroy and cut off nations, not a few; being as an ax in the hand of the Lord, whereby trees, large and high, were cut. down; fee If. x. 5, 7, 15. but now, fince this feller of wood was gone, the ax was laid afide, and broke to pieces, there was none to give the nations any difturbance; and fo it will be when antichrift is deftroyed, there will be no more petfecution of the church and people of God. J y. 9. Hell from beneath is moved for thee, &c.] Or the grave, or the place and ftaté of the dead, and particularly of the damned, meaning thofe that are in fuch a place and ftate, and the fenfe is, that not only the inhabitants of the earth, and the trees upon it, exprefs their joy at the fall of the king of Babylon, but thofe that are under the earth, in the grave, or in hell, are affected with it, and moved on account of it; not with fear and dread, as they were in his and their life-time, as Kimchi fuggefts; but they are reprefented as in motion, and that as attended with a great noife, becaufe of the multitude of them, upon hearing of his death, and his entrance into the regions of the dead: ¢¢ meet thee at thy coming; as kings ufed to be met when they, and as.he ufed to be, when he, entered inte
_ * plas per!picuo, puriore fermone fuit, fluida oratione difertus fuit,—diferte, eleganter locutus eft Cattel. col. 3040.
into any city ‘thar was taken; to. falute him, and congratulate him upon’ his entrance into the dark regions of death, thésgrave, and: hell 5 a biting farcaim:: it firreth up the dead for thee3-the dead that are in it, in:hell or the grave; notito oppofe him, ‘but:to welcome him’ into theirs parts,” as. being now.one of them, and to be: joined’ to. their company; hell or the grave is faid to:roufe them, as if they were afleep, and:took no! notice of the death of fo great a monarch; who was juft making his public entry among thems The word Rephaim here ufed, is fometimes rendered giants,as in Deut. ii. 11,20, and archi interprets it of the Anakim; and fo the Zargum, “ it raifeth up unto thee mighty “ men;” for not the common people among the dead, but the princes and:great ones of the earth, whom the: Baéylonien monarch had fubdued ‘and flain,. and to whom. he: was’ well known,.are intended, as appears by. what follows’: even all the chief ones of the earth; or the great goats; the leaders ‘and- commanders» of; the people, who as ‘goats go before and lead the flock, fo they the people.. The Targum calls them, ‘‘ all the rich in ** jubftance;?? who were perfons of wealth, power, and authority when on earth: it bath raifed up from their thrones all the kings of the nations’; to offer in a jeering manner their thrones'to him, who had been obliged in their life-time, and-his, to furrender to him their crowns, ‘and thrones, ‘and kingdoms; but by their thrones here, are meant their fepulchres, built, as many of them were, in-great pomp and {plendor;, for kings: at death have no other thrones but their graves. ben Ezra fays, it was the cuftom of the Babylonians to. fet thrones in the fepulchres of their kings..
y. 10. ll they fall fpeak, and fay unto thee, &c. | So they would fay, could they fpeak, and are here reprefented as if they did = art thou become alfo weak as we? who had been more’ powerful than they, had been too many for: them, and had fubdued them, and ruled over them, and was not only looked upon as invincible, but as immortal, yea, as a deity; and yet now was become fick, as the word ° fignifies, or by ficknefs brought to death, and by death enfeebled and rendered weak and: ftrengthlefs, ftript of all natural ftrength, as well as of all civil power and authority: art thou become like unto us? who thought himfelf, and was flattered by others, that there were none like unto him; but now as the reft of the dead, and upon a Jevel with them. So will it be with the Romifh antichritt, who now exalts himfelf above all that is called God, and reigns over the kings of the earth, and fhows himfelf as if he was God, and of whom his parafites fay, who is like unto the beaft? who is able to make war with him? when he fhall be confumed by Chrift, and caft into the lake of fire with the devil and falfe prophet, he'll be like the kings of the earth deceived by him, and the reft of the worfhippers of him, and be as weak as they, 2 Fheff i. 4,8. Rev. xiii. 4. andxxi 10.
y. 11. Thy pomp is brought down to the grave, ~ &c.] Or bell; all the ftate’ and majefty in which he appeared, when fitting on the throne of his kingdom, with a glittering crown on his head, a {ceptre in his hand, clad in the richeft apparel, and attended by his princes and nobles with the utmoft reverence and fubmiffion; all this, with much more, followed hin: to the regions of the dead, and there it left him 5, fee P/. xlix..17: and the noife of thy