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This fact had been revealed before,-that after or at the judgment of this great adversary, God would again restore to their former station the nation of the Israelites, which he had previously cast away; and whose privileges he had given to "a foolish people," made wise by his instruction, but afterwards corrupt and apostate.

And I will thoroughly refine away thy dross,
And I will remove all thy alloy :

26. And I will restore thy judges as at the first,
And thy rulers as at the beginning.

After this thou shalt be called,

City of the Just 'One,'-Faithful city.

27. Zion shall be redeemed with judgment,

And her captivity with justice:

28. And then shall be the destruction of transgressors and sinners,

And they that have forsaken Jehovah shall be consumed. 29. For the oaks that ye praised shall wither,

And ye shall be ashamed of the gardens ye chose.

A new picture, I conceive, of the destruction of Israel's great mortal adversary, with an exposure of the vanity of their false worship; including, however, the corrupt por, tion of Israel itself:

30. Surely ye shall be as an oak whose leaf is blasted, And like a garden that hath no water:

31. And the strong shall be as tow, And his work for a spark of fire;'

1 We might, perhaps, render: And the solid trunk shall be as tow,

And its produce for a spark of fire.

on is used, Amos, ii. 9, for the

strength of the oak; at least for that quality, which was as specific in the oak as height was in the cedar. The great flammability of tow is the point of comparison. by, opus, quod paratur.

And they shall burn both of them together,

And none shall quench them.

This cannot apply to Israel generally, if we are right in referring it to the last times; for Israel is then to be redeemed but the destruction of the last enemy by fire, is the burden of every prophecy. This, then, is the sworn judgment of Almighty vengeance in "the song of remembrance." What follows is an exact comment upon the conclusion of that song-" When he shall have rendered vengeance to his enemies, and shall have absolved his land and his people;" which confirms the plication here given of this Scripture: -

ii.2. And it shall come to pass in the last days,

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That the mountain of Jehovah's house shall be established,
As the chief of the mountains, and exalted above the hills;

And all nations shall flow unto it,

3. And numerous peoples shall go and say,

"Come, and let us go to the hill of Jehovah,
To the house of the Elohim of Jacob:

That he may teach us his ways,
And that we may walk in his paths:

For out of Zion shall go forth a law,

And the command of Jehovah from Jerusalem:

4. And he shall govern' among the nations,
And shall decide for numerous peoples:

And they shall beat their swords into ploughshares,
And their spears into pruning hooks:

"Verbum judicandi Hebræis, per synecdochen, pro 'gubernare' vel regere accipitur."-CALVIN. ad

locum. "And he shall govern among the nations."-HORSLEY.

Nation shall not lift up sword against nation,
Neither shall they learn war any more."

99

This is a clear explanation why the nations are to rejoice with the people of Israel after the destruction of the great adversary, and after the restoration of their country. Zion and Jerusalem are to be the great source of spiritual blessedness to the whole world. This "city of Jehovah" is represented as the grand centre and emporium of civil and religious power, whither all nations resort for their laws and government." He shall reign in Jerusalem unto the ends of the earth." One happy effect of this reign of the Prince of Peace, as was before foretold in the Psalms, is the entire and final extinction of war: and may we not say, also, of those lusts in mankind, "whence come wars and fightings amongst us?" What a pleasing view is this of that "golden age," that is again to bless this earth!

5. O house of Jacob, come ye,

And let us walk in the light of Jehovah.

Is not this as much as to say, let us avail ourselves of the information which the oracles of Jehovah have given us respecting these subjects?

What follows is obscure; but, upon the whole, I have confidence in the application here given :

6. Surely thou hast spread abroad' thy people, O house of Jacob,

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For they are filled up' from the east:

But they are diviners, like Philistines,
And they abound with the children of strangers:

7. And his land is full of silver and gold,
And there is no end of his treasures:

His land also is full of horses,

And there is no end of his chariots:

8. And his land is full of idols;

They bow down to the work of their hands, To that which their own fingers have made. 9. Ay, the mean man boweth down,

And the great man humbleth himself;
And thou wilt not forgive them.*

I believe there is something particular in the expression, "Thou hast spread abroad thy people, O house of Jacob"or" thou hast spread thy shoots far and wide," I conceive the people of the house of Jacob to be their professed proselytes among the Gentiles; that is, converts to their religion, as fulfilled by the first mission of the

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Messiah, and taught by his disciples-the Gentile nations professing the Gospel. This is the "fulness of the nations," as St. Paul calls them, which fill up the dreadful chasm, made by the rejection of so many of the natural descendants of Abraham. These are considered as branches propagated by the house of Jacob, as an immense posterity, teeming from the east towards the west. If this be correct, and, I think, subsequent prophecies will make it probable, the seventh and following verses must be applied to the churches of the west, contemplated at the eve of the second advent. The description, indeed, of their wealth, and especially of the multitude of their horses and chariots, could hardly apply to the remnant of Judah, before the Babylonian captivity, or before that of the Romans: but the whole is remarkably characteristic of modern Europe; and over the greater part of its nations, professedly the people of Israel's God, idolatry in its grossest forms prevails. Can we forbear to think, that "this is the city to be destroyed," when Jehovah ariseth?

10. Go into the rock,

And hide thee in the dust;

From the terrible presence of Jehovah,
And from the glory of his majesty.

11. He hath made low the lofty looks of man,
He hath bowed down the pride of mortals;
And Jehovah alone is exalted in that day.

12. Surely it is' the day of Jehovah Sabaoth-
Against every thing that is high, and it falleth;'
Against every thing that is exalted, and it is made low!

, as the parallelism demands, I derive from 77, and not from .

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