there is none, and their tongue faileth for thirst, &c.]
This is to be understood not literally, but spiritually;
not of their outward circumstances, though the people
of God are for the most part the poor of the world, and
in need of the good things of it, hungry and tllirsty, and
naked; but of their spiritual estate: as in Christ they
need nothing; but in themselves, and at different times,
and in different frames, want many things; as larger
discoveries of the love of God, fresh supplies of grace
from Christ, more spiritual light and liveliness, fresh
strength and comfort, fresh views of pardon and righte-
ousness, fresh food for faith, and more grace of every
sort to help them in their time of need; and which
they seek for at the throne of grace, and in public ordi-
nances, and sometimes they can find none, or it is a
long time ere they obtain any: they thirst after doc-
trine, as the Targum, after the word and ordinances,
and sometimes their circumstances are such, they can't
come at. them; after cotnmunion with God, and spi-
ritual comfort, and can't enjoy it, being in a place
where is no water; and after the blessings of grace,
and can have no application of them; see Psal. xlii. 1,
2. and lxiii. 1, 22. and lxxxiv. o,. this may represent in
a great measure the state of the church under the ten
persecutions of the Heathen emperors, or when obliged
to fly into the wilderness from the wrath of the dragon,
Rev. xii. 6, 14: I the Lord will hear them; their cries
and prayers, and answer them, andSupply their wants,
who is the Lord God Almighty, and can help them,
the Lord that changes not, and therefore they shall not
be consumed: I the God of Israel will not forsake them;
neither their persons, nor his work of grace upon them,
but will support them, and provide for them, and
carry on his work in. them; of which they may be
assured, because he is the God of Israel, their covenant
God and Father.
Ver. 18. I will open rivers in high places, &c.] Which
is not usual; but God will change the course of nature,
and work miracles, rather than his people shall want
what is necessary for them; thus he opens to them his
everlasting and unchangeable love, and makes it ma-
nifest, and shows it to them, and their interest in it,
which is a broad river, that cannot be passed over; this
is in high places, it flows from the throne of God, and
of the Lamb; and of this river of pleasure he makes his
people to drink, the streams whereof make glad the
city of our God; likewise the fifiness of grace in his
Son, whose grace is as rivers of water in a dry land,
exceeding abundant, and very refreshing; also the
graces of his Spirit, which he gives in great abundance,
and are those rivers of water he causes to flow forth
from them that believe in Christ, in the comfortable
exercise of them; see Psal. xxxvi. 8. anti xlvi. 4. Roy.
xxii. 1. Isa. xxxii. 2. John vii. 37, 38: andfountains iu
the midst of the valleys; God himself is the fountain
of life, and of living waters; Christ is the fountain of
gardens, and in him are wells of salvation; the grace
of the Spirit is a well of living water, springing up unto
eternal life; and of these, humble souls, comparable to
the lowly valleys, are partakers, Psai. xxxvi. 9. Cant.
iv. 15. Isa. xii. 3. John iv. 14. Jam. iv. 6: I will make
the wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land springs
of wetter; respecting either the Gentile world, which
was like a wilderness and dry land before the Gospel
came into it, but by that was watered and made fruit-
ful; or the state and case of tile people or' God being in
a wilderness condition, when the Lord takes notice of
them, and supplies them with every thifig necessary,
so that they are like a watered garden, whose springs
fail not, Ray. xii. 14. This passage is applied by the
Jews to the times of the Messiah ".
Ver. 19. I will plant in the wilderness the cedar, the
shittah4ree, &c.] Where such trees had not used to
grow, but in' Lebanon, and such-like places. The
shittah-tree is thought to be a kind of cedar; it is the
same of which is the shirtira-wood mentioned in Exod.
xxv. 5. and xxxv. 7, o,4. and is so called by the Targum
here: and the myrtle, and the oil-tree; about the former
there is no difficulty, and one would think there should
be none about the latter, and that the olive-tree is
meant; but Kimchi thinks that is not certain,and sup-
poses the pine-tree is meant; and observes that the
olive-tree is distinguished from this oil-tree in Neh. viii.
15. as indeed it is; and is by our translators there ren-
dered the pine-t'ree, which they take to 'be meant by
another Word in the next clause: I will set in the desert
the firtree, and the pine, and the box4ree together;
what we here render the pine the Targum interprets
it of the elm, and so the Vulgate Latin version: now by
all these are figuratively meant converted persons in
the Gentile world, iu whom as great a change was
wrought, as if, instead of briers and thorns, came up
such trees as these; and who, by the grace of God,
were made as goodly and beautiful as some of these
trees were; as odorous and of as sweet a scent in their
graces and duties as others; and as profitable and fruit-
ful in grace and good works like others of them; and
comparable to them, as being some of them ever-green,
durable, and incorruptible; because of their perseve-
rhnce in grace aad holiness.
Ver. o_0. That they may see, and know, and consider,
and understand together, &c.] Not the nations of the
world, as Kimchi; but rather, as Aben Ezra, the poor
and needy; who in all this, by subduing kingdoms and
states, their enemies, supplying their wants when in the
greatest distress, and in a marvelions manner, and con-
verting sinners, might easily perceive, and so frankly
own and acknowledge, as well as lay it to heart, and
lay it up in their minds, and get understanding from it:
that the hand of the Lord hath done this, and the holy
One of Israel hath created it; for the things before
said to be done carry in them plain marks of the hand
of the Lord, and are as clear proofs of his almighty
power, as what was done in the creation of all things;
such as a worm to be made a threshing-instrument, to
beat down mountains and hills, kingdoms and states,
and make tllem as chaff; rivers to be opened in high
places, and all manner of excellent trees to be planted
in a wilderness; and indeed the work of conversion is a
creation-work; men are by it made new creatures,
and are manifestly the workmanship of the hand of
God.
Ver. el. Produce your cause, saith the Lord, &c.]
The Lord having comibrted his people under their

{w} Bemidbar Rabba, sect. 1.4. fol. 212. 3.