him came an abundance of blessings of rich grace, even
all spiritual blessings, peace, pardon, righteousness,
salvation, and eternal life, which were poured down
from above upon the sons of men; thus the Holy
Ghost, the spirit of prophecy, proceeds at once from
Cyrus to Christ, from the type to the antitype, from
the temporal redemption of the Jews to the spiritual
redemption of the Lord's people; and these words are
to be considered, not as a petition of,he prophet, or of
the church, for the coming of Christ, and salvation by
him; but a promise and prophecy of it. Aben Ezra
and Kimchi take them to be an address to the angels of
heaven to assist in the affair of the salvation of Israel;
these did drop down or descend, even a great mul-
titude of them, at the incarnation of Christ, and pub-
lished the good tidings of good things that came byhim:
let the earth open, and let them bring .forth salvation; or
the Saylout, as the Vulgate Latin version; Christ the
author of salvation, who was appointed to be the sal-
vation or Saviour of his people, who came to effect it,
and has obtained it; heaven and earth were both
concerned in bringing forth this fruit of righteousness
and salvation, as the word ø rendered bring forth signi-
fies; see Isa. iv. 2. Christ was the Lord from heaven, and
yet made of a woman in the lowest parts of the earth:
Christ, who is the truth, sprung out of the earth; and
he, who is the author of righteousness, looked down
from heaven, Psai. lxxxv. 11. and it follows: let righte-
ousness spring up together; or bud forth {p{ as a branch;
one of the names of the Messiah, frequent in prophecy:
I the Lord have created it; or that, both righteousness
and salvation; or Christ as man, the author of both,
whom God appointed, and raised up, and sent to be
the Redeemer and Saviour of his people. The Targum
interprets this of the resurrection of the dead, para-
phrasing the whole thus; "let the heavens from above
"minister, and the clouds flow with good; let the earth
"open, and the dead revive; and let righteousness be
"revealed together; I the Lord have created them."
Ver. 9. Woe unto him that striveth with his Maker,
&c.] That contends with him, enters into a con-
troversy, and disputes with him, or iitigates a point
with him; quarrels with his purposes and decrees;
murmurs and repines at his providences, and finds
fault with his dispensations: this seems to have re-
spect to the murmurs, quarrels, and contests of the
Jews about Christ, the author of righteousness and sal-
vation, when he should appear: let the potsherd strive
with the potsherds'of the earth; let men strive with
men, who are as earthen vessels made of the same mass
and lump, and so are upon an equal foot, and a match
for each other; but let them not have the insolence
and vanity to strive with their Maker, who, as he has
made them, can dash them in pieces as a potter's
vessel: shall the clay say/to him that fashioneth it, what
makes, thou ? yet this might be said with as much
propriety and justice as that the Jews should quarrel
with God for not sending the Messiah as a temporal
prince to rescue them from the Roman yoke; but in a
mean and humble manner, in the form of a .servant, as
a man of sorrows, and acquainted with griefs; and, at
last, became obedient to the death of the cross, the
way in which he was to be the Saylout of men: or thai
work, he hath no hands ? or thus, or Shy work say unto
thee, he, the potter, hath no hands; no power nor skill
to make me; I can make myself: as weakly, as
wickedly, and as foolishly did the Jews, seeing no need
of the $aviour sent them, nor of his righteousness and
salvation, argue for justificat:,on by their own works,
and in fayour of their self-sufficiency to work out their
own salvation. The Targum takes the words to be
spoken to idolaters, and paraphrases the former part
thus; "woe to him who thinks to contend in judg-
"meritagainst the words of his Creator, and trusts that
"earthen images shall profit him, which are made out
"of,he dust of the earth," &c.; and there are many in-
terpreters who think they are spoken against the ido-
latrous Babyloninns, particularly against Belshazzar, as
Kimchi; and others, against Astyages, a king of
Persia, who was angry with the father and mother
of Cyrus, and sought to have slain him as soon as
born {q}.
Ver. 10. Woe ttnto him that saith unto his father,.
what begettest thou ? &c.] That quarrels with him,
and.complains of him, because he was not of the other
sex, or not so wise, or so rich, or so handsome, as
others: or to the woman; disdaining to call her mother:
what hast thou brought .forth? equally as absurd and
impious it was in the Jews to quarrel with Christ for
his conversation with sinners, and the reception of
them; or for the regeneration of such persons; or to
find fault with God for the conversion of the Gentiles,
and resent it, and be angry at it, as they were; see
Rom. x. 19, 20. 1 Thess. ii. 16.
Ver. 11. Thus saith the Lord, the holy One of Israel,
and his Maker, &c.] He whose name alone is Jehovah,
who is glorious in holiness, the Sanctifier of his people,
and the Maker of them, both as creatures, and new
creatures: ask me of things to come concerning my sons,
and concerning the work of my hands command ye me;
these words are not spoken to idolaters, or the idolatrous-
Jews, or those of them that were inclined to idolatry;
directing them to ask of the Lord, and not of their
idols, things to come, which they were not able to
shew, and to seek to him for, and insist upon the per-
formance of his promises to them, his children, and
creatures; but to the spiritual Israel of God, as the
preface shews, directing them to inquire after things
future, concerning his children and people, especially
among the Gentiles, whom the carnal Jews despised;
and to expect, and believe,. and even as it were da-
mand the performance of them, being promised and
prophesied of: there are some who are the sons of
God, not by creation only, or by natural birth, or by
desert, or merely by profession, but by adopting grace;
which is a very great and excellent privilege, preferable
to civil or national adoption, or to the highest rank
sfsonshipamong men; a blessing which continues-for
ever, and entitles to eternal. life: and these become the
work of the Lord's hands in regeneration; they are

{o} \^evy wrpy\^ fructificent, Vatablus; edant fractum salutis; Junius 
& Tremellius.
{p} \^xymut\^ germinare faciet, Pagninus, Montanus, Vatablus, proger-
minet germen, Vitringa
{q} Vid. Abendana in Miclol Yophi in loc.