return from it; also the incarnation of Christ, his obe-
dience and sufferings, and the glory that should follow;
his resurrection, ascension, and session at the right hand
of God; the work of redemption by him; the effusion of
the spirit; the spread of the Gospel among theGentiles,
and their conversion; and others which are now not
yet done; as the conversion of the Jews in the latter
day, and the bringing lathe fulness cf the Gentiles; the
glory of the church in those tinges as to knowledge,
peace, purity, power, and authority; the destruction
of antichrist; and the second coming of the Messiah;
all which have been declared from ancient times; and
as the former have been accomplished, there is reason
to believe the latter will: saying, my counsel shall
stand; the purposes and decrees of God, which are
within himself, wisely formed by him, eternal and
unfrustrable; and which shall stand, or be accom-
plished, being the counsels of him who is all-wise.
all-knowing, all-powerful, unchangeable, true, and
faithful; whether they respect the providence of God
in relation to the world in general'., and the govern-
ment of it, or to particular persons, and !their afthies,
from the timeof their birth to their death; or whether
they respect his grace and goodness in the salvation of
men;such as his purpose according to election, the
covenant of his grace, redemption by Christ, effectual
vocation, and eternal glorification; all which, as' they
are according to the '.will and counsel of God; stand
firm and sure, and shall have their full accomplish-
ment; see Paul. xxxiii. 11. Prov. xix. 21. And I uwill
do all my pleasure; as he has done in creation, and
does in providence, .so he has done, can do, and does
in grace, in predestination and redemption, and in
effectual vocation. And particularly this may refer to
the deliverance of the Jews by Cyrus, a type of Christ,
and deliverance by him, as follows:
Vet. 11. Calling a ravenous bird from the east, .&c.]
Or a fiying fowl, or swift-winged bird {u}; for the word
used does notso much denote rapacioushess as swift-
ness; .which well agrees with Cyrus, who is here
meant, and not Abraham, as Jarchi, nor Nebuchad-
riezzar, as others; and who was always. swift in all his
expeditions, and always recommended celerity- and
dispatch of business to his soldiers and others, as
Xenophon{w} often observes; and very remarkable is
that speech of Tigranes to him, in which he tells him *,
that he so far exceeded the king of Armenia in swift-
ness, that he came upon him with a great army, from
a far country, before he could get his army together,
which was just by him. And very observable are the
words of Cyrus himself, who was desirous of being a
thorough horseman, that he might seem to be \~anyrwpov\~
\~pthnov\~, a winged or flying man {y} So the Targum here
renders it, a swift bird. AFren Ezra, who interprets
it of Cyrus, says he is so called, as if he flew to do
the will of God; and Kimchi observes of Cyrus, that
he has this name because he came swiftly, and in
haste, as a bird that flies: and it is no unusual
thing for a mighty monarch, or a general, march-
ing with hi.s army, to be compared to a flying bird,
particularly an eagle, Jet. xlviii. 40. and xlix. 22,
Ezck. xvii. 3, 7. Hos. viii. 1. and may be the bird in-
tended here, which well suits with Cyrus, who had,
as Plutarch {z} reports, an aquiline nose; hence men that
have such noses, among the Persians, are highly
esteemed: and Xenophou {a} says, that the standard of
Cyrus was a golden eagle upon the top of a high spear,
and which is retained by the kings of Persia. Cyrus
is said to be called from the east, because, as Kimchi
observes, his country lay to the east of Babylon:
the man that executeth my counsel from afar country;
as Persia was from Babylon, Assyria and other pro-
vinces lying between; but though he lived in a far
country, and knew nothing of the affairs of the people
of God in Babylon, or what work he was to do, yet
God called him, and brought him to do his will,
which he was ignorant of: so God sometimes puts
into the hearts of men to fulfit his will, which they
are strangers to, Rev. xvii. 17. It is in the Hebrew
text, the man of my counsels; not with whom the
Lord consulted, for none are of his counsel in this
sense; but whom in his counsels, decrees, and pur-
poses, he appointed to such service, and whom he
made use ofas an instrument to do his pleasure;. see
oh. xliv..o8: yea, I have spoken it, I will also bring it
to pass: I have putposed, I will also do it; the counsel
of the Lord, concerning the deliverance of his people
from Babylon, by the hand of Cyrus; this he had pur-
posed in his own breast, had spoken of in prophecy,
and would certainly perform. R. Joseph Kimchi in-
terprets this verse of the Messiah, and so does Jerom,
of whom, no doubt, Cyrus was a type; and what is
here said agrees with him: he may be compared to a
flying bird for his swiftness in coming at the appointed
time; he came from the east, as the rising sun of
righteousness; he was the man of God's counsel in the
highest sense, and came, being called, to execute it;
the work of redemption was according to the eternal
purpose of God, and spoke of by all the holy pro-
phets, and now accomplished; and his righteous-
ness and salvation are made mention of in the following
verses.
Vet. 12. Hearken unto me, ye stout-hearted, &c.]
This is not an address to the Chaldeans, as Kimehi
and others think, who were merciless and cruel to the
Jews, and far from doing that which was right unto
them, but oppressed them, and would not let them
go; but to the Jews themselves, at least to the wicked-
and profligate among them, who were always a stout-
hearted, stiff-necked, and a rebellious people; and'
even those who made more presences to religion were
only self-righteous, and were far from true righteous-
ness. The whole may be applied to all persons desti-
tute of the grace of God, professors or profane, who


{u} \^jye\^ avem, a velocitate, Munster; so Vatablus; ab \^jwe\^ in volando
celeriter & cum impetu, Forerius; so Ben Melech says, Cyrus is sur-
named a fowl, because of his great swiftness and haste to come to Ba-
bylon; though he observes that some say, that a ravenous fowl is called
\^jye\^; the singular may be put for the plural; so Cocceius renders it,
volucres, birds, and may design the whole army of Cyrus.
{w} Cyropaedia, I. 1. c. 17. and I. 3. c. 6. and 1.6. c. 17.
{x} Cyropaedia' I. 3. c. 2.
{y} ib I.4. c.17.
{z} In Apothegm.
{a} Cyropaedia. I. 7. c. 1.
{b} \^ytue vya\^ virum mei consilii, Munster, Pagninus, Montanus; so
according to the Keri: but the Cetib is \^wtue vya\^, the man of his
counsel.