pleads their cause against their enemies, an ungodly
people that strive with them, persecute and distress
them; and will in his own time do them justice, and
execute vengeance, his righteous judgments, ou those
that hate them, and rise up against them, as he will on
all the antichristian party: he will bring me forth to
the light; like a person taken out of prison, or out of
a dungeon, to behold and enjoy the light of the sun
and day. The sense is, that he will openly espouse
the cause of his church, and give her honour and
.glory publicly before men; bring forth her righteous-
ness as the light, and her judgment as the noon-day,;
and make her innocence appear as clear as the day,
and bring her at last to the light of glory; see Paul.
xxxvii. (5. Isa. iviii. 8, 10: and I shall behold his righte-
ousness: the equity of his proceedings with his people,
in chastising and afflicting them, that they are all right
and good; his jUstice in punishing their enemies, and
executing judgment on them; his goodness and bene-,
ricenee to the saints, all Iris ways being mercy.and
truth; Iris faithfulness in the fuifilment of his promises;
and the righteousness of Christ, whicll justifies them
before God, renders them acceptable to him, will
answer for them in a time to come, and introduce them
into his everlasting kingdom and glory.
Ver. 10. Then she that is mine enemy shall see it,
4-e.] The Chaldeans and Edomites shall see the
people of the Jews rising ou.t of their calamities,
brought out of the darkness of their captivity in Ba-
bylon, and enjoying the light of peace and prosperity
in-their own land. Some editions of the Targum, and
Jarchi and Kimchi, have, in their glosses on this and
the preceding verse, Rome, of whom they interpret
this enemy, as Mr. Pocock observes; and so R. Elias a
says the Targum is, then shall Rome see; by which
they mean the Christians, in opposition to the Jews;
OtherwiSe it would not be amiss to interpret it of
Rome Papal, or antichrist, in opposition to the church
of God; seeing the antichristian party will see the
witnesses of Christ, slain for his sake, rise again, and
ascend to heaven, or be brought into a glorious and
comfortable state; see Rev. xi. l2. and may be applied
to any age of the church, and toany particular saints
ra:,sed out of a state of darkness and affliction into a
prosperous one, in the sight of their enemies, and in
spite of them, to their great mortification; see Psal.
xxiii. 4, 5, 6: and shame shall cover her which said
unto me, where is the Lord thy God ? as the Heathens;
the Chaldeans, did to the Jews, Psal. cxv. 2. and which
must be very cutting to .them, as it was to David,
Psal. xlii. 10. when they flouting and jeering said,
where is thy God thou boastedst of, and didst put thy
trust and confidence in, that he would deliver and save
thee ? what's become of him, and of thy confidence in
him ? The Targum is, "where art thou that art re-
deemed by the Word of the Lord thy God ?" but
when they shall see thatthe Lord God has returned
unto them, and wrought salvation for them, they'll be
ashamed of their flouts and jeers; and by reason of
their Sad disappointment, add.the change of things
for the worse to them, who now will be brought into.
calamity and distress themselves: mine eyes shall behold
her; the enemy: their fall, as the Targum; being in a
most despicable and ruinous condition, under the
vengeance of the Almighty; and that with pleasure
and satisfaction, not from a private spirit of revenge,
but because of the glory of divine justice, which will
be displayed in their righteous destruction; see Paul.
lviii. 10: now shall she be trodden down as the mire of
the streets; that is, entirely conquered, and utterly
destroyed; reduced to, the utmost meanness, and had
in the greatest contempt: this was fulfilled when Ba-
bylon was taken by the Medea and Persians; and when
the Edomites were conquered and brought into sub-
jection to the Jews by. the Maccabees; and will be
the case of all the enemies of Christ and his church, of
all the antichristian states, one day.
Ver. 11. In the day that thy walls are to be built,
&c.] These words are not spoken to the enemy, as
some think; either the Chaldeans, the walls of whose
city, Babylon, being demolished by the Persians, it
would be a long day or time ere they were rebuilt
and when their power of sending their decrees abroad
among the nations would be far off: or to the enemy
that should think to build up their walls with the
spoils of Israel, in the time of Gog and Magog, and
when their decree determined over the nations and
Israel would also be far off; but they are the words of
the prophet to the church and people of God, com-
forting them with observing, that there-would be a
day when the walls of Jerusalem, and the temple,
which would lie in ruins during their captivity, would
be rebuilt; and' which was fuifiiled in the times of
Zorobabel and Nehemiah; and so the Targum,
" that time the congregation of Israel shall be built;
and which had a further accomplishment, in a spiritual
sense, in the first times of the Gospel, when the church
of Christ was built up, and established in the world
and will still have a greater completion in the latter
day, when the tabernacle of David, or church of Christ,
shall be raised that is fallen, and its breaches closed,
and ruins repaired, Amos ix. 11: in that day shall the
decree be far removed; which, as it literally respects
Jerusalem, and the rebuilding of that after seventy
years captivity, may signify either the decree of God
concerning that captivity, which would then cease,
according to the time fixed by it; or the cruel laws
and edicts of the Babylonians, which should no more
bind and press the Jews, and be as a heavy yoke upon
them; those statutes, which were not good, that were
given them. So the Targum, "at that time the de-
'' crees of the nations shall cease ;" or the decree of
Artaxerxes, forbidding and hindering the rebuilding
of the city: but if the phrase far removed signifies its
being divulged and spread far abroad, as it is inter-
preted by some; then it may refer to the decree of'
Cyrus for rebuilding the city and temple; and which
was revived and confirmed by Darius Hystaspis, and
by Darius Longimanus, and which was published
everywhere; and by means of which the Jews from
all parts were encouraged to come.up to their own,
!and, and proselytes with them; and which sense
suits well with what follows: and as this, in a spiritual
sense, may have regard to the church of Christ in

{d} In Tishbi, p. 227.