Online Bible 1995 March/ROM-1025.iso/olb/gill/4_000_t.lzh/4_043.TXT

Text File | 1994-09-06 | 7KB | 129 lines

grace of God; or restore our souls, which have been
wandering, and them to their former flourishing and
comfortable condition: and cause thy face to shine;
grant thy gracious presence, lift up the light of thy
countenance; thvour with the manifestations of thy-
self, the enjoyment of thee, and communion with thee
through Christ; indulge us with the discoveries ofthy
love, the joys of salvation, the comforts of the spirit,
and larger measures of grace: and we shall be saved;
be in a very happy and comfortable condition; see
Psal. iv. 6, 7.
Vet. 4. 0 Lord God of hosts, &c.] Aben Ezra and
Kimchi observe, that the word EIohe is here under-
stood, and the words to be read, 0 Lord God, the God
of hosts; of the armies above and below, against whom
there is no standing, nor any before him when he is an-
gry: how long .wilt thou be angry against the prayer of
thypeople? which must be put up in a wrong .man-
ner, in a very cold and lukewarm way, without faith
and love, and with wrath and doubting; or otherwise
God is not angry with, nor sets himself against the
prayer of his people; nor does he despise, but is highly
delighted with it: or how long wilt thou be angry
with thy people, and continue the tokens of thy dis-
pleasure, though they pray, and keep praying, unto
thee? it is in the Hebrew text, how long wilt thou
smoke {m} at the prayer of thy people ? that is, cause thine
anger to smoke at it; in which 'tis thought there is an
allusion to the smoke of the incense, to which prayer
is compared; see Psal. cxli. 2. Rev. viii. 3, 4, and de-
notes the acceptance of it with God through the me-
diation of Christ; but here h:,s displicency at it, not
being offered up through him, and by faith in him;
such were the prayers of the Pharisees, Matt. vi. 5, 7.
and xxiii. 14.
Ver. 5. Thou feedest them with the bread of tears,
&c.] With tears instead of bread, having none to eat;
or their bread is mingled with their tears, dipped there-
in, as the Targutn; such was their constant grief, and
the occasion of it, that they could not cease from tears
whilst they were eating their meals, and so ate them
with them ": and givest them tears to drink in great
measure; or the wine of tears three-fold, as the Targum.
Jarchi interprets it of the captivity of Babylon, which
was the third part of the two hundred and ten years of
Israel's being in Egypt; which exposition, he says, he
learned from R. MosesHadarsan; but he observes, that
some interpret it of the kingdom of Grecia, which was
the third distress: ahd so Kimchi and Arama explain it
of the third captivity; but Menachem, as Jarchi says,
takes shalish to be the name of a drinking-vessel, and
so does A ben Ezra; the same it may be which the
Latins call a triental, the third part of a pint; unless
the Hebrew measure, the seah, which was the third
part of an ephah, is meant; it is translated a measure
in Isa. xl. 12. and seem. s to design a large one, and
so our version interprets it; compare with this Isa.
xxx. 20.
Vet. 6. Thou makest us a strife unto our neighbouts,
&c.] Either obligest us to contend with them for our
defence and safety; or having gtven us into their hands,
they strive and contend one with another about di-
viding the spoil: and our enemies laugh among them-
selves; at us, and because there is no help for us in
God, as they imagine; or at God himself, as Kimchi,
saying he cannot save as.
Ver. 7. Turn us again, 0 God of hosts, &c.] The
same with ver. 3. only instead 6f God there, here it
is the God of hosts; the repetition of these words shows
what was uppermost on the minds of God's people;
what they were longing for, and most desirous of,
namely, the light of God's countenance.
Vet. 8. Thou hast brought a vine out of Egypt, &c.]
The house of Israel, who are like unto a vine, as the
Targum paraphrases it; and to a vine or vineyard are
they often compared; see Isa. v. 1, 7. and xxvii. 2, 3.
Jer. ii. 21. Hos. x. 1. These were in Egypt awhile,
where they were grievously oppressed and trampled
Upon; and yet the more they were afflicted, the more
they grew and multiplied; and from hence the Lord
brought them in due time, with a mighty hand and
stretched-out arm; he caused them to go out; the
word ° used fitly_ expresses their journeylags from
thence, and through the wilderness; they were a type
of the church of Christ, and special people of God, who
also are frequently compared to vines and vineyards;
see Cant. ii. 13, 15. and vi. 11. and vii. l2. and viii.
12. the vine-tree is fruitful, and bears fruit in clusters
but its wood is very useless and unprofitable, Ezek. xv.
2, 3. and it is a tree very weak, and can't rise and sup-
port itself, it must be propped up; so believers in
Christ, though fruitful through the grace of God, yet
are unprofitable to him, and very weak in themselves,.
and are upheld by the right hand of his righteousness,
on whom they lean and stay themselves; and these,
.in their nature-state, are in worse than Egyptian
bondage, darkness, and idolatry, out of which they
are brought, in effectual vocation, into Gospel liberty,
marvelIons light, and the true worship and service of
God; and out of the antichristian Egypt will all the
Lord's people be brought one day; see Roy. xi. 8.
and xviii. 4. thou hast cast out the Heathen; the Tar-
gum adds, out of the land of Israel, that is, Canaan; it
designs the expulsion of the seven nations from thence,
to make way for the Israelites, Dent. vii. 1. and was an
emblem of the ejection of Satan out of the Gentile
world, and out of the souls of men, through the mini-
stry of the word; and of sin, and the lusts of it, when
the King of glory enters in, so as that they shall not
any more have dominion; though as the Canaanites
were left in the land to be pricks and thorns in the
eyes and sides of the Israelites, so in-dwelling sin
mains in God's people to the distress of tkeir souls, and
the trial of their graces. The Papists are sometimes
called the Heathens and Gentiles; and there will be a
time when they shall be cast out, and be no more
the land, Psal. x. 16. Zech. xiv. 21. and planted it;
the vine, the Israelites, in the land of Canaan; see
Exod. xv. 17. So saints are planted not only in Christ,
the true vine, of which they are branches; but in a


{m} \^tnve\^ fumabis, Pagninus, Vatablus; fumaturns es, Junius &
Tremellius, Piscator; fumasti, Montanus, Cocceius, Gejerus, Mi-
chaelis, & Ainsworth.
{n} -----lachrymisque suis jejunia pavit, Ovid. Metamorph. l. 4.
Fab. 6.
{o}  \^eyot\^ fecisti proficisci, Pagninus, Montanus, Vatablus.