Online Bible 1995 March/ROM-1025.iso/olb/gill/4_000_t.lzh/4_045.TXT

Text File | 1994-09-06 | 7KB | 128 lines

when he brought them out 9f Egypt, and planted
and settled them in the land of Canaan, and made them
a flourishing people; but had departed from them
when he suffered the hedges about them to be broken
down, and the boar and wild beast to enter and devour
them; and here he is eatrented to return and restore
them to their former prosperity. So the Lord sorne-
times departs from his church and people, and hides
his face from them; and may be said to return, when
he manifests himself, shews his face and his fayour
again, and grants his gracious presence, than which
nothing is more desirable; and if he, the Lord of hosts
and armies, above and below, is with his people, none
can be against them to their hurt; they have nothing
to fear from any enemy: look dozonfrom heaven: the
habitation of his holiness, the high and holy place
where he dwells, and his throne is, from whence he
takes a survey of men and things; where he now was
at a distance from his people, being returned to his
place iu resentment, and covered himself with a cloud
from their sight; and from whence it would be a con-
descension in him to look on them on earth, so very
undeserving of a look of love and mercy' from him:
and behold; the affliction and distress his people were
in, as he formerly beheld the affliction of Israel in
Egypt, and sympathized with them, and brought them
out of it: and visit this' vine; before described, for
whom he-had done such great things, and now was in
such a ruinous condition; the visit desired is in a way
of mercy and kind providence; so the Targum, "and
"remember in mercies this vine ;" so the Lord visits
his chosen people by the mission and incarnation of
his Son, and by the redemption of them by him, and by
the effectual vocation of them by his Spirit and grace
through the ministration of the Gospel; and which
perhaps may, in the mystical sense, be respected here;
see Luke i. 68, 78. Acts xv. 14.
Ver. 15. And the vineyard which thy right hand hath
planted, &c.] The word Cannah is only used in this
place, and the first letter of it is larger than usual, to
keep in perpetual remembrance, as is thought by
some t, the bringing of this vine out of Egypt, and the
great things done for it in the land of Israel; and the
letter, being crooked, may denote the oppression of
this vine by various calamities. The Targum renders
the word, a branch or shoot; and Kimchi, according
to the scope of the place, a plant; and observes, that
others interpret it an habitation or dwelling-place; and
so may be understood of Jerusalem, or the temple.
Aben Ezra takes it to be an adjective, and to signify
prepared or established, which is said of this vine, Ver. 9.
It is an Egyptian word used by the psalmist, treating
of the vine brought out of Egypt, and signifies a plant;
hence the ivy is by the Greeks called \~cenosiriv\~ the.plant
of Osiris {}; the clause carries in it a reason or ar-
gument, enforcing the above petition, taken from
this vine being of the Lord's planting, as in ver. 8. and
therefore his own honour and glory were concerned in
it: and the branch that thou madest strong for thyself:
meaning the same thing, and the same people whom
he confirmed in the land of Canaan, ar, d made strong
for his service and glory. The word {w} tr,ns,ated
branch signifies a son, as Israel was, to the Lord,
son and tirst-born. The. Targum understands it of
Christ, and paraFhrases it thus," and for the King
"Mcssiah, whom thou hast strengthened for thyseff;"
that is, tbr the sake of Christ, whom thou hast ap-
pointed to work out the salvation of thy people by
his great strength, and who was to come frotu this
vine, or descend from Israel; for the sake of him
stroy it not, nor suffer it to be destroyed; and is the
same with the Son of man, ver. 17. and so it is read in
a manuscript.
Ver. 16. It is burnt with fire, it is cut down, &c.]
That is, the vine of Israel, and the branch before
spoken of, alluding to a vinbe, and its branches; which,
when become unprofitable, are cu.t down or cut off,
and cast into. the fire; see John xv. 6. so Jerusalem
and the temple were burnt with fire by Nebuchad-
nezzar, and afterwards by Vespasian: they perish at the
rebulce of thy countenance; that is, the Israelites, signi-
fied by the vine, whose destruction was owing to the
wrath of God upon them for their sins; he frowned
upon them, and rebuked them in his hot displeasure,
and to that their ruin was owing;. others were only
instruments in his hands. Some understand this as a
wish or imprecation, let them that cut down the vine,
and burn it with fire, perish at the rebuke of thy
countenance; see Psal. lxviii. 1, 2. so the Targum,
Ver. 17. Let thy hand be upon the man of thy right
hand, &c.] Which some understand of the people of
Israel in general, beloved, supported, and strengthened,
by the Lord: and others of the then king of Israel, or
Judah, the vine-dresser, or keeper of the vineyard under
God; praying that he might be directed. supported, and
protected, by the Lord; but it seems better to under-
stand it with R. Obadiah on the place, and Abarbinel
of the Messiah; and so Aben Ezra interprets it ei-
ther of Israel, or of Messiah the son of Ephraim.
Christ is called the man, though as yet he was not
really man, because it was purposed and promised
that he should; and he had agreed to become man,
and had appeared often in an human form; and it
was certain that he would be incarnate: and also the
man of God's right hand, which is expressive of the
power of God, because. by him, who, in time, be-
came man, even the son of God, the world, and all
things in it, were made; and by him all things are
upheld in their being; by him his people were to be
redeemed, and have been redeemed from all their
enemies; and by him they are upbeld, kept, and pre-
served from a final and total falling away, and will be
raised at the last day: and the phrase may design the
support and strength the human nature of Christ, which
was weak in itself, was to have, and bad, not only
from its union in the Son of God, but from God the
Father; who promised and gave support and strength
to it, under all the sufferings endured in it: to which
may be added, that this phrase is expressive of love
and affection; so Benjamin had his name, which sig-


{t} Vid. Buxtorf. Tiberias, c. 14.
{u} Plutarch de lsid. & Osir.
{w} \^Nb le\^ super filium, V. L. Pagninus, Montanus, Musculus; prop-
ter filium, Junius & Tremellius, Michaelis.
{x} Mashmiah Jeshuah, fol. 81. 2.