Online Bible 1995 March/ROM-1025.iso/olb/gill/4_000_t.lzh/4_053.TXT

Text File | 1994-09-06 | 7KB | 131 lines

ease, inactive and unconcerned, as if he cared not how
things went; the reason follows.
Ver. 2. For, lo, thine enemies make a tumult, &c.]
Or a noise a: wicked men are commonly noisy, roaring
out their blasphemies against God, belching out oaths
and curses, and breathing threatenings and slaughter
against the saints; especially a numerous army of
them, consisting of many people and nations, as this
did; who are called the Lord's enemies, being the ene-
mies of his people, and their cause and his are one and
the same; and besides, all wicked men are enemies to
God, and all that is good, in their minds, and which
appears by their actions; yea, they are enmity itself
unto him: and they that hate thee have lift up the head;
are haughty, proud, and arrogant; speak loftily, and
with a stiff neck; set their mouth against heaven, and
God in it; and their tongue walks through the earth,
and spares none; they exult and rejoice, as sure of
victory, before the battle is fought; such then were,
and such there are, who are haters of God, hate his
being, perfections, purposes, and providences; hate
his Son without a cause, and even do despite unto the
Spirit of grace; hate the law and its precepts, the
Gospel and its doctrines and ordinances, and the
ways, worship, and people of God, as appears by
what follows.
Ver. 3. They have taken crafty counsel against thy
people, .&c.] The people of Israel, hereafter named,
whom God had chosen and avouched to be his people;
these they dealt subtlely with, as the king of Egypt
had done with their forefathers; and this, agreeably
to their character, being the seed of the old serpent,
more subtle than any of the beasts of the field; these
devised cunning devices, formed crafty schemes for
the destruction of the Lord's people; but often so it is,
that the wise are taken in their own craftiness, and
their counsel is carried headlong: and consulted against
thy hidden ones; not hidden from the Lord, and un-
known unto him, though from their enemies, and un-
known by them, and so the object of their hatred and
persecution; but hidden by him as his jewels and pe-
culiar treasure, which he takes care of; hidden under
the shadow of his wings, in the secret of his presence
and tabernacle, as in a pavilion; and therefore it was
a daring piece of insolence in their enemies to attack
them: so the life of saints is said to be hid with Christ
in God, which denotes both its secrecy and safety;
see Col. iii. 3. the Targum is, "against the things
"hidden in thy treasures ;" meaning the riches of the
temple.
Ver. 4. They have said, &c.] Secretly in their
hearts, or openly to one another, and gave it out in
the most public manner, as what they had consulted
and determined upon; see Psal. lxxiv. 8. come, and let
us cut them off from being a nation; they were not con-
tent to invade their country, take their cities, plunder
them of their substance, and carry them captives, but
utterly to destroy them, root and branch; so that they
mightbe no more a body politic, under rule and govern-
ment, in their own land, nor have so much as a name
and place in others; this was Haman's scheme, Esth.
iii. 8, 9. that the name of lsrael may be no more in remem-
brance; but this desperate and dreadful scheme, and
wretched design of theirs, took not effect; but, on the
contrary, the several nations hereafter mentioned, who
were in this conspiracy, are no more, and have not had
a name in the world for many hundreds of years;
whilst the Jews are still a people, and are preserved,
in order to be called and saved, as all Israel will be in
the latter day, Rom. xi. 25. So Dioclesian thought
to have rooted the Christian name out of the world;
but in vain: the name of Christ, the name of Chris-
tianity, the name of a Christian church, will endure
to the end of the world; see Psal. lxxii. 17. Prov.
x. 7. Compare with this Jer. xi. 19.
Ver. 5. For they have consulted together with one con-
sent, &c.] Or heart {e}; wicked men are cordial to one
another, and united in their counsels against the peo-
ple of God, and his interest: whatever things they may
disagree in, they agree in this, to oppose the cause
and interest of true religion, or to persecute the
churcH and people of God: Herod and Pontius Pilate
are instances of this: they are confederate against thee;
or have made a covenant against thee {f}; the covenant
they had entered into among themselves, being against
the Lord's people, was against him; and such a cove-
nant and agreement can never stand; for there is no
wisdom, nor understanding, norcounsel against the Lord,
Prov. xxi. 30. This the psalmist mentions to engage
the Lord in the quarrel of his people, and not be
still, aNd act a neutral part; since those were his
enemies, and confederates against him, and they are
next particularly named.
Ver. 6. The tabernacles of Edom, &c] Or the Idu-
means, as the Targum; the posterity of Esau, who,
with the rest that joined with them, hereafter men-
tioned, and made the confederate army, brought their
tents with them, pitched them, and encamped in them
against Israel: and the lshmaelites; or Arabians, as the
7um, who descended from Ishmael, the son of
: of Moab, and the Hagarches; the Moab-
ires, who sprung from Lot by one of his daughters,-
in an incestuous way; and the Hagarches are the
same with the Hagarites, 1 Chron. v. 10, I9, 20. who
dwelt to the east of the land of Israel, so called from
Hagar, the handmaid of Abraham, but not by him,
but by another husband, after sent away from him,
as Aben Ezra and Kimchi think, or by him, sup-
posing Hagar to be the same with Keturah, as some
do: the Targum calls them Hungarians; the Syriac.
version renders it Gadareans, or Gadarches; of which
see Mark v. 1.
Vet. 7. Gebal, &c.3 Gubleans, or Gebalites, as the
Targum; the same with Giblites, Josh. xxiii. 5..
1 Kings v. 18. or men of Gebal, Ezek. xxvii. 9. the
same with Byblus. these dwelt in Phoenicia, near
Tyre, where Pliny {g} makes mention of a place called
Gabale: the Syriac version joins it with Ammon, and
renders it the border of Ammon: and Ammon and
,4malek,. the Philistines, with the inhabitants of Tyre ;


{d} \^Nwymhy\^ sonuerunt, V. L. perstrepunt, Junius & Tremellius, Pis-
cator, Cocceius; strepunt, Gejerus.
{e} \^bl\^ corde, Pagninus, Montanus; ex corde, Tigurine version, Mus-
culus, Gejerus; cordicitus, Cocceius.
{f} \^wtrky tyrb Kyle\^ foedus adversus te icerunt, Tigurine version;
contra te foedus pepigerunt, Junius & Tremellius, Piscator, Gejerus;
so Musculus, Cocceius, Michaelis.
{g} Nat. Hist. l. 5. c. 20.