Online Bible 1995 March/ROM-1025.iso/olb/gill/5_000_p.lzh/5_069.TXT

Text File | 1995-02-03 | 6KB | 120 lines

gum says; and did as follows: \*\\he shall shake his hand
[against] the mount of the daughter of Zion, the hill of
Jerusalem\\; threatening what he would do to it, and
despising it as unable to hold out against him; or the
sense is this, yet a day, or in a day's time, from the last
place where he was; he shall come to Nob, and there
shall he stop, and go no further: or, %the mountain of the
daughter of Zion, the hill of Jerusalem, shall shake its hand%;
bidding him defiance, insulting over him, or rejoicing at
the fall of the Assyrian army. Wherefore it follows:
\*Ver. 33. \\Behold, the Lord, the Lord of hosts, shall
lop the bough with terror\\, &c.] Cut off the king of
Assyria and his army, in a most terrible manner; %the
glory% of it, as in \\#Isa 10:18\\ the word signifies that which
is the ornament, the beauty and glory, of the tree.
The Septuagint render it, %the glorious ones%; and the
Arabic version, %the nobles%, the generals, and principal
officers of the army; the Targum is, \*"behold, the
"Lord of the world, the Lord of hosts, shall cast forth
"the slain in his camp, as grapes that are trod in a
"winepress."\* KILL \*\\And the high ones of stature [shall] be
hewn down\\; the princes of Assyria, so boasted of as
kings, \\#Isa 10:8\\ comparable to tall trees, to oaks and
cedars: \*\\and the haughty shall be humbled\\; who, like
their monarch, boasted of their wisdom and strength,
\\#Isa 10:12-14\\ but now both he and they will be
brought very low.
\*Ver. 34. \\And he shall cut down the thickets of the
forest with iron\\, &c.] The multitude of the common
soldiers, the whole body of the army, by means of one
of his angels, that excel in strength, for which he is
compared to %iron%; and which is explained in the next
clause: \*\\and Lebanon shall fall by a mighty one\\; the
Assyrian army is compared to the forest of Lebanon,
for the multitude of trees in it, and the tallness of its
cedars, it aboundlag not only with common soldiers,
but with great men; so it is compared to a forest,
and to Carmel, or a fruitful field, in ver \\#Isa 10:18\\ and the As-
syrian monarch is said to be a cedar in Lebanon, \\#Eze 31:3\\
which fell by the hands of one of the mighty an-
gels, \\#2Ki 19:35\\ some, because of this last clause,
think that this and the preceding verse \\#Isa 10:33\\ are to be un-
derstood of the calamities that should come upon the
Jews, at the time of the Babylonish captivity; for
though Sennacherib should stop at Nob; and proceed
no further, however should not be able to take Jerusa-
lem, yet hereafter a successor of his should; and, ac-
cording to this sense, by the %bough% lopped may be
meant Jechoniah, or Zedekiah king of Judah; by the
%high ones of stature%, and the %haughty% ones, his children,
the princes of the blood, and the nobles of the land;
and by the %thickets of the forest%, the common people,
who were either killed or carried captive; and by Le-
banon, the temple, \\#Zec 11:1\\ and by the %mighty one%,
Nebuchadnezzar that burnt it. And some of the an-
cient Jews interpret this last clause of the destruction
of the temple by Vespasian; they observe upon this
passage in one place {m}, there is no mighty one but a
king, as in \\#Jer 30:21\\ and there is no Lebanon but
the house of the sanctuary, according to \\#De 3:25\\
wherefore when a certain Jew saluted Vespasian as a
king, and he replied that he was no king, the Jew
made answer, if thou art not a king, thou shall be
one; for this house (meaning the temple} shall not be
destroyed but by the hands of a king, as it is said, %and
Lebanon shall fall by a mighty one% {n}.

\*Ver. 1. \\INTRODUCTION TO ISAIAH 11\\

\*This chapter is a prophecy of the Messiah, and gives
an account of his descent, as man; of his qualifica-
tions for his office, as a Judge and King; of his per-
formance of it; of the peaceableness of his kingdom;
of the spread of it among the Gentiles, by the preach-
ing of the Gospel; and of the last and general conver-
sion of the Jews. His original and descent from David
the son of Jesse, under the titles of a rod and branch,
is described as mean and obscure, expressed by stem
and roots, \\#Isa 11:1\\ his gifts and qualifications for his
work, in general and particular, \\#Isa 11:2\\ the performance
of it, both with respect to good men and bad men,
in the fear of the Lord, with all equity, righteous-
ness, and readiness, \\#Isa 11:3-5\\ the peaceableness of his
kingdom is figuratively expressed, by the agreement
of savage and tame creatures, the former becoming
the latter, and so losing their malignant and hurtful
nature, through the efficacy of the Gospel, spreading
the knowledge of Christ all over the world, \\#Isa 11:6-9\\
particularly among the Gentiles, comparable to
those savage creatures, who, upon the exhibition of
Christ in the Gospel; should seek to him, and find
rest in him, \\#Isa 11:10\\ which will be followed or accom-
panied with a collection of the Jews out of all lands,
and the conversion of them, which will be brought
about by the power and grace of God, all impediments
being by him removed out of the way; the conse-
quences of which will be, peace among themselves,
and obedience among the Gentiles, \\#Isa 11:11-\\.

\*Ver. 1. \\And there shall come forth a rod out of the
stem of Jesse\\, &c.] By which is meant, not Hezekiah,
as R. Moses {o} the priest, and others, since he was now
born, and must be at least ten or twelve years of age;
but the Messiah, as both the text and context shew,
and as is owned by many Jewish writers {p}, ancient
and modern: and he is called a %rod%, either because
of his unpromising appearance, arising %out of the stem of
Jesse%; from him, in the line of David, when that fa-
mily was like a tree cut down, and its stump only
left in the ground, which was the case when Jesus was
born of it: Jesse's family was at first but a mean and

{m} T. Bab. Gittin, fol. 56. 2.
{n} Midrash Echa Rabbati, fol 46. 4.
{o} Apud Aben Ezra in loc.
{p} Bereshit Rabba, sect. 85. fol. 75. 1. Midrash Tillim in Psal.
    xxii. 1. Apud Yalkut Simeoni, par. 2. fol. 112. 2. Abarbinel,
    Mashmia Jeshua, fol. 8. 4. Aben Ezra, Jarchi, & Kimchi, in loc.
    Nachman. Disputat. cum Fratre Paulo, p. 53.