Online Bible 1995 March/ROM-1025.iso/olb/gill/5_000_p.lzh/5_085.TXT

Text File | 1995-02-08 | 7KB | 126 lines

Some render %tribute% {y}, a golden pension, a tribute of
gold, which was exacted of the nations in subjection,
but now ceased; and when that tyrant and oppressor,
the Romish antichrist, shall cease that tribute which
he exacts of the nations of the earth will cease also, as
tithes, first fruits, annates, Peter's pence, &c.
\*Ver. 5. \\The Lord hath broken the staff of the wicked\\,
&c.] This is an answer to the above question, how
the exactor and his tribute came to cease; this was
not by man, but by the Lord himself; for though he
made use of Cyrus, the work was his own, he broke
the power of the wicked kings of Babylon: \*\\[and] the
sceptre of the rulers\\; that were under the king of
Babylon; or of the several kings themselves, Nebu-
chadnezzar, Evil-merodach, and Belshazzar; so Kim-
chi interprets it. This may be applied to the kingdom
of antichrist, and the antichristian states, which shall
be broken to shivers as a potter's vessel by Christ, the
King of kings, and Lord of lords, \\#Re 2:27 19:15,16\\.
The %staff% and %sceptre% are emblems of power
and government; and %breaking% them signifies the
utter destruction and cessation of authority and do-
minion.
\*Ver. 6. \\He who smote the people in wrath with a con-
tinual stroke\\, &c.] The king of Babylon, who made
war with the people and nations of the earth, and con-
quered them, smote them with the edge of the sword
to gratify his passions, and satiate his bloodthirsty
mind; and those that were spared, he ruled with
rigour, and oppressed them with tribute and hard
bondage; and, when he had conquered one nation,
attacked another, and so went on pursuing his victories
without intermission, giving no respite neither to his
army, nor to the people: \*\\he that ruled the nations in
anger\\; not with justice and clemency, but in a tyran-
nical and oppressive way, even his own nation, as well
as the nations whom he subdued: \*\\is persecuted\\; is, pur-
sued by the justice of God, overtaken and seized, and
brought to condign punishment; \*\\[and] none hindereth\\;
the execution of the righteous judgment upon him;
none of the neighbouring kings and nations, either
tributary to him, or in alliance with him, give him
the least help or assistance, or attempt to ward off the
blow upon him, given him, under the direction and
appointment of God, by Cyrus the Persian. So the
Romish antichrist, who has made war with the saints,
and has smitten them with the sword, and gone on to
do so without any intermission for ages together, and
has tyrannised over them in a most cruel manner, he
shall be persecuted, and taken, and brought to his end,
and there shall be none to help him; see \\#Re 13:7,10 Da 11:45\\.
\*Ver. 7. \\The whole earth is at rest, [and] is quiet\\, &c.]
The troubler of them being gone; and which will be
the ease of the people of God, who in the latter day
will fill the face of the earth, when the beast and false
prophet will be taken and cast alive into the lake of
fire; and especially when Satan shall be bound, and
put in prison for a thousand years, that he may deceive
the nations no more, \\#Re 19:20 20:2,3\\: \*\\they
break forth into singing\\; that is, the inhabitants of the
earth, because of the fall of the king of Babyion, they
being delivered from so great a tyrant or oppressor; or,
%utter a song of praise%, as the Targum, Aben Ezra
says the word in the Arabic language is expressive of
%clearness%, and so it does signify to speak purely, dearly,
and fluently, with open, mouth, and a clear voice {z}; it
is rendered in \\#Ps 98:4\\ %make a loud noise%; by
singing a joyful song; and such a song will be sung
by the church, when the mystical Babylon ia fallen;
see \\#Re 15:2,3 19:1,2\\.
\*Ver. 8. \\Yea, the firtrees rejoice at thee, [and] the cedars
of Lebanon\\, &c.] Which by, a prosopopoeia are re-
presented as singing and rejoicing, as inanimate crea-
tures often are in Scripture, these being now in no
danger of being cut down, to make way for his armies;
see \\#Isa 37:34\\ or to furnish him with timber for
shipping, or building of houses: or else these words
are to be understood metaphorically of kings and
princes of the earth, comparable to such trees, for
their height, strength, and substance; see a\\#Zec 11:2\\
who would now be no longer in fear of him, or in sub-
jection to him. So the Targum, \*"the rulers also re-
"joiced over thee, the rich in substance said;"\* not
only the common people, the inhabitants of the earth,
as before, but the princes of it rejoiced at his ruin; and
so will the kings of the earth rejoice at the destruction
of the whore of Rome, when they shall hate her, eat
her flesh, and burn her with fire; though others, that
have committed fornication with her, will lament her
case, \\#Re 17:16 18:9\\: \*\\[saying], since thou art,
laid down\\; or %art asleep% {a}; that is, dead; it being usual
in the eastern nations to express death by sleep: \*\\no
feller is come up against us\\; or %cutter of wood%, to whom
the king of Babylon is compared, for cutting down
nations, and bringing them into subjection to him, in
whose heart it was to destroy and cut off nations, not
a few; being as an axe in the hand of the Lord, whereby
trees, large and high, were cut down; see \\#Isa 10:5,7,15\\
but now, since this feller of wood was gone, the axe-
was laid aside, and broke to pieces, there was none to
give the nations any disturbance; and so it will be
when antichrist is destroyed, there will be no more
persecution of the church and people of God.
\*Ver. 9. \\Hell from beneath is moved for thee\\, &c.] Or
the %grave%, or the place and state of the dead, and par-
ticularly of the damned, meaning those that are in such
a place and state; and the sense is, that not only the in-
habitants of the earth, and the trees upon it, express
their joy at the fall of the king of Babylon, but those
that are under the earth, in the grave, or in hell, are
affected with it, and moved on account of it, not with
fear and dread, as they were in his and their life time, as
Kimchi suggests; but they are represented as in motion,
and that as attended with a great noise, because of the
multitude of them, upon hearing of his death, and his
entrance into the regions of the dead: \*\\to meet [thee] at
thy coming\\: as kings used to be met when they, and as
he used to be when he, entered into any city that was
taken, to salute him, and congratulate him upon his

{y} Tributum, V.L. Cocceius; aurea pensio, Montanus; aurum
    tributarium, Munster.
{z} ? perspicuo, puriore sermone fuit, fluida oratione disertas
    fuit, --diserte, eleganter locutus est, Castel. col. 3040.
{a} \^tbkv\^ %dormisti%, Pagninus.