Online Bible 1995 March/ROM-1025.iso/olb/gill/5_100_p.lzh/5_112.TXT

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i'nto Egypt, and there professed and' propagated it;
but it seems most likely to refer to later times, the
times of the Gospel, when it was carried and preached
in Egypt by the Evangelist Mark, and others, to the
conversion of them, which is expressed in the follow-
ing words: speak the language of Canaan; the Hebrew
language, which continued from the time of the con-
fusion in the posterity of Shem, and in the family of
Heber, from whom Abraham descended; which was
not the language of the old Canaanites, though that
was pretty near it, but what the Jews now at this time
spake, who dwelt in the land of Canaan: but though
this language is here referred to, and might be learned,
as it is where the Gospel comes, tbr the sake of under-
standing the Scriptures in the original; ye.t that is not
principally meant, but the religion of the Christian
and converted Jews; and the sense is, that the Egyp-
tians, hearing and embracing tire Gospel, should speak
the pure language of it, and make the same profession
of it, and with one heart and mouth with them.glorif. y
God, and confess the Lord Jesus: and when a sinner is
converted, he speaks a different language than he did
before; the language of Canaan is the language of re-
pentance towards God, faith in Christ, love to them,
and all the saints; it is self-abasing, Christ-exalting,
and free-grace-magnifying language; it is the language
of prayer to God for mercies wanted, and of praise and
thanksgiving for mercies received, and especially for
Christ, and the blessings of grace in him; it is the lan-
guage of experience, and what agrees with the word of
God: and in common conversation it is different from
others ; not swearing, or lying, or filthiness, or foolish
jesting, or frothy, vain, and idle talk, are this language;
but what is savoury, and for the use of edifying: and
swear to the Lord of hosts; not by him, but to him,
which sometimes is put for the whole of religious wor-
ship, Deut. vi. 13. and signifies a bowing, a submission,
and subjection to him; compare Isa. xlv. 23. with
Rein. xiv. 11. it is swearing allegiance to him, owning
him to be their Lord, King, and Lawgiver, and a reso-
lution to obey him in all his commands and ordinances,
see Psal. cxix. 106: one shah be called the city of de-
struction; not one of the five cities before mentioned;
because all such as believe with the heart unto righte-
Ousness, and with the mouth make confession agree-
ably to it, shall be saved; but the sense is, that one
and all, and every one of these cities, and all such per-
sons in them as speak not the language of Canaan,
who neither embrace the Gospel, nor become subject
to Christ, shall be devoted to destruction: though
there is a Keri and Cetib of these words; it is written
heres, destruction, but it is read cheres, the sun; and
there was a city in Egypt called Beth-shemesh, the
house of the stm, Jer. xliii. 13. and by the Greeks He-
llopolls {}; and by the L.atins Soils Oppidum {b}; and
so the Vulgate Latin version renders it, and one shall
be called the city of the sun ; that is, Hellopolls, where
the suu was worshipped, and from whence it had its
name; and so the words are a display of the grace of
God, that in that city, which was the seat of idolatrous.
worship, there the sun of righteousness should arise,
and there should be a number of persons in it that
should profess his name. The Targum takes in both
the writing and reading of this passage, and renders it,
"the city of Beth-shemesh, which is to be destroyed,
"shah be called one of them."
Ver. 19. In that day there shall be an altar to the
Lord in the midst of thc land of Egypt, &c.] Josephus {c},
and other Jewish writersa, suppose this to be fillfilled
when Oni.'-.'s, the son of Sirecon the just, fled into
Egypt, and obtained leave of Ptolemy king of Egypt,
and Queen C!eopatra, to build a temple and an altar
there, like those at Jerusalem, in order to draw the
Jews thither, which was about six hundred years after
this prophecy i and who did build both a temple and
an altar in the home of Hellopolls, about a hundred
and fourscore furlongs from the city of Memphis, and
which continued three hundred and tbrty-three years;
but not a material altar is here meant, but a figurative
and spiritual one, and no other than Christ, who is the
altar that sanctifies every gift, and upon which the
spiritual sacrifices of prayer and praise being offered
up are acceptable to God, The phrase denotes a public
profession of Christ, and a setting up of his worship;
it is used in allusion to the patriarchs, who, .wherever
they came, set up an altar to the Lord, and worshippeal
him: and a pillar at the border thereof io the Lord; in
like manner as the patriarchs used to do, Gen. xxviii,
18, and xxxv. 1, 14. it signifies not only that in the
middle of the land,. but upon the borders of it, the
Christian religion should be embraced and professed;
so-that no sooner did a man step into it, but he should
find that this was the religion professed there: it sig-
nifies that here would be placed ministers of the Gospel,
who are as pillars to hold forth and support the doc,
trines of it; and a church-state, which is the pillar and
ground of it; and persons converted, that should be
pillars in the house of God, that should never go out;
see Prov. ix. 1. Gal. if. 9. 1 Tim. iii. 1.5. Rev. iii. 12.
Ver. 20. And it sltall be Jbr a sign and for a witness
unto the Lord of hosts in the land of Egypt, &c.] This
refers either to what goes before, that the altar and
pillar were signs and witnesses that the Lord was be-
lieved in, professed, and worshipped there; or to
what follows after, that the Lord's hearing the cries of
men, and answering them, by sending a great Saylout
to them, is a token and testimony tbr him of his great
love unto them: for the?/shall cry unto the Lord because
~efthe oppressors; as then awakened and convinced do,
eling the oppressions of a guilty conscience, and a
temptihg devil, and an insnaring w. icked world: and
he shall send them a Saviour, and a great one, and he
shall deliver them; this is Christ, whom God sent in the
fulness of time to be the Saviour of lost sinners; and
he is a great one indeed, the great God, and our
Saviour, Tit ii. 13. who is the Son of God, the true
God, and eternal life, who has all the perfections of
deity in him; the Creator and Upholder of all things;
and must have therefore great and sufficient abilities
to save sinners to the uttermost; and those that come
'to God by him he does save and deliver from all their
sins, and out of the hands of all their enemies, and

{a} Herodot. I. 1. c. 3.7. 8. 9.59.63.
{b} Plin. Nat. Hist. I. 5. c. 9. and 6.29.
{c} Antiqu. 1.13. c. 3. sect. 1. 3. & de Bello Jud. 1.7. c.
10. sect. 2,3,4.
{d} T. Bab. Menachot, fol. 109.2.