Online Bible 1995 March/ROM-1025.iso/olb/gill/5_100_p.lzh/5_135.TXT

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dwell: this will be the case of her that says, I sit a
queen, and shah see no Sorrow, Rev. xviii. 7.
Ver. 10. The city of confusion is broken down, &c.]
Or of vanity, as the Vulgate. Latin version; or of
emptiness .or desolation; the word is tohu, used-in
Gem i. 2. this is to be understood not of Beth-el, where
one of Jeroboam's calves was, .called Beth-aven, or
the house of vanity; nor Samaria, the chief city of the
ten tribes; nor Jerusalem; but mystical Babylon,
whose name signifies confusion; even the city of
Rome, in which there is nothing but disorder and ir-
regularity, no truth,  justice, or religion; a city of
vanity, full of superstition and idolatry, and devoted
to ruin and desolation; and will be broke to pieces by
the judgments of God, which will come upon it in
one hour, Rev. xviii. 8: every house is shut up, that no
man may come in: or, .from coming in; not for fear of
the enemy, and to keep him out; but because there
are no inhabitants in them, being all destroyed by-one
means or another, by fire or sword, or famine or pes-
tilence, so that there is none to go in or out.
Vet. 11. There is a crying for wine in the streets, &c.]
Not to them that have it, to come and sell it, as Kim-
chi; bttt for w,4nt of it: there shall be a howling and
lamentation in the streets of Rome, during the siege
of it, when there will be a famine of bread and of
wine, as in Rev. xviii. 8. by those-who used to drink
wine, and make glad their hearts; but now shall be
without it. This is put for all desirable things, which
their souls lusted after; but now will be departed from
them, Rev. xviii. 14: all joy is darkened: or come to
an even-tide; the light of joy is turned into the dark-
ness of misery and distress; this will be, when the
fifth vial is poured out on the seat of the beast, and
his kingdom will be full of darkness; and men will
gnaw their tongues for pain, and yet not repent of
their  sins, but blaspheme the God of heaven, Rev. xvi.
10, 11: the mirth of the land is gone; not Jerusalem,
the joy of the whole earth, as Jarchi; but the mirth
and joy of the city of Rome; see the note on ver. 8.
Ver. 12. In the city is left desolation, &c.] And no-
thing else, palaces, houses, and temples burnt, and
inhabitants destroyed; none but devils, foul spirits,
and hateful and unclean birds, inhabiting it, Rev. xviii.
2, 8: and .the gate is smitten with destruction; or gates,
the singular for the plural; none passing and re-
passing through them, as formerly, and themselves
utterly destroyed. This, according to Kimchi, shall
be in the days of the Messiah, in   the times of Gog and
Magog.
Vet. 13. When thus it shall be in the midst of the
land among the people, &c.] When the above judg-
ments shall be executed, the city of Rome shall be
destroyed, and the vials of God's wrath are poured
but on all the antichristian states, on all the followers
of the beast, throughout the whole Romish jurisdic-
lion: there shall be as the shaking of an olive-tree, and
as the gleanlug of grapes, when the vintage is done; as
when an olive-tree is shaken, or beaten with a staff,
which was the usual way of gathering olives, and
which the wordt here Signifies, there are Some few
left upon the uppermost or outermost branches, which
Cannot be reached; and as, after the vintage is got in,
there are some grapes to be glenned arid gathered from
the vines; see ch. xvii: 6. so it is here insinuated that
there should be some, though but a few, a remnant,
according to the election of grace, that should escape
the above calamities, and be preserved. as a se. ed 10r
the church of God; and so it will be, that just before
the destruction of mystical Babylon, the Lord's people
will be called out of her, that they partake not ,,t'ner
sins, and of her plagues, Rev. xviii. 4. The Targum
iS, "for now shall be left alone the righteous in the
"midst of the earth, among the kingdoms, as the
"shaking of olives, as the gleaning of grapes after
"the vintage ;" and to olives and grapes are these gra-
cious persons fitly compared, for the goodness, love-
liness, and fruitfulness of them, through the grace
of God.
Ver. 14. They shall lift up their voice, they shah sing,
&c.] That is, as the Septuagint version adds, "they
"that are left upon the earth ;" these shall lift up
their voice, .in singing the praises of God, for his judg-
ments on Babylon, and avenging the blood of his
saints; and for their deliverance and salvation, arid the
inestimable blessings they are now put into the posses-
sion of;. these are.they, who, having gotten the victory
over the beast and his image, sing the song of Moses
and the Lamb, Rev. xv. 2, 3. and xix. 1, o.: Jbr the,
majesty of the Lord, t.hey shall cry aloud from the sea:
so the Hebrew accents distinguish these clauses; and
the sense is, that from the west, as Kimchi and Ben
Melech interpret it, from the western nations, where
Protestantism chiefly prevails; or from the Mediterra-
nean sea, which lay west. of Judea; from the maritime
countries, the countries bordering upon it, where at
this time will appear many that will embrace the Gos-
pel of Christ; or from the isles of the sea, as the
phrase is explained in the next verse, such as our
isles .of Great Britain and Ireland; great acclamations
will' be made unto the Lord,. on account of his glorious
majesty, seen in the destruction of antichrist, and in-
setting up his own kingdom and glory: these are the
four-and-twenty elders, who will  fall down, and give
thanks to Christ, for taking to himself his great power,
and reigning; and these triumphant and victorious
persons are represented as standing on a sea, whilst
they make their shouts and hallelujahs; see Rev. xi.
16, 17, 18. and xv. 2. this, with what follows in the
two next verses, belong to the Philadelphian church-
state, or spiritual reign of Christ, and express the light
and joy that will attend that.
Vcr. 15. Wherefore glorify ye the Lord, in the fires,.
&c.] These are the words of the remnant, now tri-
umphing and singing, calling upon others also to glo-
rify the Lord in the fires of affliction and tribulation,
in which they had lately been, and had themselves
done: or, in the vailcys{u}; in low estates and condi-
tions: or, in holes{w]; dens and clefts of rocks, where
they fled from their persecuting enemies; but neither.

{t} \^tyz Pqnk\^ similes olivis destrictae oleae, Junius & Tremellius;
tamquam strictura oleae, Cocceius.
{u} \^Myrab\^ in vallibus. So Kimchi, Ben Melech, Munster, Pagninus,
Montanus, Piscator.
{w} In cavernis vel speluncis, Forerius, Sanctius.