Online Bible 1995 March/ROM-1025.iso/olb/gill/5_100_p.lzh/5_141.TXT

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xi. 44. for they that sit in spiritual darkness, are in the
region of the shadow of death.
Ver. 8. He will swallow up death in victory, &c.]
Or, .for ever {g}. This is to be understood, not of a spiri-
tual death, which is swallowed up in conversion, and of
which those that are quickened shall never die more;
nor of the conversion of the Jews, which will be as life
from the dead; norof the civil death of the witnesses,
and of their rising, who afterwards will never die
more, in that sense; but of a corporeal death: this
Christ has swallowed up in victory, by dying .on the
cross, both with respect to himself, who will never
die more, and with respect to his people, from whom
he has abolished it as a penal evil; but it chiefly re-
spects the resurrection-state, or the personal coming
of Christ, when the dead in him shall rise first, and
shall never die more, there will be no more death,
neithercorporeal, spiritual,nor eternal to them; onlthem
death shall have no power, in any shape: and then
will this saying be brought about or fulfilled, as the
apostle has interpreted it, 1 Cor. xv. 54. see Rev. xxi.
4. and xx. 6. so the Jewsh interpret it of tim future
state, when those that live again shall die no more,
and there will be no death; and of the days of the
Messiah, when the dead will be raised {i}: and the Lord
God will wipe away tears from off all faces; there
are many things now that cause tears to fall from the
saints, aS their own sins, in-dwelling sin, unbelief,
carnality, leanness, backslidings, &c. and the sins of
others, the temptations of Satan, the hidings of God's
face, afflictions of various sorts, and the persecutions
of men; but these will be no more in the New-Jerusa-
lem state; and therefore God is said to wipe them
away, having removed the cause of them, Rev. vii. 17.
and xxi. 4. the allusion is to a tender parent, that
takes a handkerchief, and wipes-the face of its child,
when it has been crying, and quiets and comforts it:
and the rebuke of his people shall he take away fi'om off
all the earth; all the reproaches and calumnies which
have been cast upon them, and all misrepresentations
of them, shall be taken away from them everywhere,
and they'll no longer lie under them, but stand clear of
all falsecharges and accusations: or all persecution shall
now cease; there shall be none to hurt them in all the
holy mountain, Isa. xi. 9: for the Lord hath spoken it;
and it shall be done. The Targum is, "for by the
"word of the Lord it is so decreed."
Ver. 9. And it shall be said in that day, &c.] When
the feast will be made for all the Lord's people; when
the veil and covering shall be removed; when death
will be swallowed up in victory; when all tears shall
be wiped away from the saints; when their rebuke
shall be taken away from them; all whic,h will be at
the glorious appearing of Christ. Lo, this is our God;
and not the idols of the Gentiles, or the works oftheir
hands'; but Christ, who is God over all, blessed for
ever; Iramanuel, God with us: the phrase is expressive
of his true and proper deity, of faith of interest in him,
and of the joy of i.t: we have waited for him, and he
will save us: as the Old-Testament saints waited for
his first coining, and for his salvation, .believing that
he would be the author of it: so New-Testament
saints are waiting for his second coming; and to
them that look for him, and expect his glorious appear-
ing, who have their loins girt, and their lights burn-
ing, and wait for their Lord's coming, will he appear
a second time without sin unto salvation; to put them
into the possession of salvation he has obtained for
them, for which they are heirs, and is nearer than
when they believed: this is the Lord, we have waitea
for him; looking, longing,-.and hasting to the dayof
his coming; this they will say, when they shall see
him coming in the clouds of heaven; whither the
living saints being changed, will be caught up to meet
him, and upon meeting him shall thus greet him, and
one another: we will be glad, and rejoice in his salva-
tion; so suitable to them, so full, complete, and per-
fect, and so much for the glory of God; which was
wrought out by him before, and now possessed by
them; and is what is called the jog of their Lord, they
now enter into, Matt. xxv. 21.
Ver. 10. For in this mountain shall the hand of the
Lord rest, &c.] Where he will make the feast of fat
things, vet. 6. even in his church, which is his resting-
place, and where he delights to dwell; and over whom
his hand is, and abides for their protection and safe-
guard; and where he gives rest, as the Septuagint{k}
render it; even spiritual rest to the souls of his people;
and where, as the Targum has it, "the power of the
"Lord is revealed ;" namely, in the, preservation of Iris
church, and in the destruction of its enemies; as fol-
lows: and Moab shall be trodden down under him: under
the Lord, and his mighty hand of power; or under it;
under the mountain, the church; under the feet of
the saints; see Mal. iv. 2. or, in his place {l], as Jarchi
and Kimchi explain it; wherever he is, or shall be
found, where he lies there shall he be trodden upon.
By Moab the enemies of the church are meant, and
is put for them all, even all the antichristian powers,
both Turks and Papists; their ruin is expressed by
treading down or threshing, in allusion to the thresh-
ing of corn, as the word used mostly signifies, when
the straw is bruised by the cart-wheel, or the feet of
oxen; or to the treading of straw in the mire, as fol-
lows: even as straw is trodden down for the dunghill;
or in it{m}; or in the waters of the dunghill{n}, as the
Cetib; where being east and trodden, it rots, and be-
comes dung; and so the Targum, "as straw is trod-
" den in the clay '" Jarchi interprets it to this sense.
R. Joseph Kimchi takes it to be the name of a place,
Madmenah, which was one of the cities of Moab, Jer.
xlviii. 2.
Ver. 11. And he shall spread forth his hands in the
midst of them, &c.] In the midst of Moab, in the
midst of the enemies of the church of God; and so it
denotes the utter .destruction of them; for the spread-
ing forth of the hands is to be understood of the Lord,
that should do so: as he that swimmeth spreadeth forth

{g} \^xunl\^ insempiternum, Munster, Pagninus, Montanus; in aeternum,
Piscator.
{h} Gloss. in T. Bab. Sanhedrin, fol. 94. Misna, Moed Katon, c. 3.
sect. 9.  Midrash Kohelet, fol. 61.2.
{i} Zohar in Gen. fol. 73. 1. Shemot Rabba, sect, 20. fol. 131. 4.
{k} \~anapausin dwsei o yeov\~.
{l} \^wytxt\^ apud se, i.e. in Ioco suo, Vatablus, Junius & Tremellius.
{m} \^wmb\^ as the Kori or marginal reading directs it should be read.
{n} \^hnmdm ymb\^ in aqnis sterquilinii, De Dieu.