Online Bible 1995 March/ROM-1025.iso/olb/gill/5_100_p.lzh/5_153.TXT

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be pUrged and expiated through the stoning sacrifice
of Christ, the 'Sayfour and Deliverer, they will em-
brace, Rom. xi. 25, 26: .when he maketh all the stones
of the altar as chalk-stones that are beaten in sunder.
that is, when Jacob, or the people of the Jews, being
convinced of their idolatry by their afflictions, shall
pull down all their idolatrous altars; perhaps parti-
cularly referring to that which Ahaz made, 2 Kings
xvi. 10, 11, l2. and remove the stones thereof, and
break them to pieces, as chalk-stones for lime, which
is easily done: the groves and the images shall not stand
up; erect, to be worshipped; but shall be thrown
down, demolished, and broke to pieces; and, by thus
abandoning their idols and idolatrous practices, they
will shew the sense they have of their sins, and the
sincerity of their repentance; and it is to be observed,
that the Jews, after their return from the Babylonish
captivity, never practised idolatry more, not in the li-
teral sense; perhaps some respect may be had here to
the time when they shall look on him whom they have
pierced, and mourn ;-and when they. shall renounce
all their legal sacrifices, traditions of the elders, and
their own righteousness, their idols, and look alone to
the sacrifice of Christ, and declare against all the
idolatry of the church of Rome, and all antichristian
worship.
Ver. 10. Yet the defenced city shall be desolate, &c.]
Or but, or notwithstanding {b}; though the Lord deals
mercifully with his own people, and mixes mercy with
their afflictions, and causes them to issue well, and for
their good.; yet he does not deal so with others, his. and
their enemies: for by the alefenced city is not meant
Jerusalem, as many interpret it, so Kimchi; nor Sama-
ria, as Aben Ezra; nor literal Babylon, as others; but
mystical Babylon, the city of Rome, and the whole Ro-
man or antichristian jurisdiction, called the great and
mighty city, Rev. -xviii. 10. which will be destroyed, be-
come desolate, oralone {c}, without inhabitants: and the
habitation forsaken and left like a wilderness; or habi-
tations: the singular for the plural; even beautiful ones,
as the word a signifies, the. stately palaces of the pope
and cardinals, and other princes and grea men, which,
upon the destruction of Rome, will be deserted, and
become as a wilderness, uninhabited by men: there
shall the calf .feed: not Ephraim, as Jarchi, from
Jer. xxxi. 18. nor the king of .Egypt, as Kimchi, from
Jet. xlvi. 20. nor the righteous that shall attack the
city, and spoil its substance, as the Targum; see
Psal. lxviii. 30. but literally, and which is put. for all
other cattle, or beasts of the field, that should feed
here, without any molestation or disturbance: there
shall he lie down, and consume the branches thereof;
which the Targum interprets of the army belonging to
the city; it denotes the utter destruction of it, and its
inhabitants; see Rev. xviii. 2. Some of the Jewish
writers {e} interpret this passage of Edom or Rome, and
of the Messiah being there to take vengeance on it.
Ver. 11. When the boughs thereof are withered, they
shallbe broken off, &c.] This city is compared to a tree,
whose branches are not only gnawed and consumed
by cattle, as in the former verse; but which, in a hot
dry stammer, are withered and dried t,p, and so are
easily broken, and are fit tbr nothing. but the fire;
hence it follows: the women come and set them onfire;
or gather them {f} in order to bu ,'n them; as is com-
monly done with withered branthe. s, John xv. 6. it
may .design the burning of the whore ot Rome by the
kings of the earth; for as antichrist is signified by a
woman, so the ten kings that shall ha.te her, and burn
her flesh with fire, may be signitied by women; see
ReV. xvii. 16. The word here used signifies to illumi-
nate, or give light, which is done when wood is set on
fire; hence the Vulgate Latin rende.rs it, women coming,.
and teaching it; and/so the Targum, "wo,men shall
come into the house of the jr gods, and teach them,
as the woman Jezebel does, Rev. if. 20. the former
sense is best : for it is a people of no understa,ding; or
understandings: that is, the people that inhabit the
above city, they are sottish and stupid, have no under-
standing of God and divine things, of the Scriptures,
and the doctrines of them; among whom this. maxim
obtains, that ignorance is the mother of devotion; they
are under a judicial blindness, are given up to strong
delusions to believe a lie, 2 Thess. if. 10,'11: therefore
he that made them will .not have mercy on them; and he
that formed them will shew them no fayour ; but his
wrath shall be poured out upon them to the titter-
most, which will be fulfilled in the seven vials, and in,
the destruction of Rome, and the everlasting ruin of the
worhippers of the man of sin; see Rev. xvi. 1--19.
and xviii. 10. and xiv. 10, 11. no argument can be
taken from men's being God's creatures and offspring,.
and from his being the former and maker of them, to
their salvation; or because they are so, therefore shall
be saved when they are sinful and sottish; for, being
like brutes without understanding, they shall perish as
they, without mercy.
Ver. 12. And it shall come to pass in that day, &c.]
When the song will be sung, ver. 2, 3. when God will
appear to have taken particular care of his church, and
is about to bring it into a flourishing condition; when
its troubles and afflictions will come to an end. with
a sanctified use of them; and when the city of Rome
will be destroyed, and all the antich.ristian powers.
then will be the conversion of the Jews; for antichrist
stands in the way of that work: that the Lord shall
beat off; or beat out{g}; alluding either to the beating
off of fruit from a tree, or to the beating out of grain
from the ear; and signifies the separating of the Lord's
people in effectual vocation from the rest of the world;
as the fruit beaten off is separated from the tree, and
corn beaten out is separated from the ear and chaff;
for this beating off does not intend judgment, but
mercy; and is done not by the rod of affliction, but
by the rod of the Lord's strength sent out of Zion, even
the Gospel, the power of God to salvation; which, in
the' ministration of it, should reach from the channel of
the river. to the stream of Egyp. t; from the river Eu-
phrates, on the banks of which was the city of Ba.
bylon, to the river Nile in Egypt, which were the

{b} \^yk\^ sed, Janius & Tremellius, Forerius; tamen, nihilominus,
Calvin.
{c} \^ddb\^ solitaria, Pagninus, Montanus, Janius & Tremellius,
Piscator.
{d} \^hwn\^ amoenum habitaculum, Tigurine version; Piscator
{e} Shemot Rabba: sect. 1. fol. 91.3.
{f} So Abendana in Miclol Yophi observes, this is the sense some give
of the word, taking it to be the same as is used in Cant. v. 1.
{g} \^jbxy\^ excutiat, Pagninus, Montanus, Junius & Tremellius, Coc-
ceius.