Online Bible 1995 March/ROM-1025.iso/olb/gill/5_100_p.lzh/5_191.TXT

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Zion, and which all its inhabitants are favoured with;
for these are all the g/fts of divine goodness; The
Targum is, "in the house of the sanctuary his soul
." shall be satisfied, his food shall be sufficient :" h/$
waters shall be sure; Christ and his fulness, the-Spirit
and 'his grace, the Gospel doctrines, and ordinances of
it; the believer may be assured of a supply from
Christ's fuiness; the grace of the Spirit is never fail-
ing, and is persevering; and Gospel doctrines and
ordinances are not deceitful brooks, but yield comfort
and refreshment: compare with this ReD. vii. 15,
16, 17.
Ver. 17. Thine eyes shall see the King in his beauty,
&c.] Not ,merely Hezekiah in his royal robes, and
with a cheerful countenance, having put off' his sack-
cloth and his sadness, upon the breaking up of the
siege; but a greater than he, even the King Messiah,
in the glor. y of his person and office, .especially as a
King reigmng gloriously before his ancients in Jeru-
salem: the apostles saw him in his glory, in the days
of his flesh, corporeally and spiritually; believers now
see him by faith, crowded with glory and honour, as
well as see Iris beauty, fulness, and suitablenest, as a
SaySour; and, 'erelong, their eye,s shall see him per-
tonally in his own and his Father s glory. This is to
be understood of the eyes of good men, before de-
scribed. The .Targum is, "thirre eyes' shall see the
"glory of the .Majesty of the King of worlds in his
"praise ;" and Jarchi .interprets it of the glory of
the Majesty of God; so, according to both, a divine
Person is meant, and indeed no other than Christ: theyt/
shall behold the land that is very far off; not the land
of hell, as the Targum, which paraphrases it thus;
"thou shalt behold and see those that godown into
"the land of hell ;" but rather the heavenly country,
the better one, the land of uprightness, typified by the
had of Canaan; and may be said to be a land afar off,
with respect to the earth on which the saints now are,
and with regard to the present sight of it, which is a
distant one, and will be always afar off to wicked men;
this now the saints have at times a view of by faith,
which is very delightful, and greatly supports them
under their present trials: though it may be that an
enlargement of Christ's kingdom all over the world, to
the distant parts of it, may be here meant ; which may
be called, as the words may be rendered, a land of dis-
sances, or of far distances {d}; that reaches far and near,
from sea to sea, and from the river to the ends of the
earth; which will be the case when the kingdoms of
this world shall become Christ's, and the kingdom,
and the greatness of it under the whole heaven, shall
be given to the saints of the most High; a glorious
sight this will be. And this sense agrees with the con-
text, and declares what will be after the destruction of
antichrist.
Ver. 18. Thine heart shall reedState terror, &c.]
shall recollect, and think of with pleasure and thank-
fulness, the terror they were formerly seized with,
when surrounded and oppressed by their enemies, par-
ticularly at the time of the slaying of the witnesses,
which will be a terrible time to the churclr and peo-
pie of God; but when that is over, they will call it to
mind with gratitude, for deliverance from it {o}. This is
commonly understood of the terror and consternation
the Jews were in when besieged by the Assyrian army;
and so the following.words, where is the scribe ? where
is the  receiver.s where is he that counted the towers ? are
taken to be either the words of the Jews in their dis-
tress, calling for such and such officers to repair to
their repective posts, and do their duty; as the scribe,
or muster-master, to see that he has his full quota of
men; the receiver or treasurer, and paymaster of the
soldiers, to give the men money and wages, that they
may be encouraged to fight; and the counter of towers,
or engineer, to take care of the fortifications,and give
directions about them: or else, as now insulting the
Assyrians after the defeat of them, inquiring where
were now such and such officers in their army, whom
before t. hey dreaded, signifying they were all perished
and gone. The apostle cites these words, or at least
alludes to them, 1 Cot. i. S0._when he says, where is
the wise ? where is the scribe ? where is the disputer of
this world? triumphing over the wise doctors of the
Jews, and the philosophers of the Gentiles, as not being
able to face and withstand the power and wisdom of
the Gospel; see the note there. So here. when the
people of God will be recovered from their fright, and
be brought out of their low estate, and will have
ascended into heaven,or be come into a glorious church
state, they will then triumph over their enemies, who
will be no more, and say, where are the pope and his
clergy? his cardinals, archbishops, bishops, priests,
monks, friars, &c.; what are become of them ? they
are all gone, and will be rio more. The Targum is,
"thine heart shall think of great things; where are
"the scribes? where are the princes? where are the
"counters? let them Come, if they can count the
"numbers of the slain, the heads.. of mighty at.
: mies ;" which may well enough be illustrated: by
Rev. xi. 13. and xix. I$, 19.
Vet. 19. Thou shalt not see afierce people,.&c..] A
people of a fierce countenance, as in', Dan. vm. 23,
fierce in their looks, furious in their. temper, cruel and.
bloodthirsty in their practices, confirmed and hardened.
in their sins, whose consciences are seared as with a- red-
hot iron;; a character given of the Fapists, 1 Tim,. iv, e.
these shall be no more seen nor feared ':-a people of o,,
deeper speech than thou canst perceive ; than the people
in common could, having their worship and devotion
not in their mother-tongue, but in the Latin tongue:
of a stammering tongue, that thou canst not understand:
meaning the same as before, a barbarous language., as
every one is to those who~ understand it not ; so the
Syriac and Assyrian languages-were to the Jews,
2 Kings xviii. 26. and so the Roman language to other'
nations; but now no more to be used in rel. igious-wor-
ship; nor shall the church of God be any more. visited
by Turks or Papists,and be in any dread of them more.
Ver. o.0. Look upon Zion, ,&e.] Instead 'of such ter-
rible objects as before describeS, a very amiablo and
lovely one is presented to view; even Zion, he oh'urch
of God, beloved by him, chosen for his. habitation, a

{d} \^Myqxrm Ura\^ terram distantiarum, Vatablus, Moatanus, Gataker.
{e} So Ben Meleck interprets it, "thine heart, which was meditating
"teror before this. "