Online Bible 1995 March/ROM-1025.iso/olb/gill/5_200_p.lzh/5_294.TXT

Text File | 1994-08-10 | 7KB | 128 lines

wo capable of being produced by her; or if there was
such an one, see Jer. iii. 8, he requires it might be
looked into, and seen whether the fault was his, or
the cause in themselves, which latter would appear:
or which of my creditors is it to whom I have sold you ?
referring to a practice used, that when men were in
debt, and could not pay their debts, they sold their
children for the payment of them; see Exod. xxi. 7.
2 Kings iv. 1. Neh. v. 1--5. but this could not be the
case here; the Lord has no creditors, not any to whom
he is indebted, nor could any advantage possibly accrue
to him by the sale of them; 'tis true they were sold
to the Romans, or delivered into their hands, which,
though a loss to them, was no gain to him; nor was
it he that sold them, but they themselves; he was not
the cause of it, but their own sins, as follows: behold,
for your iniquities have ye sold yourselves; or, are sold w;
they were sold for them, or delivered up into the
hands of their enemies on account of them; they had
sold themselves to wor. k wickedness, and therefore it
was but just that they should be so!d, and become
bond-slaves: and for your transgressions is your mother
put away; and they her children along with her, out
ef their own land, and from being the church and
people of God.
Ver. 2. Wherefore, when I came, was there no man?
&c.] The Targum is, "why have I sent my prophets,
"and they are not converted ?" And so Aben Ezra and
Kimehi interpret it of the prophets that prophesied
unto them, to bring them to repentance: the Lord
might be said to come by his prophets, his messengers;
but they did not receive them, nor their messages, but
despised and rejected them, and therefore were carried
captive, 2 Chron. xxxvi. 15, 16. but it is best to under-
stand it of the coming of Christ in the flesh; when
there were none that would receive, nor even come to
him, but hid their faces from him, nor suffer others
to be gathered unto him, or attend his ministry; they
would neither go in themselves into the kingdom of
the Messiah, nor let others go in that were entering,
John i. 11. and v. 40. Matt. xxiii. 13, 37. when I called,
was there none to answer ? he called them to the mar-
riage-feast, to his word and ordinances, but they made
light of it, and went about their worldly business;
many were called externally in his ministry, but few
were chosen, and effectually wrought upon; he called,
but there was no answer given; for there was no
internal principle in them, no grace to answer to the
call; he stretched out his hands to a rebellious and
gainsaying people, Matt. xxii. 2--5, 16. Isa. lxv. 2.
Prov. i. e4. is my hand shortened at all, that it cannot
redeem ? or have I no power to ddiver? they did not
know him to be the mighty God; they took him to
be a mere man; and being descended from such mean
parents, and making such a mean appearance, they
could not think he was able to be their Redeemer and
Say;our; but that he had sufficient ability appears by
what fo11ows: behold, at my rebuke I dry up the sea;
he was able to dolt, and did do it for the children of
Israel, and made a passage through the Red sea for
them, as on dry land; which was done by a strong
east wind he caused to blow, here called his rebuke,
Exod. xiv. '20, 21. see Psal. cvi. 9. of Chfist's rebuking
the sea, see Matt. viii. 26. I make the rivers a wilder-
ness; as dry as the wilderness, and parched ground;
in which persons may pass as on dry ground, and as
travellers pass through a wilderness; so Jordan was
made for the Israelites, Josh. iii. 17. and may be here
particularly meant; called rivers. because of the ex-
cellency of it, and the abundance of water in it, which
sometimes overflowed its banks; and because other
rivers fall into it, as Kimchi observes: their flesh
stinketh because there is no water, and dieth for thirst;
as they did when the rivers of Egypt were turned into
blood, Exod. vii. 21.
Ver. 3. I clothe the heavens with blackness, &c.] With
gross and thick darkness; perhaps referring to the
three-days' darkness the Egyptians were in, Exod. x.
21, 22-, 23. or with thick and black clouds, as in tem-
pestuous weather frequently; or by eclipses of the
sun; there was an extraordinary instance of great
darkness at the time of Christ's crucifixion, Matt.
xxvii. 45. and I make sackcloth their covering; that
being black, and used in times of mourning; the
allusion may be to the tents of Kedar, which were
covered with sackcloth, or such-like black stuff. The
fall of the Pagan empire, through the power of Christ
and Iris Gospel, is signified by the sun becoming
black as sackcloth of hair, Rev. vi. 12. Jarchi inter-
prets this parabolically of the princes of the nations,
when the Lord shall come to take vengeance upon
them; as Kimchi does the sea, and the rivers, in the
preceding verse, of the good things of the nations of the
world, which they had in great abundance, and should
be destroyed.
Ver. 4. The Lord God hath given me the tongue of the
learned, &c.] These are not the words of the prophet,
as Aben Ezra, Kimchi, and others think; though what
is here said is applicable to ministers of the word,
who have to do with weary souls, and it is their work
to comfort and refresh them; and which work requires
knowledge and experience of their case, a good de-
gree of elocution to speak aptly and with propriety.,
even to have the tongue of the learned, especially in a
spiritual sense; as such have who have learned of the
Father, and have been taught by the Spirit of God.
and are well versed in the Scriptures, and can speak in
the taught words of the Holy Ghost, comparing spi-
ritual things with spiritual; and they have need of
great prudence to time things right, to speak fitly and
opportunely, and give to each their portion in due
season, to whom they minister; and also great dili-
gence and assiduity in prayer, reading, and meditation;
and such as are teachers of others must be the Lord's
hearers, and should'be very diligent and attentive
ones; all which are gifts from the Lord, and to be
ascribed to him. But the words are to be understood
of Christ, the same person that is speaking in the
preceding verses; who being anointed by the spirit of
the Lord God, as man, whose gifts and graces he re-
ceived without measure, he was abundantly qualified
for the discharge of his prophetic office; and was ca-
pable of speaking as never man did, and with such
power and authority as the Scribes and Pharisees did

{w} \^Mtrkmn\^ \~eprayhte\~, Sept; venditi estis, Pagninus, Montanus,
Piscator, Cocceias, Vitringa.