Online Bible 1995 March/ROM-1025.iso/olb/gill/5_500_p.lzh/5_524.TXT

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time they came out of Egypt, and first became a church
and body politic; whilst they were in the wilderness;
or when first settled in-the land of Canaan: this was
the infancy of their state; and from that time it was
their manner and custom to reject the word of the
Lord, and turn a deaf ear to it: that thou obeyest not
roy voice; in his law, and by his prophets.
Ver. 22. The wind shall eat up all thy pastors, &c.3
King, nobles, counsellots, priests, prophets, and elders
of the people; they shall be carried away as chaff' be-
fore the wind, or perish as trees and fruits are blasted
with an east wind; to which Nebuchadnezzar and his
army are sometimes compared; see oh. xviii. 17. The
Targum is," all thy governors shall be scattered to
"every wind." And thy lovers shall go into captivity:
the Assyrians and Egyptians, as before; see ch. lii.
31, 32 Surely then thou shalt be ashamed and con-
founded for all thy wickedness; being disappointed of
all protection from their governors at home, and of all
help from their allies abroad; and will then, when too
late, be convinced of all their wickedness, and ashamed
of it.
Ver. 23. 0 inhabitant of Lebanon, &c.] Jerusalem
is meant, and the inhabitants of it, so called, because
they lived near Lebanon, or in that land in Which
Lebanon was; or rather because they dwelt in houses
made of the wood of Lebanon; and which stood as
thick as the trees in the forest of Lebanon; and where
they thought themselves safe and secure, according
to the next clause; not but that there were inha-
bitants of the mountain of Lebanon, called Druses;
and there were towns and villages on it, inhabited by
people, as there are to this day. After four hours
and a half travelling up the ascent, from the foot of
the mountain, there is, as travellets {z} inform us, a
small pretty village, called Eden; and besides that, at
some distance from it, another called Canobine, where
there is a convent of the Maronites, and is the seat of
their patriarch; and near it a valley of that name, full
of hermitages, cells. anti monasteries; but the former
are here meant. That makest thy nests in the cedars;
in towns, palaces, and houses, covered, ceiled, raftered,
and wainscotted with cedars; here they lived at ease
and security, as birds in a nest. The Targum is,
"who dwellest in the house of the sanctuary, and
"among kings? nourishing thy children." How gra-
cious shall thou be when pangs come upon thee, the pain
as of a woman in travail ? that is, either thba wilt seek
grace and fayour at the hand of God, and make sup-
pfication to him; thou wilt then be an humble
supplicant, when in distress, though now proud and
haughty {a}: or what favour wilt thou then find among
those that come to waste and destroy thee ? This re-
fers to the calamity coming upon them by .the Cbal-
deans, as the following words shew:
Vet. 24. As 1 live, saith the Lord, &c.] The form
of an oath, used to express the greater certainty of
what is after delivered: swearing by his life is swear-
ing by himself; see Heb. vi. 13. Though Coniah the
son of Jehoiakim'king of Judah; the same with Jeco-
mah, so ntcknan}ed by way ot contempt; and tt may
be to denote the diminution of his glory and kingdom,
and the shortness of his reign: were the signet upon my
right hand; ever so near to him, or ever so much va-
lued by him, as he had been before, and so constantly
cared for and regarded by him; as a ring, with any
thing respectable engraved on it, is constantly wore by
persons, and greatly valued; especially such as had on
them the image or picture of a person loved, as was
usual in some countries, to which the allusion is by
some thought to be: so the friends of Ep!curus used
to have his image engraved npon their rings, which
they wore on their fingers in respect to him, and as an
omen of good to themselves {b}; see Cant. viii, 6. Isa.
.xlix. 16. Hagg. ii. 23. Yet would I pluck thee thence:
with great displeasure and indignation.: it designs
being removed from his throne and kingdom, and out
of his native land, and carried into a far country, as
follows.
Ver. 25. And I will give thee into the hand of them
that seek thy lift, &c.] Cruel and bloodthirsty ene-
mies, whom nothing would satisfy- but his life.; such
were the persons following: and into the hand of them
whose face thou .fearest: being a terrible savage people,
to be dreaded both for their number and their cruelty;
a strange chang9 this, to be removed out of the hand
of God into the hand of such an enemy; even into the
hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon; see the note
on oh. xxi. 2: and into the hand of the Chaldeans : who
were the merciless and formidable people before men-
tioned: and this was fuifilled' within three months after
Jeconiah or Jehoiachin began to reign, and when he
was but eighteen years of age, £ Kings xxiv. 8, 10,
11, 12.
Ver. 26. And I will cast thee out, &c.] Out of his
palace., out of the city of Jerusalem, and out of the
land of Judea: and thy mother that bare thee; who
very probably was a bad woman, and had brought up
her son in an evil way, and had led him on and en-
couraged him in it, by her own example, and had been
a partner with him in his sins: her name was Nehushta,
a daughter of Elnathan of Jerusalem; and as it was
here predicted of her, so it was accomplished, 2 Kings
xxiv. 8, 15. it is very likely Jeconiah had no children
before the captivity, since no mention is made of them,
only of his mother that was cast out with him: into
another country, where ye were not born; the land of
Chaldea, which was not the native place neither of him
nor his mother; being both, as it seems probable,
horn in Jerusalem, or however in Jades: and there
shall ye die; both he and his mother; and so the Ara-
bic version expresses it, and there shall ye both die.; as
no doubt they did, though we have no particular ac-
count of their death; as for Jeconiah, he lived a long
time in captivity; it was in the thirty-seventh year
of hi, captivity that Evil-merodach king of Babylon
shewed favour to him above all the captive kings that
were with him, and continued it to his death; but
how long after that was is not known; see Jer. lii.
31--34.

{z} Maundrell's Journey from Aleppo, &c. p. 142, 143. Thevenot's
Travels, part I.B. 2. ch. 60. p.221.
{a} \^ytnxn hm\^ quam gratiam habuisti, vel quomodo precata es, Vata-
blus; quam afficieris gratia, Piscator; quantum gratiae invenies,
Schmidt.
{b} Vid. Alexand. ab Alex. Genial. Dier. 1.2. c. 19.