Online Bible 1995 March/ROM-1025.iso/olb/gill/5_500_p.lzh/5_570.TXT

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reunion with him; and should exercise faith upon
him as their own God. Christ-seems to be intended;
going to him is exercising faith upon him, for righte-
ousness and strength, peace, pardon, life, and salva-
tion; and saying, as Thomas did, my Lord, and my
God.
Ver. 7- For thus saith the Lord, sing' with gladness
for Jacob, &c.] For the restoration of Jacob, or the
conversion of the Jews; which will be matter of joy
to the Christians among the Gentiles; who seem to be
here called upon to express their joy on that occasion,
as they will; for it will be to them as life from the
dead, Rom. xi. 15. and xv. 10. Rev. xix. 7. Kimchi
thinks there is a trajection in the words; and thatthey
may be rendered, thus saith the Lord to Jacob, sing
with gladness; as if the exhortation was to him to re-
joice, and not to others on his account; and so the
Septuagint and Arabic versions render it; and to the
same sense the Syriac version, thus saith the Lord, sing,
0 ye of the house of Jacob, with gladness; and so the
Targum; it will no doubt be a joyful time with them:
and shout among the chief of the nations; where they
shall be when converted, as in Great Britain, and other
places: or, on the top of the nations{l} ; on some high
place among them. It seems to denote the public-
hess of the shout; it will be open and manifest to all;
so the Targum, "and exult with head uncovered, in
"the sight of all people;" Turks, Papists, and Pagans:
publish ye ; or cause to hear, or to be heard{m}; cause
their voice to be heard, both in prayer and praise to
God; or cause men to hear their faith in Christ, and
profession of it; and publish that Gospel, and spread
it among others, which before they rejected and de-
spised: praise ye; the Lord for his wonderful grace in
the conversion of them: and say, 0 Lord, save thy
people, the remnant of Israel; his covenant-people;
the remnant according to the election of grace. This
is a direction to the Jews that are converted, to pray
for the rest that are not; or to the Gentiles to pray for
.them; who are before called upon to rejoice at the
first appearance of this wonderful work, and to spread
it abroad, and to go on publishing the Gospel for the
more forwarding of it; and to praise the Lord for
what he had done; and to pray unto him to go on
with the work of saving his people, the residue of
them.
Ver. 8. Behold, I will bring them from the north
country, &c.] As from Babylon, at the end of the
seventy-years' captivity, which lay north ofJudea; so,
in the latter day, from those northern countries, as
ours, where they now are in great numbers: and ga-
ther them from the coasts of the earth; or sides of it;
from all the parts of the world where they are: and
with them the blind and the lame, the woman with-child
and her that travaileth with-child together; signifying
that no difficulties whatsoever should hinder them in
their return to their own land; provision should be
made for persons under these circumstances, so unfit
to travel. All this may be understood, in a figurative
sense, of those who are spiritually blind; who are
made to see their lost estate, and need of Ch fist; and
are brought to him, and to his church, in a way they
had not known, and in paths they knew not before:
and of the lame and impotent, unable to do any good
thing in a spiritual sense, and won't come to Christ,
unless drawn; these are made to leap as a hart, and
to flee to Christ for refuge, and run the ways of his
commandments: and of such who are laden and bur-
dened, as women with-child; and who are encouraged
and enabled as such to come to Christ, and cast their
burdens on him, and find rest for their souls: and of
such who are in pain and distress, as one that travail-
eth uith-child: in the pangs of the new birth, under a
sense of wrath, and as ready to perish; who also are
enabled to come and venture their souls on Christ,
receive his Gospel, and submit to his ordinances, where
t. hey find peace and comfort: a great company shall
return thither; three thousand were converted under
one sermon, in the first times of the Gospel; and, in
the latter day, the nation of the Jews shall be born
again at once; the number of the children of Israel
shall then be as the sand of the sea, and great shall be
the day of Jezreel, Isa. lxvi. 8. Hos. i. 10, 11.
Ver. 9. They shall come with weeping, &c.] For
joy, as Kimchi and Ben Melech observe; of which
there are instances, Gen. xxix. 11. and xliii. 30. and
xlv. '-2, 14. so the Jews will come to Christ, and to the
Gospel church, as well as into their own land, with
joy that they have found the Messiah, and are brought
under his government, and into the enjoyment of the
privileges of the Gospel, and the possession of their
own land; or with tears of repentance for all their
sins, original and actual, especially for their sin of un-
belief, and rejection of the Messiah; they shall look
upon him whom they have pierced, and mourn, when
a spirit of grace and supplication is poured out upon
them, Zech. xii. 10. witih which agrees what follows:
and with supplications will I lead them; to Christ, and
his church; and being drawn by the Father, and led
by the Spirit, they'll come to him with supplications
and entreaties for mercy to be shewed unto them;
particularly for pardoning grace and mercy, and for
salvation by him, which they will now see they stand
in need of. Some render it, withfavowrs {n}, or mercies;
blessings of grace bestowed on them; as a justifying
righteousness; remission of sins; adoption; sanctify-
ing grace; a right and title and meethess for eternal
life; which are all owing to the free favour and grace
of God: I will cause them to walk by the rivers of
waters; or, to rivers of waters*; to God himself, the
fountain of living waters; and his everlasting love,
that river, the streams whereof make glad the city of
God; and to Christ, the fountain of gardens, and well
of living waters; and to those wells of salvation, and
fulness of grace, that are in him; and to the Gospel, its
doctrines and ordinances, which are the still waters to
it, by which the great Shepherd leads his flock. These
rivers of waters may denote the blessings of grace
which spring from the love of God, and flow through
Christ in his word and ordinances, in great abtmdance;

{l} \^Mywgh varb\^ in cacumine gentium, Castalio; in capite gentium,
Pagninus, Montanus.
{m} \^weymvh\^ auditum facite, Pagninus, Montanus; audiri facite,
Schmidt.
{n} \^Mynwnxtb\^ cum beneficientiis, Tigurine version, Gataker; so
Kimchi and Ben Melech.
{o} \^Mym ylxn la\^ ad torrentes, vel fluvios aquarum, Munster, Ti-
gurine version, Calvin, Cocceius; ad fontes aquarum, Schmidt.