Online Bible 1995 March/ROM-1025.iso/olb/gill/5_600_p.lzh/5_678.TXT

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mighty army, well accoutred, was brought by the
powerful providence of God; and indeed the whole
world is his armoury, from whence he can raise up
strt, ments to do his will at pleasure; or, his treasury Y;
so the Targum; and some think this is said with re-
ference to the treasure or' the Lord's honse the kin
Babylon had seized upon, and now by way of
tion the Lord would open his treasury to his ruin: and
hath brought .forth the weapons of his lad&nation; as a
Icing, when he goes to war,. opens his armoury, and
takes out armour of every kind, both offensive and de-
fensivc, swords, spears, slfields, &c.; so the Lord would
now bring the Medes and Persians, well armed, to be
the instruments of his wrath and vengeance on Baby-
1on: or, the vessels of his indignation {z}; having some
view to the vessels of the sanctuary, as some think,
the king of Babylon had taken away and profaned;
these may well be applied to the vials of wrath poured
out on the antichristian states by the angels, called
forth out of the temple, Rev. xv. 1, 8. and xvi.
this is the work of the Lord God of hosts in the land of
the Chaldeans; wbich he decreed and ordered to be
done; and which, without his power and providence,
could never have been done: compare with this Rev.
xviii. 8.
Ver. 26. Come against her from the utmost border,
&c.] Or, from the end {a}; from the end of the earth;
from the Persian gulf, and the Gaspinn sea, on which
the Persians and Medesbordered; from the most distant
countries; for the Medes and Persians, who are here
called unto, brought others along with them in their
army from places still more remote; for this is not to
be understood, with the Targum, of entering into Ba-
bylon on one side; or, with Jarchi, of beginning at one
end of the city, that it might not be known, and be taken
suddenly: open her storehouses; where her gold, silver,
jewels, and other precious things, lay: or, her barns or
granaries {b}, as the Targum and Kimchi; where the
fruits and increase of the earth were laid up; and may
figuratively design her cities and fortitled places, full of
inhabitants, as well as of riches and stores of all kinds:
east her up as heaps; as heaps of rubbish to make a
causeway of, and then tread upon them to make it
smooth: or, as heaps, or sheaves {c} of corn; tread upon
them as oxen do, and thereby thresh them out; so Jar-
chi interprets it, "thresh her as grains of wheat ;" and
to this sense the Targum refers, "consume her sub-
" stance as they consume heaps of wheat ;" see Rev.
xviii. 12, 13, 14: and destroy her utterly: let nothing
of her be left; of the city of Babylon, its inhabitants,
wealth, and riches ; so complete should the destruction
be, Rev. xviii. 8, 21, 22, 23.
Vet. 27. Slay all her bullocks, &c.] Or, all her
mighty ones, as the Targum and Vulgate Latin version;
her princes and great men, as Jarchi, Kimchi, and
Abarbinel; compared to bullocks for their strength,
fatness, and fierceness; see Psal. xxii. 12, 13. this may
well be applied to the slaughter of kings, captains, and
mighty men, at the battle of Armageddon, Rev. xix.
18. let them go down to the slaughtr ; to the place
slaughter, as oxen do, insensible, and whether they
will or no: woe unto them, for their day is come, the
time of their visitation; the time of their destrtuction,
of visiting or punishing them for their sins, appointed
by the Lord, which they could not pass; and so
a woeful and dreadful time to them.
Vet. 28. Tlte voice of them tltat flee and escape out
the land of Babylon, &c.] The Jews that were cap-
tives in Babylon, upon the taking of it, took that oppor-
tunity to flee out Of it, and make their escape to their
own land, which some of them might do before the
proclamation of Cyrus; whose voice declaring to their
brethren in Judea what God had done to Babylon, and
rejoicing at it, was as if it was heard by the prophet m.
vision, or under a spirit of prophecy; this also is true
of them who will be called out of mystical Babylon,
and escape from thence, just before its destructions.
Rev. xviii. 4: to declare in Zion the vengeance of the
Lord our God, the vengeance of his temple; the venge-
ance which God took on the Chaldeans for their ill
usage of his people, and for plundering and burning his
temple; th}s the Jews, when they came to their own
land, declared to their brethren there with joy and
pleasure; and a like joy will be expressed when God
shall avenge his people on antichrist, for his blas-
phemy against him, his name, his tabernacle, and
them that dwell in it, Rev. xiii. 6. and xviii. 20. and
xix. 1,
Ver. 29. Call together the archers against Babylon,
&c.] The Medes and Persians, who were well skilled
in archery, especially the Elamites; see Isa. xxii. 6.
hence Horace a makes mention of Medi pharetra; and
Cyrus in Xenophon {} says, that he had under h is command
sixty thousand men that wore targets and were archers;
see the noteon ver. 9. Some render it many, as the Tar-
gum; and the sense is, either gather many together
against Babylon, a large army; or cause many to hear
the vengeance against Babylon; publish this good
news; so the word used by the Targum signifies; and
this will be done by Gospel preachers, with respect to
mystical Babylon, Rev. xiv. 6, 8 : all ye that bend the
bow, campagainst it round about; let none thereof escape
surround it. on every side; besiege it so closely that
none may be able to escape: recompence her according
to her work: according to all that she hath done, do unto
her; which is the law of retaliation; see the note on
ver. 15. and with it compare Ray. xviii. 6: for she hath
been proud against the Lord, against the holy One. of
Israel; behaved haughtily and contemptuously towards
the Lord and his people; burning the city and temple
of Jerusalem; profaning the vessels of it, and ill'treat-
ing the captive Jews; so the Targum, "because she
"hath spoken ill against the people of the Lord, saying
"words which were not right before the holy One of
"Israel ;" which may filly be applied to antichrist the
man of sin, sitting in the temple of God, shewing him-

{y} \^wruwa\^ thesaurum suum, Vulg. Lat., vatablus, Pagninus, Montanus,
Schmidt.
{z} \^wmez ylk\^ vasa irae suae, Vulg. Lat. Pagninus; vasa indignationis
suae, Montanus.
{a} \^Uqm\^ a fine, Vatablus, Montanus, Schmidt; a fine terrae, Piscator;
ab extremis finibus, Tigurine version, Grotius.
{b} \^hyobam\^ horrea ejus, Montanus, Cocceius; granaria ejus, Junius
& Tremellius, Piscator, Schmidt.
{c} \^Mymre wmk\^ sicut acervos, sub. tritici, Vatablus; frumenti, Pis-
cator.
{d} Carmin. 1.2. Ode 16.
{e} Cyropaedia, I. 2. c. 1.