Online Bible 1995 March/ROM-1025.iso/olb/gill/6_400.lzh/6_472.TXT

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your own head; bring swift and sudden destruction
upon you.
Vet, 5. Because ye have taken my silver and my gold,
&c.] ' Which is all the Lord's, Hagg. iS. 8. or which
he had bestowed upon his people, and they had taken
from them: and have camped into your temples my
goodly pleasant things; either the rich furniture of the
houses of his people, which they carried into their own
houses, or palaces {}, as it may be rendered; having
either taken them away themselves, or bought them of
Others that had taken them: or else the rich vessels of
the temple; as these were carried away by the Chal-
deans, and put into their idol-temples, Dan. i. 2, so
afterward they were taken by the Romans, and put
into the :temples of their gods: whether any of these
came into the hands of the Tyrians, &c. by any means,
and were put into their idol-temples, as the temple of
Hercules, is not certain; however, it is notorious that
the Papi. sts, the Tyrians are an emblem of, not only
build stately temples, and dedicate them to angels and
-saints, but most profusely adorn them with gold and
.silver, and all goodly and desirable things; which is
putting them to an idolatrous use they were not de-
signed for.
Ver.  6.- The children also of Judah and the children
~Jerusalem, &c.] Not children in age literally, as
imchi, kidnapped or bought by the Tyrians; but the
inhabitants of Judah and Jerusalem: have ye sold unto
the Grecians; or sons of Javan; it was one part of the
merchandise of Tyre to trade in the persons of men;
and Javan, or the Greeks, with others, were their mer-
chants for them, Ezek. xxvii. 13. and the souls of men
are a part of the trade of the merchants of Rome,
typified by the Tyrians, Ray. xviii. 13: that ye might
remove them far from their border; from their own land,
or place of dwelling, that so they might not be easily
redeemed, and return to it any more. Rome, the
antichristian Tyre, trading with the souls of men, is to
their eternal damnation, as much as in them lies.
Cocceius interprets this of the children of the church
being trained up in the doctrine of Aristotle, in the
times of the schoolmen.
Ver. 7. Behold, I will raise them out of the place
whither ye have sold them, &c.] That is, bring them
back to their own land, from their places whither they
have been carried captive, and where they have dwelt
in obscurity, and as if theft had been buried in graves,
but now should be raised up and restored; and this
their restoration will be as life from the dead. So
the Targum, "behold, I will bring them publicly
"from the place whither ye have sold them ;" this
is to be understood, not of the same persons, but
of their posterity, they being the same natural body.
Kimchi interprets it of them and their children; them
at the resurrectlon of the dead, their children at the
time of salvation. Some think this had its accomplish-
ment in Alexander and his successors, by whom the
Jews, who had been detained captives in other countries,
Were set free; particularly by Demetrius, as Josephus f
relates: though it may be applied to the future re-
storation of the Jews, out of all countries, unto their
own land; or rather to the gathering together the spi-
ritual Israel, or people of God, who have been per-
secuted from p.lace to' place by their antichristian ene-
mies. And will return your recompense upon your own
head; do to them as they have done to others; pay
them in their own coin; retaliate the wrongs done to
his people; see Rev. xiii. 10. and xviii. 6.
Ver. 8. And I will sell your sons and your daughters
into the hand of the children of Judah, &c.] That is,
deliver them into their hands, to dispose of them; this
is thought to have been literally fulfilled in the Ty-
finns, when thirty thousand {g} of them were sold for
slaves, upon the taking of their city by Alexander,
who put some of them into the hands of the Jews, they
being in friendship with him: it mystically designs
the power that the Jewish church, converted, and in
union with Gentile Christians, will have over the anti-
christian states: and they shall sell them to the Sabeans,
to a people far off; the inhabitants of Sheba, acountry
by the Jews reckoned the uttermost parts of the earth;
see Matt. xii. 42. These are not the same with the
Sabeans, the inhabitants of Arabia Deserts, that took
away Job's oxen and asses; but rather those who were
the inhabitants of Arabia Felix, which lay at a greater
distance. So $trabo {h} says, the Sabeans inhabited
Arabia Felix; and Diodorus Siculus {i} reckons the
Sabeans as very populous, and one of the Arabian
nations, Who inhabited that Arabia which is called
Felix, the metropolis of which is Saba; and he, as
well .as Strabo, observes, that this country produces
many odoriferous plants, as cassia, cinnamon, frankin-
cense, and calamus, or the sweet cane; hence incense
is said to come from Sheba, and the sweet cane from a
far country, Jar. vi. 20. and since the Jews traded
with these people for those spices, it is easy to con-
ceive how they sold their captives to them: now these
lived at a great distance, in the extreme parts of Ara-
bia, both towards the Indian sea and the Arabian
gulf. And Diodorus Siculus {k} observes, that
***, because of the distance of their situation,
they never came into the power or under the domi-
nion of any, or were never subdued. These seem to
be the descendants Of Cush, the son, of Ham; and if
they were the descendants of Joktan, the son of Shem,
as some think, these are placed by Vitringa {l} in Car-
mania; and where Pliny {m} makes mention of a city
called Sabe, and of the river Sabis; and it is worthy
of notice that the ancient Greek fathers*, with one
consent, interpret the Sabeans of the Saracens: and
whether they may not design the Turks, in whose
possession this country now is, and into whose hands
the antichristian powers may be delivered by means of
the Christians, both Jews and Gentiles, may be con-
sidered. For the Lord hath spoken it; and therefore
it shall be accomplished. The Targum is," for by
"the word of the Lord it is so decreed ;" whose
counsels and decrees can never be frustrated. This,
in an ancient book 0f the Jews called Mechilta, is re-
ferred to the prophecy of Noah concerning Canaan,

{e} \^Mkylkyhl\^ "in palatia vestra", Montanus, Drusius, Burkius.
{f} Antiqu. I. 13. c. 5.
{g} Arriam de Exped. Alexand. I. 2. c. 24.
{h} Geograph. I. 16. p. 536.
{i} Bibliothec. 1. 3. p. 179, 180.
{k} Ibid. p. 181.
{l} Comment. in Jesaiam, c. 43. 3.
{m} Nat. Hist. I. 6. c. 23.
{n} "In Catena Graec. Patr. apud Spanhem". Hist. Jobi, c. 3. p. 47.