Online Bible 1995 March/ROM-1025.iso/olb/gill/6_500.lzh/6_597.TXT

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with thunder and lightning, as he sometimes does;
nay, if he but touch the mountains, they smoke; see
Psal. civ. 32: yea, the world, and all that dwell therein ;
as in the last day, at the general conflagration, when
the world, and all the wicked inhabitsfits of it, will
be burnt up; see 2 Pet. iii. 10.
Vcr. 6. Who can stand before his indignation ? &c.]
No creature whatever'; no man nor body of men; not
Nineveh, and the inhabitants of it; nor the wholeAs-
syrian empire: and who can abide in the fierceness of his
anger? not the great men of the earth; not kings or
generals of armies; not kingdoms and nations, ever
so numerous and powerful; but all must be consumed
by him, who is a consuming tire; sec Jer. 'x. 10. Rev.
vi. 15, 16, 17: his fury is poured out like fire; or like
metal that is melted by fire, and poured out by the
force of it; or like fire of lightning poured out of the
heavens, which is quick, powerful, and penetrating,
and there is no resisting it: and the rocks are thrown
~own by him; by the Lord, by his wrath and fury;
ingdoms that see,ned as strong and immovable as
rocks and mountains are thrown'down; as such have
been by the force of'fire bursting from the midst of
them, as _,Etna, Vesuvius, and others.
Vet. 7. The Lord is good, &c.] To Israel, as the
Targum adds; to Hezekiah and his ,people, that be-
took themselves to him, and put their trust in him;
whom he defended and preserved from the king of
Assyria,'to who'm he was dreadful and terrible, 'de-
stroying his army in one night by an angel; and so de-
livered the king of Jtldah and 'the inhabitants of Jeru-
salem from that terror that had seized them, and that
danger they were exposed unto; and so the Lord is
good in himself, in the perfections of his nature, in the
works of his hands, in all his persons to his people,
that fear him, trust in hi.m, and seek him, and wait
for him, and on him: a strong hold in the day of
trouble; or, he is good for a strong hold {w}, &c.; it was
a day of trouble, rebuke, and blasphemy, with Hczc-
kiah and his people, when they were besieged by the
army of Sennacherib king of Assyria, and had received
from Rabshakeh by his orders a railing and reproach-
ing letter; and then the Lord was a strong hold to
them, to whom they betook themselves, and he pro-
tected and defended them. The whole time of this
life is a time of trouble to the saints, though it is but
a day, a short time; in which they meet with much
from their own corrupt hearts, arid the sin that dwells
in them; from Satan and his temptations; from car-
hal professors, their principles and practices; and
from a profane and persecuting world; and from the
Lord. himself, who sometimes lays his afflicting hand
upon them, and hides his face from them; and yet he
is their rock and their refuge,. their strong tower and
place ofdefence; where they find safety and plenty in
all their times of distress and want: and he knoweth
them that trust in him; in his word, as the Targum;
and they are such that know him, and are sensible of
the vanity of all other objects of trust; who betake
themselves to him for shelter and protection; lean 'and
stay themselves upon him, and commit all unto him,
and expect all from hitn: these he knows, loves, and
has the stro9gest affection for; he approves of them,
and commends their faith and confidence; he takes
notice of them, visits them, and makes himself known
unto them, even in .their adversity; he owns and ac-
knowledges them as his own, claims his right in them
now, and will confess them hereafter; and he takes
care of them that they perish not, whoever else do;
see Psal. i. 6. 2 Tim. ii. 18, 19. he knows the neces-
sities of those that trust in him, as Jarchi; he knows
them fi3r their good, takes care of them, provides for,
them, ,and watches over them, as Kimchi. The an-
cients formerly had their \~gnwsthrav\~ and \~munhtav\~, notores {x},
such as knew them, and were their patrons and de-
fenders; as when a Roman citizen was condemned to
be whipped or crucified in a province where he was
not known, and claimed the Roman privileges, such
persons were his witnesses and advocates; and thus
the Lord is represented as one that knows his people,
and is their patron and advocate. The goodness of God
expressed in this text is set off' with a foil by the
terriblehess of his wrath and vengeance against his
enemies.
Vet. 8. But with an overrunning fiood he will make
an utter end of the place thereof, &c.] Of Nineveh,
against whom this prophecy was, and upon whom it
lay as a burden, ver. 1. and now though the Lord was
good to them that.trust in him, and a strong hold to
them in a time of trouble; yet he was determined to
destroy.their enemies the Assyrians, and Nineveh
their chief city; and that by the means of a powerful
· .army, which, like a rioodor inundation of water break-
ing in, overruns and carries all before it; and very
filly may the Medes and Babylonians, who joined to-
gether in an expedition against Nineveh, be compared
to such a flood for their number and force; since, as
the historian tells {y} us, they were no less than four-
hundred thousand men: though this may be literally
understood; for as the same writer {z} observes, "there
"was an oracle received by the Ninevites from their
"ancestors, that Nineveh could never be taken by
"any, unless the river (on which it stood) first be-
'' came an enemy to it; and so it was, that, in the
"third year of the siege, the river, being swelled with
"continual rains, overflowed part of the city, .and
"broke down the wall for the space of twenty .fur-
" longs; hence the king concluded the oracle was ful-
"tilled, and gave up all hopes of safety; and through
"the breach of the wall the enemy entered, and took
"the city ;" and an utter end was made of it, and of
the place of it, insomuch that historians and. geogra-
phers disagree about it; some say it was situated upon
the river Euphrates, others upon the river Tigris,
which is the righteat; some say on the east of that
river, others on the west; some will have it to be
above the river Lycus, and others below it; so true is
that of Lucian {}, that Nineveh is now entirely lost, and
no traces of it remain; nor can one easily say where it
once was; and travellets in general, both ancient and

{w} \^zweml hwhy bwj\^ bonus dominus ad robur, Burkius; bonus est
Jehovah in arcem, Cocceius.
{x} Dannhaver. apud Burkium in loc. Vid. Turnebi Adversar. l. 29.
c.36.
{y} Diodor. Sicul. l. 2. p. 111. Ed. Rhodom.
{z} Ibid. p. 113, 114.
{a} \~episkop\~. sive contemplantes, in fine.