FOR, BEHOLD - The prophet by the word, “for,” shows that he is about to explain in detail, what he had before spoken of, in sum. By the word, “behold,” he stirs up our minds for something great, which he is to set before our eyes, and which we should not be prepared to expect or believe, unless he s... [ Continue Reading ]
I WILL GATHER ALL NATIONS AND BRING THEM DOWN TO THE VALLEY OF JEHOSHAPHAT - It may be that the imagery is furnished by that great deliverance which God gave to Jehoshaphat, when “Ammon and Moab and Edom come against” him, “to cast God’s people out of” His “possession,” which “He gave” them “to inhe... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THEY HAVE CAST LOTS - They treated God’s people as of no account, and delighted in showing their contempt toward them. They chose no one above another, as though all alike were worthless. “They cast lots,” it is said elsewhere, “upon their honorable men” Nahum 3:10, as a special indignity, above... [ Continue Reading ]
YEA, AND WHAT HAVE YE TO DO WITH ME? - Literally, “and also, what are ye to Me?” The words, “And also,” show that this is something additional to the deeds of those before spoken of. Those, instanced before, were great oppressors, such as dispersed the former people of God and “divided their land.”... [ Continue Reading ]
YE HAVE TAKEN MY SILVER AND MY GOLD - Not the silver and gold of the temple, (as some have thought.) At least, up to the prophet’s time, they had not done this. For the inroad of the Philistines in the reign of Jehoram was, apparently, a mere marauding expedition, in which they killed and plundered,... [ Continue Reading ]
THE CHILDREN ALSO - Literally, “And the sons of Judah and the sons of Jerusalem have ye sold to the sons of the Greeks.” This sin of the Tyrians was probably old and inveterate. The Tyrians, as they were the great carriers of the world’s traffic, so they were slave-dealers, and, in the earliest time... [ Continue Reading ]
BEHOLD I WILL RAISE THEM - If this promise relates to the same individuals who had been sold, it must have been fulfilled silently; as indeed the return of captives to their own land, unless brought about by some historical event, belongs not to history, but to private life. The prophet, however, is... [ Continue Reading ]
I WILL SELL YOUR SONS - God Himself would reverse the injustice of people. The sons of Zion should be restored, the sons of the Phoenicians and of the Philistines sold into distant captivity. Tyre was taken by Nebuchadnezzar, and then by Alexander, who sold “more than 13,000” of the inhabitants into... [ Continue Reading ]
PROCLAIM YE THIS AMONG THE GENTILES - God having before said that He would “gather all nations,” now, by a solemn irony, bids them prepare, if, by any means, they can fight against Him. So in Isaiah; “Associate yourselves, O ye people, and ye shall be broken in pieces; and give ear, all ye of far co... [ Continue Reading ]
BEAT YOUR PLOWSHARES INTO SWORDS - Peace had been already promised, as a blessing of the gospel. “In His days,” foretold Solomon, “shall the righteous flourish, and abundance of peace, so long as the moon endureth” Psalms 72:7. And another, “He maketh thy borders peace” Psalms 147:14. Peace within w... [ Continue Reading ]
Once more all the enemies of God are summoned together. “Assemble yourselves,” (Others in the same sense render, “Haste ye,) and come, all ye pagan, round about,” literally “from round about,” i. e., from every side, so as to compass and hem in the people of God, and then, when the net had been, as... [ Continue Reading ]
LET THE PAGAN BE AWAKENED - This emphatic repetition of the word, “awaken,” seems intended to hint at the great awakening, to Judgment , when they “who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, being awakened” from the sleep of death. Another word is used of “awakening” . On the destruction of ant... [ Continue Reading ]
PUT YE IN THE SICKLE, FOR THE HARVEST IS RIPE - So Jesus saith, “let both grow together until the harvest, and in the time of the harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them;” and this He explains, “The harvest is the end of the world; and th... [ Continue Reading ]
The prophet continues, as in amazement at the great throng assembling upon one another, “multitudes, multitudes, in the valley of decision,” as though, whichever way he looked, there were yet more of these “tumultuous masses,” so that there was nothing beside them. It was one living, surging, boilin... [ Continue Reading ]
THE SUN AND THE MOON SHALL BE DARKENED - This may be, either that they shall be outshone by the brightness of the glory of Christ, or that they themselves shall undergo a change, whereof the darkness at the Crucifixion was an image. An ancient writer says ; “As in the dispensation of the Cross the s... [ Continue Reading ]
THE LORD SHALL ROAR OUT OF ZION - As in the destruction of Sennacherib, when he was now close upon his prey, and “shook his hand against the mount of the daughter of Zion, the hill of Jerusalem, the Lord of hosts lopped the bough with terror, and the high ones of stature were hewn down, and the haug... [ Continue Reading ]
God Himself wondrously joins on His own words to those of the prophet, and speaks to His own people; “so (literally, and) ye shall know,” by experience, by sight, face to face, what ye now believe, “that I am the Lord your God, dwelling in Zion, My holy mountain.” So He saith in the second Psalm, “T... [ Continue Reading ]
AND IT SHALL COME TO PASS IN THAT DAY - After the destruction of antichrist, there will, it seems, still be a period of probation, in which the grace of God will abound and extend more and more widely. The prophet Zechariah, who continues on the image, of the “living waters going out from Jerusalem”... [ Continue Reading ]
EGYPT SHALL BE A DESOLATION - “Egypt” and “Edom” represent each a different class of enemies of the people of God, and both together exhibit the lot of all. Egypt was the powerful oppressor, who kept Israel long time in hard bondage, and tried, by the murder of their male children, to extirpate them... [ Continue Reading ]
JUDAH SHALL DWELL FOR EVER - Not earthly Judah, nor earthly Jerusalem, for these must come to an end, together with the earth itself, of whose end the prophets well knew. It is then the one people of God, the true Judah, the people who praise God, the Israel, which is indeed Israel. Egypt and Edom a... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR I WILL CLEANSE HER BLOOD THAT I HAVE NOT CLEANSED - The word rendered “cleansed” is not used of natural cleansing, nor is the image taken from the cleansing of the body. The word signifies only to pronounce innocent, or to free from guilt. Nor is “blood” used of sinfulness generally, but only of... [ Continue Reading ]