_THE PROPHET PRAISETH GOD FOR HIS JUDGMENTS, FOR HIS SAVING BENEFITS, AND FOR HIS VICTORIOUS SALVATION._ _Before Christ 715._ THE deliverance of the church, with God's terrible judgments on his enemies, having been exhibited to the prophet in vision, he assumes the person, as it were, of this deli... [ Continue Reading ]
O LORD, THOU ART MY GOD— The elegance of the prophet is observable in this verse, which he begins without any connecting particle or introduction; bursting out immediately into praise, upon a sight of the great deliverance spoken of in the last verse of the preceding chapter. It is commonly thought... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR THOU HAST MADE OF A CITY, AN HEAP— The prophet here plainly speaks of the destruction of a city; but respecting what city is meant interpreters greatly vary. Vitringa seems to have proved clearly that _Babylon_ is meant, which was emphatically called _the city;_ which was remarkably _fortified,_... [ Continue Reading ]
THEREFORE, &C.— These verses contain another gradation of this triumphal song; the meaning whereof is, that the deliverance and salvation which God had procured by his right hand for his people, reduced to extreme straits, and, as it seemed, about to perish should conciliate to him the reverence and... [ Continue Reading ]
AND IN THIS MOUNTAIN SHALL THE LORD OF HOSTS— The words in this third gradation are to be understood partly as a commemoration of the benefit performed, partly as continuing and perfecting the prophesy concerning it. The sense of the metaphor is, that God would provide on mount Sion, for all people,... [ Continue Reading ]
AND HE WILL DESTROY, &C.— Vitringa thinks, with the Chaldee, that the _covering_ and _vail_ here spoken of mean Death; that mighty ruler, who covers the whole race of _men_ with his black garment, and hides them in obscure night; that _by the face of this covering,_ which is _the face of death,_ are... [ Continue Reading ]
AND IT SHALL BE SAID— This verse contains the proposition of the antistrophe, or antiphonal part of this doxology, wherein the people may be supposed to sing in reply to the former part, which as we have observed, was the song of the elders. It was to be sung _on that day,_ or at that time, in which... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR IN THIS MOUNTAIN SHALL THE HAND OF THE LORD— In these verses we have a confirmation of the proposition; and they contain two arguments for the confidence and rejoicing of the people of God; the one taken from Moab, Isaiah 25:10.; the other from the Babylonians, their true or mystical enemies. Th... [ Continue Reading ]