Does not this 21st verse allude to a future unex. pected restoration of the ten tribes?

Verse 22. " to the people;" " peoples,"

"y

in the plural. These Gentiles and peoples who are to bring the sons of Zion in their bosoms, and carry her daughters on their shoulders, are certainly dif ferent persons from the sons and daughters of Zion, who are to be so borne. And yet they must bear good will to the sons and daughters of Zion, and therefore must be of the true religion: which is still more evident from this consideration, that it will be in obedience to the express command of God, upon his lifting up his hand, and raising his signal, that they will be thus zealous for the service of the sons and daughters of Zion. And again, these sons and daughters of Zion, in whose behalf God will thus interpose, by lifting up his hand to the nations, and raising his signal to the peoples, must also be of the true religion. Hence it is manifest that this prophecy cannot be expounded simply of the calling of the Gentiles, but it must be understood of the conversion and restoration of the Jews, and of the good offices that the converted Jews will receive from their brethren of the Gentiles.

If the singular y may denote the one communi

ty of the church, though gathered from various nations, as typified by the one nation of the natural Israel (see verse 8); soy in the plural may denote the various bodies and sects of the church's enemies, of which the idolatrous nations of the heathen world, as distinguished from the Jews, were types: the sense then will be, that the providence of God will bring over the adversaries of the church of all sorts to be on her side; that he will engage in defence of his church and of the true religion the learning and the talents of philosophers and orators, the policy of statesmen, the patronage of the great, the authority of kings. Or, without refining so much the force of the word "y, we may say, upon with Vitringa, that it describes the Gentile converts as what they were originally, and by birth. Vitringa, who expounds the text of the protection given to the church by government after the extinction of the persecuting princes, Diocletian, Maximinian, &c. was aware of the objection, that the peoples were different from the sons and daughters of Zion whom they carried. "Dices gentes et populos, qui gestarent filios et filias Zioneas, utique censeri ab iis esse distinctos ac diversos?" He answers, "Respondeo esse omnino, secundum illum respectum

quo hic occurrunt. Qua enim Zioneos cives gestant et forent, censentur originitus, (sit fas ita loqui) ad ecclesiam non pertinere, vel pertinuisse quippe ortu pagani." Vol. ii, p. 595, 2. To which we may add, that by virtue of the edicts of Constantine and the succeeding Christian emperors, even the unconverted subjects of the empire were compelled to contribute to the support of the church.

my

hand to the Gentiles-my standard to

the peoples."

-"Peculiari sensu affirmo, per manum Dei et signum ejus――esse intelligenda edicta imperatorum, et, post sublatum quoque Licinium, solius Constantini; per quæ edicta populi obligati fuerunt ad subveniendum necessitatibus ecclesiæ, et res illius promovendas." Vitringa in Is. vol. ii, p. 595, 2. Still I am inclined to think the true application of the prophecy is to the final restoration of the Jews.

Verses 24, 25." Shall the prey-shall be delivered." The words I think will bear another reading:

24 Shall the booty be taken from the mighty?

Or shall the Just One set the captives free?

25 Verily thus saith Jehovah,

Even the captives shall seize the mighty,

And the tyrant [himself] shall relinquish the booty.

CHAP. L.

Messiah is still the speaker. He declares that the judgments which were to fall upon the Jews were provoked by their crimes, principally by their rejection and ill treatment of the Redeemer; and with the severest rebukes and threatenings intermixes clear intimations that they are not finally cast off.

Verse 1. The Jews, in their present state of dispersion, are addressed. They are told that they suffer for their apostacy; but yet that their mother has received no regular bill of divorce, nor are they made over to any creditor to satisfy a debt. God therefore still retains the right of a husband over their mother, whom he has turned out of doors for her perverseness; and the right of a father over the children, whom he has not sold, though they have offended. And inasmuch as he retains these rights, it is implied, that upon their submission he will take both the mother and the children home again.

It may seem an objection to this interpretation, that God says of the mother, that although he had not divorced her, yet she was put away; and of the children, that they were sold, though he had not sold them. Vitringa's exposition certainly avoids

this difficulty: Emblema prophetæ, ex meo sensu hic desumptum est à marito, qui licet ipse paratus esset indulgentiâ uti erga conjugem, officii et honestatis limites longè excedentem, a foro judiciali obligatur et cogitur ad uxorem suam dimittendam ; ut adeo non tam ipse, quàm judicium forense, in causâ esse censeatur dimissionis uxoris. Quod observatum, ut satisfacit omni dubio hujus loci, sic perfectè respondet emblemati sequenti, quo Deus negat, se eos vendidisse creditoribus suis, cùm verè ipsi a foro judiciali, tanquam debitores, propter de bita sua venditi sint." Vitringa in Is. vol. ii, p. 603, 1. Nor according to this interpretation is the case of the Jewish nation hopeless." Licebat enim viro, conjugem suam, a se per libellum dimissam, si hactenus fidem suam alii marito non obstrinxisset, et resipisceret, rapto divortio domum reducere, et consuetudinem priorem instaurare." Vitringa in Is. vol. ii, p. 604, 1.

-"have you sold yourselves;" rather, sold." Bishop Lowth.

" ye are

Verses 2, 3. "Idem loquitur, qui mox dicturus

est, corpus meum dedi percutientibus'.

-ut non

relinquatur dubitandi locus, totum hunc sermonem

esse Hominis-Dei." Houbigant ad locum.