Volume Ii Part 7 (1/2)

The setting up of the ensign for the Gentiles, around which they are to a.s.semble for the purpose of restoring Israel, took place, in a prelude, under Cyrus; comp. chap. xiv. 2, xlix. 22: ”Thus saith the Lord G.o.d: Behold I lift up mine hand to the Gentiles, and set up my standard to the nations, and they bring thy sons on their bosom, and thy daughters are carried upon their shoulders;” where the sons and daughters correspond to the exiled men of Israel, and to the dispersed women of Judah, equivalent to all the exiled and dispersed men and women. As early as in the Song of Solomon, we are taught that in the Messianic time the Gentile nations will take an active part in the restoration of Israel. According to the first part of that Song, the appearance of the heavenly Solomon is connected with the reception of the Gentiles into His Kingdom, and that, through the instrumentality of the [Pg 130] old covenant people, as is intimated by the name of the daughters of Jerusalem; comp. my Comment. on Song of Solomon, iii. 9-11. In the second part of that Song we have a description of the reunion of apostate Israel with Christ,--which reunion takes place by the co-operation of the daughters of Jerusalem, the same whom they formerly brought to salvation. According to Is. lxvi. 20, the Gentiles, converted to the Lord in the time of salvation, bring the children of Israel for an offering unto the Lord,--A significant allusion to the pa.s.sage before us is found in John xi. 52: ?a? ??? ?p?? t?? ??????

????, ???' ??a ?a? t? t???a t?? Te?? t? d?es???p?s??a s??a???? e??

??. It is the same mercy seeking that which is lost that manifests itself in the gathering of apostate Israel, and in the gathering of the Gentiles. What is said of the one furnishes, at the same time, the guarantee for the other.

Ver. 13. ”_And the envy of Ephraim departeth, and the adversaries of Judah are cut off; Ephraim shall not envy Judah, and Judah shall not vex Ephraim._”

According to the explanatory fourth clause, the ”adversaries of Judah”

in the second clause, can only be those among Judah who vex Ephraim. At the very beginning of the separation of the two kingdoms, their future reunion had been announced by a prophet; and this must now take place as certainly as Jehovah is G.o.d, who had promised to David and his house the eternal dominion over all Israel. The separation had taken place because the house of David had become unfaithful to its vocation. In the Messiah, the promise, to the Davidic race is to be completely realized; _and this realization has_, for its necessary consequence, the _removal for ever_ of the separation; comp. Ezek. x.x.xvii. 22. It was a _prelude_ to the fulfilment, that a portion of the subjects of the kingdom of the ten tribes united with Judah in all those times when, in the blessing accompanying the enterprises of a pious son of David, the promise granted to David was, in some measure realized,--as was the case under Jehoshaphat, Hezekiah, and Josiah. Even before Christ appeared in the flesh, the announcement here made was all but realized. The exile put an end to the kingdom of the ten tribes, and hence also to the unnatural separation which had been designated as the severest calamity of the past, chap. vii. 17. The other tribes [Pg 131]

joined Judah and the restored sanctuary; comp. Acts xxvi. 7; Luke ii.

36. The name of ”_Jews_” pa.s.sed over to the whole nation; the jealousy disappeared. This blessing was conferred upon the people for Christ's sake, and with a view to His future appearance. In Christ, the bond of union and communion is so firmly formed that no new discord can alienate the hearts from one another.

Ver. 14. ”_And they fly upon the shoulder of the Philistines toward the West, spoil together the children of the East; Edom and Moab shall be their a.s.sault, the children of Ammon their obedience._”

As Israel is united internally, so it shall be externally powerful.

According to the Song of Solomon vi. 10, the congregation of Israel when, by her renewed connection with the Lord and His heavenly Solomon, she has regained her former strength, is ”terrible as an army with banners.”--The nations mentioned are those of the Davidic reign. Even before the time of the Prophet, they had been anew conquered by Jehoshaphat, in whom the spirit of David had been revived anew; comp. 2 Chron. xx.; Ps. lx.x.xiii. A prelude to the fulfilment of the prophecy before us took place at the time of the Maccabees, comp. Vol. i. p.

467, 468. But as regards the fulfilment, we are not ent.i.tled to limit ourselves to the names here mentioned. These names are the accidental element in the prophecy; the thought is this: As soon as Israel realizes its destiny, it partakes of G.o.d's inviolability, of G.o.d's victorious power. The Prophet's sole purpose is to point out the victorious power, to give prominence to the thought that outward prosperity is the necessary consequence of inward holiness.--In the first clause, the image is taken from birds of prey; comp. Hab. i. 8: ”They fly as an eagle hastening to eat,” which pa.s.sage refers to the enemies of Israel at the time of wrath. In the time of _grace_, the relation will be just the reverse.--???? ?? occurs, in a series of pa.s.sages in Deuteronomy, of that which is taken in hand, undertaken.

Edom and Moab are no longer an object of _Noli me tangere_ for them.

Ver. 15. ”_And the Lord destroys the tongue of the Sea of Egypt, and waves His hand over the River with the violence of His wind, and smiteth it into seven streams, that one may go through in shoes._”

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Ver. 16. ”_And there shall be a highway for the remnant of His people which was left from a.s.shur; like as it was to Israel in the day that he came up out of the land of Egypt._”

The miraculous power of the Lord shall remove all obstacles to deliverance. These obstacles are represented by the Euphrates and the Red Sea (the tongue of the Sea of Egypt, equivalent to the point of it), with a reference to the fact that, among the countries, in ver.

11, from which Israel is to be delivered, there had been mentioned, _Egypt_, between which and the Holy Land was the Red Sea, and a.s.shur, situated on the other side of Euphrates. To Euphrates, upon which there will be repeated that which, in ancient times, was done in the case of Jordan, the Prophet a.s.signs, in ver. 15, the last place, on account of ver. 16. The highway in that verse is prepared by the turning off of Euphrates, so that we might put: ”And thus,” at the beginning of the verse. As regards the destroying, ?????, it is the forced devoting to G.o.d of that which would not spontaneously serve Him; compare remarks on Mal. iii. 24. Objects of such devoting can properly be _persons_ only, because they only are capable of spontaneous sanctification to G.o.d, as well as of wilful desecration. The fact that it is here transferred to the sea may be accounted for by its being personified. The destruction which is inflicted upon the sea is, in it, inflicted upon the enemies of G.o.d thereby represented, inasmuch as it opposes the people of G.o.d, and thus, as it were, strives against G.o.d.--_With the violence or terror of His wind_, _i.e._, with His violent, terrible wind. There is in this an allusion to Exod. xiv. 21, according to which the Lord dried up the Red Sea by a violent wind. Against _Drechsler_, who thinks of ”G.o.d's breathing of anger,” first, this reference to Exod. xiv. 21, and farther, the circ.u.mstance that the ??? appears as something which the Lord has in His hand, are decisive.--In ver. 16 we need not, after ”from a.s.shur,” supply the other nations mentioned in ver. 11, which would be unexampled; but a.s.shur appears as the representative of all the enemies of G.o.d. Similarly in Micah also, a.s.shur is, with evident intention, used typically; comp. Vol. i. p. 515, 516.

[Footnote 1: Notwithstanding the arguments which we stated in favour of our proposition, that the original form of the name is ???. _Ebrard_ without even attempting to refute them, a.s.sumes, in favour of a far-fetched conjecture, that the name of the place was written ????

(_Kritik. d. Ev. Geschichte_ S. 843, 1st Ed.), and has introduced this opinion even into the text of the new edition of _Olshausen's_ Commentary, edited by him. The circ.u.mstance that elsewhere _commonly_ the Hebrew ? is, in Greek, rendered by ?, ? by s is, in this case, where the special arguments in favour of ??? are so strong, of no consequence.]

[Footnote 2: _Hofmann_ (_Weissagung und Erfullung._, II. S. 64) was the last who a.s.sumed that the Evangelist had generally in view those pa.s.sages in which the lowliness, contempt, and rejection of Christ are spoken of, and that, in the Old Testament pa.s.sages in question, the ?a???a??? was not contained according to the letter, but according to the spirit only. But this is opposed not only by the whole manner of quotation which is given as a literal one, but also by a whole series of a.n.a.logies: Christ's birthplace in Bethlehem, His stay in Jerusalem, His ministry in Galilee, and especially in Capernaum, His entrance into Jerusalem,--all these are by Matthew traced back to prophetical declarations which have a special reference to these localities.

Against the exposition given by us, _Hofmann_ advances the a.s.sertion that neither ??? nor ??? have ever attached to them the idea of lowliness, of una.s.suming appearance. But even if a twig were not of itself something lowly and una.s.suming in appearance, yet, in the pa.s.sage before us, that idea is, at all events, implied in the connection with the _stump_ and _roots_, as well as by the contrast to ????.]

[Footnote 3: The following pa.s.sage, which we take from _Raim. Martini Pug. Fid._ III. 3, 19 p. 685, will fully ill.u.s.trate that custom: R.

_Abba_ said: His name is ???? Lord, according to the word in Jerem.

xxiii. 6; R. _Josua ben Levy_ said: ”His name is Sprout, according to what is said in Zech. vi. 12. Others say that His name will be Comforter, Son of the strength of G.o.d, as is declared in Lam. i. 16.

Those from the School of R. _Siloh_ said: His name will be _s.h.i.+loh_, as is written in Gen. xlix. 10: 'Until s.h.i.+loh come.' Those from the School of R. _Chanina_ said: His name will be the Gracious one, as Jerem. said in chap. xvi. 13. Those from the School of R. _Jannai_ said: Jinnon shall be His name, according to Ps. lxxii. 17, &c.”]

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