Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

earth is utterly broken down, the earth is clean" dissolved, the earth is moved exceedingly. 20. The earth shall real to and fro like a drunkard, and shall be removed like a cottage; and the transgression thereof shall be heavy upon it; and it shall fall, and not rise again.

21. And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall send his visitation upon the host of the high one on high, and upon the kings of the earth on: the earth. 22. And they shall be gathered together as prisoners are gathered into the vault of a dungeon, and they shall be shut up in prison, and after many days shall they be visited. 23. Then the moon shall be confounded, and the sun ashamed, when the Lord of hosts shall reign in mount Zion, and in Jerusalem, and before his ancients gloriously.

XXV. 1. O Lord, thou art my God; I will exalt thee, I will praise thy name: for thou hast done wonderful things: thy counsels of old are faithfulness and truth. 2. For thou hast made of a city, an heap; of a defenced city, a ruin; the tower of strangers, to be no city: it shall never be built. 3. Therefore shall the strong people glorify thee, the city of the terrible nations shall fear thee. 4. For thou hast been a strength to the poor, a strength to the needy in his distress, a refuge from the storm, a shadow from the heat, when the blast of the terrible ones was as a storm against the wall. 5. As heat in a dry place, thou shalt bring down

the

the noise of strangers; as heat in the shadow of a cloud, the branch of the terrible ones shall be humbled.

6. And in this mountain shall the Lord of hosts make unto all people a feast of fat things, a feast of wines on the lees; of fat things full of marrow, of wine on the lees well refined. 7. And he will entirely remove in this mountain the face of the covering that is cast over all the peoples, and the veil that is spread over all the nations. 8. He will swallow up death in victory; and the Lord God will wipe away tears from off all faces; and the reproach of his people shall he take away from off all the earth for the Lord hath spoken it. 9. And it shall be said in that day, Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him, and he will save us: this is the Lord; we have waited for him, we will be glad and rejoice in his salvation. 10. For in this mountain shall the hand of the Lord rest; and Moab shall be trodden down under him, even as straw is trodden down for the dunghill. 11. And he shall spread forth his hands in the midst of them, as he that swimmeth spreadeth forth his hands to swim and he shall bring down their pride' together with the spoils of their hands. 12. And the fortress of the high fort of thy walls shall he bring down, lay low, and bring to the ground, even to the dust.

xxvi. 1. In that day this song shall be sung: In the land of Judah we have a strong city; salvation shall he appoint for walls and bulwarks. 2. Open

[blocks in formation]

ye the gates, that the righteous nation which keepeth the truth may enter in. 3. Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee. 4. Trust ye in the Lord for ever, for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength. 5. For he bringeth down them that dwell on high; the lofty city, he layeth it low * he layeth it low, even to the ground; he bringeth it even to the dust. 6. The foot shall tread it down; even the feet of the needy †, and the steps of the poor. 7. The way of the just is uprightness thou, most upright, dost weigh the path of the just. 8. Yea, in the way of thy judgments,

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

* The lofty city, he layeth it low.] "As the Church is styled "the city of God, so the society of infidels or enemies to "God's truth is represented by the like similitude of a city, "and typified under the figures of Sodom, Babylon, and that "Jerusalem which killed the prophets. And this sense I think "best agrees with the scope of the place, and with the pa"rallel texts, chap. xxv. 2, 12; in neither of which places "can the expression be understood of any one particular "city." Mr. Lowth in loc.

The feet of the needy.] "If we understand the words of "that last and great triumph of the Church over Antichrist and "all its enemies (as many of the expressions in this and the

former chapter look that way), we may fitly explain the 66 poor and needy here to be those who shall escape out of the "great tribulation which shall precede those times, men"tioned Dan. xii. 1." (Mr. Lowth in loc.) Those however, who are mentioned in Dan. xii. 1, are plainly the restored Jews and I conceive them to be likewise intended in the present passage.

O Lord,

O Lord, have we waited for thee: the desire of our soul is to thy name, and to the remembrance of thee. 9. With my soul have I desired thee in the night; yea, with my spirit within me will I seek thee early for, when thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness. 10. Let favour be shewed to the wicked, yet will he not learn righteousness: in the land of uprightness will be deal unjustly, and will not behold the majesty of the Lord. 11. Lord, thy hand is lifted up, but they see not: yet they shall see, and shall be ashamed for their envy at the people; yea thine enemies, fire shall devour them. 12. Lord, thou wilt ordain peace for us; for thou hast also wrought all our works for us. 13. O Lord our God, other lords beside thee have had dominion over us: but by thee only will we make mention of thy name. 14. Dead, they shall not live; utterly dead, they shall not rise again; because thou hast visited and destroyed them, and wilt cause every memorial of them to perish. 15. Thou hast increased the nation, O Lord, thou hast increased the nation: thou art glorified; thou hast extended far all the borders of the land. 16. Lord, in trouble they have visited thee, they have poured out a prayer; thy chastening was upon them. 17. As a woman with child draweth near to the time of her delivery, is pained, crieth out in her pangs; so have we been in thy sight, O Lord. 18. We have been with child, we have been in pain, we have as it

04

[ocr errors]

were

were brought forth wind: deliverance we have not wrought in the earth, and the inhabitants of the world have not fallen.

19. Thy dead shall live, my dead bodies shall arise *. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in the dust for thy dew is the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead. 20. Come, my people; enter into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about theet: hide thyself as it were for a

little

Thy dead shall live, my dead bodies shall arise.] In the language of symbols, death, when a nation is spoken of, means political extinction; and reviviscence, a restoration to political life. "Mori ea notione dicitur, qui in quocunque statu con"stitutus, sive politico, sive ecclesiastico, seu quovis alio, de

sinit esse quod fuit; unde et occîdit qui tali morte quemquam afficit." (Mede's Comment. Apoc. in Myst. duor. Test. p. 484.). The same imagery is used by Ezekiel; only, to heighten the painting, and to shew the great length of time during which the Israelites would lie dead as a nation, he represents them as being not merely a collection of dead bodies, but a heap of dry bones (Ezek. xxxvii. 1-14.). St. John likewise describes the suppression of protestantism in Germany in the time of Charles V, under the same allegory (Rev. xi. 7—11.). "It appears from hence," observes Bp. Lowth very justly, "that the doctrine of the resurrection of "the dead was at that time a popular and common doctrine: "for an image, which is assumed in order to express or represent any thing in the way of allegory or metaphor, must "be an image commonly known and understood; otherwise it would not answer the purpose for which it was assumed." Rp. Lowth's Isaiah in loc. See also Mr. Lowth in loc. Shut thy doors about thee.] "The words are an allusion "to that command given to the Israelites in Egypt, not to go #4 ου of the door of their houses till morning, when the de

46

[blocks in formation]
[ocr errors]
« AnteriorContinuar »