church by the rites appointed for that purpose. Having obliged themselves, in the most folemn manner, to pay a facred regard to the laws and ordinances of Ifrael, they were inviolably to adhere to them, as the girdle cleaves to the loins of him that weareth it. They would alfo cleave to the house of Jacob; difcovering, on every proper occafion, a strong attachment to them, and their interefts, by a careful obfervance of the divine inftitutions established among them, and by a steady regard to divine truths and precepts delivered for their inftruction and government. After the laudable example of those who are the fubjects of this prediction, let us cleave unto the Lord, and his people, with purpose of heart. Look diligently to yourselves, brethren, left there be in any of you a froward, a falfe, a deceitful, and evil heart of unbelief, which may prompt you to depart from the living God, and to abandon connection with his people. 2 And the people fhall take them, and bring them to their place: and the house of Ifrael fhall poffefs them in the land of the LORD, for fervants and handmaids: and they fhall take them captives, whofe captives they were, and they fhall rule over their oppreffors, The benefits to be derived by the people of Ifrael, from the accomplishment of the foregoing predictions, are here mentioned.--They shall take them; namely, the ftrangers who were joined to them, and who fteadily adhered to the profeffion of friendship which they had made:And bring them to their place, which God gave them for inheritance, that they might fhare in the important advantages which they themselves poffeffed. They were to be admitted members of the commonwealth of Ifrael, to whom pertained the adoption, the glory, and the covenants, the giving of the law, and the fervice of God, 6 God, and the promises.And the houfe of Ifracl fhall poffefs them. The house of Ifrael may denote, as in other paffages of the prophetic writings, the tribes of Judah and Benjamin, with thofe of the other ten tribes, who were mingled with them. There were many belonging to the ten tribes, who, perceiving that Jeroboam intended to establish idolatry among them, feparated from their brethren, and joined the houfe of Judah. Hence we read, that those who set their hearts to feek the Lord, came to Jerufalem, to facrifice; and strengthened the kingdom of Judah *." And afterward, in the days of Afa, many fell to him out of Ephraim, Manaffeh, and Simeon +.' Under the reign of Hezekiah, divers of Afher, Manaffeh, ⚫ and Zebulon, humbled themselves, and came to Jerufalem .' From these and other places of the Old Teftament hiftory, we learn, that the houfe of Ifrael comprehended, not only the tribes of Judah and Benjamin, but likewise all those who joined them from among their brethren. This house was to poffefs the strangers who cleaved to them in the land of the Lord. They were to enjoy confiderable benefit from the kind fervices, and various offices, of humanity, benevolence, and affection, which they would perform toward Ifrael, whom they fhould confider, not only as their friends, but as their inftructers. This advantage they were to enjoy in the land of the Lord; in the land of Canaan, which justly merited this description, on account of its fuperior excellence to all other lands, and because it was the object of his peculiar care and kind regard. And they fhall take them captives, whofe captives they were, and they fhall rule over their oppreffors. The import of this prediction is eafy to be understood: it plainly intimates, that fome of those various nations, who had made captives of the people of Ifrael, were, in their turn, to be made captives by them;-that 2 Chron. xi. 16, 17. † 2 Chron. xv. 9. 2 Chron. xxx. II. when when God would turn again their captivity, they fhould exercise authority over those who had crushed them by violence;—that their condition was to be entirely reversed from what it once was, in fo much that they were not only to be delivered from a ftate of captivity to their enemies, and fubjection to their tyranny, but to be invested with power to retaliate the injuries which they had sustained from those who afflicted them. The righteous Governor of the world, in the course of his providence, often recompenfes men according to their doings. The Tyrians, who exulted at the destruction of Jerufalem, were hiffed at by the merchants among the people, in the day of their calamity. Upon the Edomites, who dealt cruelly with the house of Judah, God laid his vengeance, by the hand of his people Ifrael t. After the houfe of Jacob returned from captivity at Babylon, they waxed strong, became terrible, and confumed like fire the Edomites, who had despised and infulted them. A fimilar change in their circumstances is here foretold by our prophet, in respect to other nations who had oppreffed them, which was remarkably verified in the respectable condition to which they were advanced, and the confiderable influence that they attained, at the period wherein this prophecy was fulfilled.Such difpenfations inculcate upon us diligent attention to the maxim of Jesus Christ, who hath faid, 'With what meafure ye mete, it shall ⚫ be measured to you again t.' The law of retaliation was the first which was published after the fall of man: Whoso fheddeth man's blood, by man fhall ⚫ his blood be fhed .' It was engroffed in the law of Mofes, where it is thus written: Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.' It is tranfcribed and illuftrated in the whole of the divine procedure toward individuals and focieties. They have moved me to jealoufy, Compare Ezekiel xxvi. 2. with chap. xxvii. 36. Prophecies of Obadiah. Matth. vii. 2. + See Gen. vi. 9. faith the Lord, by that which is not God; and I will move them to jealousy, by those who are not a people. And again, As he cried, and they would not hear; fo they cried, and I would not hear, faith the Lord of hofts.' 3 ¶ And it fhall come to pass in the day that the LORD fhall give thee reft from thy forrow, and from thy fear, and from the hard bondage wherein thou waft made to ferve. The particular period is here marked wherein the preceding prophecy fhould receive its accomplishment.- In the day the Lord fhall give thee reft from thy forrow, &c. Sorrow, fear, and hard bondage, hath, at certain feasons, been the lot of the pofterity of Ifrael, who were, from time to time, fubjected to the greatest calamities. Sorrow is that uneafy fenfation which is excited by distress, and the natural effect of the affliction from whence it takes its rife. Tranfgreffion is the cause of all the calamities which befal mankind; and calamities are the fource of grief and forrow, from which the house of Ifrael were not exempted.- -Fear fometimes expreffes in fcripture, the uneafy paffion which bears that name, and at other times the dreaded object from whence it arises. Between the paffion, and the object which occafions it, there is a very intimate connection, in fo much that when the latter is removed, the former commonly ceases. The fear from which the Lord was to give Ifrael reft, was that perplexing and tormenting paffion which proceeds from the dreaded approach of those formidable evils that embarrass and enfeeble the mind, and incapacitate for action those on whom it seizeth.--The hard service which they were made to ferve, may chiefly refer to the very painful and difficult labours wherein they were employed, with great rigour and severity, by the Babylonians. At the time in which God was to deliver them them from the forrow, fear, and bondage, that they had experienced, they were to enjoy the benefits foretold in the preceding verses. This remarkable prophecy was accomplished foon after the destruction of the Babylonifh empire. The Ephraimites having been carried away into Affyria and Media, the Jews were led captive to Babylon. At the expiration of seventy years, the period fixed for their continuance in a state of exile, God was pleased to fhew them mercy, to restore them to their own land, and to perform what is here foretold. For this purpose, he raised up his fervant Cyrus, who iffued the memorable decree, recorded 2 Chron. xxxvi. 29. To carry forward this great work, of refcuing his people from their forrow and bondage, he employed Ezra the scribe, whose name fignifies a Helper, and Nehemiah the governor, whofe name denotes the Confolation of the Lord, to affist and comfort them, Thefe great men, with Zerubbabel and Jofhua, conducted from the captivity and thraldom in which they had been detained at Babylon, above forty-two thoufand of them, befides more than seven thousand men and women fervants, who were probably strangers that had joined them. About the fame time, many profelytes were made to the Jewish religion, who joined the house of Jacob, as we learn from the book of Efther; where we read, that, after Mordecai's promotion, the Jews had joy and gladness, a feast and a good day: and many of the people of the land became Jews; for the fear of the Jews fell upon them. Thus the Lord gave them, in fome meafure, reft from forrow, fear, and bondage. "The "circumstances mentioned in this prophecy (fays the "learned Dr. Lowth, in his Notes) which did not, in any complete fenfe, accompany the return from the captivity at Babylon, feem to intimate, that this "whole prophecy extends its views beyond that VOL II. * Efther viii. 14. 66 event," |