stand the heathen (Is. xiii. 11). They are built up; that is, they prosper. Compare Jer. xii. 16, 17, and Ex. i. 21, " And it came to pass, because the midwives feared God, he built them houses." It is probable that the murmurers had the latter passage more particularly in their mind. How can God still continue to be God? In former times he built houses for those who feared him; and now, for those who proudly despise him. -A comparison of ver. 10 will show us what sense we are to attach to the expression tempt God. The prophet had then called upon the nation to test God by true righteousness and see whether he would not bestow his blessing upon them, and prove himself to be the God of justice. What necessity is there, the murmurers reply, for this test, so far as we are concerned? The heathen have already applied such a test. They devote themselves, as it were intentionally, to the task of bringing out the righteousness of God by means of their sins. Now if God is not affected by the test they apply, if he does not manifest his righteousness by punishing them, what reason have we to expect that he will prove himself to be the God of justice, by bestowing blessings upon us?

Ver. 16. “Then they that feared God conversed one with another, and the Lord listened and heard, and a book of remembrance was written before him for those who fear the Lord and think of his name."

The conversations of the truly pious handful, in defence of God, are here opposed to the charges brought against him in the conversations of the ungodly mass of the people (the whole nation in ver. 9), who thought themselves religious. ¡, then, shows that the former were occasioned by the latter, and are here contrasted with them. The substance of what they said is sufficiently indicated by this contrast, and there was the less necessity for any verbal account of their creed, from the fact that it must have been essentially the same as that of the prophet himself. They said the same as Peter in similar circumstances, during the closing period of the Jewish state, when the spirit of murmuring had not only reached its height among the Jews, but had even extended from them to the weaker Jewish Christians. Compare 2 Pet. iii. 9, "The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness, but is long

suffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance" (see also ver. 15 and 17). Since, then, the substance of the conversation is sufficiently determined, we have no reason to attribute to the prophet a citation of the very words, as has been done by as v. Til, J. D. Michaelis, Schmieder, and others, who render the verse thus: "On the other hand they that fear the Lord say among themselves, Jehovah observes," &c. That this is incorrect is sufficiently evident from the fact, that a new address never commences with a future with vav conversive. Moreover, it is self-evident that we have here an injunction to such as were pious, clothed in a historical form. The prophet, by describing what they have done, shows them what they are to do, and that in a more emphatic manner, than if he had merely expressed it in the form of a command. He clearly shows, that no injunction is really required; that faith, from its very nature, expresses itself in this way; and that he who does not speak thus, must renounce all claim to the possession of faith.-The promise is also clothed in a historical form, as well as the injunction.—The figure employed, the writing in a book of remembrance before the Lord, may be explained from the custom of the Persians, to enter in a book the names of all such persons as had performed anything meritorious in the service of the king, along with an account of the peculiar services they had rendered, that they might in due season receive their reward. (With Esther vi. 1, compare Dan. vii. 10, and Ps. lvi. 9).

Ver. 17. "And they shall be to me, saith the Lord of Hosts, in the day which I create, for a possession, and I will spare them, as a man spareth his son, who serveth him."

The reason is here assigned for the entry in the book of remembrance. According to the accents (for example, the Munach under, which indicates a connexion with the following word), the words ought apparently to be rendered, “and they shall be mine in the day when I create a possession." This rendering undoubtedly furnishes a very good meaning. It gives peculiar prominence, in harmony with ver. 18, to the fact, that the design of the great day, which is coming, will be to create a

ap, to erect a wall of partition in the midst of Israel itself, and not merely between the whole of the Israelites according to

the flesh and the heathen world, as these hypocrites anticipate. But the other construction, "they shall be to me for a possession in the day that I create," which is adopted in the Septuagint (καὶ ἔσονταί μοι εἰς ἡμέραν ἦν ἐγὼ ποιῶ εἰς περιποίησιν), is undoubtedly sustained by the earlier passage, upon which this is founded, Ex. xix. 5, "and ye shall be to me a possession," &c., and also by chap. iv. 3, where there is a similar allusion to the day which the Lord creates. does not mean a possession in general, but one of peculiar worth, and highly esteemed, strictly speaking what is treasured up and laid by, a treasure; compare Eccl. ii. 8, "I gathered me silver and gold, and a treasure of kings and provinces." (Even the word Teρiovσios, περιούσιος, which is frequently used as an equivalent to Segullah in the Septuagint and New Testament, does not mean proprius alicui, peculiaris; the Gloss. in Oct. is perfectly correct, πepioúσiov, èçaíperov, literally "what is over," "what is stored up," compare Bengel on Titus ii. 14). In the passage before us there is evidently an allusion to the passages in the Pentateuch in which p is used of Israel in contrast with the heathen, for example, Ex. xix. 5, "now therefore if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, ye shall be to me ap out of all nations;" Deut vii. 6, "for thou art a holy people unto the Lord thy God: the Lord thy God hath chosen thee to be to him a people of possession out of all nations that are upon the earth;" and Deut. xxvi. 18 (cf. Ps. cxxxv. 4). As God at that time made Israel a Segullah out of all nations, so does he now make the true Israel a Segullah out of the whole of Israel according to the flesh, or rather he points out, as his Segullah, those who alone have always been so. For the expression "if ye will hearken to my voice and keep my covenant," is a proof that the new exaltation to the position of a Segullah, which is predicted here, is to be regarded as merely the continuation of the former condition, and that the ungodly, strictly speaking, never did form a part of the Segullah at all. In the word "if," the prophecy which is here plainly announced is already implied. According to this, God can just as little allow, that those who fulfil the required conditions should continue to be deprived of the promised blessings on account of their connexion with the others, as that those who fail

out
of
all

The expression

to fulfil these conditions should be treated as part of the Segullah, for the sake of such as are faithful. After the preparatory siftings, which run through the whole course of history, there must at last come one grand sifting, when the uncircumcised in heart will be mixed up with the outwardly uncircumcised (compare Jer. ix. 24, 25), whilst the true children are fully installed in all the rights of children. This great division took place at the coming of Christ. The expression "to spare," in the sense of to manifest tender affection, is evidently used as a contrast to the treatment of those who are not children, and therefore are "not spared." A similar antithesis, implied but not expressed, is found in 1 Sam. xxiii. 21, where Saul says, with reference to the unsparing conduct of others towards the Ziphites, "blessed be ye of the Lord, for ye have spared me." "that serveth him" is peculiarly emphatic here. the father is to be manifested in all its strength, something more in the son than a merely physical descent, which is simply the first foundation of the connexion between father He must assume the character of a son by an act of The same rule was applicable to Israel in its relation to God. Admission to the family of God by circumcision corresponds to physical descent. Many relied upon this, and fancied that nothing more was wanting, to constitute the ground of a claim upon fatherly treatment on the part of God. But the prophet shows, that if what had been merely received continued outward alone, it would not only not support any claims at all, but would rather tend to heighten responsibility, and render their ultimate retribution the more unsparing.

and son.

free will.

If the love of there must be

Ver. 18. "And ye will see again the difference between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serveth God, and him that serveth him not."

The evident allusion to the complaint of the murmurers, that God made no difference between the righteous and the wicked, a distinction which, in their estimation, coincided with the division between the nation of Israel and the heathen, is a proof that the hypocrites are here addressed. "Ye will discover that your complaint is unfounded, but ye will find it out to your shame." The expression "ye return" refers to similar distinctions that had already been made, for example in Egypt (Ex. xi.

VOL. IV.

7," that ye may know how that the Lord doth put a difference between the Egyptians and Israel"), and to which the hypocrites appealed, as proving that God could not be God now, seeing that no traces of such a distinction as this could any longer be found.' is regarded by most commentators as a noun, (difference). But among the whole mass of passages in which occurs, it would be difficult to find one in which it must be taken as a noun. (In Is. xliv. 4, the meaning of

is in the mean time, and in 1 Sam. xvii. 4, the preposition is merely treated as a noun). The rendering "between" is also perfectly suitable here. 'We do not see," say the murmurers, "what 'between the righteous and the wicked' means." "The time will come," replies the prophet, "when ye will see once more the between, in relation to the righteous and the wicked." In a similar manner a grand division, in the midst of the covenant nation itself, is announced by Isaiah, in chap. lxv. 13, 14, "Behold, my servants shall eat, but ye shall be hungry: behold, my servants shall drink, but ye shall be thirsty: behold, my servants shall rejoice, but ye shall be ashamed: behold my servants shall sing for joy of heart, but ye shall howl for vexation of spirit" (compare Dan. xii. 2). In its fullest sense this division will only take place in the future state (compare the description in Matt. xxv. 31 sqq., which embodies the same idea, and therefore is essentially the same). But as surely as God not merely will be, but from all eternity and through all ages is, the God of justice, so surely must the fanning of the floor, the burning of the chaff and the gathering of the wheat into the barn, be carried on in every age.

Chap. iv. 1 (chap. iii. 19). " For behold the day cometh burning as an oven, and all the proud, and every one that doeth wickedness, shall be stubble, and the coming day burneth them up, saith the Lord of Hosts, who will not leave them root or branch."

In the previous verse a great division was announced, to be made between the righteous and the wicked. We have here a

1 Possibly, the primary meaning of which is to turn, may be used here to denote simply the contrast to their previous condition. Compare Zech. i. 6, viii. 15.