1Opět stalo se slovo Hospodinovo ke mně, řkoucí: 2Synu člověčí, vydej pohádku, a předlož podobenství o domu Izraelském, 3A rci: Takto praví Panovník Hospodin: Orlice veliká, velikých křídel a dlouhých brků, plná peří, strakatá, přiletěvši na Libán, vzala vrch cedru. 4Vrch mladistvých ratolestí jeho ulomila, a přenesla jej do země kupecké; v městě kupeckém položila jej. 5Potom vzavši z semene té země, vsadila je v poli úrodném, a vsadila je velmi opatrně při vodách mnohých. 6Kteréžto bylo by vzešlo, a bylo by révem bujným, jakžkoli nízké postavy, a byly by patřily ratolesti jeho k ní, a kořenové jeho poddáni byli by jí, a tak bylo by kmenem vinným, kterýž by vydal byl ratolesti, a vypustil rozvody. 7Ale byla orlice jedna veliká velikých křídel a vypeřená, a aj, ten kmen vinný připjal kořeny své k ní, a ratolesti své vztáhl k ní, aby svlažovala jej z brázd štípení svého, 8Ješto v poli dobrém, při vodách mnohých štípen byl, aby vypustil ratolesti, a nesl ovoce, a byl kmenem slavným. 9Rci: Takto praví Panovník Hospodin: Zdaliž se podaří? Zdaliž kořenů jeho nevytrhá, a ovoce jeho neotrhá a neusuší? Zdaž všech ratolestí vyrostlých z něho neusuší? Zdaliž s velikou silou a s mnohým lidem nevyhladí ho z kořenů jeho? 10Aj, jakžkoli štípen, zdaliž se podaří? Zdaliž, jakž se ho dotkne vítr východní, do konce neuschne? Při brázdách, při nichž se ujal, zdaž neuschne? 11Za tím stalo se slovo Hospodinovo ke mně, řkoucí: 12Rci nyní domu zpurnému: Nevíte-liž, co je toto? Rci: Aj, přitáhl král Babylonský do Jeruzaléma, a vzal krále jeho i knížata jeho, a zavedl je s sebou do Babylona. 13Vzal také z semene královského, a učiniv s ním smlouvu, přísahou jej zavázal, a silné země té pobral, 14Aby bylo království snížené, proto aby se nepozdvihovalo, aby ostříhaje smlouvy jeho, tak stálo. 15Ale zprotivil se jemu, poslav posly své do Egypta, aby jemu podal koní a lidu mnohého. Zdaž se mu to podaří? Zdaž pomsty ujde ten, kdož tak činí? Ten kdož ruší smlouvu, zdaliž pomsty ujde? 16Živť jsem já, praví Panovník Hospodin, že v místě krále toho, kterýž jej králem učinil, jehož přísahou pohrdl, a jehož smlouvu zrušil, u něho v Babyloně umře. 17Aniž mu Farao s vojskem velikým a s zástupem mnohým co napomůže v boji, když vysype násyp, a vzdělá šance, aby zahubil množství lidí, 18Poněvadž pohrdl přísahou, zrušiv smlouvu. Neb aj, podal ruky své, a však všecko toto činí. Neujdeť pomsty. 19Protož takto praví Panovník Hospodin: Živť jsem já, že přísahu svou, kterouž pohrdl, a smlouvu svou, kterouž zrušil, jistotně obrátím na hlavu jeho. 20Nebo roztáhnu na něj sít svou, a polapen bude do vrše mé, i zavedu jej do Babylona, a souditi se s ním budu tam pro přestoupení jeho, kteréhož se dopustil proti mně. 21Všickni též, kteříž utekli od něho se všemi houfy jeho, od meče padnou, ostatní pak na všecky strany rozprostříni budou. I zvíte, že já Hospodin mluvil jsem. 22Takto praví Panovník Hospodin: A však vezmu z vrchu cedru toho vysokého a vsadím, z vrchu mladistvých ratolestí jeho mladou větvičku ulomím, a štípím na hoře vysoké a vyvýšené. 23Na hoře vysoké Izraelské štípím ji, i vypustí ratolesti, a ponese ovoce, a tak učiněna bude cedrem slavným, a bude bydliti pod ním všeliké ptactvo; všecko, což křídla má, v stínu ratolestí jeho bydliti bude. 24A tak zvědí všecka dříví polní, že já Hospodin snížil jsem dřevo vysoké, a povýšil jsem dřeva nízkého; usušil jsem strom zelený, a způsobil to, aby zkvetl strom suchý. Já Hospodin mluvil jsem to i učiním.
Matthew Henry - Complete Commentary 1 We must take all these verses together, that we may have the parable and the explanation of it at one view before us, because they will illustrate one another. 1. The prophet is appointed to
put forth a riddle to the
house of Israel (
Ezek 17:2), not to puzzle them, as Samson's riddle was put forth to the Philistines, not to hide the mind of God from them in obscurity, or to leave them in uncertainty about it, one advancing one conjecture and another another, as is usual in expounding riddles; no, he is immediately to tell them the meaning of it.
Let him that speaks in an unknown tongue pray that he may interpret, 1Cor 14:13. But he must deliver this message in a riddle or parable that they might take the more notice of it, might be the more affected with it themselves, and might the better remember it and tell it to others. For these reasons God often used similitudes by his servants the prophets, and Christ himself
opened his mouth in parables. Riddles and parables are used for an amusement to ourselves and an entertainment to our friends. The prophet must make use of these to see if in this dress the things of God might find acceptance, and insinuate themselves into the minds of a careless people. Note, Ministers should study to find out acceptable words, and try various methods to do good; and, as far as they have reason to think will be for edification, should both bring that which is familiar into their preaching and their preaching too into their familiar discourse, that there may not be so vast a dissimilitude as with some there is between what they say in the pulpit and what they say out. 2. He is appointed to expound this riddle to
the rebellious house, Ezek 17:12. Though being
rebellious they might justly have been left in ignorance, to see and hear and not perceive, yet the thing shall be explained to them:
Know you not what these things mean? Those that knew the story, and what was now in agitation, might make a shrewd guess at the meaning of this riddle, but, that they might be left without excuse, he is to give it to them in plain terms, stripped of the metaphor. But the enigma was first propounded for them to study on awhile, and to send to their friends at Jerusalem, that they might enquire after and expect the solution of it some time after.
Let us now see what the matter of this message is.
I. Nebuchadnezzar had some time ago carried off Jehoiachin, the same that was called
Jeconiah, when he was but eighteen years of age and had reigned in Jerusalem but
three months, him and his princes and great men, and had brought them captives to Babylon,
2Kgs 24:12. This in the parable is represented by an eagle's cropping the top and tender branch of
a cedar, and carrying it into
a land of traffic, a
city of merchants (
Ezek 17:3,
Ezek 17:4), which is explained
Ezek 17:12. The
king of Babylon took the
king of Jerusalem, who was no more able to resist him than a young twig of a tree is to contend with the strongest bird of prey, that easily crops it off, perhaps towards the making of
her nest. Nebuchadnezzar, in Daniel's vision, is
a lion, the king of beasts (
Dan 7:4); there he has
eagle's wings, so swift were his motions, so speedy were his conquests. Here, in this parable, he is
an eagle, the king of birds, a
great eagle, that lives upon spoil and rapine, whose young ones
suck up blood, Job 39:30. His dominion extends itself far and wide, like the great and long wings of an eagle; the people are numerous, for it is
full of feathers; the court is splendid, for it has
divers colours, which look like
embroidering, as the word is. Jerusalem is Lebanon, a forest of houses, and very pleasant. The royal family is
the cedar; Jehoiachin is the
top branch, the
top of the young twigs, which he crops off. Babylon is the
land of traffic and
city of merchants where it is set. And the king of Judah, being of the house of David, will think himself much degraded and disgraced to be lodged among tradesmen; but he must make the best of it.
II. When he carried him to Babylon he made his uncle Zedekiah king in his room,
Ezek 17:5,
Ezek 17:6. His name was
Mattaniah -
the gift of the Lord, which Nebuchadnezzar changed into
Zedekiah -
the justice of the Lord, to remind him to be just like the God he called his, for fear of his justice. This was
one of the seed of the land, a native, not a foreigner, not one of his Babylonian princes; he was
planted in a fruitful field, for so Jerusalem as yet was; he
placed it by great waters, where it would be likely to grow, like
a willow-tree, which grows quickly, and grows best in moist ground, but is never designed nor expected to be a stately tree. He
set it with care and
circumspection (so some read it); he wisely provided that it might grow, but that it might not grow too big.
He took of the king's seed (so it is explained,
Ezek 17:13) and
made a covenant with him that he should have the kingdom, and enjoy the regal power and dignity, provided he held it as his vassal, dependent on him and accountable to him. He
took an oath of him, made him swear allegiance to him, swear by his own God, the God of Israel, that he would be a faithful tributary to him,
2Chr 36:13. He also
took away the mighty of the land, the chief of the men of war, partly as hostages for the performance of the covenant, and partly that, the land being thereby weakened, the king might be the less able, and therefore the less in temptation, to break his league. What he designed we are told (
Ezek 17:14):
That the kingdom might be base, in respect both of honour and strength, might neither be a rival with its powerful neighbours, nor a terror to its feeble ones, as it had been, that
it might not left up itself to vie with the kingdom of Babylon, or to bear down any of the petty states that were in subjection to it. But yet he designed that by
the keeping of this covenant it might stand, and continue a kingdom. Hereby the pride and ambition of that haughty potentate would be gratified, who aimed to be
like the Most High (
Isa 14:14), to have all about him subject to him. Now see here, 1. How sad a change sin made with the royal family of Judah. Time was when all the nations about were tributaries to that; now that has not only lost its dominion over other nations, but has itself become a tributary.
How has the gold become dim! Nations by sin sell their liberty, and princes their dignity, and
profane their crowns by casting them to the ground. 2. How wisely Zedekiah did for himself in accepting these terms, though they were dishonourable, when necessity brought him to it. A man may live very comfortably and contentedly, though he cannot bear a part, and make a figure, as formerly. A kingdom may stand firmly and safely, though it do not stand so high as it has sometimes done; and so may a family.
III. Zedekiah, while he continued faithful to the king of Babylon, did very well, and, if he would but have reformed his kingdom, and returned to God and his duty, he would have done better, and by that means might soon have recovered his former dignity,
Ezek 17:6. This plant grew, and though it was
set as a willow-tree, and little account was made of it, yet it became
a spreading vine of low stature, a great blessing to his own country, and his fruits
made glad their hearts; and it is better to be a spreading vine of low stature than a lofty cedar of no use. Nebuchadnezzar was pleased, for
the branches turned towards him, and rested on him as the vine on the wall, and he had his share of the fruits of this vine;
the roots thereof too were
under him, and at his disposal. The Jews had reason to be pleased, for they sat under their own vine, which
brought forth branches, and shot forth sprigs, and looked pleasant and promising. See how gradually the judgments of God came upon this provoking people, how God gave them respite and so gave them space to repent. He made
their kingdom base, to try if that would humble them, before he made it no kingdom; yet left it easy for them, to try if that would win upon them to return to him, that the troubles threatened might be prevented.
IV. Zedekiah knew not when he was well off, but grew impatient of the disgrace of being a tributary to the king of Babylon, and, to get clear of it, entered into a private league with the king of Egypt. He had no reason to complain that the king of Babylon put any new hardships upon him or improved his advantages against him, that he oppressed or impoverished his country, for, as the prophet had said before (
Ezek 17:6) to aggravate his treachery, he shows again (
Ezek 17:8) what a fair way he was in to be considerable:
He was planted in a good soil by great waters; his family was likely enough to be built up, and his exchequer to be filled, in a little time, so that, if he had dealt faithfully, he might have been
a goodly vine. But there was
another great eagle that he had an affection for, and put a confidence in, and that was the
king of Egypt, Ezek 17:7. Those two great potentates, the kings of Babylon and Egypt, were but two great eagles,
birds of prey. This great eagle of Egypt is said to have
great wings, but not to be
long-winged as the king of Babylon, because, though the kingdom of Egypt was strong, yet it was not of such a vast extent as that of Babylon was. The great eagle is said to have
many feathers, much wealth and many soldiers, which he depended upon as a substantial defence, but which really were no more than so
may feathers. Zedekiah, promising himself liberty, made himself a vassal to the king of Egypt, foolishly expecting ease by changing his master. Now
this vine did secretly and under-hand
bend her roots towards the king of Egypt, that great eagle, and after awhile did openly
shoot forth her branches towards him, give him an intimation how much she coveted an alliance with him,
that he might water it by the furrows of her plantation, whereas it was
planted by great waters, and did not need any assistance from him. This is expounded,
Ezek 17:15. Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon in
sending his ambassadors into Egypt, that they might
give him horses and much people, to enable him to contend with the king of Babylon. See what a change sin had made with the people of God! God promised that they should be a numerous people, as the sand of the sea; yet now, if their king had occasion for
much people, he must send to Egypt for them, they being for sin
diminished and brought low, Pss 107:39. See also the folly of fretful discontented spirits, that ruin themselves by striving to better themselves, whereas they might be easy and happy enough if they would but
make the best of that which is. V. God here threatens Zedekiah with the utter destruction of him and his kingdom, and, in displeasure against him, passes that doom upon him for his treacherous revolt from the king of Babylon. This is represented in the parable (
Ezek 17:9,
Ezek 17:19) by the
plucking up of this vine by the roots, the cutting off of the fruit, and
the withering of the leaves, the leaves
of her spring, when they are in their greenness (
Job 8:12), before they begin in autumn to wither of themselves. The project shall be blasted; it shall
utterly wither. The affairs of this perfidious prince shall be ruined past retrieve; as a vine when the east wind blasts it, so that it shall be fit for nothing but the fire (as we had it in that parable,
Ezek 15:4), it shall wither even
in the furrows where it grew, though they were ever so well watered. It shall be destroyed
without great power or many people to pluck it up; for what need is there of raising the militia to pluck up a vine? Note, God can bring great things to pass without much ado. He needs not great power and many people to effect his purposes; a handful will serve if he pleases. He can without any difficulty ruin a sinful king and kingdom, and make no more of it than we do of rooting up a tree that cumbers the ground. In the explanation of the parable the sentence is very largely recorded:
Shall be prosper? Ezek 17:15. Can he expect to do ill and fare well? Nay, shall he that does such wicked things
escape? Shall he
break the covenant, and be delivered from that vengeance which is the just punishment of his treachery? No; can he expect to do ill and not suffer ill? Let him hear his doom.
1. It is ratified by the oath of God (
Ezek 17:16):
As I live, saith the Lord God, he shall die for it. This intimates how highly God resented the crime, and how sure and severe the punishment of it would be. God
swears in his wrath, as he did
Pss 95:11. Note, As God's promises are confirmed with an oath, for comfort to the saints, so are his threatenings, for terror to the wicked. As sure as God lives and is happy (I may add, and as long), so sure, so long, shall impenitent sinners die and be miserable.
2. It is justified by the heinousness of the crime he had been guilty of. (1.) He had been very ungrateful to his benefactor, who had
made him king, and undertook to protect him, had made him a prince when he might as easily have made him a prisoner. Note, It is a sin against God to be unkind to our friends and to lift up the heel against those that have helped to raise us. (2.) He had been very false to him whom he had covenanted with. This is mostly insisted on: He
despised the oath. When his conscience or friends reminded him of it he made a jest of it, put on a daring resolution, and
broke it, Ezek 17:15,
Ezek 17:16,
Ezek 17:18,
Ezek 17:19. He broke through it, and took a pride in making nothing of it, as a great tyrant in our own day, whose maxim (they say) it is,
That princes ought not to be slaves to their word any further than it is for their interest. That which aggravated Zedekiah's perfidiousness was that the oath by which he had bound himself to the king of Babylon was, [1.] A solemn oath. An emphasis is laid upon this (
Ezek 17:18):
When, lo, he had given his hand, as a confederate with the king of Babylon, not only as his subject, but as his friend, the joining of hands being a token of the joining of hearts. [2.] As sacred oath. God says (
Ezek 17:19): It is
my oath that he has despised and
my covenant that he has broken. In every solemn oath God is appealed to as a witness of the sincerity of him that swears, and invocated as a judge and revenger of his treachery if he now swear falsely or at any time hereafter break his oath. But the oath of allegiance to a prince is particularly called
the oath of God (
Qoh 8:2), as if that had something in it more sacred than another oath; for princes are
ministers of God to us for good, Roma 13:4. Now Zedekiah's breaking this oath and covenant is the sin which God will
recompense upon his own head (
Ezek 17:19), the
trespass which he has trespassed against God, for which God will
plead with him, Ezek 17:20. Note, Perjury is a heinous sin and highly provoking to the God of heaven. It would not serve for an excuse,
First, That he who took this oath was a king, a king of the house of David, whose liberty and dignity might surely set him above the obligation of oaths. No; though kings are gods to us, they are men to God, and not exempt from his law and judgment. The prince is doubtless as firmly bound before God to the people by his coronation-oath as the people are to the princes by the oath of allegiance.
Secondly, Nor that this oath was sworn to the king of Babylon, a heathen prince, worse than a heretic, with whom the church of Rome says,
No faith is to be kept. No; though Nebuchadnezzar was a worshipper of false gods, yet the true God will avenge this quarrel when one of his worshippers breaks his league with him; for truth is a debt due to all men; and, if the professors of the true religion deal perfidiously with those of a false religion, their profession will be so far from excusing, much less justifying them, that it aggravates their sin, and God will the more surely and severely punish it, because by it they give occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme; as that Mahometan prince, who, when the Christians broke their league with him, cried out,
O Jesus! are these thy Christians? Thirdly, Nor would it justify him that the oath was extorted from him by a conqueror, for the covenant was made upon a valuable consideration. He held his life and crown upon this condition, that he should be faithful and bear true allegiance to the king of Babylon; and, if he enjoy the benefit of his bargain, it is very unjust if he do not observe the terms. Let him know then that, having
despised the oath, and
broken the covenant, he
shall not escape. And if the contempt and violation of such an oath, such a covenant as this, would be so punished, of how much sorer punishment shall those be thought worthy who break covenant with God (when,
lo, they had given their hand upon it that they would be faithful), who
tread under foot the blood of that
covenant as an unholy thing? Between the covenants there is no comparison.
3. It is particularized in divers instances, wherein the punishment is made to answer the sin. (1.) He had rebelled against the king of Babylon, and the king of Babylon should be his effectual conqueror. In the place where that king
dwells whose
covenant he broke, even
with him in the midst of Babylon he shall die, Ezek 17:16. He thinks to get out of his hands, but he shall fall, more than before, into his hands. God himself will now take part with the king of Babylon against him:
I will spread my net upon him, Ezek 17:20. God has a net for those who deal perfidiously and think to escape his righteous judgments, in which those shall be taken and held who would not be held by the bond of an oath and covenant. Zedekiah dreaded Babylon: Thither I will bring him, says God, and
plead with him there. Men will justly be forced upon that calamity which they endeavour by sin to flee from. (2.) He had
relied upon the king of Egypt, and the king of Egypt should be his ineffectual helper:
Pharaoh with his mighty army shall not make for him in the war (
Ezek 17:17), shall to him no service, nor give any check to the progress of the Chaldean forces; he shall not assist him in the
siege by
casting up mounts and building forts, nor in battle by
cutting off many person. Note, Every creature is that to us which God makes it to be; and he commonly weakens and withers that
arm of flesh which we trust in and stay ourselves upon. Now was again fulfilled what was spoken on a former similar occasion (
Isa 30:7),
The Egyptians shall help in vain. They did so; for though, upon the approach of the Egyptian army, the Chaldeans withdrew from the siege of Jerusalem, upon their retreat they returned to it again and took it. It should seem, the Egyptians were not hearty, had strength enough, but no good-will, to help Zedekiah. Note, Those who deal treacherously with those who put a confidence in them will justly be dealt treacherously with by those they put a confidence in. Yet the Egyptians were not the only states Zedekiah stayed himself upon; he had bands of his own to stand by him, but those bands, though we may suppose they were veteran troops and the best soldiers his kingdom afforded, shall become
fugitives, shall quit their posts, and make the best of their way, and shall
fall by the sword of the enemy, and the
remains of them shall be scattered, Ezek 17:21. This was fulfilled
when the city was broken up and all the men of war fled, Jer 52:7. This
you shall now that I the Lord have spoken it. Note, Sooner or later God's word will prove itself; and those who will not believe shall find by experience the reality and weight of it.
22 When the royal family of Judah was brought to desolation by the captivity of Jehoiachin and Zedekiah it might be asked, What has now become of the covenant of royalty made with David, that
his children should sit upon his throne for evermore? Do the
sure mercies of David prove thus unsure? To this it is sufficient for the silencing of the objectors to answer that the promise was conditional. If
they will keep my covenant, then they shall continue,
Pss 132:12. But David's posterity broke the condition, and so forfeited the promise. But the unbelief of man shall not invalidate the promise of God. He will find out another
seed of David in which it shall be accomplished; and that is promised in these verses.
I. The house of David shall again be magnified, and out of its ashes another phoenix shall arise. The metaphor of a tree, which was made us of in the threatening, is here presented in the promise,
Ezek 17:22,
Ezek 17:23. This promise had its accomplishment in part when Zerubbabel, a branch of the house of David, was raised up to head the Jews in their return out of captivity, and to rebuild the city and temple and re-establish their church and state; but it was to have its full accomplishment in the kingdom of the Messiah, who was a root out of a dry ground, and to whom God, according to promise, gave
the throne of his father David, Luke 1:32. 1. God himself undertakes the reviving and restoring of the house of David. Nebuchadnezzar was the
great eagle that had attempted the re-establishing of the house of David in a dependence upon him,
Ezek 17:5. But the attempt miscarried; his plantation withered and was plucked up. Well, says God, the next shall be of my planting:
I will also take of the highest branch of the high cedar and I will set it. Note, As men have their designs, God also has his designs; but his will prosper when theirs are blasted. Nebuchadnezzar prided himself in setting up kingdoms at his pleasure,
Dan 5:19. But those kingdoms soon had an end, whereas the
God of heaven sets up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed, Dan 2:44. 2. The house of David is revived in a
tender one cropped from the top of his young twigs. Zerubbabel was so; that which was hopeful in him was but the
day of small things (
Zech 4:10), yet before him
great mountains were
made plain. Our Lord Jesus was
the highest branch of the high cedar, the furthest of all from
the root (for soon after he appeared the
house of David was all cut off and extinguished), but the nearest of all to heaven, for his kingdom was not of this world. He was
taken from the top of the young twigs, for he is
the man, the branch, a tender plant, and a
root out of a dry ground (
Isa 53:2), but a
branch of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he may be glorified. 3. This branch is planted
in a high mountain (
Ezek 17:22), in the
mountain of the height of Israel, Ezek 17:23. Thither he brought Zerubbabel in triumph; there he raised up his son Jesus, sent him to gather the
lost sheep of the house of Israel that were
scattered upon the mountains, set him
his king upon
his holy hill of Zion, sent forth the gospel from
Mount Zion, the word of the Lord from Jerusalem; there, in the
height of Israel, a nation which all its neighbours had an eye upon as conspicuous and illustrious, was the Christian church first planted. The churches of Judea were the most primitive churches. The unbelieving Jews did what they could to prevent its being planted there; but who can pluck up what God will plant? 4. Thence it spreads far and wide. The Jewish state, though it began very low in Zerubbabel's time, was set as a tender branch, which might easily be plucked up, yet took root, spread strangely, and after some time became very considerable; those of other nations,
fowl of every wing, put themselves under the protection of it. The Christian church was at first like a grain of mustard-seed, but became, like this tender branch, a great tree, its beginning small, but its latter end increasing to admiration. When the Gentiles flocked into the church then did the
fowl of every wing (even the birds of prey, which those preyed upon, as the
wolf and the lamb feeding together,
Isa 11:6) come and
dwell under the shadow of this goodly cedar. See
Dan 4:21.
II. God himself will herein be glorified,
Ezek 17:24. The setting up of the Messiah's kingdom in the world shall discover more clearly than ever to the children of men that
God is the King of all the earth, Pss 47:7. Never was there a more full conviction given of this truth, that all things are governed by an infinitely wise and mighty Providence, than that which was given by the exaltation of Christ and the establishment of his kingdom among men; for by that it appeared that God has all hearts in his hand, and the sovereign disposal of all affairs.
All the trees of the field shall know, 1. That the tree which God will have to be
brought down, and
dried up, shall be so, though it be ever so high and stately, ever so green and flourishing. Neither honour nor wealth, neither external advancements nor internal endowments, will secure men from humbling withering providence. 2. That the tree which God will have to be exalted, and to flourish, shall so be, shall so do, though ever so low, and ever so dry. The house of Nebuchadnezzar, that now makes so great a figure, shall be extirpated, and the house of David, that now makes so mean a figure, shall become famous again; and the Jewish nation, that is now despicable, shall be considerable. The kingdom of Satan, that has borne so long, so large, a sway, shall be broken, and the kingdom of Christ, that was looked upon with contempt. shall be established. The Jews, who, in respect of church-privileges, had been high and green, shall be thrown out, and the Gentiles, who had been low and dry trees, shall be taken in their room,
Isa 54:1. All the enemies of Christ shall be abased and made his footstool, and his interests shall be confirmed and advanced:
I the Lord have spoken (it is the decree, the declared decree, that Christ must be exalted, must be the headstone of the corner), and
I have done it, that is, I will do it in due time, but it is as sure to be done as if it were done already. With men
saying and doing are two things, but they are not so with God. What he has spoken we may be sure that he will do, nor shall one iota or tittle of his word fall to the ground, for
he is not a man, that he should lie, or the son of man, that he should repent either of his threatenings or of his promises.
