ye people. This passage is from Ps. 117 : 1, and strictly to the apostle's purpose.
(12) And again, Esaias saith, There shall be a root of Jesse, and he thai shall rise to rule over the Gentiles ,• in him shall the Gentiles trust, Isa. 11 : 1,10. This is an explicit prediction of the dominion of the Mes- siah over other nations besides the Jews. Here again the apostle follows the Septuagint, giving however the sense of the original Hebrew. The promise of the prophet is, that from the decayed and fallen house of David one should arise whose dominion should embrace all nations, and in whom Gentiles as well as Jews should trust. In the fulfilment of this prophecy Christ came, and preached salvation to those who were near and to those who were far off. As both classes had been thus kindly received by the condescending Saviour, and united into one community, they should recognise and love each other as brethren, laying aside all censoriousness and contempt, neither judging nor despising one another.
(13) Now then the God of hope Jill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope through the power of the Holy Ghost, Paul here, as in v. 5, concludes by praying that God would grant them the excellencies which it was their duty to possess. Thus constantly and intimately are the ideas of accountableness and dependence connected in the sacred scriptures. We are to work out our own salvation, because it is God that worketh in us both to will and to do, according to his good pleasure. The God of hope, i. e. God who is the author of that hope which it was predicted men should exercise in the root and offspring of Jesse.
Fill you with all joy and peace in believing, i. e. fill you with that joy and concord among yourselves, as well as peace of conscience and peace towards God, which are the results of genuine faith. That ye may abound in hope. The consequence of the enjoyment of the blessings, and of the exercise of the graces just referred to, would be an increase in. the strength and joy fulness of their hope; through the power of the Holy Ghost, through whom all good is given and all good exercised.