28. We are now entering on the Prophets, the principal work of some whereof was to “testify beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that was to follow,” 1 Pet. i. 11; and therefore I do not at all design to gather up in our passage all that is foretold, promised, declared, and taught, concerning him in them (a work right worthy of more peace, leisure, and ability, than what in any kind I am in- trusted withal), but only to report some of the most eminent places, concerning which we have the common suffrage of the Jews, in their general application unto the Messiah. Among these, that of Isa. u. 2—4 occurreth in the first place: “And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the Lorp’s house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it. And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the LorD, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lorp from Jerusalem. And he shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people: and they shall beat their swords into ploughshares,” ete.
The same prophecy is given out by Micah, in the same words, chap. iv. 1-8; and, by the common consent of the Jews, the Messiah is here intended, although he be not mentioned in the Targum. The Talmudical fable, also, of the lifting up of Jerusalem three leagues high, and the setting of Mount Moriah on the top of Sinai, Carmel, and Tabor, which shall be brought together unto that purpose, men- tioned in Midrash Tehillim, and in Bava Bathra, Distinc. Hammo- cher, is wrested from these words. But those also of them who pre- tend to more sobriety do generally apply them to the promised Mes- siah. Kimchi gives it for a rule, that that expression, D7 NNN3, “In the latter days, ” doth still denote the times of the Messiah ; which, I suppose, is not liable unto any exception. Andas he giveth 28 tolerable exposition of the establishing of “the mountain of the
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Lorp in the top of the mountains,” assigning it to the glory of the worship of God above all the false and idolatrous worship of the Gen- tiles, which they observed on mountains and high places; so concern- ing these words, [Isa. i1.] 4, 0837 [2 Dt,—« He shall judge among the nations,” he saith, nwon 7p win Hawn,—“ This judge” (or “He that judgeth”) “is the King Messiah.” The like also saith Aben Ezra on the same place, and Jarchi on the same words in the prophecy of Micah. And as this is true, so whereas Jehovah alone is mentioned in the foregoing verses, unto whom, and no other, this expression can relate, how is it possible for them to deny that the Messiah is “the Lorp, the God of Jacob” also? for undeniably it is he concerning whom it is said that “he shall judge among the nations;” and by their confession that it is the Messiah who is the “ shophet,” the judge here intended, they are plainly convinced out of their own mouths, and their infidelity condemned by themselves.
Abarbanel seems to have been aware of this entanglement, and therefore, as he wrests the prophecy (by his own confession contrary to the sense of all other expositors) unto the times of the building of the second temple, so, because he could not avoid the conviction of one that should judge among the nations, he makes it to be the house ttself, wherein, as he says, “thrones for judgment were to be erected ;” the vanity of which figment secures it from any further confutation.
We have, then, evidently in these words three articles of the faith of the ancient church concerning the Messiah: as,—First, That as to his person, he should be God and man, the “God of Jacob,” who should in a bodily presence judge the people, and send forth the law among the nations, verse 4. Secondly, That the Gentiles should be called unto faith in him and the obedience of his law, verse 3. Thirdly, That the worship of the Lord in the days of the Messiah should be far more glorious than at any time whilst the first temple was standing; for so it is foretold, verse 2, and so our apostle proves it to be in his Epistle to the Hebrews. And this whole prophecy is not a little perverted by them who apply it to the defeat of Rezin and Pekah when they came against Jerusalem, and who, in their annotations on the Scripture, whereby they have won to themselves a great reputation in the world, seldom depart from the sense of the Jews, unless it be where they are in the right.
29. Isa, iv. 2, “ In that day shall the Branch of the LorD be beauty and glory.” Targ., 7p. ayInd mA NAD wT) NAT NITVI;—“At that time shall the Messiah of the Lord be for joy and honour.’ And this prophecy also is, by the most learned of the rabbins, applied unto the Messiah. Kimchi interprets 23, “The Branch,” by that of Jer. xxiii. 5, “I will raise unto David a righteous Branch, and a King shall reign and prosper.” Aben Ezra inclines unto them who would have Hezekiah to be intended, A Christian expositor refers