19. We say, then, that these words contain a prophecy of the Messiah, and of the real glory that should accrue unto the second temple by his coming unto it whilst it was yet standing. This is the importance of the words, Dyno nan ast, The LXX. give us a corrupt interpretation of the words: Kai 4Ze ra éxrsurd wdvrav ray é0vév-—“ And choice things of all nations shall come;” in which.
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SECT. 19, 20.] THE MESSIAH TO BE COME. 297
error they are followed both by the Syriac and Arabic translators. Te éxdearé doth m nothing answer to 170, the word here used by the prophet, and retained by Jonathan in the Chaldee Targum; who indeed is not unfaithful in places relating unto the Messiah, so as to excludes him, although he perverts the true meaning of many of them. The Vulgar Latin hath rightly to the sense rendered these words: “Ht veniet desideratus cunctis gentibus;”—“ And he shall come who is the desired of all nations.” 20, from 790, is properly “ desiderium,” “desire,” but is nowhere used in the Scripture but for a thing or person desired, or desirable, loved, valued, or valu- able; as is NINN also, Dan. ix. 23, x. 11, xi. 8, 43; Gen. xxvii. 15; Ezek. xxiii. 6; Amos v. 11; Jer. iii. 19; Isa. 11, 16. This, I say, is the constant use of the words, to denote the person or thing that is desired or desirable. And it being said here emphatically that this desire shall “come,” nothing but a desired or desirable person can be intended thereby: and this was no other but the Messiah, the bringing of whom into the world was the end of the building of that temple and of the whole worship performed therein; and therefore by his coming unto it, it had the comple- ment of its glory. The promise of him of old unto Abraham was, that “in him all the nations of the earth should be blessed.” Until his coming they were generally to be left to walk in their own ways, and in the issue everlastingly to perish. By him were they to be relieved; and so he is rightly called their “ desire,’ or he that, de jwre, ought to be desirable above all things unto them. “The desire of all nations,” and he “to whom the gathering of the people should be,” that is, “the Shiloh,” are one and the same. It is true, being filled with blindness and ignorance, the ages past before his coming had de facto and actively no desire after him; but as there was a secret groaning and tendency in the whole nature of things after his production, so he, when he came, who was alone to be desired by them, was actually received and embraced as the full accomplishment of their desires. That, then, wherein all their bless- edness and deliverance were laid up, may be properly called their “ desire,’ because containing all things truly desirable, and because, like desire fulfilled, it was perfectly satisfactory unto them when enjoyed.
20. The only difficulty in the interpretation of these words lies in their unusual construction. The verb 382, “shall come,” is of the plural number, “venient; N72, “the desire,” whereunto we refer it, of the singular: “ Desidertum omnium gentium venient.” Kimchi observing this anomaly, to suit the words unto his own sense, affirms that 2 is wanting, which should be prefixed to N73, and so be rendered, “ All nations shall come with their desire,’—that is, their desirable things, their silver and gold; but there is no need of
298 OTHER TESTIMONIES PROVING [EXERC. XIII.
this arbitrary supply of the text, and the sense contended for by him we have sufficiently disproved. Nor is it unusual in the Hebrew tongue, where two substantives are joined in construction, that the verb agrees in number and person, not with that which directly and immediately it respects, but with that whereby it is regulated.’
As 127 here is put in statu constructo by 5.3, and the verb from thence put in the plural number, so 2 Sam. x. 9, “ Joab saw 1103 mne~n 28 PON ,’—“that the face of battle was against him.” The verb 1D'3, “was,” which refers directly to 28, “the face,’ agrees not in number with it, but with 99, “the battle,” by which the other is put in construction. So Job xv. 20, B32 DW IBD ;”_“ The number of years is hid.” 582, “are hid;” it agrees with D2, “years,” and not with 12D), “the number,” in the very same kind of construction with that of the words here used by the prophet. So likewise, 1 Sam. ii. 4, 0°70 033 nvp ;—«“ Arcus fortium confrac- torum.” The adjective, 0, “broken,” agrees in number with na), “the mighty,” though it be apparently spoken of the “bow.” And likewise, Hos. vi. 5, 8¥) 18 JDBv2;—“ Thy judgments shall go forth as the light.” &¥), “shall go forth,” agrees in number with nix, “the light,’ though it respects THEYD, “thy judgments,” in the plural number. And many other instances of the like kind may be alleged to the same purpose. This construction, then, though ano- malous, yet is in that language so frequent as not to create any difficulty in the words; and yet, possibly, the words may not be with- out a further sense, intimating the coming of the nations to Christ upon his coming to the temple.