which he wrought for them when he brought them out of Egypt3: and it is their privilege to be looking forward to that period, with earnest and assured ex- pectation of the blessings prepared for them. In the prospect of that period, the Jewish Church is repre- sented by the prophet as consoling herself with the reflections which we have just read : in our further consideration of which we shall notice, I. The address of the Jewish Church to her ene- mies—
Bitter in the extreme was the enmity of many surrounding nations against the Jews ; far more bit- ter, we apprehend, than in any of them against each other. The favours conferred upon the Jewish na- tion by Jehovah, and the entire separation of the Jews from all other people by the ordinances of their religion, tended to call forth this enmity, and to keep it, as it were, in continual exercise. In like manner at the present day, when they have ceased to exist in their national character, and are blended with the different nations where they dwell, they are still hated, and despised above any other people upon earth. This, no doubt, is a judgment inflicted on them for their murder of their Messiah : and under their present sufferings they may well adopt the language of our text. It is the language,
1 . Of deep submission — [Great were the iniquities of the Jewish people at the time that the prophet wrote b; and heavy were the judgments which God inflicted on them in Babylon on account of them. But far greater is the guilt which they have contracted in rejecting their Messiah, and in crucifying the Lord of glory. For this they have been punished now these seventeen hun- dred years, and been made a bye-word and a hissing amongst all nations. Under these circumstances, what will be the reflections of a pious Jew ? He will say, " I will bear the indignation of the Lord, because I have sinned against him." Indeed, this, we apprehend, is, in words at least, the language of the Jews at this time generally, or perhaps universally, through the world. It is on account of their sinfulness that they suppose God has not yet sent them the Messiah that was
a ver. 15. b ver. 2 — 6.