promised to them so long ago, and who, but for their wicked- ness, would have come to them at the appointed time : and they submit to the dispensations of God towards them from this very consideration, that they are not yet in a state fit to receive his promised mercies. This is a favourable circum- stance for their future conversion : and when this submission to the Divine chastisements shall be accompanied with suit- able penitence and contrition, their deliverance will be speedily vouchsafed.]
2. Of patient hope —
[As the Edomites, the Ammonites, and others, formerly exulted over Jerusalem, and rejoiced in her calamities, so at this time her enemies regarded her as forsaken by her God, and doomed to interminable degradation. But the believing Jew knows that God has not forgotten to be gracious ; nor so far shut up his loving-kindness in displeasure, as to be mer- ciful to him no more. He knows, that even in the midst of all his troubles God is able to support and comfort him, and that in due season he will interpose to rescue his people from their oppressors. Hence he " encourages himself in the Lord his God ;" and comforts himself with the hope, that, though his night of sorrow may be long and dreary, there is a morning of joy awaiting him, when he shall " put off his sackcloth, and gird him with gladness."]
3. Of joyful assurance —
[The Scriptures everywhere denounce the heaviest judg- ments on those who oppress the Jews, and who shall labour to obstruct their future restoration. Their enemies will be as incapable of offering to them any effectual opposition, as Pharaoh and his armies were of preventing the departure of their forefathers from the land of Egypt. Their enemies will indeed gather together for the purpose of preventing their re-establishment in their own land : but they will be only as "sheaves" collected into the barn "to be threshed out by men, or trodden out" by oxenc. Before them their adver- saries will be only as sheep before the devouring liond. An universal terror will seize on them, such as filled the Canaan- ites when Joshua invaded and subdued their lande. Though they appear weak and contemptible as a worm, yet says God to them, " Fear not, thou worm Jacob ; thou shalt thresh the mountains, and beat them small, and make the hills as chaff; thou shalt fan them, and the wind shall carry them away, and the whirlwind shall scatter them: and thou shalt rejoice in the Lord, and shalt glory in the Holy One of Israel f." To
c Mic. iv. 11—13. d Mic. v. 8, 9.
e ver. 16, 17. f Isai. xli. 14—16.