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Ver. 5. And righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins.] Symbolum Regis hoc est, saith Scultetus. Kings and princes have their scita in scutis, their mottoes on their shields; so hath our king here, viz., “Righteousness and faithfulness”; and this is so manifest as if written on his girdle, or belt, see Revelation 19:16; where, for like cause, Christ’s high titles are written “on his vesture, and on his thigh.” Others by this expression understand Christ’s alacrity and promptitude to vindicate his elect, and to punish the wicked, according to his promise, Vaticinatur de Christi solertia in obeundis regni Dei negotiis, ac tribuit illi cincturam, seu industriam spiritualem pro qualilate obeundae dispensationis. Let us also, Christ-like, “gird up the loins of our minds; be sober, and hope perfectly.” (1 Peter 1:13) Gird ourselves, and serve him, (Luke 17:8) readily, nimbly, handsomely, and hardily. A loose, discinct, and diffluent (fluid) mind is unfit for God’s service. The belt is put for a kingly ensign. Calvin. (Job 12:18) Zeged.
Ver. 6. The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb.] Not worrying as he was wont, but made tame and tractable. Lo, such a blessed change is wrought in all true converts, as is to be seen in Paul, that wolf of the tribe of Benjamin, prophesied of by Jacob, (Genesis 49:27) as some hold. And the like may be said of Petrus Paulus Vergerius, once the Pope’s nuncio, but afterwards a great preacher of the gospel. Hugh Latimer, once as obstinate a Papist as any was in England—they are his own words—but converted by blessed Bilney, as he called him usually, he became a zealous promoter of the truth according to godliness, confessor general to all Protestants troubled in mind, and the treasury into which restored ill-gotten goods were cast, to be bestowed on the poor according to his discretion, And the leopard shall lie down with the kid.] As they did at the creation, and afterward in Noah’s ark; all bloodiness and rapine laid aside. Those that love not one another out of a pure heart fervently, but are filled with envy, malice, debate, deceit, malignity, are none of Christ’s subjects, nor fellow-citizens with the saints. And a little child shall lead them.] That is, the child Jesus, say some interpreters, by the conduct of his Holy Spirit; or the apostles and other godly ministers, who were counted but as little children to the Pharisees and philosophers, called the grandees and “princes of this world.” (1 Corinthians 2:8) But they do best that understand it of such a tractableness and teachableness in Christians, that they can be content to learn of any one, though never so mean, that can better inform them. See this in Apollos. (Acts 18:26) Augustine, as himself witnesseth thus in one of his epistles, En adsum senex a iuvene coepiscopo, episcopus tot annorum a collega nondum anniculo paratus sum discere, I am here an old man, ready to learn from a young man, my coadjutor in the ministry; and so old a bishop, from one who hath scarce been a year in the service. Hippocrates adviseth men not to slack or disdain to learn even of those who are counted idiots. Sleidan, lib. xxi., p. 650. Bucholc., A.D. 1548. Act, and Mon., 919; Fuller’s Church History, fol. 405. Ut vel ex puero, i.e., ex inopi et simplici quovis. -Scultet. Μη οκνεειν και παρα ιδιωτεον ιστορεειν.
Ver. 7. And the cow and the bear shall feed.] An allegorical description of greatest confidence and innocence, saith Junius. Bears are angry and vindictive creatures; so are the best by nature, (Titus 3:3) till tamed and domesticated by God’s distinguishing grace. As for those semiperfectae vertutis homines, as an ancient calls them, temporaries and hypocrites, who do only the outward works of duty, without the inward principle, it may be said of them, as the civil law doth of those mixed beasts, elephants, camels, &c., Operam praestant, natura fera est, they do the work of tame beasts, yet have the nature of wild ones. Their young ones shall lie down together.] Heb., Their children, i.e., say some, children after parents shall do thus, and their children after them from age to age; not revolting any more to barbarism. And the lion shall eat straw.] Not men and other sensitive creatures, as now. This, say the Chiliasts after some Rabbis, shall be literally fulfilled in that golden age of Christ’s personal reign upon earth; a mere fancy, first vented by Papias, a man of some holiness, but ingenii pertenuis, of very little judgment, saith Eusebius. Arcularius. Conversi non vivent ex rapto: sed legitime partis reculis contenti erunt. Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History l. 3. c. 39. 1:295,297.
Ver. 8. And the sucking child shall play upon the hole of the asp, &c.] There shall be no danger from calumniators and cruel crafties, asps and basilisks, quorum in labris venenum sessitat (Psalms 140:4) These homines damnosissimi most damnable men shall have a new nature transfused into them; their malignities and mischievous qualities shall cease when once truly converted. A fabulous reptile, also called a cockatrice, alleged to be hatched by a serpent from a cock’s egg; ancient authors stated that its hissing drove away all other serpents, and that its breath, and even its look, was fatal.
Ver. 9. None shall hurt.] Here the foregoing allegory is fully explained. In God’s Holy Mountain-that is, in the Church—there shall be a holy, harmless, and a sweet harmony of hearts. The word among them shall be this, “Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another.” (1 John 4:11) Some differences and jars there may occur among the best, as did between Paul and Barnabas, Jerome and Augustine, Luther and Zuinglius; but these last not long—at utmost but till they come to heaven; and the ground of such a distemper is, that we know but in part, and therefore love but in part. (1 Corinthians 13:9) Oh pray for that blessed sight, (Ephesians 1:17,18) and for a fuller comprehension of those several dimensions, (Ephesians 3:18) that the “earth may be full of the knowledge of the Lord.” As the waters cover the sea,] i.e., The bosom and bottom of it, that God’s word may dwell richly in us in all wisdom, and that the knowledge we have of it may be a transforming knowledge. (2 Corinthians 3:18) Two or three words of God’s mouth hid in the heart, and there mingled with faith, work such an evident and entire change in a man, saith Lactantius, that you can hardly know him to be the same. Da mihi virum qui sit iracundus, maledicus, effraenatus, paucissimis Dei verbis tam placidum quam ovem reddam. Da cupidum, avarum, tenacem, &c. Give me a man that is angry., ill-spoken, unruly; with a few words of Almighty God, I will make him as meek as a lamb. Give me one that is covetous, an oppressive hold fast, a very Nabal, I will make him a Nadib; of a covetous churl a liberal person, of a viper a child, of a lecher a chaste man, &c. Lo, this is the fruit of the sound and saving knowledge of God and of his word, of ourselves and of our duties. Lactant. Instit., lib. iii. cap. 86.
Ver. 10. And in that day.] “In the day of Christ’s power, or kingdom, the people shall be willing.” (Psalms 110:3) “The isles shall wait for God’s law.” (Isaiah 42:8) Multitudes of nations shall come crowding in to his greatest glory, (Proverbs 14:2) and for the fulfilling of old Jacob’s prophecy. (Genesis 49:10) There shall be a root of Jesse.] See on Isaiah 11:1. Which shall stand for an ensign.] Or, Standard, whereto all the elect must assemble; and hereby is meant the preaching of the gospel. Shall the Gentiles seek.] Ferventi studio, magno desiderio, non coacti; they shall fly thereto as the clouds, and as doves scour to their windows. (Isaiah 60:8) And his rest.] That is, his Church, with whom he resteth and resideth. (Psalms 132:8) He “resteth also in his love to his people, and rejoiceth over them with singing.” { Zephaniah 3:17; [See Trapp on “Zep 3:17”] Shall be glorious.] Heb., Glory; sc., per sanctitatem (Isaiah 4:5)
Ver. 11. The Lord shall set his hand again the second time.] Not to bring them back to the promised land, to Palestina, as once he did out of Egypt; that is but a rabbinical dream, not unlike that other—viz., that all Jews, in what country soever they are buried, do travel through certain underground passages till they come to their own country of Jewry. But with an outstretched hand he shall recover the remnant of his people that shall he left; so the poet, “ Reliquias Danaum atque immitis Achillei. ” He shall recover.] Or, Get, buy, purchase that poor dissected nation, out of all places of their dispersion, uniting their minds and subduing their enemies.
Ver. 12. And he shall set up an ensign.] See on Isaiah 11:10. The dispersed of Judah.] See John 7:35 Jas 1:1. The word dispersed in the Hebrew is feminine, to show that no sort or sex shall be excluded. (Colossians 3:11) Elevatio signi est praedicatio crucifixi. -Oecolamp. Dispersas oves Iudae. -Piscat.
Ver. 13. The envy also of Ephraim shall depart.] The fierce wrath or deadly feud that was between the ten revolted tribes of Judah, the like whereunto was between England and Scotland, and in England between the houses of York and Lancaster; in which last mentioned dissension were slain eighty princes of royal blood, and twice as many natives of England as were lost in the two conquests of France. This emulation and hatred of Ephraim against Judah was to be abolished by Christ. (Ezekiel 37:17) The disciples, being of various tribes, were all of one heart and of one soul. (Acts 4:32) Neither was there any controversy at all among them, as one ancient Greek copy addeth to that forecited text. Dan. Hist., 249. Discimus sub Christo finem sore simultatum et odiorum. -Oecol. Beza ex Beda.
Ver. 14. But they shall flee upon the shoulders.] A metaphor from conquerors who pursue their enemies, and fall upon the bones of them, as we say. The meaning is, the Gentiles shall be converted to the Christian faith by the Jews—viz., by the apostles and other preachers of the gospel. See Genesis 49:8. Thus Philip was found at Azotus, or Ashdod; (Acts 8:40) Peter at Joppa (Acts 10:5) At Gaza and Askelon were many flourishing churches in the times of Athanasius and Chrysostom, saith Adrichomius. Brittannorum inaccessa Romanis loca, Christo patuerunt. Inaccessible places of the Britains to the Romans were made open by Christ. Tertullian.
Ver. 15. And the Lord shall utterly destroy the tongue of the Egyptian Sea.] That is, by drying up, or driving away the waters, he shall open a way through the Red Sea, which representeth the form and fashion of a tongue. He alludeth to Exodus 14:22; for Christ being our Conduct, we do enter by baptism, as by the Red Sea, into the Church, and after this life present into the kingdom of heaven. He shall shake his hand over the river.] The river Nile. The sense is, he shall remove all obstacles and impediments. This was fulfilled. (Acts 2:41) With his mighty wind.] The Chaldee paraphraseth in eloquio prophetarum suorum, by the word of his prophets; quod apostolis non parum congruit, saith Oecolampadius, which very well agreeth to the apostles converting the elect, whom neither height nor depth could keep from “the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:39) The Jews expect, but in vain, that all these things should be fulfilled unto them in the letter by their Messiah, as once they were by Moses at the Red Sea. And make men go over dryshod.] Without boat or boot.
Ver. 16. And there shall be an highway.] Agger, via strata, a causeway. (Isaiah 7:3) In the day that he came up out of the land of Egypt.] This signal deliverance was a clear type of our redemption by Christ. And this prophecy was fulfilled when thousands of the Egyptians were converted by Mark the evangelist and other preachers, as also when other nations forsook spiritual Egypt (Revelation 11:8) and embraced the truth.