wholly to the concerns of that remnant which returned from Babylon. It must have reference to "the times of the end:" for the scene described, as we learn from the latter part of the first chapter, is presented to us after the four "horns of the Gentiles, which lifted up their horn against the land of Judah to scatter it," have been "cast out." Like the former prophecy in Ezekiel, I conclude, therefore, it is to be applied, to the first periods of a restoration of Israel, when the times of the Gentiles have been, or are about to be, fulfilled. This habitation of the land in "village fashion," appeared in the eyes of the last enemy in Ezekiel as an exposed and defenceless situation, provoking the cupidity of the spoiler. This is anticipated in the prophecy before us. It follows: "For I, saith the Lord, will be unto her a wall of fire round about, and will be the glory in the midst of her.”* The effectual protection here described has certainly never yet been afforded to Jerusalem since the restoration from the Babylonian captivity; but "the destruction from the Almighty," which awaits the last invader of "the land of unwalled villages" in Ezekiel, well illustrates this wall of fire for a protection, when the apparently defenceless state of the victim shall encourage the foe. And as her God will appear as the defender of restored Jerusalem, when the danger comes, so will he afterwards manifest his glory in the midst of her. For it appears from the eighth and ninth verses, that it is after he hath poured his vengeance upon the nations which came * Zechariah ii. 5. to spoil them,—which, as the remarkable expression is, "had touched the apple of his eye,"-that they are addressed: 10, &c. "Sing and rejoice, O daughter of Zion; for lo, I come, and will dwell in the midst of thee, saith the Lord. And many nations shall be joined unto the Lord in that day, and shall be my people; and I will dwell in the midst of thee; and thou shalt know that Jehovah Sabaoth has sent me unto thee. And Jehovah shall inherit Judah, his portion in the Holy Land, and shall choose Jerusalem again. Be silent, O all flesh, before Jehovah, for he is raised up out of his holy habitation." On these passages I chiefly ground my expectation of a previous and partial restoration of Israel to the land of their fathers. I conceive also from the context, that Jehovah's care of his vineyard, (Isaiah xxvii.) is to be applied to Jerusalem at the same time and in the same circumstances. This may be thus given from the original : "In that day Delightful vineyard!' Sing ye responsively to her. I, Jehovah, will watch her, Every moment will I water her; That nothing may hurt her, "I have no wall,* O had I a fence of thorns! In time of war I shall be overrun, * Septuagint and Syriac Versions. Jacob shall strike his suckers; Israel shall grow and flourish, And they shall fill the face of the world* with plants." This is evidently a scene in the last days, when judgment is about to be executed upon the last enemy of the people of God. Happy, as the daughter of Zion is soon to become through the Lord's protection, as the song congratulates her; in her own view, no less than in the view of her adversary she is altogether unprepared to meet the expected attack, the issue of which will nevertheless be so glorious to her. I have been led also to conclude that the hundred and seventh Psalm, or more strictly speaking the concluding part of it, has a reference to this first restoration. The redeemed of the Lord are called upon to proclaim the goodness and never-failing mercy of their deliverer, because "he hath redeemed them from the hand of the enemy, and hath gathered them out of the lands, from the east and from the west, from the north and from the south," or " from the sea." This gathering of the dispersed family from all lands and every quarter of the globe designates plainly a future restoration, and excludes the exodus from Egypt, or the return from Babylon as the theme of this thanksgiving; for both these gatherings were but in a single direction towards the granted inheritance. In the Psalm before us we seem to distinguish four returning companies of travellers; as far as appears, in the directions enu * Or surface of the habitable earth. to the attack of Jerusalem; a third when, after the final deliverance has been vouchsafed, the surviving nations willingly combine to bring as a present to Jehovah all his dispersed, which have been anywhere left in any corner of the earth. The description in the former part of the Psalm we have just been considering, most probably belongs to the second gathering in the midst of the last convulsions of the nations. But the remainder of the Psalm is certainly to be applied to the condition and circumstance of that first very partial restoration, by whatever means they had been put in possession of the site of Jerusalem and the Holy Land. In what follows, God is contemplated as having turned a once well-watered and fruitful country into a dry and barren desert, for the iniquity of them that dwelt therein; and as again converting an arid wilderness into a well-watered and productive soil.* This, there can be little doubt, has reference to the past, the present and the future condition of the Holy Land. The Scripture testifies its original fruitfulness: It was a "good land flowing with milk and honey," "a land of hills and valleys that drinketh water from the rain of heaven, a land which the Lord thy God careth for: the eyes of the Lord thy God are always upon it, from the beginning of the year even unto the end of the year."† Such was once the blessedness of this * Ver. 33-35. + Deut. xi. 11, &c. 66 they are brought to penitence and prayer, and God sendeth out his word and healeth them, and delivereth them from their destructions." The fourth and last class are described as brought back by the seas: whether from the sea in general, or as the order, the ancient paraphrase, and the conjectures of many critics would induce to conclude, from the seas to the south of Palestine. These are described as overtaken by tremendous storms and tempests, which bring them to the extreme of fear and danger, so that they are driven to the last resource of the despairing mariner, and call upon the Lord of the elements. Their prayer is heard, the storm is stilled, and they enter with gladness the "desired haven.” I should, however, speak doubtingly of any application of what is said respecting these four returning companies to the circumstances of the Jews at their first returning partially, and probably much more obscurely, into the land of their fathers; I think, however, the remainder of the Psalm is clearly to be applied to a people found in the Holy Land, at or before the return of these four companies "from the east and from the west, from the north and from the south." If their returning be the full gathering of all Israel, there had been a previous gathering, and to the situation of this more partial gathering the remainder of the Psalm is to be referred. In fact, I think we fairly trace three gatherings of dispersed Israel. That first very partial one of which we are inquiring; a second when the enemy is already in the land proceeding |