run together in that of _cutting off_. [Hebrew:
wdmvt] the Plural of the Feminine of the Adjective [Hebrew: wrm] are,
accordingly, _loca abscissa_, places which are cut off and excluded
[from the Holy City] outwardly (_Aq._: [Greek: proasteia]), and, at the
same time, inwardly. Thus we obtain a striking contrast between their
present nature and future destination. What is now distinctly separated
from the holy, [Pg 459] then become holiness, [Hebrew: qdw]. From 2
Kings xxiii. it appears, moreover, that the fields of Kidron were
unclean. It was thither as to an unclean place, that Josiah caused all
the abominations of idolatry to be carried, and to be burnt; comp. ver.
4 (Josiah commanded all the vessels which had been made to Baal and
Ashera to be brought forth out of the temple): "And he burned them
_without Jerusalem_ in the fields of Kidron." Ver. 6: "And he brought
out the Ashera out of the house of the Lord, _without Jerusalem_, unto
the brook Kidron, and he burned them in the valley of Kidron.... And
cast the powder thereof upon the graves of the children of the people."
These last words (the children of the people = the mob, high and low,
who had polluted themselves by idolatry, comp. 2 Chron. xxxiv. 4: "And
he strewed the dust upon the graves of them that had sacrificed unto
them") enable us perhaps to conjecture the cause of the uncleanness of
these fields. They served as a burying ground to the adherents of the
worship of Moloch, who were anxious to rest in the neighbourhood of
their idol, which dwelt in the neighbouring Tophet; and this is the
more easily accounted for, that it is very probable that the sacrifices
offered up to the idol were, in a great measure, sacrifices offered for
the dead.--[Hebrew: qdw lihvh] refers to every thing mentioned in the
verse before us. As regards the last words, comp. Remarks on Zech. xiv.
11.

[Footnote 1: The person of the Messiah meets us as the living centre of
the salvation in ver. 9: "And they serve the Lord their God, and David
their King, whom I will raise up unto them;" on which words _Jonathan_
remarks: "And the Messiah the Son of David;" and _Abarbanel_: "This is
King Messiah, who is of the house of David, and is therefore called by
his name." From the parallel passages, Hos. iii. 5; Is. lv. 3, our
passage differs in this, that David here does not, as in those
passages, designate the family of David which centres in Christ, but
the person of the Messiah. The