of the soul, all the gifts which are beneficial for the
Kingdom of God, rest on the intimacy of the connection with God which
manifests itself in living knowledge and fear of the Lord; the latter
not being the servile but the filial fear, not opposed to love, but its
constant companion. The Prophet has put this pair at the close, only
because he intends to connect with it that which immediately follows.
We have already remarked that the Spirit of the Lord, &c., is bestowed
upon the Messiah not for himself alone, but as the renovating principle
of the Church.--Old Testament analogies and types are not wanting in
this matter. Moses puts of his spirit upon the seventy Elders, and the
spirit of Elijah rests on Elisha, and likewise on the whole crowd of
disciples who gathered around him (2 Kings ii. 9).

Ver. 3. "_And He hath His delight in the fear of the Lord, and not
after the sight of His eyes doth He judge, nor after the hearing of His
ears doth He decide._"

We now learn how the glorious gifts of the Anointed, described in ver.
2, are displayed in His government. All attempts to bring the second
and third clauses under the same point of view as the first, and to
derive them from the same source are in vain. That He has delight in
the fear of the Lord, is the consequence of the Spirit of knowledge and
of the fear of the Lord resting upon Him,--He loves what is congenial
[Pg 116] to His own nature. That He does not judge after the sight of
His eyes, &c., is the consequence of His having the Spirit of wisdom
and understanding. It is thereby that He is freed from the narrow
superficiality which is natural to man, and raised to the sphere of
that divine clearness of vision which penetrates to the depths,
[Hebrew: hriH] with the accusative is "to smell something;" with
[Hebrew: b], to "smell at something," "to smell with delight." The fear
of the Lord appears as something of a sweet scent to the Messiah. The
other explanations of the first clause abandon the sure, ascertained
_usus loquendi_ (comp. Exod. xxx. 38; Levit. xxvi. 31; Am. v. 21), and,
therefore, do not deserve any mention. On the second and third clauses
1 Sam. xvi. 7, is to be compared: "And the Lord said unto Samuel: Look
not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature, because I have
refused him; for not that which man looks at (do I look at); for man
looketh on the eyes (and, in general, on the outward appearance), and I
look on the heart." It is esp