ecially John who repeatedly mentions that
Christ really possessed the gift here assigned to Him, of judging, not
from the first appearance, and according to untrustworthy information,
but of penetrating into the innermost ground of the facts and persons,
comp. ii. 24, 25: [Greek: autos de Iesous, ouk episteuen heauton
autois, dia to auton ginoskein pantas, kai hoti ou chreian eichen hina
tis marturese peri tou anthropou. autos gar eginoske ti en hen
anthropo.] Farther--chap. xxi. 17 where Peter says to Christ: [Greek:
Kurie su panta oidas. su ginoskeis hoti philo se.] Farther, i. 48, 49;
iv. 18, 19; vi. 64. In Revel. ii. 23, Christ says: "And all Churches
shall know that I am He which searcheth the reins and hearts."

Ver. 4. "_And He judgeth in righteousness the lowly, and doeth justice
in equity to the meek of the earth, and smiteth the earth with the rod
of His mouth, and with the breath of His lips He slayeth the wicked._"

The King shall be adorned with perfect justice, and, in the exercise of
it, be supported by His omnipotence,--differently from what was the
case with David, who, for want of power, was obliged to allow heinous
crimes to pass unpunished (2 Sam. iii. 39). Just as by the excellency
of His _will_ He is infinitely exalted above all former rulers, so is
He also by the excellency of _might_. Where, as in His case, the
highest [Pg 117] might stands in the service of the best will, the
noblest results must come forth. The first two clauses refer to Ps.
lxxii., which was written by Solomon, and where, in ver. 2, it is said
of Christ: "He shall judge thy people in righteousness, and thy lowly
ones in judgment," and in ver. 4: "He shall judge the lowly of thy
people, He shall save the children of the needy, and shall break in
pieces the oppressors;" compare farther Prov. xxix. 14: "A king that in
truth judgeth the lowly, his throne shall be established for ever." The
earth forms the contrast to the limited territory which was hitherto
assigned to the theocratic kings.--In the second part of the verse
[Hebrew: arC] does not by any means stand in contrast to [Hebrew: dliM]
and [Hebrew: enviM], and, in parallelism to [Hebrew: rwe], designate
the wicked ones; but [Hebrew: arC] "earth" stands in antithesis to the
narrow territory in which earthly kings are permitted to dispense law
and justice. It is a matter of course, and is, moreover, expressly
stated in the second clause, that the earth comes into considerati