it appears that it is this in an
_ideal_ sense only, that under its image the _Church_ is meant. The
designation, "my Holy Mountain," intimates that the state of things
hitherto, when unholiness prevailed in the Kingdom of the Holy God, is
an unnatural one; that at some future period the _idea_ necessarily
must manifest its power and right in opposition to the _reality_.--In
the second clause, the ground and fountain of this sinlessness is
stated. In Zion, in the Church of God, there will then be no more any
sins; for the earth is then full of the knowledge of the Lord, by which
the sins are done away with. The general outpouring of the Holy Ghost
forms one of the characteristics of the Messianic time; and the
_consequence_ of this outpouring is, according to ver. 2, the knowledge
of the Lord,--so that the clause may be thus paraphrased: For, in
consequence of the Spirit poured out, in the first instance, upon Him,
the earth is full of the knowledge of the Lord; comp. chap. xxxii. 15:
"Until the Spirit be poured upon us from on high;" liv. 13; Joel iii.
1; ii. 28; Jer. xxxi. 34, That [Hebrew: harC] is here not the "land,"
or "country," but the "_earth_" is sufficiently evident from the
antithesis of the _sea_: as the _sea_ is full of water, so the _earth_
is full of the knowledge of the Lord. To this [Pg 124] reason it may
still be added that in vers. 6-8 changes are spoken of, which concern
the whole territory of the earthly creation, the [Greek: palingenesia]
of the whole earth. As the relation of these changes to that which is
stated here is that of cause and effect, here, too, the whole earth can
only be thought of _Finally_,--The following verse too supposes the
spreading of salvation over the whole earth. The entire relation of the
first section to the second and third makes it obvious that by [Hebrew:
harC] the whole earth is to be understood. The passage under
consideration is alluded to in Hab. ii. 14: "For the earth shall be
filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters
covering the sea." In that passage, the enforced knowledge of the
Divine glory which manifests itself in punitive justice, forms the
subject of discourse; but that enforced knowledge forms the necessary
condition of the knowledge which is voluntary and saving.

_Ver. 10. "And it shall come to pass in that day, the root of Jesse
which standeth for an ensign to the people, it shall the Gentiles seek,
and His rest is glory._"