shows that it is not Judah alone which is
spoken of; comp. the same comprehensive mode of representation in Jer.
xxv.; Hab. ii. 6), appears from ver. 5: "For they transgressed the
_laws_, violated the _ordinances_, broke the everlasting _covenant_,"
where there can exist only a collateral reference to the Gentile world;
from ver. 13, where the continuing gleaning is characteristic of the
covenant-people (comp. xvii. 6); but especially from ver. 23, where,
after the time of punishment, the Lord reigneth on Mount Zion.

The judgment upon Judah bears a comprehensive character. [Pg 150] As
the single phases of the world's power, by which the sins of the people
of God are visited, there had been mentioned in the cycle of the
_burdens_, Asshur in chap. xiv. 25; Babylon in chap. xiii., xiv., xxi.,
(the circumstance that the first _burden_ of the first half of the
_burdens_, and likewise the first _burden_ of the second half of the
_burdens_--the ten _burdens_ being thus divided into twice five--is
directed against Babylon, shows that specially heavy judgments were to
be inflicted by Babel); Elam in chap. xxii. 6 (comp. remarks on chap.
xi. 11). Here the idea of judgment upon the covenant-people is viewed
_per se_, and irrespective of the particular forms of its realisation.

In vers. 14, 15, there is a sudden transition from the threatening to
the promise: "They (the remnant left according to ver. 13) shall lift
their voice, they shall shout for the majesty of the Lord, they shall
cry aloud from the sea,"--from the sea into which they were driven away
by the storm of the judgments of the Lord. To the "sea" here,
correspond the "islands of the sea," in ver. 15; compare the mention of
the islands in chap. xi. 11. Ver. 15. "Therefore, in the light praise
ye the Lord, in the isles of the sea the name of the Lord God of
Israel." The words are addressed to the elect in the time of salvation.
The Plural [Hebrew: ariM] denotes the _fulness_ of light or salvation,
comp. chap. xxvi. 19; [Hebrew: b] is, in both instances, used in a
local sense. The light is the spiritual territory; the isles of the
sea, the natural.

Ver. 16 returns to the threatening: "From the uttermost parts of the
earth we hear songs: Glory to the righteous! And I say: Misery to me,
misery to me, woe to me! the treacherous are treacherous, and very
treacherous are the treacherous." The song of praise of the redeemed,
which is heard coming forth from a far distant