ious
redemption bestowed upon His people. "For thou hast made"--it is said
in ver. 2--"of a city a heap, of a firm city a ruin, the palace of
strangers to be no city; it shall not be built in eternity." The city,
palace (we must think of such an one as comes up to a city, as is even
now the case with the palaces of the princes in India) bear an ideal
character, and represent the whole fashion of the world, the whole
world's power; comp. ver. 12, chaps. xxvi. 5, xxvii. 10. _Gesenius_ [Pg
152] speaks of "the strange conjectures of interpreters who have
guessed all possible cities." But he himself has lost himself in the
sphere of strange conjectures and guesses, by remarking: "The city
whose destruction is here spoken of can be none other than Babylon."
The circumstance that Babylon is not mentioned at all in the whole
prophecy in chaps. xxiv.-xxvii. shows plainly enough that a special
reference to Babylon cannot here be entertained; and the less so, that
it would be against the character of our prophecy, which abstains from
all details.

While in vers. 1-5 the discourse was laudatory and glorifying, and
addressed to the Lord, in vers. 6-8 the Lord is spoken of:

Ver. 6. "_And in this mountain the Lord of hosts maketh unto all people
a feast of fat things, a feast of wines on the lees, of fat things full
of marrow, of lees well-refined._ Ver 7. _And destroyeth in the
mountain the surface of the vail covering all the nations, and the
covering cast upon all the nations._ Ver. 8. _And destroyeth death for
ever, and the Lord Jehovah wipeth away the tears from off all faces,
and the rebuke of His people shall He take away from of all the earth;
for the Lord hath spoken._"

"In this mountain," ver. 6, where He enters upon His government (chap.
xxiv. 23), and dwells in the midst of His people in a manner formerly
unheard of.--"Unto all people," comp. chap. ii. 2 ff. The verse under
consideration forms the foundation for the words of Christ in Matthew
viii. 2: [Greek: lego de humin hoti polloi apo anatolon kai dusmon
hexousi kai anaklithesontai meta Abraam kai Isaak kai Iakob en te
basileia ton ouranon]; comp. xxii. 1 ff.; Luke xxii. 30. In ver. 7,
"the surface of the vail" is the vail itself, inasmuch as it lies over
it. The "covering" here comes into consideration as a sign of mourning,
comp. 2 Sam. xv. 30: "And David went up by the ascent of Mount Olivet,
weeping, and his head covered, and so also all the people with him."