f the godly, that they might look forward
to the distant future, and not dwell only upon the present destruction;
that they might rather believe that the matter was in the hands of God,
who had promised, that He who raised the dead, would also restore the
kingdom of David, which had been destroyed."

Several interpreters, _e.g._, _Rosenmueller_, connect [Hebrew: tath]
immediately with what follows: "The kingdom shall come and attain."
But, in opposition to this, there are not only the _accents_
(_Michaelis_; "The _Athnach_ is intended to keep the mind [Pg 463] of
the reader in suspense for some time, and to direct his attention to
what follows"), but also the change of the tenses, which is intended
just to prevent this connection, and the weak sense which would be the
result, inasmuch as one of the verbs would be a pleonasm. It must
rather be supposed, therefore, that the subject in [Hebrew: tath] is
indefinite. The remark which _Haevernick_, in his _Commentary on
Daniel_, S. 386, makes on the omission of the indefinite subject, is
here fully applicable, although he himself makes a wrong application of
it to that passage: "The indefinite subject," he says, "has a special
emphasis. By the omission of the definite idea, it is, as it were, left
to the reader to supply everything possible (in the passage under
consideration, the compass of all that is glorious), for which the
writer cannot find language."

The "first," _i.e._, former, or ancient "dominion," refers to the
splendid times under David and Solomon; but, at the same time, it
supposes a period when the dominion is altogether taken away from the
dynasty of David. Such a period had already been announced by the
prophet, in his first discourse, inasmuch as it is implied in the
carrying away of all Judah into captivity; and still more distinctly in
iii. 12, according to which, Zion, the seat of the Davidic dominion, is
to be ploughed as a field. This announcement, with the express mention
of the king, returns in ver. 9, and, contrasted with It, the
announcement of the restoration of the Davidic dominion in v. 1 (2).

The last words of the verse are, by many expositors (_Calvin_,
_Michaelis_, and _Rosenmueller_), translated thus: "And the kingdom, I
say, shall belong to the daughter of Jerusalem;" so that Jerusalem
would here be, not the _object_, but the _subject_ of dominion. The
sense, according to this explanation, is best brought out by _Calvin_:
"The prophet h