y consecrated thing is most holy to the Lord." But here,
where He who consecrates is the Lord, while the goods are those of the
heathen, the latter only are to be considered as being excluded from
the possession, and as those in reference to whom the goods are
consecrated goods; while the people of God must, on the other hand, be
considered as partaking in what He has acquired. The community of goods
between these two is rendered prominent in other passages also where
the object required it. Thus, _e.g._, [Pg 476] Joel iv. (iii.) 5, where
the Ph[oe]nicians and Philistines are charged: "My silver and My gold
ye have taken, and My precious things, the goodly ones, ye have carried
into your palaces." That we cannot here think of the temple-treasure is
evident, not only from a comparison of ver. 4, where the attempts of
these nations to avenge themselves on Israel on account of former
injuries, are expressly represented as attempts to take vengeance upon
God, but also from history, which knows nothing of the plunder of the
temple by Ph[oe]nicians and Philistines. The mention of the _gain_
points to the _male parta_,--and this is the more strictly applicable,
the nearer the relation is in which he who is robbed stands to the Lord
of the earth. With the _gain_, the substance in general is lost.--The
fundamental thought of the verse, which is here expressed only with
an application to a special case, is that of the victory of the
Congregation of the Lord over the world. This was perceived by
_Calvin_, who strikingly demonstrates how this declaration is ever
anew realized, and how its complete fulfilment is reserved only for
the second coming of Christ. He has erred, however, in this, that
looking only to the eternal import of the thought, he overlooked the
circumstance that it is here expressed with reference to a definite
event in which it was to be realized.

Ver. 14. "_Who thou gatherest thyself in troops, O daughter of troops.
They lay siege against us, they smite the judge of Israel with the rod
upon the cheek._"

A new scene presents itself to the prophet. Zion, victorious on the
preceding occasion, appears here as powerless, and locked up within her
walls. She is captured; and ignominious abuse is cast upon the leaders
of the deeply abased people.--We need not here dwell for any length of
time upon the numerous expositions of [Hebrew: ttgddi]. There is only
one, viz., "thou shalt press thyself together," which affords