d, Under his shadow we shall live among the heathen. Slaves are
ruling over us, and there is none to deliver us from their hand;"--if
we see that all these things did not prevent the fulfilment of the
words, "The sceptre shall not depart from Judah until Shiloh
come;"--that, notwithstanding all these things, it most gloriously
manifested itself in the appearance of Christ, that the dominion
remained still with Judah;--why should we be dismayed though the river
of the kingdom of God should sometimes lose itself in the sand? Why
should we not be firmly confident that in due time it shall spring
forth again with its clear and powerful waters?--But the _Jews_ are not
benefited by this distinction betwixt the _definitive_ departing of the
sceptre, and one which is merely _temporary_. The latter must
necessarily be distinguished from the former by this:--that even in the
times of abasement, there must be single symptoms which still indicate
the continuance of the sceptre; and this was evidently the case in the
times before Christ. In Jehoshaphat, Uzziah, and Hezekiah, the sceptre
of Judah brought forth new leaves; after their return from the
captivity, the place, at least, was pointed out by Zerubbabel, which
the Davidic kingdom would, at some future period, again occupy. The
victories of the times of the Maccabees, though they themselves were
not of the tribe of Judah, served to manifest clearly that the lion's
strength and the lion's courage had not yet departed from Judah. It is
not without significance that _Judas Maccabeus_ had his name thus. And
under all these events the family of David always remained distinct,
and capable of being traced out. But nothing of all this is to be found
with the Jews during the 1800 years after Christ; and hence the vanity
of their hope that, in some future time, it will be made evident by the
appearance of Shiloh, that the supremacy and dominion of Judah are not
lost.

Along with the _sceptre_ which shall not depart from Judah, the
_lawgiver_ is mentioned, for whom many would, quite arbitrarily,
substitute the _commander's staff_. Is. xxxiii. 22 is explanatory of
this passage; "For the Lord our Judge, the [Pg 68] Lord our Lawgiver,
the Lord our King, He will save us"--where the _lawgiver_ is put on a
level with the _judge_ and _king_. Gesenius translates it by: our
_commander_.

The lawgiver shall not depart "from between his feet." This is a
poetical expression for "from him." He is, a