absolute one. The commentary on it is furnished by Ps.
lxxxix. 31 seq.: "If his children forsake My law, and walk not in My
judgments ... then I will visit their transgression with the rod, and
their iniquity with stripes. But My loving-kindness will I not withdraw
from him, nor will I break My faithfulness."--The words from "if he
commit sin" to "children of men" are awanting in the parallel passage.
This omission is intended to make the continuance of the mercy appear
the more distinctly, and to show, as indeed is the case, that the main
stress is to be laid upon it. We cannot for a moment conceive that any
unworthy motive prompted this omission; for the Chronicles were written
at a time when the chastening rod of the Lord had already fallen
heavily upon the Davidic race. There would have been stronger reasons
for adding the words than for omitting them, inasmuch as, under these
circumstances, they were full of consolation. It is just upon these
words that the penman of Ps. lxxiv. dwells at particular length.

Ver. 16. "_And thine house and thy kingdom shall be sure for ever
before thee, thy throne shall be firm for ever._"

The extent to which this prophecy of Nathan bears the character of a
fundamental one, appears from the circumstance that almost every word
of the verse under review has called forth an echo in later times.
[Hebrew: namN] _sure_, _certain_, _constant_, occurs again in Ps.
lxxxix. 29, compared with ver. 38, and in Is. lv. 3. The _sure_
(_constant_) mercies of David, spoken of in the last of these passages,
shall be bestowed upon the people of the covenant, in the coming of
Christ, by which the perpetuity of the house of David was most fully
manifested. The [Hebrew: nkvN], _constant_, _firm_, occurs in Mic. iv.
1, and the [Hebrew: levlM], _for ever_, in Ps. lxxii. 17, lxxxix. 37,
xlv. 7, and cx. 4. The saying of the people in John xii. 34, [Greek:
hemeis ekousamen ek tou nomou hoti ho Christos menei eis ton aiona],
refers, in the first instance, to our passage, and all the other texts
quoted may be considered as a commentary.

It is certainly not the result of mere accident, that the twelve verses
of Nathan's prophecy are divided into two sections of seven and of five
verses respectively, and that the former again is subdivided into
sections of three and four verses. Its closing [Pg 143] words, "The
Lord will make thee an house," are farther expanded in vers. 12-16.

We subjoin to the exposition