is no deliverance, no escape, vers. 2-4, for the
Almighty God is the enemy and pursuer, vers. 5, 6. There is no mercy on
account of the Covenant, for Israel is no more the Covenant-people.
They shall not, however, be altogether destroyed; but the destruction
of the sinful mass shall be accompanied by the preservation of a small
number of the godly, vers. 7-10. This great sifting is followed,
however, by the restoration; the tabernacle of David which is fallen,
the kingdom of God among Israel, connected with the family of David,
shall be raised up again, ver. 11; rendered glorious by its extension
over the heathen, ver. 12; and blessed with the abundance of the divine
gifts, vers. 12-15.

* * * * *

Ver. 1. "_I saw the Lord standing over the altar; and He said, Smite
the chapiter, and make the thresholds tremble, and break them upon the
heads of all; and I will kill their remnant by the sword: he that
fleeth away of them shall not flee away, and he that escapeth of them
shall not be delivered._"

The principal question which here arises is:--Who is here
addressed,--to whom is the commission of destruction given by the Lord?
As, in accordance with the dramatic character of the prophetical
discourse, the person is not more definitely marked out, we can think
of Him only who, throughout, executes God's judgments upon the enemies
of His kingdom. But He is the same to whom the preservation and
protection of the true members of His kingdom are committed, viz., the
Angel of the Lord. It was He, who, as [Hebrew: hmwHit], the destroying
Angel, smote the first-born of Egypt, Exod. xii. 2, 3, compared with
12, 13. It was from Him that the destruction of the [Pg 364] Assyrians
proceeded, 2 Kings xix. 34, 35; Is. xxxvii. 35, 36. After the numbering
of Israel, when the anger of the Lord was kindled against them, it was
He who inflicted the punishment, 2 Sam. xxiv. 1, 15, 16. As He
encampeth round about them who fear the Lord, so He is, in regard to
the ungodly, like the wind which carries away the chaff, Ps. xxxiv. 8,
xxxv. 5, 6.--In opposition to the objection raised by _Baur_,--"That,
with the exception of the passage in Is. vi., nowhere, in the books
composed before the Chaldee period, do angels appear to act as
mediators in the execution of the divine commands,"--it is sufficient
to refer to Joel iv. (iii.) 9-11, and, as regards _the_ Angel of the
Lord, to Hosea xii. 5 (4). But we have, in addit