all
the fountains of the great flood (the last member of our verse), and
_the windows of heaven were opened_." From the upper chambers of God,
whence once, at the time of the deluge, the natural rain came down, the
rain of affliction will now descend.--[Hebrew: wmv]--[Hebrew: hqvra]
already occurred, _verbatim_, in v. 8. [Hebrew: hqvra] stands in the
same relation to [Hebrew: viwpkM], as in ver. 5 [Hebrew: nvne] does to
[Hebrew: vtmvz] and is equivalent to: "Upon whose mere word the waters
of the sea cover the surface of the earth;" compare Gen. vi. 17: "And,
behold, I do bring the flood of waters upon the earth." The sea is the
common emblem of the heathen world; compare remarks on Ps. xciii., civ.
6-9. In chap. vii. 4, the "great flood" is contrasted with the "lot" in
Deut. xxxiii. 9,--the heathen world, with the people of God. The fire
of war, which the Lord kindles, devours both in the same way. Here, in
contrast with the deluge, the conquering inundation of the earth
proceeds from the midst of the heathen world, stirred up by the Lord,
and destroys first of all unfaithful Israel, who, had they been [Pg
384] faithful to the Covenant, would have been able to say, as in Ps.
xlvi. 2-4, "God is our refuge and strength, a help in trouble He
is found very much. Therefore will we not fear when the earth is
overturned, and the mountains shake in the midst of the sea; its waters
roar and foam, mountains tremble by its swelling."

Ver. 7. "_Are you not as the sons of the Cushites unto Me, O children
of Israel? saith the Lord. Have not I brought up Israel out of the land
of Egypt, and the Philistines from Caphtor, and Aram from Kir?_"

The prophet here deprives the people of another prop of false security.
They boasted of their election, by which God Himself, as they imagined,
had bound His hands. They considered the pledge of it--the deliverance
from Egypt--as a charter of security against every calamity, as an
obligation to further help in every distress, which God could not
retract even if He would. A great truth lay at the foundation of this
error,--a truth which has been disregarded by the greater number of
interpreter's, who have, in consequence, forced upon the prophet a
sense which is altogether false.[4] The election of the people, and
their deliverance from Egypt, were actually what they considered them
to be. God Himself had in reality thereby bound His hands; He _was
obliged_ to deliver the people. He _could_ not