ect, and make
the nursery of His kingdom, according to the same necessity of His
nature as that by which He extirpates the sinners of His people. The
"sinful kingdom" forms the contrast with the righteous kingdom; the
article being here used in a generic sense. Similar are Is. x. 6: "_I
send him against impious people, and against the people of My wrath_
(wheresoever there are such) _I give him command_;" and Ps. xxxiii. 12:
"Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, the people whom He hath
chosen for His inheritance;" on which latter passage _Michaelis_
remarks, "Blessed is the nation, whichsoever it may be." The eyes of
[Pg 387] the Lord are open upon _the_ sinful kingdom, and hence also
upon the house of Jacob; it must be destroyed as all others are, but it
cannot be _destroyed like them_,--an idea which is prominently brought
out by the prefixed Infinit. [Hebrew: hwmid]. That is an erroneous
interpretation which understands by the sinful nation, Ephraim, and,
after the example of _Grotius_ ("I will destroy the kingdom, not the
people"), assumes that, by the house, in contrast with the kingdom, the
people are intended. Such a contrast betwixt the house and the kingdom
would have required a more distinct intimation. The house of Jacob,
when referred to the ten tribes, is identical with the kingdom. They
were a house only in so far as they were a kingdom. But it is both
against the words (in Obad. ver. 17, "house of Jacob" is likewise used
of the whole of the nation), and against the connection, to refer it to
the ten tribes. When, however, it is referred to the whole, a contrast
betwixt people and kingdom can the less have place, as, according to
ver. 11, the kingdom also shall be restored.--The first part of the
verse is almost literally identical with Deut. vi. 15: "For a jealous
God is Jehovah, thy God, in thy midst; lest the anger of Jehovah thy
God be kindled against thee, and He destroy thee from off the face of
the earth," [Hebrew: vhwmidK mel pni hadmh]. The prophet says nothing
new; he only resumes the threatening of the revered lawgiver.--The
construction of [Hebrew: eini ihvh] with [Hebrew: b] is explained by
the circumstance that, according to the context, the eyes of the Lord
can mean only His angry eyes--equivalent to the anger of the Lord in
the passage quoted from Deuteronomy; and the verbs and nouns expressive
of anger are connected by [Hebrew: b] with the object on which the
anger rests; compare Ps