The general establishment which was spoken of in ver. 12 precedes the building of the temple; the eternal establishment mentioned in ver. 13 follows the building of the temple, or is coincident with it. It is evident, that the first clause of the verse refers, in the first instance, to the building of the temple which was undertaken by Solomon. (Compare 1 Kings v. 19, where Solomon says, "Behold, I purpose to build an house unto the name of the Lord my God, as the Lord spake unto David my father, saying. Thy son whom I will set upon thy throne in thy stead, he shall build the house unto My name.") We shall not, however, be at liberty to confine ourselves to what Solomon, as an individual, did for the house of the Lord. The building of the house here goes hand in hand with the eternity of the kingdom. We expect, therefore, that the question is not about a building of limited duration. If a building of only a limited duration were meant, such, surely, might have been erected long ago, even in the period of the Judges. The contrary, however, is quite distinctly brought out in 1 Kings viii. 13, where, at the dedication of the temple, Solomon says, "I have built Thee an house to dwell in, a fixed place for Thee to abide in _for ever_." If, then, with the eternity of the kingdom of David's house the eternity of the temple to be built by him be closely bound up, the destruction of the latter can be only _temporary_, and the consequence of the apostasy and punishment of the Davidic race,--of which vers. 14 and 15 treat. Or, if it be definitive, it can concern the _form_ only. If the building of the temple fall into ruins, it is only the Davidic race from which its restoration can proceed; the local relation of the royal palace to the temple prefigured their close union. Hence, the building of the temple by Zerubbabel was likewise comprehended in the words, "He shall build an house for My name." It was impossible that the second temple could be reared otherwise than under the direction of David's family. But we must go still farther. The essence of the temple consists in its being a symbol, an outward [Pg 140] representation of the kingdom of God under Israel. The real import of our passage then is,--that henceforth the kingdom of David and the kingdom of God should be closely and inseparably linked together. As the third phase, therefore, in the fulfilment of our prophecy, John ii. 19 must come under consideration: λύσατε τὸν ναὸν τοῦτον, καὶ ἐν τρισὶν ἡμέραις ἐγερῶ αὐτόν. (Regarding the sense of this passage, and the symbolical meaning of the tabernacle and temple, compare "_Dissertations on the Genuineness of the Pent._" vol. ii. p. 514 ff.) "House of God" is, in ver. 14 of the parallel text, used of the Church, and in parallelism with "kingdom of God,"--a sense in which it occurs as early as in Num. xii. 7.[5] This _usus loquendi_ is quite common in the New Testament; compare 1 Tim. iii. 15; 2 Cor. vi. 16; Heb. iii. 6.