the whole territory of the earthly creation, the παλιγγενεσία of the whole earth. As the relation of these changes to that which is stated here is that of cause and effect, here, too, the whole earth can only be thought of _Finally_,--The following verse too supposes the spreading of salvation over the whole earth. The entire relation of the first section to the second and third makes it obvious that by הארץ the whole earth is to be understood. The passage under consideration is alluded to in Hab. ii. 14: "For the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters covering the sea." In that passage, the enforced knowledge of the Divine glory which manifests itself in punitive justice, forms the subject of discourse; but that enforced knowledge forms the necessary condition of the knowledge which is voluntary and saving. _Ver. 10. "And it shall come to pass in that day, the root of Jesse which standeth for an ensign to the people, it shall the Gentiles seek, and His rest is glory._" The words, "and it shall come to pass," introduce a new section; so that the interval in the Hebrew manuscripts is here quite in its place. With ver. 11 again, a new section begins. In ver. 1-9 we have the appearance of the Messiah in relation to the whole earth; then, in the second section, the way in which he becomes a centre to the whole _Gentile world_; and in ver. 11 ff., what He grants to the _old covenant-people_, for whom the Prophet was, in the first instance, prophesying, and whose future he therefore describes more in detail. Why His relation to the Gentile world is _first spoken of_ appears from ver. 12; the Gentiles gathered to the Lord are the medium of His salvation to the old covenant-people.--The _root_ designates here (and likewise in chap. liii. 2), and in the passages founded upon this, viz., in Rev. v. 5, xxii. 16, the _product_ of the root, that whereby the root manifests itself, the shoot from the root; just as "seed" so very often occurs for "product of the seed." This appears from a comparison with ver. 1, where, more fully, the Messiah is called a twig from Jesse's roots. _Bengel_ has already directed attention to the antithesis of the root and ensign, in his Commentary on Rom. xv. 12: "A sweet antithesis: the root is undermost, [Pg 125] the ensign rises uppermost; so that even the nations farthest off may behold it."--דרש with ל, אל, and את, has the signification "to apply to the true God, or some imaginary god, in order to seek protection, help, counsel, advice, disclosures regarding the future;" comp. Is. viii. 19; Deut. xii. 4, 5, and other passages in _Gesenius' Thesaurus_. The Gentiles feel that they cannot do without the Redeemer; they see, at the same time, His riches and their poverty; and this knowledge urges them on to _seek_ Him, that from him they may obtain _light_ (chap. xlii. 6), that He may communicate to them His _law_ (chap. xlii. 4), that he may teach them