The "King" is the Messiah. This appears from the reference to the Song of Solomon i. 16, where the bride says to the bridegroom, the heavenly Solomon, "Behold thou art _fair_, my beloved" (comp. Ps. xlv. 3;) and from the words immediately following: "they shall see the land that is far off." The wide extension of the Kingdom of God is indissolubly connected with the appearance of the Messiah. Those who refer the prophecy to Hezekiah refer "the land that is far off" (literally: "the land of distances") to "a land stretching far out," in antithesis to the siege when the people of Jerusalem were limited to its area, since the whole country was occupied by the Assyrians. But the passage, chap. xxvi. 15: "Thou increasest the nation, O God, thou art glorified, thou removest all the boundaries of the land," is conclusive against this explanation. Comparing this passage, as also chap. lx. 4; Zech. x. 9, _Michaelis_ correctly explains: "The land of distances is the Kingdom of Christ most widely propagated." In chap. viii. 9, likewise, the Gentile countries are designated by the "distances of the earth." _Farther_--Hezekiah could not be designated simply by מלך without the article. It is only by the utmost violence that the whole announcement can be limited to the events under Hezekiah, which everywhere form the foreground only. We might rather, with _Vitringa_, think of Jehovah, with a comparison of ver. 22: "For the Lord is our judge, the Lord is our lawgiver, the Lord is our King; He will save us," and of Ps. xlviii. 3, where he is called מלך רב. To Jehovah, the passage, chap. xxx. 20, 21 also refers,--a passage which has been so often misunderstood: "And the Lord giveth you bread of adversity, and water of affliction, and not does thy teacher conceal himself any more, and thine eyes see thy Teacher. And thine ears hear a voice behind thee, saying, This is the way, walk ye in it; do not turn to the right hand, nor to the left." The affliction prepares for the coming of the heavenly teacher; by it the eyes of the people have been opened, so that they are able to behold His glorious form. But although we should understand Jehovah by "the King in His beauty," we must, at all events, think of His glorious manifestation in Christ Jesus, who said, He who sees me sees the Father, and in whom the fulness of the Godhead dwells bodily; and it was indeed in Christ that God, [Pg 158] in the truest manner, revealed and manifested himself as the Teacher of His people.