From the family of David sunk into total obscurity--such is the substance--there shall, at some future period, rise a Ruler who, at first low and without appearance, shall attain to great glory and bestow rich blessings,--a Ruler furnished with the fulness of the Spirit of God and of His gifts, filled with the fear of God, looking sharply and deeply, and not blinded by any appearance, just and an helper of the oppressed, an almighty avenger of wickedness, ver. 1-5. By him all the consequences of the fall, even down to the irrational creation, in the world of men and of nature, shall be removed, ver. 6-9. Around Him the Gentiles, formerly addicted to idols, shall gather, ver. 10. In ver. 11-16 the Prophet describes what he is to do for Israel, to whom the discourse was in the first instance addressed, and upon whom it was to impress the word: "Fear not." Under Him they obtain deliverance [Pg 97] from the condition of being scattered and exiled from the face of the Lord, the removal of pernicious dissensions, conquering power in relation to the world which assails them, and the removal of all obstacles to salvation by the powerful arm of the Lord. The reference of the prophecy to the Messiah is, among all the explanations, the most ancient. We find it in the Targum of Jonathan, who thus renders the first verse: ויפק מלכא מבנוהי דישי ומשיחא מבני בנוהי יתרבי. St. Paul quotes this prophecy in Rom. xv. 12, and proves from it the calling of the Gentiles. In 2 Thes. ii. 8 he quotes the words of ver. 4, and assigns to Christ what is said in it. In Rev. v. 5, xxii. 16, Christ, with reference to ver. 1 and 10, is called the root of David. The Messianic explanation was defended by most of the older Jewish interpreters, especially by _Jarchi_, _Abarbanel_, and _Kimchi_.[1] It is professed even by most of the rationalistic interpreters, by the modern ones especially, without any exception (_Eichhorn_, _De Wette_, _Gesenius_, _Hitzig_, _Maurer_, _Ewald_), although, it is true, they distinguish between Jesus Christ and the Messiah of the Old Testament,--as, _e.g._, _Gesenius_ has said: "Features such as those in ver. 4 and 5 exclude any other than the political Messiah, and King of the Israelitish state," and _Hitzig_: "A political Messiah whose attributes, especially those assigned to him ver. 3 and 4, are not applicable to Jesus."