elis_, _Jahn_, _Hitzig_, and _Movers_, there
were men who were as little able to understand the text as these
expositors.

Ver. 14. "_Behold days come, saith the Lord, and I perform the good
word which I leave spoken unto the house of Israel, and concerning the
house of Judah._"

The "good word" may, in a more general way, be understood of all the
gracious promises of God to Israel, in contrast to the evil word, the
threatenings which hitherto had been fulfilled upon Israel; comp. 1
Kings viii. 56, where Solomon, in the prayer at the consecration of the
temple, says: "Blessed be the Lord, that has given rest unto His people
Israel, according to all which He spoke; there has not failed (the
opposite of [Hebrew: qvM]) one word of all His good word which He spoke
through Moses His servant." In Deut. xxviii. the _good_ word and the
_evil_ word are placed beside one another; and the former is blessed,
from vers. 1-14; afterwards, the curse is declared. The centre and
substance of this good word was the promise to David, through whose
righteous Sprout all the promises to Israel should find their final
fulfilment. But we may also suppose that, by the "good word," the
Prophet specially denotes this promise to David, which he had repeated
in chap. xxiii. 5, 6. This latter supposition is preferable, since, in
vers. 15, 16, that repetition of it is quoted, and ver. 17 contains an
allusion to the fundamental promise. The change of [Hebrew: al] and
[Hebrew: el] is significant; Judah is considered as the object of the
proclamation of salvation, because salvation cometh from the Jews. The
correctness of this view is proved by [Pg 463] vers. 15, 16, where that
only is spoken of, which, in the first instance, belongs to Judah; so
that Israel is only received into the communion of the salvation, in
the first instance, destined for Judah.

Ver. 15, 16. "_In those days and at that time will I cause a righteous
Sprout to grow up unto David, and he worketh justice and righteousness
in the land. In those days Judah is endowed with salvation, and
Jerusalem dwelleth safely; and this is the name by which she shall be
called: The Lord our righteousness._"

It is intentionally that the promise is here repeated in the former
shape, in order to show that it still existed; that the glaring
contrast presented by the present state of things was not able to annul
it; that even in the view of the destruction, of the deepest abasement
of the house of