wo kingdoms, their future
reunion had been announced by a prophet; and this must now take place
as certainly as Jehovah is God, who had promised to David and his house
the eternal dominion over all Israel. The separation had taken place
because the house of David had become unfaithful to its vocation. In
the Messiah, the promise, to the Davidic race is to be completely
realized; _and this realization has_, for its necessary consequence,
the _removal for ever_ of the separation; comp. Ezek. xxxvii. 22. It
was a _prelude_ to the fulfilment, that a portion of the subjects of
the kingdom of the ten tribes united with Judah in all those times
when, in the blessing accompanying the enterprises of a pious son of
David, the promise granted to David was, in some measure realized,--as
was the case under Jehoshaphat, Hezekiah, and Josiah. Even before
Christ appeared in the flesh, the announcement here made was all but
realized. The exile put an end to the kingdom of the ten tribes, and
hence also to the unnatural separation which had been designated as the
severest calamity of the past, chap. vii. 17. The other tribes [Pg 131]
joined Judah and the restored sanctuary; comp. Acts xxvi. 7; Luke ii.
36. The name of "_Jews_" passed over to the whole nation; the jealousy
disappeared. This blessing was conferred upon the people for Christ's
sake, and with a view to His future appearance. In Christ, the bond of
union and communion is so firmly formed that no new discord can
alienate the hearts from one another.

Ver. 14. "_And they fly upon the shoulder of the Philistines toward the
West, spoil together the children of the East; Edom and Moab shall be
their assault, the children of Ammon their obedience._"

As Israel is united internally, so it shall be externally powerful.
According to the Song of Solomon vi. 10, the congregation of Israel
when, by her renewed connection with the Lord and His heavenly Solomon,
she has regained her former strength, is "terrible as an army with
banners."--The nations mentioned are those of the Davidic reign. Even
before the time of the Prophet, they had been anew conquered by
Jehoshaphat, in whom the spirit of David had been revived anew; comp. 2
Chron. xx.; Ps. lxxxiii. A prelude to the fulfilment of the prophecy
before us took place at the time of the Maccabees, comp. Vol. i. p.
467, 468. But as regards the fulfilment, we are not entitled to limit
ourselves to the names here mentioned. These names are t