t is far off._"

[Pg 157]

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 [Hebrew: mlK]
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 [Hebrew: mlK rb]. 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