tnesses, whom the
Lord calls [Pg 425] up against His unthankful people, instead of
considering them as the very same against whom the Lord bears witness;
and that they come into consideration from this point of view, clearly
appears from the words, "The Lord be witness against you." As regards
[Hebrew: ed] with [Hebrew: b] following, compare, _e.g._, Mal. iii.
5.--Another mistake is committed in the definition of the way and
manner of the divine witness. The greater number of interpreters
suppose it to be the subsequent admonitory, reproving, and threatening
discourse of the prophet. Thus, _e.g._, _Michaelis_, who explains: "Do
not despise and lightly esteem such a witness, who by me earnestly and
publicly testifies to you His will." But in opposition to this view, it
appears from ver. 3, that here, as well as in Mal. iii. 5, "And I will
come near to you in judgment, and I am a swift witness against the
sorcerers, and against the adulterers, and against those that swear
to a lie," the witness is a real one,--that it consists in the actual
attestation of the guilt by the punishment, viz., by the divine
judgment described in vers. 3, 4. The words, "The Lord cometh forth
out of His place, and cometh down," there correspond to, "From His holy
temple,"--from which it is evident, at the same time, that by the
temple, the heavenly temple must be understood.

We have thus, in vers. 2-4, before us the description of a sublime
theophany, not for a partial judgment upon Judah, but for a judgment
upon the whole world, the people of which are called upon to gather
around their judge--whom the prophet beholds as already approaching,
descending from His glorious habitation in heaven, accompanied by the
insignia of His power, the precursors of the judgment--and silently to
wait for His judicial and penal sentence.[1]

But how is it to be explained that with the words, "For the
transgression of Jacob is all this," etc., there is a sudden transition
to the judgments upon Israel, yea, that the prophet [Pg 426] goes on as
if Israel alone had been spoken of? Only from the relation in which
these two judgments stand to one another. For they are perfectly one in
substance. They are separated only by space, time, and unessential
circumstances; so that we may say that the general judgment appears in
every partial judgment upon Israel. In order to give expression to the
thought, that it is the _judge of the world_ who is to judge Israel,
the p