Of the rock [that] begat thee thou art
unmindful
The same with the rock of salvation, ( Deuteronomy
32:15 ) ; repeated and expressed in different words, that
their wretched ingratitude might be taken notice of and observed:
begetting is ascribed to this rock, as regeneration is to Christ,
( 1 John
2:29 ) ; and was true of some among the Jews: some choose to
render the words, "the rock of thy kindred" F11; being
a near kinsman, a brother through his incarnation, which
aggravated their unmindfulness of him:
and hast forgotten God that formed thee:
for the rock they were unmindful of and forgot is the true God
and eternal life, the essential Word of God, as both the Targums
of Jonathan and Jerusalem interpret it; him the Jewish nation
forgot; they forgot the characters given of him in the promises
and prophecies of the Old Testament; and therefore they knew him
not when he came and fulfilled the voices of the prophets they
were ignorant of in condemning him: hence they were unmindful of
his person, his offices, his works, his benefits, and the great
salvation by him; as indeed too many are that call themselves
Christians: some observe that the word here used signifies
bringing forth children with pain, and so way respect the bitter
sorrows and sufferings of Christ, sometimes expressed by a word
F12 which signifies the pains of women
in childbirth, ( Acts 2:24 ) ; and called
the travail of his soul, ( Isaiah 53:11
) ; and so a further aggravation of their ingratitude, that they
should forget him that suffered so much, at least on account of
some of them; for, those he endured to bring forth children unto
God, or to gather together the children of God, scattered abroad
both in Judea and in the whole world, ( John 11:51 John 11:52 ) .
F11 (Kdly rwu) "rupem cognationis tuae", i.e. "fratrum tuorum", Van Till; see Rom. ix. 4, 5.
F12 (Kllxm) "parturientis te", Montanus; "parturitorem tuum", Van Till.