But I will have mercy on the house of Judah
The two tribes of Judah and Benjamin, which retained the true
worship of God among them; see ( Hosea 11:12 ) and
though they often sinned against the Lord, he showed them mercy,
and spared them longer than the ten tribes; and though he
suffered them to be carried captive into Babylon, he returned
them again after seventy years: this is mentioned as an
aggravation of the punishment of Israel, that Judah was spared,
when they were not; and to show that God will have a people to
seek and serve him, and, when he rejects some, he will make a
reserve of others: and will save them by the Lord their
God;
by his own arm and power, and not theirs, or any creature's; nor
by any warlike means or instruments whatever, as follows:
and will not save them by bow, nor by sword, nor by battle,
by horses,
nor by horsemen:
which may respect either the deliverance of the Jews from the
invasion and siege of Sennacherib's army; which was done without
shooting an arrow, or drawing the sword, or engaging in a pitched
battle, or by a cavalry rushing into his camp, discomfiting his
army, and pursuing them; but by an angel sent from heaven, which
in one night destroyed a hundred and fourscore and five thousand,
( 2 Kings
19:35 ) or else refers to Cyrus being stirred up by the Lord
to issue forth a proclamation, giving liberty to the Jewish
captives to go free, without price or reward; and so was brought
about, not by the might and power of man, but by the Spirit of
the Lord; see ( Ezra 1:1 ) ( Isaiah 45:13
) ( Zechariah
4:6 ) though a greater salvation is pointed at, or at least
shadowed forth, by this, even the spiritual and eternal salvation
of God's elect by Christ; which is the fruit of mercy, and not
the effect of the merits of men; is obtained not by human power,
or by man's righteousness; but by the Lord Jesus Christ, who is
Jehovah our righteousness, the Lord God of his people; who stands
in a relation to them prior to his being the Saviour of them; to
which work and office he is equal, being the eternal Jehovah, and
the true and living God. So the Targum,
``and I will save them by the Word of the Lord their God;''the eternal Word, that was with God, is God, and became incarnate, God in our nature.