In that time shall the present be brought unto the
Lord
of hosts
Not exactly at the time when this destruction should be, but some
time after, even in Gospel times; for to them this part of the
prophecy refers: of a people scattered and
peeled;
this explains what the present is, that shall be brought to the
Lord; it is a people, and therefore not the spoils of
Sennacherib's army, as some interpret it; nor yet the people of
the Jews, that shall be brought by the Gentiles out of all
nations in the latter day, as an offering to the Lord, as Aben
Ezra and Kimchi; see ( Isaiah 11:11
) ( 66:20
) F16; but the Ethiopians or Egyptians,
described ( Isaiah 18:2 ) as here,
who, being converted, shall stretch out their hands to God,
submit unto him, and present themselves soul and body as an
acceptable sacrifice unto him; when these prophecies in (
Psalms
68:31 ) ( Zephaniah
3:9 Zephaniah
3:10 ) shall be fulfilled, and which began to be in the
conversion of the Ethiopian eunuch, ( Acts 8:27 ) and of which
there were other instances in the times of the apostles, and in
following ages: and from a people terrible from their
beginning hitherto;
that is, some of the people, not all of them; the same people are
designed as before, only this Hebraism is used, to show a
distinction among them: a nation meted out, and trodden
under foot, whose land the rivers
have spoiled;
these descriptive characters, with those in the preceding
clauses, are retained, to show that the same people are here
meant as in ( Isaiah 18:2 ) and to
magnify the riches of God's grace, in the conversion of a people
to whom such characters belonged; which show that it was not
owing to themselves, or any deserts of theirs, but to the free
favour and good will of God: to the place of the name of
the Lord of hosts, the mount Zion;
hither the present was to be brought, and here the persons to
present themselves to the Lord, even in the mount Zion, the
church of God; where the name of the Lord is named and called
upon, his word is preached, his ordinances are administered, and
where he dwells, and grants his presence.