I will say to the north, give up: and to the south, keep
not
back
That is, give up, and not retain, those that belong to the Lord;
here the winds are spoken to by a personification; or the
inhabitants of the northern and southern climates are called upon
to deliver up the Lord's people to him, for whose sake the Gospel
was sent into these parts, to find them out, and bring them home;
by the "north" may be meant the Goths, Swedes, Muscovites, and
those northern isles of ours, with others; and by the "south" the
Egyptians, Africans, and Ethiopians. Manasseh ben Israel
F8 thinks the passage is thus
expressed, which he supposes refers to the universal gathering of
the Jews in the latter day to the holy land; because Media,
Persia, and China, lie to the east of it; Tartary and Scythia to
the north; the kingdom of the Abyssines to the south; and Europe
to the west: bring my sons from far, and my daughters from
the ends of the earth;
such whom the Lord had predestinated to the adoption of children,
and had taken into his family, and whom he regenerated by his
Spirit and grace, of either sex; to whom he beareth the strongest
love and affection, as a parent to his children; and of whom he
takes the utmost care, so that not one shall be lost; let them be
in ever so distant a part of the world, he will send his Gospel
to them, his ministers after them, and his Spirit shall accompany
them, to bring them to himself, his Son, and his churches.
Manasseh, before mentioned, understands this of America, and of
the Jews there; but may be much better applied to converted
Gentiles there; for God has many sons and daughters in those
parts.