Psa 14:7, Isa 63:11, Luk 2:32 | JFB | STEP | 7. captivity —denotes any great evil. Zion —God's abode, from which He revealed His purposes of mercy, as He now does by the Church (compare ), and which He rules and in which He does all other things for the good of His people ( ).

Psalms 14:7

7. captivity—denotes any great evil.

Zion—God's abode, from which He revealed His purposes of mercy, as He now does by the Church (compare Ps 3:4; 20:2), and which He rules and in which He does all other things for the good of His people (Eph 1:22).

Isaiah 63:11

11. remembered—Notwithstanding their perversity, He forgot not His covenant of old; therefore He did not wholly forsake them (Le 26:40-42, 44, 45; Ps 106:45, 46); the Jews make this their plea with God, that He should not now forsake them.

saying—God is represented, in human language, mentally speaking of Himself and His former acts of love to Israel, as His ground for pitying them notwithstanding their rebellion.

sea—Red Sea.

shepherd—Moses; or if the Hebrew be read plural, "shepherds," Moses, Aaron, and the other leaders (so Ps 77:20).

put . . . Spirit . . . within him—Hebrew, "in the inward parts of him," that is, Moses; or it refers to the flock, "in the midst of his people" (Nu 11:17, 25; Ne 9:20; Hag 2:5).

Luke 2:32

31, 32. all people—all the peoples, mankind at large.

a light to the Gentiles—then in thick darkness.

glory of thy people Israel—already Thine, and now, in the believing portion of it, to be so more gloriously than ever. It will be observed that this "swan-like song, bidding an eternal farewell to this terrestrial life" [OLSHAUSEN], takes a more comprehensive view of the kingdom of Christ than that of Zacharias, though the kingdom they sing of is one.