We should also notice the epithet which designates the pious. They are called a people knowing their God. The people may be supposed to mean the vulgar,
but this is forced. It may also be simply opposed to the profane Gentiles; but I think there is here an implied contrast between the
true and genuine sons of Abraham, and
the false Israelites, who boasted themselves to be members of the Church when they had nothing but the
empty title. For in the prophets as in the writings of Moses, the name "people" is often used in a favorable sense for that elect nation which God had adopted as peculiarly his own. All the Israelites who were descendants of
Abraham after the flesh, used to
boast with much vanity in their being the elect people, and thus the word was ever on their lips.But as the Jews were too strongly attached to their present condition, and therefore paid little attention to the prophecies which foretold the abolition of it, Christ, as if endeavoring to gain their ear, bids them read attentively that passage, where they would learn that what appeared to them difficult to be believed was plainly declared by the Prophets.
10 Abomination means profanation; for this word denotes uncleanness,
11 which corrupts or overturns the pure worship of God. It is called desolation, because it drew along with it the destruction of the temple and of the government; as he had formerly said, (
Daniel 9:27,) that the pollution introduced by Antiochus was, as it were, the standard of temporary desolation; for such I conceive to be the meaning of the wing, or, "spreading out."
Originally Posted by InChristAlways
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