Commentary upon the Prophecy of Isaiah

Vers. 2. And the people shall receive them and bring them to their own place, and the house of Israel shall possess them in the land of the Lord for servants and handmaids, and they shall take them prisoners whose captives they were, and have rule over their oppressors.

Vers. 2. And the people shall receiue them and bring them to their owne place, and the house of Israel shall possesse them in the land of the Lord for seruants and handmaides, and they shall take them prisoners whose captiues they were, and haue rule ouer their oppressors.

HE shows that the strangers shall willingly accompany the Jews, and that in such sort, that they shall not refuse to become their servants. We have seen the proof of this when the people came out of Babylon, Ezra 1.6. but this was only a small taste of those things which were done by Jesus Christ, to whom all this must be referred. For the Lord in deed inclined the hearts of the nations which hated his people deadly, to be loving to them whom he meant to restore to their country and liberty by their means: but so far was it off that many nations helped the Jews after their return from Babylon, that contrariwise the neighbours through envy conspired one with another to molest them. Ezra 4.4. For they were not only bent against them to drive them out of the land of Canaan, but also to root them from off the earth. These things then were accomplished under the kingdom of Christ, to whom all power is given not only in earth, but in heaven also, Math. 28.18. who by his Gospel hath united the Gentiles with the Jews, which before were strangers, Ephes. 2.14. to the end they might not only help the Jews to take possession of their inheritance, but also to bring them under so, as to bear the yoke quietly and willingly.