John Gill Bible Commentary

O Lord, the Hope of Israel,.... Of all true Israelites; such as are regenerate persons, and true believers in him; Christ is the author and giver of that hope that is in them; the door of it unto them; the object on which it is exercised; the ground and foundation of it, or what gives encouragement to it; and the person they are hoping for; Old Testament saints hoped, waited for, and expected his first coming; and New Testament saints are hoping for his second coming, and to be for ever with him (w): all that forsake thee shall be ashamed; who forsake him as the Hope of Israel, and place their hope elsewhere; in the creature, in themselves, in their riches, in their righteousness, and profession of religion; such shall be ashamed of their vain hope; whereas a true hope, a hope upon the right object, on Christ the Hope of Israel, makes not ashamed; nor shall the man that has it be ashamed of that. The Targum paraphrases it, "all who forsake thy worship shall be ashamed;'' for they forsake their own mercies, who forsake the house and ordinances of God, and the assembling of themselves together: and they that depart from me; the prophet; refusing to hear the word of the Lord by him, which was all one as departing from the Lord. Some render it, "from thee", as the Vulgate Latin and Arabic versions; and so the Targum, "and the ungodly that transgress thy word;'' whose heart departed from the Lord, as in Jer 17:1 notwithstanding their show of devotion and religion. Some render the words, "that are chastised by me"; but repent not, and are not reformed thereby; reading not as the Masorites direct, and we, and many others, follow; but according to the letters, and retaining them, (x): shall be written in the earth; have a name among earthly and carnal men, and be called so, being sensual and carnal, and minding nothing but earth and earthly things; and shall not be written among the living in Jerusalem, or have a name and a place among spiritual men: or they shall be of a short continuance; their memory shall rot; their names be put out for ever; and their memorial perish with them; for things written in the dust do not continue, but are presently destroyed by a puff of wind, or by the treading of the foot upon them; or they shall die, and return to the earth, and be laid in the grave, as Jarchi and Kimchi interpret it; or shall perish eternally, die the second death, being not written in the Lamb's book of life. The Targum is, "into hell shall they fall.'' The phrase is opposed to a being written, or having names written in heaven, Luk 10:20; which is the same as to be written in the book of life, or to be ordained unto eternal life, Phi 4:3; and what is the case of such who are not written in heaven, but in earth, may be seen in Rev 20:15; because they have forsaken the Lord, the fountain of living waters; See Gill on Jer 2:13. (w) the word here used, sometimes signifies a confluence or collection of waters, as in Gen 1:10 and elsewhere, a place to bathe in; hence Fortunatus Scacchus, in Sacror. Eleaochr. Myrothec. l. 1. c. 23. col. 159. renders it here, "the bath of Israel", the Lord, the Lord Jesus Christ, whose blood is a fountain opened, in which sinners wash, and are cleansed from their sins, Zech. xiii. 1. and this agrees with the latter part of the verse, where the Lord is called "the fountain of living water"; so De Dieu, on ch. xiv. 8, observes, the word is so used in Exod. vii. 21. and so R. Akiba interprets the words, saying, "what is "the meaning of it is that which cleanses the unclean; even so God cleanses Israel;'' and it is, adds De Dieu, as if you were to call God the pool of Israel, or a confluence of waters where Israel may be washed from his filth. (x) "Castigati a me", Schmidt; so Stockius, p. 455, 725, Junius & Tremellius follow the same reading, only they render the words, not so properly, "castigationes meae".