Chapter 30

corner-stone." In that passage, too, the stone is the Kingdom and people of God: "The people of God whom the kingdoms of the world despised, have, by the working of God, then been raised to the dignity of the world-ruling people."

A simple quotation of the passage before us is found in Rom. x. 11: [Greek: legei gar hê graphê. pas ho pisteuôn ep'autô ou kataischunthêsetai.] In chap. ix. ver. 3, we have chap. viii. 14, and the passage under consideration blended in a remarkable manner: [Greek: idou tithêmi en Siôn lithon prokommatos kai petran skandalou. kai pas ho pisteuôn ep'autô ou kataischunthêsetai], and from the remarks already offered, the right to this blending is evident. Peter, in 1 Pet. ii. 6, 7, adds to these two passages, that in Ps. cxviii. 22: [Greek: dioti periechei en tê graphê: idou tithêmi en Siôn lithon akrogôniaion, eklekton, entimon, kai ho pisteuôn ep'autô ou mê kataischunthê. humin houn hê timê tois pisteuousin. apeithousi de lithon hon apedokimasan hoi oikodomountes, houtos egenêthê eis kephalên gônias, kai lithos proskommatos kai petra skandalou], on which _Bengel_ remarks: "Peter quotes, in ver. 6 and 7, three passages, the first from Isaiah, the second from the Psalms, the third again from Isaiah. To the third he alludes in ver. 8, but to the second and first, in ver. 4, having, even then already both of them in his mind." Matth. xxi. 42-44 refers only to Ps. cxviii. and to Is. viii. 14, 15. to the latter passage in ver. 44; Acts iv. has Ps. cxviii. only in view.

The second Messianic passage of the section which is of importance for our purpose, is chap. xxxiii. 17.

"_Thine eyes shall see the King in His beauty; they shall see the land that is far off._"

[Pg 157]

The "King" is the Messiah. This appears from the reference to the Song of Solomon i. 16, where the bride says to the bridegroom, the heavenly Solomon, "Behold thou art _fair_, my beloved" (comp. Ps. xlv. 3;) and from the words immediately following: "they shall see the land that is far off." The wide extension of the Kingdom of God is indissolubly connected with the appearance of the Messiah. Those who refer the prophecy to Hezekiah refer "the land that is far off" (literally: "the land of distances") to "a land stretching far out," in antithesis to the siege when the people of Jerusalem were limited to its area, since the whole country was occupied by the Assyrians. But the passage, chap.