Thou shalt not see a fierce people— While the people of God should see the king in his beauty, while they should see their land widely extending itself, they should no more see a barbarous enemy, or one of a stammering tongue and foreign speech, which they could not understand. They should be freed from a cruel and troublesome enemy, whose aspect and commerce had been a terror to them. Compare Daniel 8:23 where Antiochus Epiphanes is called a king of fierce countenance; and see Jeremiah 5:15. This, likewise, though primarily referring to the times of the Maccabees, has, mystically, its full completion only in the oeconomy of the Gospel.

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