Romans 9:27-29 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Esaias also And, as the calling of the Gentiles, so the rejection of the Jews also is foretold by the prophets, particularly by Isaiah who crieth Κραζει, calleth aloud Speaks with great earnestness, as to a people unwilling to hear; concerning Israel That is, both the ten tribes about to be carried captive into Assyria, which was almost a total rejection, and Judah and Benjamin, which were to be wasted by the Assyrian invasion under Sennacherib, and afterward to be partly destroyed and partly carried into captivity by the king of Babylon: though the children of Israel be as the sand, a remnant Only, out of the many myriads of them; shall be saved Shall escape destruction. But few escaped the ravages of Sennacherib's army, and only a small number returned from Babylon after the Babylonish captivity. These, however, that were preserved, were a type or figure of that small number of converts under the gospel, who escaped the vengeance which fell upon the main body of the Jewish nation from the Romans, and that still greater vengeance which awaits all that obey not the gospel, in the eternal world. See the note on Isaiah 10:21-23. For, as the same prophet adds, (the apostle quotes the Septuagint translation,) he will finish, &c. Greek, συντελων και συντεμνων, he is finishing and cutting short the work, λογον, the account, or matter, in righteousness In justice, and will leave but a small remnant. There will be so general a destruction, that but a small number will escape. Because a short work A quick despatch in executing judgment; will the Lord make upon the earth Or, upon the land of Judea. For though in the LXX. it is οικουμενη ολη, the whole world, the scope of the passage seems to restrict the sense to the land of Judea, in which restricted sense the same word is used Luke 2:1. And as Esaias said before Namely, chap. Romans 1:9, concerning those who were besieged in Jerusalem by Rezin and Pekah; Except the Lord of Sabaoth So it is in the Hebrew, in which language the word Sabaoth signifies hosts, and is sometimes used to denote the sun, moon, and stars, as also the angels. The Lord of Sabaoth, or of hosts, therefore, as one of the titles of Jehovah, marks his supreme dominion over the universe, and particularly over the different orders of angels, who, on account of their multitude, and of their serving under the command of God, are named hosts, 1 Kings 22:19. The LXX., in the passages where this Hebrew word occurs, commonly express it in Greek letters, in which St. Paul has followed them. So also James, chap. Romans 5:4, supposing that it would be agreeable to the ears of the Jews. The sense here is, Except the Lord, who is the powerful and sovereign Ruler of all the creatures in heaven and earth, which are his hosts, ready to do him service; had left us a seed Reserved from the common calamity, a small company, out of which, as a seed, God would cause his church to spring up again; we had been as Sodoma Utterly destroyed. So that, (as if he had said,) it is no unexampled thing for the main body of the Jewish nation to revolt from God, and perish in their sins.