And righteousness shall be the gridle of his loins - The sense of this verse is plain. He will always exhibit himself as a just and faithful king. “The girdle of the loins” refers to the cincture, or band, with which the ancients girded themselves. A part of their dress consisted of an outward, loose, flowing robe. This robe it was necessary to gird up, or to confine close to the body in active labor, or in running; and the meaning of the figure used here is, probably, that the virtues of righteousness and justice would adhere to him as closely and inseparably as the garment does to the body to which it was bound. The figure of representing the virtues as clothing, or describing them as parts of dress with which we are invested, is common in the Scriptures:
I put on righteousness, and it clothes me;
My judgment was as a robe and a diadem.
I will greatly rejoice in the Lord,
My soul shall be joyful in my God;
For he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation,
He hath covered me with the robe of righteousness,
As a bridegroom decketh himself with ornaments,
And as a bride adorneth herself with her jewels.
Compare Revelation 19:8, and Paul’s beautiful description in Ephesians 6:13-17. In like manner, vice and wickedness are sometimes represented as so closely adhering to a man as to be a part of his very clothing; Psalms 109:18-19 :
He clothed himself with cursing, like as with a garment.
Let it be unto him as the garment which covereth him,
And for a girdle, wherewith he is girded continually.
The Chaldee renders this, ‘And the just shall be round about him on every side - סחור סחור sehôr sehôr - and the servants of truth shall come near to him.’ The idea is, that he shall be distinguished for justice and truth, and that a zeal for these shall make him strong and active in executing the purposes of his reign. This closes the description of the “personal” qualities of the Messiah. The account of the effects of his reign follows in the subsequent verses.