A peculiar treasure. — The Hebrew sĕgullah is from a root, found in Chaldee, signifying “to earn,” or “acquire,” and means primarily some valuable possession, which the owner has got by his own exertions. (Comp. 1 Chronicles 29:3, where the English Version translates it by “mine own proper good.”) God views the Israelites as made His own by the long series of mighty works done for their deliverance, whereby He is sometimes said to have “redeemed” (Exodus 6:6; Exodus 15:13), or “purchased” them (Exodus 15:16). The word sĕgullah is here used for the first time. Later it be comes an epitheton usitatum of Israel. (See Deuteronomy 7:6; Deuteronomy 14:2; Deuteronomy 26:18; Psalms 135:4; Malachi 3:17; and comp. also Titus 2:14; 1 Peter 2:9.)
Above all people: for all the earth is mine. — While claiming a peculiar right in Israel, God does not mean to separate Himself from the other nations, to cease to care for them, or give them up to their own devices. He is always “the Most High over all the earth” (Psalms 83:18), “a light to lighten the Gentiles,” one who “judges the people righteously, and governs all the nations upon earth” (Psalms 67:4). Israel’s prerogative does not rob them of their birthright. He is the favoured son; but they, too, “are, all of them, children of the Most High” (Psalms 82:6).