The face of the covering; which is put either,
1. For the covering of the face, by an hypallage, as silver of shekels is put for shekels of silver, Leviticus 5:15; or,
2. For the covering or veil, as the next clause expounds it; the word face being oft superfluously used in the Hebrew language, as Genesis 1:2,29, and elsewhere. The veil; the veil of ignorance of God, and of the true religion, which then was upon the Gentiles, and now is upon the Jews, 2 Corinthians 3:14-16, which, like a veil, covers men's eyes, and keeps them from discerning between things that differ. It may be also an allusion either to the veil which was put upon Moses's face, Exodus 34:33,34, or to the veil of the sanctuary, by which the persons without it were kept from the sight of the ark. This is a manifest prophecy concerning the illumination and conversion of the Gentiles.