Jeremiah 30:9 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

They shall serve the Lord—and David— In this place, in Ezekiel 34:23-24 and in Hosea 3:5. David signifies the Messiah. The Targum uses the word Messiah in this very passage, instead of David; and the Talmud, Sanhed. 11: sect. 36 proves from Ezekiel that David is the name of the Messiah; which Kimchi likewise, asserts. The prophets above cited lived long after David; and yet they prophesy of a future king, who is indeed the Messiah in the judgment of all the Jews of note, but called by the name of David, because represented in and by David: for the name of David was not communicated to the Messiah as being the son of David, for then Solomon, or some other of David's race, would have been called by his name also; but, none of his children being called so, except the Messiah, it may be concluded that the name was not appropriated to him, in respect of his descent from David, but for being typified in David; and so, as is usual, to make the resemblance more plain between the type and the ante-type, the Messiah is described under the name of the person representing him; as David is on the other hand termed the Son of God, the first-born, from bearing the person of the Messiah, who was truly called so. When the Messiah, therefore, is called David, and the son of Jesse, it is because he was typified in David: when he is spoken of as the son of David, or under the name and description of Solomon, it is upon the presumption that Christ was signified in the son of David, so solemnly promised to him by Nathan. We may likewise observe, that persons resembling others in qualities, office, or actions, are described in the prophets by the name of those whom they resemble. The Messiah is promised to come, by the name of David; and yet no Jew ever expected that David should return to the earth bodily, or the Messiah be the person of David. Zadok the high-priest and his sons in David's time, 1 Chronicles 6:31; 1 Chronicles 6:49 are recorded by the name of Aaron and his sons, because they succeeded in Aaron's office, and performed the functions of the high-priesthood. Nay, Elijah himself is called Phinehas by the Jews, because they both resembled each other in their zeal. See Bishop Chandler's Defence. We cannot have a stronger instance of the fallacy of the human judgment, than that a man of Grotius's learning and discernment should sit down to shew that Zerubbabel is meant by David in this place.