Matthew 12:41,42 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

The men of Nineveh, &c.— The Ninevites being judged at the same time with the men of that generation, and their behaviour being compared together, should make the guilt of the latter appear in its true colours, and condemn them: for though they were idolaters, they repented at the preaching of Jonah, a stranger, a poor person, and one who continued among them only three days, and wrought no miracle among them to make them believe him: but the men of that generation, though worshippers of the true God by profession, could every day hear unmoved the much more powerful preaching of a prophet infinitely greater than Jonah; even the preaching of the eternal Son of God, who confirmed his doctrine by the most astonishing miracles. Our Saviour likewise told them that the queen of the south, (of the south country, Campbell,) being compared in the day of judgment with them, would condemn them; she having undertaken a long journey to hear the wisdom of Solomon; whereas they would not hear one infinitely wiser than Solomon, though he was come to their very doors; or, if they condescended to hear his wisdom, they would not embrace it. See the note on 1 Kings 10:1. From the uttermost parts of the earth, εκ των περατων της γης, is rendered by some commentators, from the utmost bounds of the land. "I do not think," says one of them, "that the word γη is used in the New Testament for the earth: γη is the land, by eminence; οικουμενη , the Roman empire; κοσμος, the earth." One cannot help remarking the very sublime manner, yet the perfect modesty and decorum, wherewith our Lord here speaksof himself. The humble form of his appearance, and his necessary reserve in declaring himself the Messiah in so many words, made it yet more expedient, that by such phrases as these before us, he should sometimes intimate it; and indeed, his saying that he was greater than Solomon, that most illustrious of all the descendants of David, was as plain an intimation as could well be given.