O thou afflicted, tossed with tempest, [and] not comforted, behold, I will lay thy stones with fair colours, and lay thy foundations with sapphires.
Ver. 11. O thou afflicted, tossed with tempest, and not comforted.] This is the Church's style and state in this present life: Ecclesia est haeres crucis, The church's cross clings, saith Luther. None out of hell have suffered more than saints.
Behold, I will lay thy stones with fair colours.] So that thou shalt be a city of pearl, having for thy foundation the Lord Christ, 1Co 3:11 for thy windows, the holy prophets, apostles, and other faithful preachers, by whose ministry thou shalt receive the light of true knowledge, Dan 12:3 and for thy walls and gates the divine protection. See Revelation 21:11,21. All this is to be understood as the spiritual excellence of the Church, which is begun in this life, and to be perfected in the life to come.
And lay thy foundations with sapphires.] Compare Exodus 24:10, where Moses and the eiders are said to have "seen the God of Israel; and there was under his feet as it were a paved work of a sapphire stone, and as it were the body of heaven in its clearness." To show that God had now changed their condition, their bricks made in their bondage to sapphire, their lying and sooting among the pots into the wings of a dove covered with silver, and her feathers of pure gold. as Psa 68:13