Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth, [is] mount Zion, [on] the sides of the north, the city of the great King.
Ver. 2. Beautiful for situation] A beautiful nymph, so R. Solomon. Or, beautiful for the branch that droppeth balsam, saith Moller; Pulcher surculo, beautiful branch, that is, for the ark there seated. Or, for the tract and climate, as Joshua 12:23, situated on the north side of Jerusalem, as Isaiah 14:13, in a cold, dry, and clear air, as Job 37:22. Sanantur illi, qui illic infirmi conveniunt, saith Kimchi, they which come thither weak are made well.
The joy of the whole earth] Not only of the whole land, because thither three times a year the tribes went up, the tribes of the Lord unto the testimony of Israel, to give thanks unto the name of the Lord, Psalms 122:4, not only of the East, whereof Jerusalem was held and called the queen, Urbium totius Orientis clarissima, saith Pliny, see Lamentations 1:1, but also of the whole earth, Sumen totius orbis, as one calleth it, and Rabshakeh himself (in that more ingenuous than Strabo) confesseth Judea to be a land of grain and wine, of bread and vineyards, Isaiah 36:17. Hence it is called the excellency of Jacob, Psalms 47:4, the goodness of the Lord for wheat and for wine, and for oil, and for the young of the flock and of the herd; for all which men should come to sing in the height of Zion; but especially for spiritual blessings, that their souls might be as watered gardens, and they not sorrow any more at all, Jeremiah 31:12; but come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads, Isaiah 35:10, for the grace of God, that bringeth salvation to all men, therehence appearing, Tit 2:11 Isaiah 2:3,4. If Plutarch could say of Rome in Numa's time, that the neighbour villages, sucking in the air of that city, breathed righteousness; how much better might the same be said of this city of the great King, where God himself was resiant, and his sincere service was established! Psalms 132:13 .