I will make mention of Rahab and Babylon to them that know me: behold Philistia, and Tyre, with Ethiopia; this man was born there.
I will make mention of Rahab and Babylon to them that know me - rather, as the sense requires, and as I will make mention of Rahab and Babylon to them that know me - rather, as the sense requires, and as the Hebrew lª- often means (Hebrew, Exodus 21:2), 'I will make mention of Rahab and Babylon as persons that know me.' I count them among my true worshippers. God is the speaker. The Israel of God were before this time at a low ebb. The Ten tribes had been carried away, and Judah alone remained. How eagerly, then, would the mind of those who believed in the original promise to Abraham, that his seed should be multiplied 'as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand upon the sea-shore' (Genesis 22:17) be stirred up to hope by the glorious events under Hezekiah! The accession of the pagan would compensate for the loss of the Ten tribes.
Behold Philistia, and Tyre, with Ethiopia. Here the Psalmist speaks in the Spirit of God, as God Himself spake the first clause. Evidently parallel is Isaiah 19:21; Isaiah 19:23-24. Babylon is here substituted for Assyria, because of its friendly attitude and presents to Hezekiah after the fall of Sennacherib's host, (Isaiah 39:1-8.)
This man was born there. Philistia, Tyre, and Ethiopia (Cush) shall be born spiritually "there" - i:e., in Jerusalem, the mother-city of regenerated mankind-their birthplace into the heavenly kingdom. "This man" is Philistia, Tyre, and Ethiopia personified as an ideal man. Tyre had already helped Solomon in the rearing of the temple of God-a type of her ultimate fellowship in the Gospel kingdom, of which the Canaanite or Syro-Phenician woman (Mark 7:26), in Jesus' time on earth, was a first-fruit. The Ethiopian eunuch Queen Candace, converted by Philip the deacon, was the first-fruit and pledge of the ultimate conversion of Ethiopia. The progress of the Gospel in Abyssinia in the present day is a further sign. The need of spiritual new birth, which is so fully set forth in the New Testament, is intimated also in the Old Testament (cf. Psalms 51:5; Psalms 51:10; Psalms 22:31; Isaiah 66:8).