Isaiah 66:11

That ye may suck, and be satisfied with the breast of her consolations,.... This, according to our version, expresses the end of the church's friends being called together to rejoice with her, that

That ye may suck, and be satisfied with the breasts of her consolations; that ye may milk out, and be delighted with the abundance of her glory.

Jerusalem is here set out as the mother of us all, as indeed she was; for out of Zion went forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem, . Christ was of the seed of Abraham, he was sent to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, and is called, , the minister of the circumcision: they were the olive, the branches; the Gentiles but a wild olive, grafted in amongst them, ; we sucked at their breasts; Christ was first preached to them; the twelve, the seventy, were all of them. The breasts of her consolations: the gospel doctrine was their breasts of consolation. Christ was in the first place. Her glory; the glory of the people Israel, though he was also a light to lighten the Gentiles, ; we are required to rejoice with Jerusalem. That ye may suck, and be satisfied, &c.; intimating that our joy should not be a mere act of charity to them, but a proper expression of our sense of God’ s goodness to ourselves, who should suck and be satisfied from the glad tidings of the gospel first published unto them, and ourselves be enlightened from what was at first the glory of Israel.

Isaiah 66:11 That ye may suck, and be satisfied with the breasts of her consolations; that ye may milk out, and be delighted with the abundance of her glory.Ver. 11. That ye may suck, and be satisfied with the breasts of her consolations.] Zion is not only a fruitful mother, but a joyful nurse. God giveth her the blessings both of the belly and of the breasts; and these breasts of hers are full strutting with the sincere milk of the word, that rational milk, the sweet and precious promises of the gospel. These "breasts of consolation" we must suck, as the babe doth the mother’ s dug, as long as he can get a drop out of it, and then sucks still till more cometh. Let us suck the blood of the promises, saith one, as a dog that hath got the blood of the bear - he hangs on, and will hardly be beaten off. Let us extort and oppress the promises, saith another, descanting upon this text, as a rich man oppresseth a poor man, and getteth out of him all that he hath; so deal thou with the promises, for they are rich - there is a price in them; consider it to the utmost, wring it out. The world layeth forth her two breasts, or botches rather, of profit and pleasure, and hath enough to suck them, though they can never thereby be satisfied. And shall alma mater Ecclesia, the nourishing mother of thye Church want those that shall milk out and be delighted with the abundance of her glory?

(11) That ye may suck . . .—The figure takes a new and bolder form. The friends who visit the rejoicing mother are invited to take their place with the new-born child, and to share his nurture. The underlying thought is, of course, that the heathen nations who had been friendly to Zion were to become converts, and be incorporated with her citizens.

Verse 11. With the abundance of her glory - "From her abundant stores."] For מזיז mizziz, from the splendour, two MSS. and the old edition of 1488, have מזיו mizziv; and the latter ז zain is upon a rasure in three other MSS. It is remarkable that Kimchi and Sal. ben Melec, not being able to make any thing of the word as it stands in the text, say it means the same with מזיו mizziv; that is, in effect, they admit of a various reading, or an error in the text. But as Vitringa observes, what sense is there in sucking nourishment from the splendour of her glory? He therefore endeavours to deduce another sense of the word זיז ziz; but, as far as it appears to me, without any authority. I am more inclined to accede to the opinion of those learned rabbins, and to think that there is some mistake in the word; for that in truth is their opinion, though they disguise it by saying that the corrupted word means the very same with that which they believe to be genuine. So in Isaiah 41:24 they say that אפע apha, a viper, means the same with אפס ephes, nothing; instead of acknowledging that one is written by mistake instead of the other. I would propose to read in this place מזין mizzin or מזן mizzen, which is the reading of one of De Rossi's MS., (instead of מזיז meziz,) from the stores, from זון zun, to nourish, to feed; see Genesis 45:23; 2 Chronicles 11:23; Psalms 144:13. And this perhaps may be meant by Aquila, who renders the word by αποπαντοδαπιας with which that of the Vulgate, ab omnimoda gloria, and of Symmachus and Theodotion, nearly agree. The Chaldee follows a different reading, without improving the sense; מיין meyin, from the wine. - L.

11. Comp. ch. Isaiah 60:16. abundance] The Heb. word (zîz) is of uncertain interpretation. It is found again only in Psalms 50:11; Psalms 80:13 in the phrase “beast of the field” (zîz sâday). It is doubtful, however, if the word there be identical with that in this verse. A perfect parallelism (with “breast”) would be obtained if we might translate by “udder.” Ewald and Cheyne adopt this translation, Ewald without remark, Cheyne with a reference to the Assyrian and the vulgar Arabic, where a word zîzâh is said to mean “udder” (see his Comm. p. 174, and Origin of the Psalter, pp. 472 f.).

That ye may suck - The same figure occurs in Isaiah 60:16; and substantidally in Isaiah 49:23. See the note at those places. That ye may milk out - The image is an obvious one.

10, 11. Rejoice ye with Jerusalem — “Jerusalem is now a happy mother, rejoicing that a son is born to her — a birth which really means a nation — a new and world-embracing Zion.