(1) Let us go.—Or, we will go. This verse is inscribed over the portico of St. Paul’s Cathedral.

(2) Our feet shall stand.—Rather, Our feet have been, and are now, standing. “Here we stand at last at thy gates, O Jerusalem.” “We must imagine the pilgrims arresting their steps to gaze about them as they reach the gates.

(3) This verse is somewhat perplexing. It is explained to refer either to the rebuilding of the city and reuniting of the parts which had been disconnected in the destruction, or, which is far better (see Introduction), is taken as a rustic’s impression on first seeing a compact city after being accustomed to straggling villages. The astonishment of Virgil’s shepherd is aptly compared: “Urbem quam dicunt Romam, Melibæe putavi, Stultus ego, huic nostræ similem.” But a far more satisfactory meaning is suggested by the LXX. They (comp. Symmachus) take the word rendered compact as a noun, meaning union. The verse then may run: Jerusalem, the (one) built like a city, union is in it together, i.e., it is the rallying point of all the tribes. (See next verse.)

(4) Unto the testimony.—This is erroneous. The words are parenthetical: “Thither go (or, must and shall go) the tribes, the tribes of Judah (it is an ordinance for Israel) to praise the name of Jehovah.” (See Exodus 23:17, Deuteronomy 16:16, to this regulation.)

(5) Thrones.—Jerusalem, at first a cause of wonder as a city, is now to the pilgrims a cause of admiration as the capital. The mention of the “House of David” itself disposes of the title, but does not prove that the monarchy was still in existence, since even the Sanhedrim might be said to administer justice from the throne of the house or successors of David. The administration of justice was the original and principal duty of a monarch in time of peace (1 Kings 3:11, seq.). The marginal “do sit” gives the literal rendering of the Hebrew, which in this use of sit, where we should say in English stand, is exactly the provincial Scotch.

(8) Peace be within thee.—Here the formal greeting actually appears, that which greets every traveller in the East (John 20:19). (Comp. Luke 10:5.) The full form appears in 1 Samuel 25:6.

(9) Because . . .—Now for the first time the religious motive of the pilgrimage appears, rendered all the more emphatic by being kept for the concluding verse.