Verse 13
O Lord, the Hope of Israel ,.... Of all true Israelites; such as are regenerate persons, and true believers in him; Christ is the author and giver of that hope that is in them; the door of it unto them; the object on which it is exercised; the ground and foundation of it, or what gives encouragement to it; and the person they are hoping for; Old Testament saints hoped, waited for, and expected his first coming; and New Testament saints are hoping for his second coming, and to be for ever with him F23 מקוה , the word here used, sometimes signifies a confluence or collection of waters, as in Genesis 1:10 and elsewhere, a place to bathe in; hence Fortunatus Scacchus, in Sacror. Eleaochr. Myrothec. l. 1. c. 23. col. 159. renders it here, "the bath of Israel", the Lord, the Lord Jesus Christ, whose blood is a fountain opened, in which sinners wash, and are cleansed from their sins, Zech. xiii. 1. and this agrees with the latter part of the verse, where the Lord is called "the fountain of living water"; so De Dieu, on ch. xiv. 8, observes, the word is so used in Exod. vii. 21. and so R. Akiba interprets the words, saying,
"what is "the meaning of מקוה ? it is that which cleanses the unclean; even so God cleanses Israel;'
and it is, adds De Dieu, as if you were to call God the pool of Israel, or a confluence of waters where Israel may be washed from his filth.
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