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:6 Ge 32:28 Ex 19:3-6 De 7:6 Ps 73:1 Isa 41:8; 46:3 Joh 1:47

Verse 4. Who are Israelites] Descendants of Jacob, a man so highly favoured of God, and from whom he received his name Israel-a prince of God, Gen. xxxii. 28; from which name his descendants were called Israelites, and separated unto God for his glory and praise. Their very name of Israelites implied their very high dignity; they were a royal nation; princes of the most high God.

The adoption] The Israelites were all taken into the family of God, and were called his sons and first-born, Exod. iv. 22; Deut. xiv. 1; Jer. xxxi. 9; Hos. xi. 1; and this adoption took place when God made the covenant with them at Horeb.

The glory] The manifestation of God among them; principally by the cloud and pillar, and the Shekinah, or Divine presence, appearing between the cherubim over the mercy-seat. These were peculiar to the Jews; no other nation was ever thus favoured.

The covenants] The covenants made with Abraham, both that which relates to the spiritual seed, and that which was peculiar to his natural descendants, Gal. iii. 16, 17; which covenants were afterwards renewed by Moses, Deut. xxix. 1. Some suppose that the singular is here put for the plural, and that by covenants we are to understand the decalogue, which is termed tyrb berith, or covenant, Deut. iv. 13.

But it is more likely that the apostle alludes to the great covenant made with Abraham, and to its various renewals and extensions at different times afterwards, as well as to its twofold design-the grant of the land of Canaan, and the rest that remains for the people of God.

The giving of the law] The revelation of God by God himself, containing a system of moral and political precepts. This was also peculiar to the Jews; for to no other nation had he ever given a revelation of his will.

The service] latreia. The particular ordinances, rites, and ceremonies of their religious worship, and especially the sacrificial system, so expressive of the sinfulness of sin and the holiness of God.

The promises] The land of Canaan, and the blessings of the Messiah and his kingdom; which promises had been made and often repeated to the patriarchs and to the prophets.

Ver. 4. Who are Israelites , etc..] Which were their national name, as descended from Jacob, whose name was Israel; and it was accounted a very honourable one; (see Philippians 3:5 2 Corinthians 11:22); and the very name they bore gave the apostle some concern that they should be cut off; and then he proceeds to enumerate the several distinguishing favours and privileges they had been partakers of: to whom pertaineth the adoption ; not that special adoption, which springs from eternal predestination, is a blessing of the covenant of grace, comes through the redemption of Christ, and is received and enjoyed only by believers in him; for all that were Israelites, were not in this sense the children of God; but national adoption is here meant, by which the whole body of the people, as nation, were the sons of God, his firstborn: and the glory ; either the ark of the covenant, which is so called in ( Psalm 63:2), according to Kimchi; or the clouds in the tabernacle and temple, which were called the glory of the Lord, and were symbols of his presence, the same with the Shekinah; and so Aben Ezra interprets power, the ark, and glory, the Shekinah, ( Psalm 63:2), and the covenants ; not the two Testaments, Old and New, but the covenant of circumcision, made with Abraham their father, and the covenant at Sinai they entered into with the Lord; some copies, and the Vulgate Latin and Ethiopic versions, read, �the covenant�: and the giving, of the law : hrwt �tm , a way of speaking the Jews make use of when they take notice of this privilege; for it was peculiarly given to them with great solemnity by God himself, through the disposition of angels into the hands of Moses the mediator, and by him to them; and on account of this, they reckoned themselves more beloved of God than the rest of mankind f167 and the service of God ; or �the service�, as in the Greek text. So the Jews are used to call it hdwb[ , �the service�; and false worship is called by them hrz hdwb[ , �strange service�, which is the title of one of their Misnic tracts; and here it signifies the whole worship of God, in the whole compass of it, sacrifices, prayer, praise, etc.. daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly: and the promises ; both temporal and spiritual, especially such as related to the Messiah, and which now had their accomplishment.