All the trees of the field, etc. As the cedar of Lebanon stands here for the royal house of David, so the other "trees" represent the surrounding nations, who are thought of as witnessing, first the strange prostration, and then the yet stranger resurrection of the house and the might of Judah and Israel. The thought, which reproduces that of 1 Samuel 2:7, finds an echo in Luke 1:51, Luke 1:52. Another echo of the words may, perhaps, be traced in the "green tree" and the "dry" of Luke 23:31. Here then, also, as in Luke 16:1-31; the utterance which begins with judgment, ends in mercy. Behind the picture of the blind, discrowned king the prophet sees that of the Divine ideal King in the fulness of his majesty and power.
HOMILETICS.