512 VISIONS AND PROPHECIES OF ZECHARIAH
established on the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills" J
And here again, as in the case of the " living waters " in the 8th verse, the literal fact will at the same time be emblematic of a great spiritual truth. Zion in the millennial age will be the city of truth, " the habitation of righteousness and mountain of holiness" and therefore will be raised conspicuously aloft in the view of all the nations ; it will be the source whence the living waters of God s grace and salvation are to issue in all directions, and therefore every obstacle which might hinder their flow shall be " changed " and turned into a plain. It will be the centre of God s governmental rule of the world, and the place to which " all nations shall flow " for instruction and guidance, and therefore it must be lifted high, and approach to it rendered easy.
In the words of the beautiful paraphrase of the prophetic announcement by Isaiah and Micah :
Behold! the mountain of the Lord
In latter days shall rise On mountain-tops above the hills,
And draw the wond ring eyes.
To this the joyful nations round,
All tribes and tongues, shall flow ; " Up to the hill of God," they ll say,
"And to His house we ll go!"
The beam that shines from Zion s hill
Shall lighten ev ry land ; The King who reigns in Salem s towers
Shall all the world command.
Among the nations He shall judge
His judgments truth shall guide ; His sceptre shall protect the just
And quell the sinner s pride.
The second half of the loth verse describes the bounds of the restored and enlarged city, which shall thus be " lifted up " and settled down to dwell safely " in her own place."
" From Benjamin s gate unto the place of the first (or
1 Isa. ii. 2.
