Luke Chapter 1 verse 68 Holy Bible

Luke 1 : 68 Bible Verse Songs

• In The Family by Rivers & Robots
• God of Israel by Maverick City Music + Naomi Raine + Maryanne J. George

Pulpit Commentary

Pulpit CommentaryVerses 68, 69. - He hath visited and redeemed,... and hath raised up. The tenses of the verbs used in these expressions show that in Zacharias's mind, when he uttered the words of his hymn, the Incarnation, and the glorious deliverance commenced in that stupendous act of mercy, belonged to the past. He hath visited; that is, after some four hundred years of silence and absence, the Holy One of Israel had again come to his people. About four centuries had passed since the voice of Malachi, the last of the prophets, had been heard. An horn of salvation. A metaphor not unknown in classical writings (see Ovid, 'Art. Am.,' 1:239; Her., 'Od.,' 3. 21. 18), and a much-used figure in Hebrew literature (see, among other passages, Ezekiel 29:2l; Lamentations 2:3; Psalm 132:17; 1 Samuel 2:10). The reference is not to the horns of the altar, on which criminals seeking sanctuary used to lay hold; nor to the horns with which warriors used to adorn their helmets; but to the horns of a bull - in which the chief power of this animal resides. This was a figure especially familiar among an agricultural folk like the Israelites. "A rabbinic writer says that there are ten horns - those of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, the horn of the Law, of the priesthood, of the temple, and of Israel, and some add of the Messiah. They were all placed on the heads of the Israelites till they sinned, and then they were cut off' and given to the Gentiles" (Schottgen, 'Hor. Hebr.,' quoted by Dr. Farrar). In the house of his servant David. Clearly Zacharias looked on Mary, as the angel had done (verse 32), as belonging to the royal house of David.

Ellicott's Commentary

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(68) Blessed be the Lord God of Israel.--The whole hymn is, like the Magnificat, pre-eminently Hebrew in character, almost every phrase having its counterpart in Psalm or Prophet; and, like it, has come to take a prominent place in the devotions of the western Churches. Its first appearance, as so used, is in Gaul, under Caesarius of Aries.Visited.--Better, looked upon, regarded. The four centuries that had passed since the last of the prophets are thought of as a time during which the "face of the Lord" had been turned away from Israel. Now He looked on it again, not to visit them (as we more commonly use the word) for their offences, but to deliver.Redeemed his people.--Better, wrought redemption for His people. The noun is formed from that which is translated "ransom" in Matthew 20:28, where see Note. Its occurrence here is noticeable as showing how large an element the thought of deliverance through a ransom was in all the Messianic expectations of the time. (Comp. Luke 2:38.) The past tense (in the Greek the aorist) is used by Zacharias as, in the joy of prophetic foresight, seeing the end of what had been begun. The next verse shows that he looked for this redemption as coming not through the child that had been born to him, but through the Son, as yet unborn, of Mary.