Verse 12. - I will make thy windows of agates. Most moderns translate, "I will make thy battlements," or "thy pinnacles of rubies." The exact meaning is very doubtful. Thy gates of carbuncles. In the Revelation of St. John the gates are each of them composed of one pearl (Revelation 21:21) - the pearl betokening purity, the carbuncle the glow of devotional feeling. We must not expect consistency in descriptions which are entirely allegorical. All thy borders of pleasant stones; or, all thy boundaries. An enclosing wall seems to be meant (comp. Revelation 21:17).

54:11-17 Let the people of God, when afflicted and tossed, think they hear God speaking comfortably to them by these words, taking notice of their griefs and fears. The church is all glorious when full of the knowledge of God; for none teaches like him. It is a promise of the teaching and gifts of the Holy Spirit. All that are taught of God are taught to love one another. This seems to relate especially to the glorious times to succeed the tribulations of the church. Holiness, more than any thing, is the beauty of the church. God promises protection. There shall be no fears within; there shall be no fightings without. Military men value themselves on their splendid titles, but God calls them, Wasters made to destroy, for they make wasting and destruction their business. He created them, therefore he will serve his own designs by them. The day is coming when God will reckon with wicked men for their hard speeches, Jude 1:15. Security and final victory are the heritage of each faithful servant of the Lord. The righteousness by which they are justified, and the grace by which they are sanctified, are the gift of God, and the effect of his special love. Let us beseech him to sanctify our souls, and to employ us in his service.And I will make thy windows of agates,.... Some sort of which stones, Pliny (x) says, were valued for their clearness like glass; but the stone which bears this name with us is not clear and lucid enough to make windows of. The Septuagint, Vulgate Latin, Syriac, and Arabic versions, render it, "of jasper", a stone more fit for that purpose; and it is interpreted of the jasper in the Talmud (y); so "the light" of the New Jerusalem is said to be like unto the "jasper stone", Revelation 21:11. Some take the crystal to be meant, which suits well with windows; the word (z) for which has its name from the sun, because by means of them the rays and light of the sun are let into a house, and illuminate it; these in a figurative sense may design the ministers of the Gospel, who are the lights of the world, especially of the church; and the word and ordinances administered by them, by means of which the light of spiritual knowledge, joy, and comfort, is let into the churches, and into the souls of men, from Christ, the sun of righteousness. The phrase signifies, that in the latter day their ministrations should be very clear and bright, and be greatly owned, and be very successful: "and thy gates of carbuncles"; precious stones so called from their fiery flaming colour. The gates of the New Jerusalem are said to be so many pearls, Revelation 21:21 which there, as here, signify the entrance into the church of God, which is through Christ, who is the door into it, and through faith in him, which works by love; these gates will be open in the latter day to receive many, who will come in great numbers, and are called "praise", Isaiah 60:11, which will be expressed in very warm and lively strains of love and affection, of which the carbuncle may be a symbol:

and all thy borders of pleasant stones; true believers, called "lively stones", and who are pleasant in the sight of God and Christ, and are taken pleasure in by one another; see Psalm 102:14. The Septuagint and Arabic versions render it, "thy wall", which agree with Revelation 21:18, where the wall of the New Jerusalem is said to be of jasper.

(x) Nat. Hist l. 37. c. 10. (y) T. Bab. Bava Bathra, fol. 75. 1.((z) "a radice, quae solem significat", Sanctius,