III. To crown all these blessings which God has in store for them, here is a promise of the Messiah, and of that everlasting righteousness which he should bring in (v. 15, 16), and probably this is that good thing, that great good thing, which in the latter days, days that were yet to come, God would perform, as he had promised to Judah and Israel, and to which their return out of captivity and their settlement again in their own land was preparatory. From the captivity to Christ is one of the famous periods, Matt. i. 17. This promise of the Messiah we had before (ch. xxiii. 5, 6), and there it came in as a confirmation of the promise of the shepherds whom God would set over them, which would make one think that the promise here concerning the shepherds and their flocks, which introduces it, is to be understood figuratively. Christ is here prophesied of, 1. As a rightful King. He is a branch of righteousness, not a usurper, for he grows up unto David, descends from his loins, with whom the covenant of royalty was made, and is that seed with whom that covenant should be established, so that his title is unexceptionable. 2. As a righteous king, righteous in enacting laws, waging wars, and giving judgment, righteous in vindicating those that suffer wrong and punishing those that do wrong: He shall execute judgment and righteousness in the land. This may point at Zerubbabel, in the type, who governed with equity, not as Jehoiakim had done (ch. xxii. 17); but it has a further reference to him to whom all judgment is committed and who shall judge the world in righteousness. 3. As a king that shall protect his subjects from all injury. By him Judah shall be saved from wrath and the curse, and, being so saved, Jerusalem shall dwell safely, quiet from the fear of evil, and enjoying a holy security and serenity of mind, in a dependence upon the conduct of this prince of peace, this prince of their peace. 4. As a king that shall be praised by his subjects: "This is the name whereby they shall call him" (so the Chaldee reads it, the Syriac, and vulgar Latin); "this name of his they shall celebrate and triumph in, and by this name they shall call upon him." It may be read, more agreeably to the original, This is he who shall call her, The Lord our righteousness. As Moses's altar is called Jehovah-nissi (Exod. xvii. 15), and Jerusalem Jehovah-shammah (Ezek. xlviii. 35), intimating that they glory in Jehovah as present with them and their banner, so here the city is called The Lord our righteousness, because they glory in Jehovah as their righteousness. That which was before said to be the name of Christ (says Mr. Gataker) is here made the name of Jerusalem, the city of the Messiah, the church of Christ. He it is that imparts righteousness to her, for he is made of God to us righteousness, and she, by bearing that name, professes to have her whole righteousness, not from herself, but from him. In the Lord have I righteousness and strength, Isa. xlv. 24. And we are made the righteousness of God in him. The inhabitants of Jerusalem shall have this name of the Messiah so much in their mouths that they shall themselves be called by it.