And I will make thy windows of agates,.... Some sort of which stones, Pliny 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 ; so "the light" of the New Jerusalem is said to be like unto the "jasper stone", Re 21:11.
Some take the crystal to be meant, which suits well with windows; the word 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, Re 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", Isa 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 Ps 102:14.
The Septuagint and Arabic versions render it, "thy wall", which agree with Re 21:18, where the wall of the New Jerusalem is said to be of jasper. Nat. Hist l. 37. c. 10. T. Bab. Bava Bathra, fol. 75.
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