Ezekiel

The Book of the prophet Ezekiel.] The book of Ezekiel, so the Hebrews call it, and forbid any to read the beginning and ending of it till he be thirty years of age, because it is so abstruse and mysterious. Nazianzen {a} calleth this prophet, the beholder of great things, and the interpreter of visions and mysteries. Another {b} calleth him the hieroglyphic prophet. A third, Jeremiah veiled, a band shut up, and you know not what is in it, &c. {c} Contemporary he was to Jeremiah, though in another country, and a great confirmer of what he had foretold, but could not be credited. To him, therefore, as to many others, Ezekiel became, according to the import of his name, "The strength of God," who mightily enabled him, as Lavater well notes, with a stout and undaunted spirit, to reprove both people and princes, and to threaten them more terribly and vehemently than Jeremiah had done before him. But, in the substance of their prophecies, there is no small conformity. Ferunt Ezechielem servum Ieremiae prius extitisse, saith Nazianzen. {d} Some have affirmed that Ezekiel had sometimes been Jeremiah’s servant, as was afterwards Baruch.

Chapter 1

Ver. 1. Now it came to pass in the thirtieth year, ] scil., Since the book of the law was found, and that famous passover kept in King Josiah’s days, {#2Ki 22:1-23:30} since the eighteenth year of his reign. {#2Ki 23:23} So elsewhere, they began their account from some memorable mercy or remarkable accident; as from the promise made to Abraham, the birth of Isaac, the departure out of Egypt, the division of the kingdom into that of Israel and the other of Judah, &c.

In the fifth day of the month.] Which was the Sabbath day say some, Compare #Eze 3:16. Then was this holy prophet in the Spirit, as was afterwards also John the divine upon the Christian Sabbath. {#Re 1:10}

As I was among the captives.] In Chaldea. That rule of the Rabbis, therefore, holdeth not—viz., that the Holy Ghost never spake to the prophets but only in the Holy Land.

By the river of the Chebar.] Which was rivus vel ramentum Euphratis, a part or channel of Euphrates. There sat the poor captives, {#Ps 137:1} and there this prophet received this vision here, and his vocation in the next chapter. It is observed, that by the sides of rivers various prophets had visions of God; by a river side it was that Paul and his company met to preach and pray. {#Ac 16:13} And of Archbishop Ussher, {e} that most reverend man of God, it is recorded, that to a certain place by a water side he frequently resorted, when as yet he was but very young, sorrowfully to recount his sins, and with floods of tears to pour them out in confession to God.

That the heavens were opened.] Not by a division of the firmament, saith Jerome, but by the faith of the believer. The like befell Stephen the proto martyr, when the stones were buzzing about his ears; {#Ac 7:55-60} and, if we may believe the monkish writers, Wulsin, Bishop of Salisbury, when he lay dying. {f}

And I saw visions of God, ] i.e., Offered by God, or excellent visions. Ut montes Dei, cedri Dei, civitas Dei. Ezekiel was not only a priest and a prophet, but a seer also. Abraham was the like. {#Joh 8:56 Ge 20:7} This was no small honour.

{a} In Apolog.

{b} A Lapide.

{c} Ezechiel scripturarum et Oceanus, et mysteriorum Dei labyrinthus. -Jerome. Many, both writers and readers, have passed over this prophet as dark, difficult, and less useful.—Greenhill, Praef.

{d} Orat. 47.

{e} His life and death by Dr Bernard.

{f} Speed, 335.

Ver. 2. In the fifth day.] The Sabbath day, likely, that queen of days, as the Jews call it. See on #Eze 1:1.

Which was the fifth year of Jehoiakim’s captivity.] With whom Ezekiel and other precious persons, called by Jeremiah good figs, were carried captive. {#Eze 40:1}

Ver. 3. The word of the Lord came expressly.] Heb., By being hath been, or hath altogether been— Existendo extitit. Accurate factum est it really wrought upon me and made me a prophet.

Unto Ezekiel the priest.] Whom, therefore, some have called Urim and Thummim in Babylon.

The son of Buzi.] That this Buzi was Jeremiah, so called because despised for his plain dealing, as some Rabbis have affirmed, is as true as that Ezekiel himself was the same with Pythagoras the philosopher; which yet some ancients have fondly fancied.

In the land of the Chaldeans] Though a polluted land, {#Mic 2:10} and the dwelling place of wickedness, {#Zec 5:8,11} the mother of harlots, and abominations of the earth. {#Re 17:5}

By the river Chebar.] The Rabbis {a} call it the Sabbath river; and, further, tell us that it runneth not, but resteth on the Sabbath day.

“ Credat Iudaeus Apella:

Non ego.’’—Hor.

And the hand of the Lord was there upon him.] Not only came God’s Word expressly to him, but the power and Spirit of God came mightily upon him; so that he felt the intrinsic virtue of this hand, as one phraseth it, the Spirit of God in his own heart; it was a quick and lively word unto him, and to as many as believed.

{a} Sabbatian.

Ver. 4. And I looked, and, behold.] In this ensuing mysterious vision of a whirlwind, four cherubims, four wheels, a throne upon the firmament, formidabilis Dei forma proponitur, is set forth "the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord," as it is expounded, #Eze 1:28, that hereby the people’s arrogance might be the better subdued, the prophet’s doctrine more reverently received, and the prophet confirmed in his calling. The sum of this celestial vision is, that the divine providence doth rule in the world, and is exercised in all parts thereof, and not only in heaven, or in the temple, or in Jewry, as the Jews then thought. As for the changes in the world, which are here compared to wheels, they befall not at all adventures, or by haphazard, but are effected by God, though all things may seem to run upon wheels, and to happen as it fortuneth. At the day of judgment, at utmost, men shall see a harmony in this discord of things, and providence shall then be unriddled. Meanwhile, God often wrappeth himself in a cloud, and will not be seen till afterwards. All God’s dealings be sure will appear beautiful in their season, though for the present we see not the contiguity and linking together of one thing with another.

A whirlwind came out of the north,] i.e., Nebuchadnezzar with his forces. See #Jer 1:13-15, Fitly compared to a whirlwind for suddenness, swiftness, irresistibleness. A Lapide telleth of whirlwinds in Italy which have taken away stabula cum equis, stables with horses; carried them up into the air, and dashed them against the mountains, {see #Hab 1:6,7,9,10} and consider that those Chaldeans were of God’s sending.

A great cloud.] Nebuchadnezzar’s army, {#Jer 4:13} that peditum equitumque nubes {a} {#2Ki 25:1 Eze 39:9} that stormed Jerusalem.

And a fire infolding itself.] Heb., That receiveth itself within itself, as in a house on fire. Understand it of Nebuchadnezzar’s wrath against Jerusalem, much hotter than that furnace of his seven times more than ordinarily heated, {#Da 3:19} or rather of God’s wrath in using Nebuchadnezzar to set all on a light fire.

And a brightness was about it.] The glory of divine presence, shining in the punishment of evildoers.

Out of the midst thereof as of the colonr of amber.] Not of an angel called Hasmal, as Lyra, after some Rabbis, will have it. Jarchi confesseth he knoweth not what the word Hasmal meaneth. This prophet only hath it here, and #Eze 1:27 8:2, as Daniel also hath some words proper to himself.

{a} Liv.

Ver. 5. Also out of the midst thereof,] i.e., From God’s glorious presence.

Came the likeness of four living creatures,] i.e., Angels; {#Eze 10:8,14,15,20} Intelligentias animales, Cicero {a} calleth them. See like visions, #Da 7:9 Re 4:6,7. These are said to be four, because God by his angels diffuseth his power through the four quarters of the world.

They had the likeness of a man,] sc., For the greater part, they had more of a man than of any other creature, as hands, legs, &c. {#Eze 1:7,8}

{a} Quest. Acad., lib. iv.

Ver. 6. And every one had four faces.] To set forth, saith an expositor, that the power of angels is exercised about all creatures. It is as if the angels did bear on them the heads of all living creatures—i.e., did comprehend in themselves all the elements and all the parts of the world; not as if they did move or act by their own power, but as they are God’s hands and agents, employed by him at pleasure, for the good of his Church especially, {#Heb 1:14} as being fit and ready to every good work. So should we strive to be. {#Tit 3:1}

And every one had four wings.] To set forth their agility, their incredible swiftness, far beyond that of the sun, which yet, if Bellarmine {a} reckoneth right, runneth, in the eighth part of an hour, seven thousand miles; others say many more.

{a} De Ascens. ment. in Deum, grad. 7.

Ver. 7. And their feet were straight feet.] Importing their right progress in executing God’s will. We must also "make straight or even paths for our feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way." {#Heb 12:13} See #Eze 1:9.

And the sole of their feet was like the sole of a calf’s foot] Round, and therefore easily turned. Hoc ad agilitatem et varietatem cursus spectat. The angels, because they see every way, so they are apt to go every way, and this with the greatest facility that can be.

And they sparkled.] So swiftly they went, that their feet seemed to sparkle or strike fire.

Like the colour of burnished brass.] Burnished, not blemished; polished, not polluted.

Ver. 8. And they had the hands of a man under their wings.] Faces, wings, hands, all to express, saith one, the sufficiency of God’s providence for all means of help. A little of the angels, saith another, is set forth by these faces, wings, hands, feet, but the distinct knowledge of angels, as angels, is reserved till we are like the angels in heaven. Great angels they are, but act invisibly for the most part; their hands are under their wings.

Ver. 9. Their wings were joined one to another.] To show the unity of angels, the uniformity also of their motions in God’s service; there is a suitability and agreeability between them.

They turned not when they went,] sc., Till they had effected that which they went for; and then they did. {as #Eze 1:14}

They went every one straight forward.] The angels, in the execution of their office, kept a straight course, without deviating or detracting, without cessation or cespitation. Our eyes should also "look right on," {#Pr 4:25} and we should make "straight steps for our feet." {#Heb 12:13} This is angel-like. St Paul, that earthly angel, did so. {#Php 3:13,14}

Ver. 10. They four had the face of a man, and the face of a lion.] Hereby is set forth the wisdom, strength, serviceability, and perspicaciousness of the holy angels for the Church’s good, all things requisite to great undertakings; neither forbear they to serve us, though we have the scent of the earth and hell about, us. Quantumnis eos, proh dolor, foetore peccatorum non raro laedamus, Deumque offendamus, {a} Though, by the stench of our sins, we do frequently annoy them, and offend God.

And they four had the face of an ox.] Angels are obsequious, painful, patient, useful. The ox is of those beasts that are ad esum et ad usum; to consume food and to be useful, and is truly called Iumentum a iuvando, the beast of burden from help.

They four also had the face of an eagle.] Angels are sharp sighted, {#2Sa 14:20} vigorous and vivacious, swift beyond belief, {#Da 9:21} and if they be once upon the wing, there is no escaping for any wicked people or person.

{a} Polan.—Would any great prince attend a lowly man full of sores and vermin?

Ver. 11. And their wings were stretched upward.] Faces and wings are both turned toward God, at whose beck and obedience the holy angels wholly are; {#Ps 103:20} or hereby may be imported the swiftness, sublimeness, and equality of their service.

Two wings of every one.] See on #Eze 1:9.

And two covered their bodies.] See on #Isa 6:2.

Ver. 12. And they went every one straight forward.] See on #Eze 1:9.

Whither the Spirit was to go, they went.] That is, the Spirit of God, by whose direction and conduct the angels do all things; he is the great agent that setteth angels to work. Let us also be "led by the Spirit of God," so shall we approve ourselves "sons of God." {#Ro 8:14}

Ver. 13. Their appearance was like burning coals of fire.] Angels are actuosi et efficaces ut ignis, of a fiery nature, and of a fiery operation, as is also the Holy Spirit, {#Isa 4:4 Mt 3:11 Ac 2:3} whereby they are actuated. Angels are all on a light fire, as it were, with zeal for God and indignation against sin; let us be similarly affected. Paul was a heavenly spark; John Baptist, "a burning and shining light." Chrysostom saith that Peter was a man made all of fire, walking among stubble; Basil was a pillar of fire; Latimer cried out, Deest ignis. In Bucholcere vivida omnia fuerunt, &c. {a}

It went up and down among the living creatures.] The fire and flame did. Heb., It made itself to walk of its own accord and pleasure.

And the fire was bright.] Let us also labour to kindle and keep quick the fire of zeal upon the hearth of our hearts, without all smoke or smudge of sin.

And out of the fire went out lightnings.] "The Lord is known by the judgment which he executeth"; his noble works done by those instruments of his, the holy angels, are quickly noted and noticed, as in Sennacherib’s army.

{a} Melch. Adam.

Ver. 14. And the living creatures ran and returned.] As soon as ever their work was done, they came back to him who sent them out to know his further pleasure, and to do him more service. When the angel had lessoned the good women about our Saviour’s resurrection, he biddeth them "go quickly and tell his disciples," &c., and then dismisseth them, with "Lo, I have told you," {#Mt 28:6,7} q.d., Begone now about your business, you have your full errand; why linger ye? pack away.

As the appearance of a flash of lightning.] Which appeareth aud disappeareth in an instant.

Ver. 15. Behold one wheel upon the earth.] Things here below are exceedingly mutable, and therefore compared to wheels, because they may seem to run on wheels, and to have no certain course, but to be turned upside down eftsoons; such is the various, promiscuous administration of them, to many men’s thinking. To set us right herein, here we have the vision of the four wheels; for each of the four living wights had a wheel by him, {#Eze 1:16 10:9} to show that God governeth all the four quarters of the world by the ministry of his angels. This the poets hammered at, but hit not on, in their foolish fable of Fortune’s wheel. St James speaketh of the wheel (τροχος) of nature; {#Jas 3:6} and, indeed, this world is of a wheeling nature, movable and mutable. But God, who moves this wheel, who ruleth the world, is unchangeable and eternal, {#Jas 1:17} and his providence and the ministry of his angels sets all the wheels in the world in motion.

Ver. 16. The appearance of the wheels…was like unto the colour of a beryl.] Heb., As the eye or colour of Tarshish—i.e., the sea, or beryl, which is of a sea colour, even sea-green; whereby is represented the flux and fluctuating constitution of things here below.

And they four had one likeness.] There is the same instability of things in one place as in another, and the same overruling providence.

Their appearance and their work were as it were a wheel in the midst of a wheel.] God hath a wheel, providence, in all the wheeling businesses of the world. These are so one within another, as that all their motion dependeth on the angels, whom he also moderateth and ordereth at his own pleasure. Whensoever, therefore, we see such things come to pass that we can see no reason for—as the Churches overthrown, the wicked exalted, &c.—consider that one wheel is within another, and the wings of the angels are one within another. {a}

{a} Dr Preston.

Ver. 17. When they went, they went upon their four sides.] Or, According to their four sides—i.e., through the four parts of the world, as they were moved by the four living creatures.

And they returned not when they went.] But kept on straight forward, without stopping or stepping back. A figure of the constant and consonant harmony which is in all the works of God’s providence toward the world, but especially toward his Church. {a}

{a} Diod.

Ver. 18. As for their rings they were so high.] Apsides earum tam amplae seu altae ut propterea formidabiles. The rings or strokes, Heb., backs, of these wheels were so broad and high that they struck terror into the beholders. It is hard to take the altitude of second causes. Well might one write a book of the vanity of sciences, and another a tractate Quod nihil scitur. I would see the proudest of you all define the nature of a straw, as one preached in Cambridge to all the scholars; so of a flower, of a fly, &c. Well might David say, "Thy judgments, Lord, are a great deep," {#Ps 36:6} such as hath neither bank nor bottom. Well might Paul cry out, "Oh the depth! how unsearchable are his ways." {#Ro 11:23}

And the rings were full of eyes.] Instead of cart nails. Understand hereby God’s all-seeing providence, which never erreth, but always ordereth the world’s disorders to his own glory.

Round about them four.] The Divine providence is like a well drawn picture, which eyeth all that are in the room. See #2Ch 16:9 Ps 34:15 Zec 4:10 Job 34:21 36:7 Jer 16:17 32:17.

Ver. 19. And when the living creatures went, the wheels went by them.] The angels are God’s hands, as it were, whereby are acted and agitated this lower world and the second causes therein.

The wheels were lift up.] The spirits of the creatures were heightened and elevated to some unwonted and more than ordinary service, by some special instinct. We use to say, Magnarum rerum tarda molimina; When there are many wheels, some will be always out. But it is otherwise here; and that of Ambrose is verified, Nescit tarda molimina Spiritus Sancti gratia; God can soon effect great things by his powerful grace.

Ver. 20. Whithersoever the spirit was to go.] See #Eze 1:12; and take notice that whatever the instrument is, or means of this or that occurrence, God is the main agent. It is Christ who by his Spirit, Spiritus vitalis, worketh all in all in his Church. {#1Co 12:16 Eph 1:11 Col 3:21} There falleth not a hair from a man’s head, nay, not a bristle from a sow’s back, saith Tertullian, without God.

For the spirit of the living creatures.] Or, Of life. The Divine inspiration was the procreant cause of the wheels’ motion. This is here called haruach, that spirit by an excellence: est Deus in nobis. The spirit is in the wheels, as an invisible but irresistible agent. "The heart of the king is in the hand of the Lord, he turneth it whithersoever he will." {#Pr 21:1}

Ver. 21. When those went, these went; and when those stood, these stood.] This is but the same again as before, but more fully and plainly. See the similar passage in #Joh 1:2.

Ver. 22. And the likeness of the firmament.] The glory of God in Christ is revealed to the prophet in this ensuing vision, even that great "mystery of godliness, God manifested in the flesh," {#1Ti 3:16} whereof this was a kind of prelude. To like purpose also was that vision. {#Isa 6:1 Joh 12:39-41}

Upon the heads of the living creature.] Between them and the Lord Christ as a screen, and supplied likely the office of that other pair of wings. {#Isa 6:2 Ex 24:10}

Was as the colour of the terrible crystal.] Heb., Of the formidable frost, that is, of the most vehement frost, a periphrasis of crystal. {a} All things above are dreadfully glorious, as all things below are pellucid, pervious, and clear to God’s eye, like a diaphanous body. {#Heb 4:13} Mountains of brass are as transparent to him as the clearest crystal. The firmament is so clear that Christ seeth through it. It is "a molten looking glass"; {#Job 37:18} and those atheists are utterly out who ask, "How doth God know? can he judge through the dark clouds" {#Job 22:13}

{a} Vide Plin., lib. xxxvii, cap. 2. Chrysiallus est gelu concretum.

Ver. 23. Were their wings straight,] sc., When they flew; for at other times they covered their bodies with them, {#Eze 1:11} in reverence to Christ their Creator and Lord.

The one toward the other.] They serve the Lord Christ with one shoulder or consent; they do all mind the same thing.

Ver. 24. And when they went, I heard the noise of their wings.] A very great noise, as is here set forth by a threefold similitude— Congeries similium faciens ad amplificationem.

Like the noise of great waters.] Which fall with a horrible fragor, as with the catadupes, for instance. See #Ps 46:3.

As the noise of the Almighty,] i.e., As thunder. {#Ps 29:4 18:13}

The voice of speech.] When a man crieth aloud, lifteth up his voice like a trumpet, sic clamans ut stentora vincat.

As the noise of an host] Barritus ille milltarls, besides the roaring of cannons, rattling of wheels, beating of drums, &c. This none hear but the spiritual man, who "discerneth all things," {#1Co 2:15} and hath his senses habitually exercised to discern good and evil. {#Heb 5:14}

They let down their wings.] As expecting a new commission.

Ver. 25. And there was a voice from the firmament,] i.e., From above the firmament, even from Christ on the throne.

When they stood.] When all was hushed. So #Re 8:1, there was half-an-hour’s silence in heaven, that is, in the Church on earth, when the seventh seal was opened. Sedate and silent spirits are fittest to hear Christ’s voice. {#Job 4:16}

Ver. 26. And above the firmament.] See on #Eze 1:22.

Was the likeness of a throne.] Far beyond that of Solomon. {#1Ki 10:18,19} That was of ivory, but this of sapphire; that had a rich canopy over it, but this the azured sky under it; {see #Ex 24:10} all to set forth Christ’s kingly dignity and surpassing majesty.

And upon the likeness.] All was but likeness and appearance, because all was visional here.

As the appearance of a man.] This was the man Christ Jesus, and this is the last and best part of the vision—viz., Christ set by his Father in super celestial places, far above all principality and power, &c. {#Eph 1:20,21} One of Augustine’s wishes was to have seen Christ on earth. Bede comes after, and wisheth rather to have seen Christ in his glory, and on his heavenly throne.

Ver. 27. And I saw as the colour of amber.] See #Eze 1:4. Heb., Chashmal, which being read backward, as the Cabbalists observe, is Lammashach, or Lammashiach -i.e., Messiah.

As the appearance of fire.] Christ is very terrible in his executions; and even "our God" (as well as the Jews’ God) "is a consuming fire." {#Heb 12:29 Ex 13:21}

From the appearance of his loins even upward.] This may well be understood of Christ’s divinity, as the parts downward of his humanity, partaking of the same most resplendent glory, by virtue of the hypostatical union, and having partner agency with the Godhead, according to its measure, in the works of redemption and mediation.

Ver. 28. As the appearance of the bow that is in the cloud.] Here, as in the salt sea, or as in a pot of honey, the deeper the sweeter. The rainbow was set for a sign of the covenant of mercy to mankind {#Ge 9:12 Isa 54:12 Re 10:1} {See Trapp on "Re 10:1"}

This was the appearance, &c.] For no more of God can be seen by any mortal creature. {#Ex 33:20} This and other prophets saw the chariot, but not the rider in it, as the Rabbis say.

I fell upon my face.] {a} As astonished, and as adoring the divine Majesty.

And I heard a voice.] This the Vulgate prefixeth before the next chapter.

{a} Quasi facies suos submittens.

Chapter 2

Ver. 1. And he said unto me.] Christus solio sic insit ab alto. Christ from his lofty throne thus bespake me, who had now my mouth in the dust, and had no more to say but this, "Speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth."

Son of man.] So this prophet is called almost a hundred times in this book; four times in this short chapter. The reason hereof I take to be this, saith a judicious divine, {a} he had visions both more in number and more rare in kind revealed unto him than any other prophet had. Now lest he should be exalted out of measure, through the abundance of revelations, the Lord often putteth him in mind of his estate by nature, that he was but a "son of man," a mortal man, even a worm.

Stand upon thy feet.] God, for good ends, casteth down sometimes those that are dearest to himself; but then he comforteth the abject. {#2Co 7:6}

“ Deiecit ut relevet, premit ut solaria praestet.”

And I will speak unto thee.] So #Da 10:11. Oracles are for standers, not prostrate ones. They require utmost attention of body, intention of mind, and retention of memory. See #Nu 23:18 Jud 3:20. {See Trapp on "Nu 23:18"} {See Trapp on "Jud 3:20"}

{a} Dr Gouge.

Ver. 2. And the Spirit entered into me.] This was right, when word and Spirit went together. See #Isa 59:21. {See Trapp on "Isa 59:21"}

And set me upon my feet.] Called me off from earthly cares, and made me hear savingly. In the Scriptures the Holy Ghost speaketh ρητως, {#1Ti 4:1} "Let him that hath ears to hear, hear," &c. Let him draw up the ears of his mind to those of his body, that one and the same sound may pierce both.

Ver. 3. I send thee to the children of Israel.] So they will needs call themselves. But what saith God in #Mic 2:7? "O thou that art named the house of Jacob, is the Spirit of the Lord straitened? are these his doings?" {See Trapp on "Mic 2:7"}

To a rebellious nation.] Heb., Gentiles. So the Jews call us Christians in scorn. So God calleth them here in great contempt "a rebellious nation." See #Am 9:7 Genres apostatrices, as the Vulgate here hath it. The Jews call the Turks Ishmaelites, the Ethiopians Cushites; but Christians they call Gojim, an abominable nation, and Mamzer-goll, a bastard people.

They and their fathers have transgressed against me.] A serpentine seed they are, a race of rebels; neither good egg nor bird, but mali corvi mala ova.

Even unto this very day.] Being nothing bettered by all that they have suffered. See #Jer 16:13 Isa 1:5.

Ver. 4. For they are impudent children.] Heb., Hard of face. Sin hath added such an impudence in their faces, that they can blush no more than a sackbut. Os tuum ferreum, saith Cicero to Piso, that brazen face of thine; and Durus hic vultus lachrimare nescit, thou canst not blush, much less bleed, for thine offences, saith Seneca to one.

And stiff hearted.] Duri cordes, incurvi cervicati, quosque citius fregeris quam flexeris, such as will sooner break than bend. Many of our hearers, alas! are no better. We do even wash a tile sheard, draw water with a sieve, &c.

I do send thee unto them.] About hard service; sed curare exegeris, non curationem, {a} It is the care, and not the cure, of the charge that is charged upon thee.

Thou shalt say unto them.] Proficiscere et prophetato. Thou shalt be as my mouth. {#Jer 15:19}

{a} Bernard.

Ver. 5. And they, whether they will hear, or whether they will forbear.] Some refractories will not so much as hear a minister of God; but bid him, as those old Italians once did the Roman ambassador, Ad quercus dicere, se interim alia acturos, speak to the posts; they had somewhat else to do than to give ear to them. See #1Co 1:22. Of those also that do hear, scarce the hundredth man believeth our report, saith Calvin; Nay, scarce the thousandth man, saith Chrysostom.

For they are a rebellious house.] This was small encouragement. Hence prophets have so hung off, as Moses, Isaiah, Jonah, Jeremiah, &c. Knox, when called first to preach, burst forth into abundance of tears. Bradford was hardly persuaded by Bucer to enter into the ministry, &c. {a}

Yet shall know that there hath been a prophet among them.] Let them prove incorrigible, they shall also prove inexcusable, and self-condemned. See #2Co 2:16. {See Trapp on "2Co 2:16"} Convinced they shall be, if not converted; and who knows how the word, now slighted, may hereafter work upon them? Saepe fit ut audientes verbum moleste, suscipiant fructuose, {b} They may better bethink themselves.

{a} Acts and Mon.

{b} Jerome.

Ver. 6. Be not afraid of them.] Of their lordly looks—such as Steven Gardiner set upon Dr Taylor, and was well told of it {a} -of their bitter scoffs, dreadful threats, as if they could undo us at their pleasure. Our times are in God’s hands; kill us they may, but hurt us they cannot. See #Jer 1:17 Mt 10:25. When Bonner said to Hawkes, A faggot will make you turn; No, no, said Hawkes, a point for your faggot, you shall do no more than God permits you. {b} A minister of God should live by faith, and not die by fear. He should make his hearers afraid of him rather, as Herod was of the Baptist, Valens of Basil, &c. When Euxodia the Empress threatened Chrysostom, Go tell her, said he, that I fear nothing but sin. I will rather choose to die, said Calvin, than comply with those that refuse to submit to Church discipline.

Though briers (or rebels) and thorns be with thee.] Refractarii et spinei, {c} such as thou canst not handle without hurt, deal with without danger; {#2Sa 23:6 Ps 55:21 58:10 Mic 7:4} catching, they are and scratching, as sharp pointed thorns. {#Nu 33:55}

And thou dost dwell among scorpions.] Which are most venomous and perilous creatures, joined with fiery serpents. {#De 8:15} Pliny saith that there is not one minute wherein it doth not put forth the sting to do mischief. {d} It is also a crafty creature, et occultis machinationibus ferit and it kills with hidden devices. The Church’s enemies are cruel crafties. {#Ne 4:11}

Be not afraid of their words.] Their bubbles of words.

Nor be dismayed at their looks.] Their swellings and browbeatings.

Though they be a rebellious house.] A race of rebels.

{a} Acts and Mon.

{b} Ibid., 1443.

{c} Quasi boves aestro agitati. -Theodoret. Monitoribus asperi. -Hor.

{d} Semper in ictu est. -Plin., lib. viii. cap. 29. Ferit obliquo ictu et inflexu.

Ver. 7. And thou shalt speak my words.] God’s word must be spoken, however it be taken.

Whether they will hear.] See #Eze 2:5. Christ, once at least, preached away the most of his hearers. {#Joh 6:66} Beza so delivered himself with that evidence and efficacy of truth in Colloquio Possiaceno, that Cardinal Lorrain wished that either he had been dumb, or that his hearers had been deaf. Too many of ours are so, &c.

For they are most rebellious.] Heb., Rebellion, in the abstract, as if they had been transformed into sin’s nature.

Ver. 8. Be not thou rebellious like that rebellious house.] It is no hard matter to symbolise with sinners. See #Isa 6:5, with the note. To dwell among them is dangerous, for sin is catching, and often in epidemic proportions. Precious therefore, and worthy of all acceptation, is the apostle’s counsel. {#Ro 12:2} Lawyers tell us that we must not look so much what men do at Rome, as what they ought to do.

Eat that I give thee,] i.e., The roll, {#Eze 2:9} that is, whatsoever I shall henceforth dictate unto thee, do thou get it by heart, digest it, propound it to the people, work it first upon thine own, and then upon the affections of thine hearers. See Rev. iv., and observe how alike the Lord dealt with Ezekiel and John the Divine.

Ver. 9. Behold, a hand was sent.] A hand from heaven. A hand is index rei et instrumentum operationis sign to the matter and the tool of working.

And, lo, a roll of a book.] {a} The Jews folded or rolled up their books upon a cedar stick, to preserve them from dust and other dangers. See on #Isa 8:1.

{a} Palmoni bammidabber {#Da 10}

Ver. 10. And he spread it before me.] Till Christ unfold heavenly mysteries, men understand them not. {#Re 5:5 Mt 11:27 1Jo 1:8,9 5:15} He is the excellent interpreter.

And it was written within and without.] To show abundance of miseries coming on the Jews and others.

Lamentation, and mourning, and woe.] Foretold all along this volume till chapter 40; sad songs, doleful ditties. הזה, gemitus sicut columbae moaning like doves. {#Isa 38:14}

Chapter 3

Ver. 1. Son of man, eat that thou findest.] Eat this roll or volume, without equivocation, or so much as questioning; yield simple obedience to the heavenly vision. It was in vision doubtless that the prophet did eat the roll, and not in very deed, as the foolish patient did the physician’s recipe, or as Mr Lewis of Manchester made the bishop’s summoner eat the citation which he brought for his wife, a martyr in Queen Mary’s days, by setring a dagger to his heart, and to drink to it when he had done. {a} It was non reipsa, sed spiritu, saith an interpreter. See #Eze 3:10.

Eat this roll, and go speak unto the house of Israel.] First learn, and then teach others, that thou mayest utter my mind readily, dexterously, and affectionately, speaking a corde ad cor—ex intimo cordis affectu -and digging thy discourses out of thine own bosom, as it is said of Origen, and after him of Petrus Comestor, who merited that title, because, by his often allegations of the holy Scripture, he seemed to have eaten it up and digested it.

{a} Acts and Mon.

Ver. 2. So I opened my mouth.] Without delays or consults, I obeyed Christ’s command, et hausi quodammodo donum prophetiae, {a} and yielded to become a prophet. This was well; but not long after, Ezekiel, through infirmity of the flesh, would have declined the office, and therefore sought to lurk among his countrymen at Telabib, {#Eze 3:15} till Christ called him out again and newly employed him. {#Eze 3:16}

And he caused me to eat that roll.] See on #Eze 3:1.

{a} Alsted. Chronol., 347.

Ver. 3. Cause thy belly to eat, and fill thy bowels,] i.e., Deeply and duly ponder and practise those holy truths thou hast to press upon others; preach thine own experiences, &c. See #1Ti 4:15.

And it was in my mouth as honey for sweetness.] So was God’s law to good David; {#Ps 119:29,103} to Augustine, Scripturae tuae sunt deliciae meae, saith he, Thy Scriptures are my delight; to Alphonsus, King of Arragon, who professed he would rather lose his kingdoms than be without the knowledge of God’s blessed book, which he had read over above a dozen times, together with such commentaries thereupon as those times afforded. See #Re 10:10.

Ver. 4. Go, get thee unto the house of Israel.] This was a hard task, all things considered; but hard or not hard, there was a necessity of going on God’s errand. Ubi mel ibi fel. Necesse est ut eat, non ut vivat, Where there is honey, there is bitterness. It is necessary to go but not to live, as he once said.

And speak with my words unto them.] But see they be mine, and then I will bear thee out; then also they will the sooner take impression. Speak as the oracles of God. {#1Pe 4:11}

Ver. 5. For thou art not sent to a people of a strange speech and of an hard language.] Heb., Deep of lip and heavy of tongue. Qui strident sermone, et quasi e profundo gutture barbarum loquuntur. As Jonah was so sent, and those that now preach to the natives in New England in their own language, not without some good success.

But to the house of Israel.] Among whom thou must use vulgari et vernaculo sermone, who also are well seen in the Scriptures; they are indeed God’s library keepers, which is no small privilege, {#Ro 3:2} and therefore the better to be dealt with.

Ver. 6. Surely had I sent unto them, they would have hearkened.] Or, If I had sent thee to them, would they not have hearkened unto thee? It may seem by the Ninevites that they would, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, {#Mt 12:41} at one single sermon made by a mere stranger, who sang so doleful a ditty to them that their city should be shortly destroyed, &c. Vatablus rendereth this text, Dispeream nisi te audissent, ei ad cos te misissem. And couldst thou but skill of foreign languages, thou couldst not easily be without disciples. The punishment of strange language, saith a grave divine, {a} was a heavy punishment, next to our casting out of paradise and the flood.

{a} Mr Whatel. Prototyp.

Ver. 7. But the house of Israel will not hearken unto thee.] They will not. See the like, #Joh 5:40 8:44. A man’s will is his hell, saith Bernard. And it is easier, saith another, to deal with twenty men’s reasons, than with one man’s will. What hope is there of those that will not hear; or, if they do, yet have made their conclusion beforehand, and will stir no more than a stake in the midst of a stream?

For they will not hearken unto me.] Speaking unto them in the Scriptures. See #Ho 8:12 Mt 10:24,25 Joh 15:18, &c. Let this speech of God to the prophet comfort faithful ministers, contra cervicosos et cerebrosos istos hypocritas, that reject or resist their preaching. What are we that we may not be slighted, whenas Christ himself the arch-prophet is?

Impudent.] Heb., Stiff of forehead. This was a point next the worst. Illum ego periisse dice cui periit pudor, said that heathen: {a} he is an undone man who is past shame.

{a} Curtius.

Ver. 8. Behold, I have made thy face strong against their faces.] I have steeled thy forehead and strengthened thine heart, that thou shalt budge for none of them. I have rendered thee insuperable.

Ver. 9. As an adamant, harder than flint.] Heb., Strong above a rock. Instar rupis quae in mari vadoso horridi Iovis, et irati, ut ita dicam, Neptuni fervidis assultibus undique verberata, non cedit, aut minuitur; sed obtendit assuetum fluctibus latus, et firma duritis, tumentis undae impetum sustinet ac frangit. This {a} invincible courage and constance in God’s ministers the mad world calleth and counteth pride and pertinace; but these know not the power of the Spirit, nor the privy armour of proof that such have about their hearts. {b}

Fear them not, &c.] See #Eze 2:6.

{a} John Wower, Polymath.

{b} Durus ut his animus solido ex adamante creatus. -Hesiod.

Ver. 10. Son of man, all my words receive in thine heart, &c.] This is to eat the roll, to turn it in succum et sanguinem, that it may surely nourish. See on #Eze 3:1-3.

Ver. 11. Go, get thee to them of the captivity.] The fruit whereof they have lost in great part, because so little amended thereby.

Unto thy people.] For I can scarce find in my heart to own them. So #Ex 32:7. God fathers that rebellious people upon Moses.

Whether they will hear, or whether they will forbear,] q.d., Let them choose; and if they have a mind to it, be miserable by their own election. See #Eze 2:5.

Ver. 12. Then the spirit took me up, and I heard behind me, &c.] This was for the prophet’s encouragement, and to put mettle into him, as it were, that he might the better bear up amidst all, since he should shortly bear a part in that angelic concert, whose λειτουργια εστι ψαλμωδια, as Theodoret hath it, their daily service is singing of psalms.

Blessed be the glory of the Lord from his place,] i.e., From heaven, where saints and angels glorify his name without ceasing or satiety. Monica, after a discourse with her son Augustine about the happiness of heaven, concluded thus: Quantum ad me attinet, fili, nulla re amplius delector in hac vita. Quid hic facio? As for me, what make I here, since I take no more pleasure in anything that is here to be had? A picture of a globe of the whole earth, saith one, set out with all the brave things that sea and land can afford, with this sentence encircling it round, "To be with Christ is far better," is a Christian’s emblem, and should be his ambition.

Ver. 13. I heard also the noise of the wings of the living creatures.] In consent with the former doxology.

That touched one another.] Heb., Kissed; noting the love and good agreement that is between the holy angels. No woman is so well affected to her sister as they are one to another in serving God and his people.

And the noise of the wheels.] As the angels, so all actions and motions do, as they can, sing praise to God.

Ver. 14. So the spirit lifted me up.] As it did afterwards also Philip, {#Ac 8:39,40} not visionally, but really.

And took me away.] To Telabib.

And I went in bitterness, in the heat of my spirit.] {a} Heb., I went bitter in the hot anger of my spirit, q.d., I was in a great pet, as considering that God’s truths must be spoken, however they are taken: and full ill they would be taken from me by mine untoward countrymen. This made me, for the time, much out of temper; but I soon denied myself, and got the better of mine unruly passions. For,

The hand of the Lord was strong upon me.] I was overpowered by the Spirit of God, who soon brought those high thoughts of mine into captivity and conformity to Christ. {#2Co 10:5}

{a} Hic ecce pillula voluminis in ore dulcis, in ventre dissoluta, ventrem torquet et lancinat. -A Lapide.

Ver. 15. Then I came to them of the captivity of Telabib.] Which was the name of some chief place or plantation of the Jews in captivity, saith Diodat. It was in the middle part of Mesopotamia, saith Junius, between two rivers, Chebar and Saocorah.

I sat where they sat.] Skulking and lurking, or at least not acting according to my prophetic function, and the gift bestowed upon me, which I ought to have stirred up and exercised for the good of my fellow captives. This he freely confesseth, as giving glory to God, and taking shame to himself.

Seven days.] Which circumstance of time increased his sins, saith Polanus.

Ver. 16. And it came to pass at the end of seven days.] Probably on the Sabbath day, that day of grace, and opportunity of holiness. God glorifieth his free grace in coming to his offending prophet, as the physician doth to his sick patient, and by setting him to work again, sealing up his love to him: like as he also did to the eleven apostles, by sending them abroad to preach the gospel, after that they had so basely deserted him at his apprehension, and death upon the cross.

Ver. 17. Son of man.] So Christ constantly calleth this prophet, to keep him humble. See #Eze 2:1.

I have made thee a watchman.] I, who am the chief Bishop and Shepherd of souls, {#1Pe 2:25} have set thee in thy watch tower, with charge to look well to my flock with golden fleeces, precious souls, that none be lost for want of warning. See therefore that thou be Episcopus, not Aposcopus; an overseer, not a byseer; a watcher, not a sleeper: Somnoleatia Pastorum est gaudium luporum. {a} Shall the shepherds sleep whenas the wolves watch and worry the flock? {#Ac 20:29,30} Herodotus {b} telleth of one Euenius, a city shepherd, who for sleeping and allowed the wolf to enter the fold and kill sixty sheep, had his eyes pulled out. God threateneth the like punishment upon sleepy watchmen, idol shepherds. {#Zec 11:17}

Therefore, hear the word at my mouth.] Who am the arch-prophet, the only doctor of my Church; {#Mt 23:8 17:4} admonish them therefore in my words, foresee and foretell them their danger in my name and stead. See #Hab 2:1 2Co 5:20.

{a} Ephrem., Tract. de Tim. Dei.

{b} Lib. ix.

Ver. 18. When I say to the wicked, Thou shalt surely die.] When I bid thee tell the wicked from me, it shall be ill with him; for "the reward of his hands shall be given," {#Isa 3:11} even "death the wages of sin," {#Ro 6:23} death of all sorts, which is the just hire of the least sin: woe then to the wicked, say.

And thou givest him not warning.] Heb., Non expolieris; Gr., Non distinxeris; if thou do not distinctly and clearly warn him, seeking to rub off his rust, and to make his soul clear and circumspect. {as #Ps 19:12 Ec 4:13}

To save his life.] That "iniquity may not be his ruin." Sin hales hell at the heels of it.

But his blood will I require at thine hand.] These are fulmina, non verba, not words, but thunderbolts, saith Erasmus. This sentence sounding much in his ears made Augustine constant and instant in preaching, and warning the people of their danger. Bernard {a} also, for the same reason, thus bespeaketh his hearers: If I deal not freely and faithfully with you, it will be to your loss, and mine own danger. Timeo itaque damnum vestrum: timeo damnationem meam, si tacuero.

{a} Lib. iii. De Verb. Dom., Serm. 12.

Ver. 19. He shall die in his iniquity.] Because now he falleth with open eyes. Many sorrows shall be to such wicked as will not be warned. {#Ps 32:9,10} {a}

But thou hast delivered thy soul,] scil., From thine other men’s sin. {#1Ti 4:16}

{a} De Temp., 99.

Ver. 20. Again, When a righteous man.] So esteemed by others, and haply also by himself; a self-deceiver.

Doth turn from his righteousness.] As he may soon do, where it is but a semblance. Falling stars were never but meteors.

And commit iniquity.] This a righteous man, rightly so called, doth not. {#Joh 8:34 1Jo 3:8} {See Trapp on "1Jo 3:8"}

And I lay a stumblingblock before him,] i.e., I cause him to prosper in his sin, saith Vatablus, which is a heavy judgment. Fatted ware is but fitted for the shambles.

Because thou hast not given him warning.] Hast not uncased and unkennelled the hypocrite, driving him out of his starting-holes. {a}

And his righteousness.] His works that were materially good, but not formally and eventually. Bonum non sit nisi ex integra causa.

Shall not be remembered,] i.e., Reckoned to him he shall not thereby set off with God, or make amends by his good deeds for his bad; nay, his dissembled sanctity shall pass for double iniquity, and he shall be held therefore the worse, because he pretended to be better.

{a} A hole in which a hunted animal takes refuge; transf. a place in which a criminal or a hunted enemy finds refuge.

Ver. 21. Nevertheless if thou warn the righteous.] As the best may need to be warned, and must take it for a mercy.

“ Acer et ad palmae per se cursurus honores,

Si tamen horteris, fortius ibit equus.’’—Ovid.

Ver. 22. And the hand of the Lord,] i.e., The Spirit of the Lord, whereby he led his prophet into all truth and holiness.

Arise, go forth into the plain.] Or, Valley, where thou mayest be alone and at liberty, solitary and sedate, that I may further converse with thee.

Ver. 23. Then I arose and went forth.] Such prompt and present obedience meeteth with mercies unexpected.

As the glory which I saw.] The same as before for the prophet’s further confirmation. So #Ac 10:10, and so God sealeth to us again and again in the sacrament of the supper, showing us all his goodness. {as #Ex 33:19}

And I fell on my face.] The nearer any one draweth to God, the more doth rottenness enter into his bones.

Ver. 24. Go shut thyself within thine house,] q.d., Thou hast a mind, I perceive to do so; but it is not thy wisest way to decline thine office, how hard soever it seemeth.

Ver. 25. Behold, they shall put bands upon thee.] Thy friends shall bind thee for a madman. See #Mr 3:21. {See Trapp on "Mr 3:21"}

Ver. 26. And I will make thy tongue.] A spiritual and a special judgment upon the people, thus to silence the prophet. So he dealt by our ancestors, upon the setting up of Queen Mary.

Ver. 27. But when I speak with thee.] As speak I will with thee again, by prophetic revelation, ere long be.

He that heareth, let him hear.] See #Eze 2:5; whether more or fewer hearken to thee, be not troubled, I shall have my purpose howsoever.

Chapter 4

Ver. 1. Thou also, son of man.] Hitherto we have had the preface: followeth now the prophecy itself, which is both concerning the fall of earthly kingdoms, and also the setting up of Christ’s kingdom among men. The siege, famine, and downfall of Jerusalem is here set forth to the life, four years at least before it occurred, not in simple words, but in deeds and pictures, as more apt to affect men’s minds: like as he is more moved who seeth himself painted as a thief or scoundrel hanged, than he who is only called so. This way of teaching is ordinary with the prophets, and was used also by our Saviour Christ; as when he set a child in the midst, washed his disciples’ feet, instituted the sacraments, &c. {a}

Take thee a tile.] An unburnt tile, saith Lyra, and so fit to portray anything upon. Some take it for a four square table, like a tile or brick, that will admit engravement. Jerusalem, the glory of the East, was here pictured upon a tile sheard. How mean a thing is the most stately city on earth to that city of pearl, the heavenly Jerusalem!

And portray upon it the city.] Not with the pencil, but with the graving tool. Where yet, as in Timanthes’ works, more was ever to be understood than was delineated.

{a} Oecolampadius.

Ver. 2. And lay siege against it.] This to carnal reason seemeth childish and ridiculous; not unlike the practice of boys that make forts of snow; or of the Papists’ St Francis, who made him a wife and children of snow; fair, but soon fading comforts; or of his disciple Massaeus, who is much magnified, because at his master’s command he did—not Diogenes-like, tumble his tub, but—himself tumble up and down as a little one, in reference to that of our Saviour, {a} "Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven." {#Mt 18:3} But it must be considered, that what the prophet did here, he did by the word and command of the most wise God. This made the sacrifices of old, and doth make the sacraments still, to be reverend and tremendous; because holy and reverend is his name who instituted them. It cannot be said so of Popish ceremonies, men’s inventions; they have not God’s image or inscription, and are therefore frivolous and fruitless, worthily cast out of our churches.

{a} Sedulius., lib. iii. cap. 2.

Ver. 3. Moreover take thou unto thee an iron pan.] Sartaginem ferream, in token of God’s hard and inflexible hatred bent against so hard-hearted a people; whom he will therefore fry as in a pan, and seethe as in a pot, {#Jer 1:13} so that they shall "pine away in their iniquities."

Set thy face against it, and thou shalt lay siege.] This the prophet was to do in the name and person of God and his soldiers, the Chaldeans. Hard hearts make hard times, yea, they make Deum, natura sua mollem, misericordem, et melleum, durum esse et ferreum, as one saith—God to harden his hand, and hasten men’s destruction.

Ver. 4. Lie thou also upon thy left side.] Which for so long a time to do, could not but put the prophet to great pain, and try his patience to the utmost, especially if he lay bound all the while, as Theodoret thinketh he did, to set forth Jerusalem’s great miseries during the siege, or rather God’s infinite patience in bearing with their evil manners with so perverse a people.

Thou shalt bear their iniquity,] i.e., Represent my bearing it, and forbearing to punish them for it.

Ver. 5. Three hundred and ninety days.] That is, say some, the siege of Jerusalem shall continue so many days—via, thirteen months, or thereabouts. But they do better, who, taking a day for a year in both the accounts, {as #Eze 4:6} and making the forty of Judah to run along with the last year of Israel’s 390, end both at Nabuzaradan’s carrying away to Babylon the last relics of Israel and Judah: and begin Israel’s years at Jeroboam’s apostasy, and Judah’s at Huldah’s prophecy in the eighteenth of Josiah’s reign, when the law was found but not observed by that idolatrous people, as appeareth by the complaints made of them by Zephaniah and Jeremiah; neither were they warned by their brethren’s miseries, the ten tribes being now carried into captivity. Compare #Eze 1:1,2 3:15,24-27 8:1.

Ver. 6. And when thou hast accomplished them.] That is, art within forty years of accomplishing them.

Thou shalt bear the iniquity of the house of Judah forty days,] i.e., Years, beginning at the eighteenth year of Josiah; or, as others compute it, at his thirteenth year, and ending them in the eleventh of Zedekiah, which are the bounds of Jeremiah’s prophecy. A very learned man yet living observeth, that God doth here set and mark out Judah’s singular iniquity by a singular mark; for that they had forty years so pregnant instructions and admonitions by so eminent a prophet as Jeremiah, yet were they impenitent to their own destruction. And the like may well be said of Dr Ussher, that prophet of Ireland, who, upon the toleration of Popery there, preaching before the State at Dublin upon a special solemnity, made a full and bold application of this text unto them in these very words: From this year, said he—viz., A.D. 1601—will I reckon the sin of Ireland; and dare say that those whom you embrace shall be your ruin, and you shall bear this iniquity. {a} And it happened accordingly; for, forty years after—viz., A.D. 1641—began the rebellion and destruction of Ireland, done by those Papists and Popish priests then connived at.

{a} Dr Ussher’s Funeral Sermon, by Dr Bern. 39.

Ver. 7. Set thy face toward the siege of Jerusalem.] Steel thy countenance, be stern and resolute, to show that the Chaldees should be so. Thus this prophet proceedeth to write, as it were, in hieroglyphics, and to preach in emblems.

And thine arm shall be uncovered,] i.e., Thou shalt do thy work bodily; which, when soldiers and servants set themselves to do, they make bare their arms, ut fine expeditiores, for quicker despatch. Even orators also pleaded with their right arm, as Oecolampadius here noteth, stripped up and stretched out.

And thou shalt prophesy against it.] By these signs and dumb shows at least. See #Eze 3:26.

Ver. 8. And, behold, I will lay bands upon thee.] To show that he was unchangeably resolved to ruin Judah, {a} whom the prophet here personateth. Some make the sense to be this, I will give thee strength to hold out in that thy long lying on one side till the city be taken. Of a nobleman of Louvain it is told, that he lay sixteen years in one posture—viz., with his face upwards. And Pradus saith he saw a madman who had lain upon one side fifteen years.

{a} Pertinacis poenae simulachrum est. -Oecolamp.

Ver. 9. Take thou also unto thee wheat and barley, &c.] Promiscuam farraginem; to show what shall be the condition of the city in the time of the siege. Miscellan bread shall be good fare, but hard to come by in that grievous famine.

Three hundred and ninety days shalt thou eat thereof.] Not sleep all the while, as some Papists would have it, grounding their conceit upon their Trent translation of #Eze 4:4, Sleep thou also upon thy left side, &c.; but lying and sleeping are distinct things, as may be seen, #Ps 3:5 4:8.

Ver. 10. Twenty shekels a day.] Five ounces, or ten at most; not prisoners’ pittance, qua proinde per diem trahitur magis anima quam sustentatur. See this complained of, #La 1:11,19 2:11,12,19,20 4:4,9,10 5:6,9,10. They had sinned in excess, and now they are punished with cleanness of teeth. The famine of the word is far worse.

Ver. 11. From time to time shalt thou drink,] i.e., At thy set times, in stata tempera comparcito, make no waste: the least drop is precious.

Ver. 12. And thou shalt eat it as barley cakes.] Baked on coals made of homely fuel, man’s dung burnt. {a}

And thou shalt bake it with dung.] For want of wood. {#La 5:4} To the hungry soul every bitter thing is sweet. {#Pr 27:7}

In their sight.] This, then, was more than a vision.

{a} Panem exhibuit Papa non ad purum ignem, sed ad oleta Quaestionariorum, Sorbonistarum, et Canonicorum coctum. -Pol.

Ver. 13. Eat their defiled bread.] Not able now to observe that ceremonial purity in their meats which God had commanded. This was just upon them for their worshipping those their dungy deities.

Ver. 14. Ah Lord God! behold, my soul hath not been polluted.] Neither had it been here by eating suchlike bread, because God bade him do it, and his command legitimateth anything. But a good soul feareth and deprecateth all kind of pollution: "Keep thyself pure"; {#1Ti 5:22} "Abstain from all appearance of evil." {#1Th 5:22} The prophet in this prayer of his is very pathetic, Ah Domine Iehovi: not Iehova, but Iehovi. See the similar passage in #Ge 15:2,8 De 3:24 9:26.

For from my youth up.] Let us be as careful of spiritual uncleanness; sin is the devil’s excrement, the corruption of a dead soul. {a} Constantinus Copronymus is reported to have delighted in stench and filth. The panther preferreth man’s dung before any meat; so do many feed greedily on sin’s murdering morsels.

{a} Polan.

Ver. 15. Lo, I have given thee cow’s dung.] This was some mitigation. Something God will yield to his praying people when most bitterly bent against them.

Ver. 16. Behold, I will break {a} the staff of bread.] Bread shall be very scarce, and that which men have shall not nourish or satisfy them; they shall have appetitnm caninum. See #Isa 3:1; {See Trapp on "Isa 3:1"} and take that good counsel, {#Am 5:14,15} lest we know the worth of good by the want of it.

{a} קקמ contabescere, foetidum fieri.

Ver. 17. And be astonied.] At their straits and disappointments.

And consume away for their iniquity.] They. shall "pine away in their iniquity"; {#Le 26:31} this is the last and worst of judgments there threatened, after those other dismal ones.

Chapter 5

Ver. 1. And thou, son of man.] See on #Eze 2:1.

Take thee a sharp knife.] This was the King of Babylon. {as #Isa 7:20} The Turk is at this day such another. Mohammed I was, in his time, the death of 800,000 men. Selymus II, in revenge of the loss received at Lepanto, would have put to death all the Christians in his dominions. {a}

Take thee a barber’s razor.] Not a "deceitful razor," {as #Ps 52:2} but one that will do the deed—sharp and sure. Pliny {b} telleth us, out of Varo, that the Romans had no barbers till 454 years after the city was built; ante intonsi fuere.

And cause it to pass upon thy head and upon thy beard.] As hairs are an ornament to the head and beard, so are people to a city. But, as when they begin to be a burden or trouble to either, they are cut off and cast away; so are people by God’s judgments, when by their sins they are offensive to him; dealing as Dionysius did by his god Aesculapius, from whom he presumed to pull his golden beard. David felt himself shaved in his ambassadors; so doth God in his servants—whose very hairs are numbered {#Mt 10:30} -in his ministers especially—who, by a specialty, are called God’s men {#1Ti 6:11 2Ti 3:17} -with whom to meddle is more dangerous than to take a lion by the beard or a bear by the hair.

Then take the balances to weigh.] This showeth that God’s judgments are just to a hair’s weight: and capillus unus suam habet umbram, saith Mimus.

And divide the hair.] Dii nos quasi pilas habent, saith Plautus; Imo quasi pilos, saith another.

{a} Turkish History, 885.

{b} Lib. vii. cap. 59.

Ver. 2. Thou shalt burn with fire a third part,] i.e., With famine, pestilence, and other mischiefs, during the siege of Jerusalem. Pythagoras gave this precept among others, Unguium, criniumque praesegmina ne contemnito. But God findeth so little worth in wicked people that he regardeth them not, but casteth them as excrements to the dunghill, yea, to hell. {#Ps 9:17}

And smite about it with a knife.] They shall be slain with that sharp knife or sword, {#Eze 5:1} after that the city is taken.

Thou shalt scatter in the wind.] Sundry of them shall flee for their lives; but in running from death they shall but run to it. {#Am 9:1-4 2:13-16}

Ver. 3. Thou shalt also take thereof a few in number.] A remnant is still reserved, "that the Lord God may dwell among men." {#Ps 68:18} See #Jer 44:28 2Ki 25:12 Isa 1:9 6:10.

Ver. 4. Then take of them again, and cast them into the midst of the fire.] Thus "evil shall hunt a wicked man to overthrow him"; {#Ps 140:11} {See Trapp on "Ps 140:11"} he shall not escape, though he hath escaped; his preservation is but a reservation to further mischief, except he repent.

And burn them in the fire.] Such he meaneth as were combustible matter; for there were a sort of precious ones among them, who being brought by God through the fire, were thereby "refined as silver is refined, and tried as gold is tried." {#Zec 13:9} {See Trapp on "Zec 13:9"}

Ver. 5. This is Jerusalem,] i.e., This head and beard so to be shaved. {#Eze 5:1} By the hair of the head some think the wise men of that city are figured out, and by the hair of the beard are the strong men; the razor of God’s severity maketh clean work, leaving no stub or stump behind it.

I have set it in the midst of the nations.] As the head, heart, and centre of the earth. See #Ps 72:10 Eze 38:12; and God had peculiar ends in it, that the law might go forth out of Zion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem, and that all nations might flow into it. {#Isa 2:2,3} Talis est Roma Christianis, Such now is Rome to Christians, saith A Lapide; but lay a straw there, say we; or, as the Gloss saith upon some decrees of popes, Haec non credo, I believe it not. See #Re 17:5.

Ver. 6. And she hath changed my judgments into wickedness.] This was a foul change; this was to do evil as she could; {#Jer 3:5} this was ingratitude of the worst sort, such as Socrates called ειλικρινη αδικιαν, manifest injustice. Such a wretched change is complained of, #Jer 2:11 Ro 1:23,25 Jude 4, but nowhere in so high an expression as this, as one observeth.

More than the nations.] Because the Jews had better laws but worse dispositions than they.

Ver. 7. Because ye multiplied,] scil., Your transgressions and superstitions, or because ye have abounded with blessings, and made me so ill a requital. Some render it Quia tumultuastis vos plus quam vicinae gentes; and indeed there were many murders committed among them, and many revolts from foreign princes whom they had sworn to serve.

Neither have done according to the judgment of the nations.] But have outsinned them, qui deos suos quamvis viles et multos non mutant, who change not their gods (as you have done me, #Jer 2:10,11), but follow the natural light of reason (some of them at least do so, #Ro 2:14), which you have debauched. See #1Co 5:1 Eze 16:46-48.

Ver. 8. Behold, I, even I, am against thee.] Whether thou wilt believe it or not. Thou boldest it unlikely, but shalt find it true, and that I am very serious, not saying these things in terrorem only. Ecce me adversum te venientem, so some render it; Behold I am upon my march against thee, and will punish thee surely, severely, suddenly.

And will execute judgments.] For the non-execution of my judgments in the former sense taken. {as #Eze 5:7}

In the sight of the nations.] In whose sight thou hast so sinned, and who will rejoice at thy sufferings.

Ver. 9. And I will do in thee that which I have not done.] None shall suffer so much here or sink so deep in hell, as a profane Jew, a carnal gospeller, who is therefore worse than others, because he ought to be better. Oh, the height and weight of those judgments that shall be heaped upon such! See #La 4:6.

And whereunto I will not do any more the like.] For where ever read we that the fathers did eat their sons in an open visible way? and the sons the Fathers?

Ver. 10. Therefore the fathers shall eat the sons.] See this fulfilled in the pitiful mothers; {#La 4:10} and may it be thought, saith one, that their hungry husbands shared not with them in those viands? Oh, the severity of God. Cavebis, si pavebis.

And the whole remnant of thee will I scatter.] A miserably dejected people the Jews are to this day, banished out of the world, as it were, by a common consent of nations.

Ver. 11. Wherefore, as I live, saith the Lord.] This is God’s usual oath (in this prophet especially), and therefore should not be used as an oath or asseveration by any other, since he only liveth (to speak properly).

Therefore will I also diminish thee.] Or, I will break thee down; or, I will shave thee. {as #Eze 5:1 Jer 48:37}

Ver. 12. A third part of thee, &c.] See #Eze 5:2.

Ver. 13. Then shall mine anger be accomplished.] God is then said to be angry when he doth what men do when angry—viz. (1.) Chide; (2.) Smite.

And I will be comforted.] This also is spoken after the manner of men, who are much comforted when they can be avenged. Their song is, Oh, how sweet is revenge!

“ Animumque explesse iuvabit.’’—Virgil

The same word in Hebrew that signifieth vengeance, signifieth comfort also; for God will be comforted in the execution of his wrath. But what a venomous and vile thing is sin, that causeth the most merciful God to take comfort in the destruction of his creature!

And they shall know that I the Lord have spoken it in my zeal.] That is, seriously threatened by my prophets, whom they have vilipended and derided, but shall now feel the weight of their words.

When I have accomplished my fury in them.] This he doth not usually all at once, but by degrees. He suffereth not his whole wrath to arise till there be no remedy. {as #2Ch 36:16}

Ver. 14. Moreover, I will make thee waste.] In ariditatem, a dry and barren wilderness, whose fruitfulness and pleasantness is so much celebrated, not only by divine, but profane authors also. See #Ps 107:34. {See Trapp on "Ps 107:34"}

In the sight of all.] See on #Eze 5:8.

Ver. 15. So it shall be a reproach and taunt.] See this fulfilled, #La 2:15,16.

An instruction.] They shall enjoy thy folly, grow wise by thy harms. I will make thee an example to the heathen. {a}

An astonishment.] A terror, some render it.

{a} Exemplum.—Vulg.

Ver. 16. When I shall send upon you the evil arrows of famine.] Not to warn you, as Jonathan’s arrows did David, but to wound you to the heart, and to lay you heaps upon heaps. {#De 32:23,24}

And break your staff of bread.] See #Eze 4:16. Penuria fiet pecuniae, saith Oecolampadius here; You shall want money to buy you bread.

Ver. 17. Evil beasts, and they shall bereave thee.] Rob thee of thy children, destroy thy cattle, make thee few in number, and thy highway desolate, as was long before threatened. {#Le 26:22 2Ki 17:25}

I the Lord have spoken it.] I Jehovah, who will give being to my menaces as well as to my promises.

Chapter 6

Ver. 1. And the word of the Lord came unto me.] Junius observeth that this and the two following prophecies, viz., those in Eze. 7,8, were delivered on the Sabbath day; that is the proper season for preaching.

Ver. 2. Set thy face toward the mountains of Israel,] i.e., The Jews, who are haughty, and hard as mountains, who are asperi et inculti, rough and rude, as mountaineers use to be. In Mount Olivet itself, besides other mountains, they boldly set up their idols, even in the sight of the Lord; so that he never looked out of the sanctuary but he beheld that vile hill of abominations; called therefore, by an elegant alliteration, the Hill of Corruption. {#2Ki 23:13}

Ver. 3. Behold, I, even I, will bring a sword upon you.] Because ye are polluted by man’s sins, and so made hateful unto me. For as God thinks the better of the places wherein he is sincerely served, yea, where his saints are born, {#Ps 87:5} or make abode, {#Isa 49:16} so the worse of such places where Satan’s seat is.

Ver. 4. Your images shall be broken down.] Heb., Your sun images, whence also Jupiter Hammon had his name, which Macrobius {a} saith was the same with the sun. See #2Ch 23:5.

And I will cast down your slain men.] Cruentatos vulneratos, vel interfectos vestros; such as when wounded, fly to their idols for safety.

Before your idols.] Heb., Your dii stercorei, dunghill deities, more loathsome than any excrements.

{a} Lib. i. Sat., cap. 23.

Ver. 5. And I will lay the dead carcases of the children of Israel, &c.] That in the very places where they have sinned there they may suffer. So in the valley of Hinnom, and at Pilate’s praetorium, &c.

Ver. 6. In all your dwelling places.] Omnia everram et evertam funditus. I will turn all topsy-turvy.

Your works shall be abolished.] Those toilsome toys, your idols and monuments of idolatry. This the prophet telleth them again and again, that he might waken them, and work them to repentance.

Ver. 7. And ye shall know that I am the Lord.] That I am dicti mei Dominus, one that will be as good as my word. So shall all, not idolaters only, but broachers of heresies also, quae furore et foetere cultores suos faciunt, saith Oecolampadius here.

Ver. 8. Yet will I leave a remnant.] For royal use. See on #Eze 5:3.

Ver. 9. And they that escape of you shall remember me.] Here beginneth that true repentance never to be repented of. {#Ps 22:27 20:7}

Because I am broken off from their whorish heart,] i.e., I am troubled, saith Piscator. I am tired out, saith Zegedine, and made to break off the course of my kindness. I am broken off from their whorish heart—so Polanus rendereth it; that is, saith he, I leave them, though loath to do it: the breach is merely on their part; for they have an impetus, a spirit of whoredoms in them, that causeth them to err, and go whoring from under their God. {#Ho 4:12 9:1}

And with their eyes.] Those windows of wickedness through which the devil (who is ειδωλοχαρης, as saith Synesius) doth oft wind himself into the soul.

And they shall loathe themselves.] {a} They shall displease themselves, saith the Vulgate; but that is not enough. Pudefient in faciebus suis, say others. They shall bleed inwardly, and blush outwardly, deeply detesting their former abominations, and not waiting till others condemn them, they shall condemn themselves.

{a} κοψονται.—Sept.

Ver. 10. And they shall know.] By woeful experience. He that trembleth not in sinning shall be crushed to pieces in feeling, said blessed Bradford.

And that I have not said in vain.] In terrorem only,

Ver. 11. Thus saith the Lord God.] Sic ait Dominator Dominus.

Smite with thine hand.] Manibus pedibusque obnixe omnia facito; do thine utmost by gestures and speeches to make this stupid people perceive their sin and danger.

Alas for all the evil abominations.] Propter omnes abominationes pessimas; { a} we cannot call sin bad enough; the worst word in a man’s belly is too good for it. O perdita Israel, dicere vult, quae tot malas abominationes operata es, &c.

{a} Oecolamp.

Ver. 12. He that is far off shall die of the pestilence.] Pluribus verbis hunc locum tractat. Ointments must not only be laid upon the part that acheth, but also robbed and chafed in; so must menaces and promises, that they may soak and sink into the soul.

Ver. 13. Then shall ye know that I am the Lord.] Vexatio dabit intellectum; smart shall make wit. See #Eze 6:10. Four times in this chapter are these words used: Verba toties inculcata, viva sunt, vera sunt, sana sunt, plana sunt. {a} The words are driven home often, they are alive, they are true, they are wholesome, they are plain.

Among their idols.] See on #Eze 6:4.

Where they did offer sweet savour.] Idolatry is costly.

{a} Augustine.

Ver. 14. Than the wilderness toward Diblath.] Which was horriditate nobile, bordering upon that terrible howling wilderness mentioned by Moses. {#De 8:15 Jer 48:22}

Chapter 7

Ver. 1. Moreover the word of the Lord came unto me.] Five or six years afore it happened. God loveth to foresignify, to forewarn, or ere he punish. Let us, upon whom the ends of the world are come, take warning, and think we hear the trump of God sounding as here, "An end is come, is come, is come; it watcheth for thee, behold it is come." {#Eze 7:2,3,6}

Ver. 2. An end, the end is come.] Exitium et excidium. Great kingdoms have their times and their turns, their rise and their ruin. The wicked’s happiness will take its end, surely and swiftly.

Upon the four corners of the land.] Heb., The four wings, called also the "four winds." {#Mt 24:31} They had defiled the land from corner to corner; {as #Ezr 9:11} God therefore now would sweep it all over with the besom of utter destruction.

Ver. 3. Now is the end come upon thee.] Even upon thee, O Israel. Who would ever have thought it {#La 4:12}

And I will send mine anger upon thee.] Reveal it from heaven. {as #Ro 1:18}

And will judge thee according to thy ways,] i.e., I will punish thee for thy ways. {as #Ho 4:9 Ob 15}

And will recompense upon thee.] Heb., I will give or put upon thee all thine abominations—q.d., Thou hast hitherto put them upon me, but I will have a writ of removal, and set them upon their own base. {as #Zec 5:11}

Ver. 4. And mine eye shall not spare thee.] #Eze 5:11. See on #Jer 13:14.

And thine abominations shall be in the midst of thee.] Ut quae antea latuerant, in aperture prodeant.

And ye shall know that I am the Lord.] That smiteth you. {#Eze 7:9}

An evil, an only evil,] viz., Without mixture of mercy, or that shall smite thee down at one only blow. {as #1Sa 26:8 Na 1:9} The Vulgate, after the Chaldee, rendereth it, An evil after an evil—q.d., Lighter and lesser judgments have done no good upon thee. Now I will finish the work, and cut it short in righteousness. {#Ro 9:28} Ruinam praecedunt stillicidia. Drops precede disaster.

Ver. 6. An end is come, the end is come.] Still the prophet ringeth this doleful knell in their ears, whom sin and Satan had cast into such a dead lethargy, that they could not easily be aroused. Battologia est, sed necessaria verborum redundantia, saith Pintus.

It watcheth for thee.] Which hitherto lay at the door, {#Ge 4:7} sleeping dog sleep, as we say. In the Hebrew there is an elegant alliteration between hakets, "an end," and hekits, "watcheth." See #2Pe 3:3.

Ver. 7. The morning is come unto thee.] {a} The morning of execution (as #Jer 21:12 Ps 101:8 cf. Ho 10:15 Ge 19:23,24), worse than the Sicilian Vespers or the French massacre. Thine utter destruction, bene mane in te irruet, shall be upon thee early, as it was upon Sodom, and as the morning light breaketh in upon those that are fast asleep. Sicut decoctores multa sibi promittunt, interim pereunt. So it befalleth the wicked. {b}

The day of trouble is near.] Hajom mehumah. "Day" in Hebrew is thought to have its name from the stir and noise that is made in it, the humming noise and bustle of business. A troublesome and tumultuous day is here forethreatened, such as that in #Isa 22:5 Zep 1:14-17.

Not the sounding again of the mountains.] Not an empty sound, or an echo— resonabilis echo {c} -but a worse matter, that shall do more than beat the air.

{a} Visitaberis summo mane, id est mature. -Piscat.

{b} Florulenta felicitas occidit. -Oecol.

{c} Virgil.

Ver. 8. Now will I shortly pour out my fury.] See on #Eze 5:13.

And I will judge thee, &c.] See on #Eze 7:3.

Ver. 9. I will recompense.] The same as before. Nunquam satis dicitur, quod nunquam satis discitur.

That I am the Lord that smiteth.] Think not that I am made all of mercy, or that I will ever serve you for a sinning stock. Ye shall know that I have verbera flogging as well as ubera, plenty and can so set it on as no creature can take it off.

Ver. 10. The morning is gone forth.] Matutina sententia, The decree bringeth forth, {as #Zep 2:2} {See Trapp on "Zep 2:2"}

The rod hath blossomed.] You have had your floralia, good times and shall shortly have your funeralia, funeral. Nebuchadnezzar (that rod of my wrath) is at hand.

Pride hath budded.] And will shortly bring forth, viz., the bitter fruit of your bold rebellion. Not much unlike to this was the almond rod seen by Jeremiah. {#Eze 1:11}

Ver. 11. Violence is risen up into a rod of wickedness.] Their oppressions speak them most wicked, and will make them most wretched.

Nor of their multitude.] Or, Their tumultuous persons, their Thrasos, saith Tremellius, quantumvis circumstrepant famulitio numeroso, with all their train and retinue, that keep a clutter.

Neither shall there be wailing for them.] Their dearest friends shall not dare to lament the loss of them, for fear of the enemies who are present would punish it. We read in the Roman history of one Vitia, who was put to death by the command of Tiberius, for that she had lamented Geminus her son executed as a friend to Sejanus. {a}

{a} Tacit.

Ver. 12. The time is come, the day draweth near.] Advenit illud tempus, pertigit ilia dies. Let this voice ever sound in the ears of those negligent spirits who cry Cras Domine, tomorrow Lord, wiling away their time as she in #Re 2:21, and so fooling away their own salvation, as those virgins. {#Mt 25:1-12}

Let not the buyer rejoice.] He shall have no such great joy of his purchase, since the enemy shall shortly take all, et qui latifundia habuerunt, ne latum pedem retinebunt, and those who have large estates will not keep back enough for a foot, and no man shall be master of his own, nay, not of a molehill.

For wrath is upon all the multitude thereof.] Or, Upon all the wealth thereof. To like purpose the apostle in #1Co 7:29; "This, then, I say, brethren, The time is short," or trussed up, contracted. "Let them that have wives be as though they had none, they that weep as though they wept not, they that rejoice as though they rejoiced not, and they that buy as though they possessed not," &c. Rebus non me trado sed commodo, said the wise heathen. {a} Hang loose to all things here below, and labour after that undefiled and unfadable inheritance. {#1Pe 1:4-7}

{a} Sen.

Ver. 13. For the seller shall not return,] scil., At the year of jubilee, by reason of the land’s desolation.

Which shall not return.] Or rather, It shall not return, scil., void and ineffectual, but shall be accomplished.

Neither shall any strengthen himself in the iniquity of his life.] That is but an ill defence. "The spirit of power and of a sound mind" are fitly set together. {#2Ti 1:7} Men’s iniquity will be their ruin. Munster rendereth the text thus: For that whenas the vision was to the whole multitude thereof, no man returned, neque ullus propter iniquitatem suam pro anima sua se roberabat; neither did any one (by reason of his iniquity) strengthen himself for his own soul, i.e., use means to escape the just punishment of it.

Ver. 14. They have blown the trumpet, even to make all ready.] But all to no purpose, since God hath dispirited them (as he did the old Canaanites, the Saxons and Piers in that Victoria Halleluiatica, the Germans against the Hussites in Bohemia, &c.), and struck them with a panic terror, with utter despondency, so that they were feeble and fainthearted, and the strong were become as tow. {#Isa 1:31}

Ver. 15. The sword is without, and the pestilence, &c.] No safety can be to such as are pursued by the divine vengeance, called therefore by the Greeks Αδραστεια, because there is no outrunning of it. {a} Of these three judgments (seldom separated) see #Eze 4 2,3,16,17

Ηξει Δωριακος πολεμος και λιμος {β} επ αυτω.

{a} Αδραστεια, οτι ουκ αν τις αυτην αποδρασαιτο.

{b} or λοιμος

Ver. 16. But they that escaped of them.] Here we have the mournful repentance of them that escaped, Fere autem fit ut, malo demure accepto, oculos aperiamus, saith Lavater here.

All of them mourning, {a} every one for his iniquity.] Thus Hezekiah "mourned as a dove." {#Isa 38:14} And we mourn sore like doves, saith the Church; {#Isa 59:11} happy if it be every man for his iniquity, and not for the punishment of it only or mainly. See that it be a "sorrow according to God," a sorrow to a "transmentation." {#2Co 7:10,11}

{a} תמה eiulantes, ut pueri solent qui virgis coercentur.

Ver. 17. All hands shall be feeble.] As after some grievous disease, or as in extreme cold weather, ye shall not be able to handle your arms, wherein ye so trust. God strengtheneth or weakeneth the arms of either party. {#Eze 30:24}

And all knees shall be weak as water.] Fluent aquis: puta sudore ex gravi angustia, vel potius urina, ex pavore. {a} Not to those that wait upon God. {#Isa 40:30,31} Let wicked Thrasos think on this.

{a} Vulg., Jerome, Septuag.

Ver. 18. They shall also gird themselves with sackcloth.] They shall be a miserable mourning people for a long while.

Horror shall cover them.] Such heartquake as is in earthquakes— horripilatio.

Shame shall be upon all faces.] Pudor a rebus putidis, {a} -Ashamed they shall be of their doings, ashamed of their disappointments.

And baldness upon all their heads.] A sign of sorrow among the Jews. The Romans (contrariwise), in times of sorrow, suffered their hair to grow, saith Plutarch; so did Mephibosheth in David’s days.

{a} Scal.

Ver. 19. They shall cast their silver in the streets.] As burdensome, and not beneficial to them {a} Thus Judas threw away his wages of wickedness; and many, on their deathbeds, detest their cursed hoards of ill gotten goods, saying unto them, as once Charles V did, Abite hinc, abite longe, -Away from me, away, away.

Their gold shall be removed.] Shall be for a dunghill, saith the Vulgate; it shall be esteemed, as it is, the guts and garbage of the earth.

Their silver and their gold.] See #Pr 11:4 Zep 1:18 Ec 5:8, {See Trapp on "Pr 11:4"} {See Trapp on "Zep 1:18"} {See Trapp on "Ec 5:8"}

They shall not satisfy {b} their souls.] Silver and gold are not eatable, as Midas found, and the great Caliph of Babylon, whom Haabon the great Khan of Tartary starved to death in the midst of his infinite treasures, which though they were in valour great, and with great care laid together, yet served they him not now to suffice nature best contented with a little. {c}

Because it is the stumblingblock of their iniquity.] Their wealth is the occasion of their wickedness, and they are much the worse men for their worldly substance. See #Ps 52:7, with the margin; #Jer 5:27,28 Lu 16:9,13.

{a} Ne sit ponderi quod prius fuit luxuriae. -Jerome.

{b} Plato in Cratylo scribit Tantalum dictum esse quas παλαντατον, i.e., infelicissimum

{c} Turkish History, 113.

Ver. 20. As for the beauty of his ornament.] That is mine ark, saith Junius; or my silver and gold, {#Eze 7:10} as others.

He set it in majesty.] In superbiam posuit, placed it pride, so some render it; they were proud of their abundance—their good and their blood rose together, as the proverb is.

Therefore have I set it far from them.] I will—for their ingratitude and abuse my good things—take away mine own and begone, as #Ho 2:8,9.

Ver. 21. And I will give it into the hands.] So he did the pleasant land to be plundered, the sanctuary also to be rifled and ransacked by the Babylonians, Syrians, Romans, &c. See #La 1:10, {See Trapp on "La 1:10"}

And to the wicked of the earth.] Sept., To the pests of the earth.

Ver. 22. My face will I turn also from them.] From the Chaldees, that they may spoil at pleasure; or from the Israelites, that they may perish without help.

And they shall pollute my secret place.] Even the Holy of holies, whereinto none was to enter but the high priest once a year; yet, besides these Babylonian burglars, Heliodorus and Pompey did; but the one fell mad, and the other never prospered after it.

For the robbers shall enter into it.] Effractores; by this name, breach makers, the Jews at this day term our nobles and grandees.

Ver. 23. Make a chain.] Which is an emblem of bondage.

For the land is full of bloody crimes,] i.e., Capital crimes, unjust sentences, and other deadly evils.

Ver. 24. Wherefore I will bring the worst of the heathen.] Velut carnifices; who may plunder you to the life, and take away your lives. {#Hab 1:6,7,9} The Jews were bad enough, but the Chaldees were worse, if worse might be; malignants above measure, Poneropolitans, breathing devils. A hard knot must have a harder wedge, as the proverb is.

I will also make the pomp of the strong to cease.] I will crush the crests of those potentates, and lay them low. See #Isa 14:11,12.

Their holy places shall be defiled.] Sacella et lararia eorum; their chapels or oratories made in or near unto their houses for divine worship.

Ver. 25. Destruction cometh.] Not εξιλασμος ηκει, Mercy shall come, as the Septuagint ill render it, but utter excision, as when a weaver cutteth the web he hath finished out of the loom. {#Isa 38:12}

They shall seek peace.] Of God, but all too late; of the Chaldees, but all in vain; for they were cockatrices, and would not be charmed. {#Jer 8:17,15 12:12 16:5} Note here how Jeremiah and Ezekiel say the same thing, as being acted by the same spirit.

Ver. 26. Mischief shall come upon mischief.] Aliud ex alio malum; I will heap mischiefs upon them. {#De 32:23} War is called "evil" or "mischief" by a specialty. {#Isa 45:7}

And rumour shall be upon rumour,] sc., Of Nebuchadnezzar’s advance, acts, and achievements.

Then shall they seek a vision of the prophet.] As a drowning man catcheth at the sprig of a tree, which before he slighted.

But the law shall perish from the priest.] Not only prophecy, which is an extraordinary gift, shall fail them, but also the ordinary preaching of God’s Word, and all good advice and provision of human wisdom. And yet this foolish people were wont to soothe up themselves and say, The law shall not perish from the priest, nor wisdom from the ancient. {#Jer 18:18}

Ver. 27. The king shall mourn.] Πενθησει; with a funeral mourning, as the Septuagint express it; with a continued mourning, as the Hebrew importeth.

The prince shall be clothed with desolation.] Opplebitur tristitia ad stuporem.

And the hands.] Which they had so often lifted up to vanity.

According to their deserts.] See #Eze 7:3,4,8,9.

Chapter 8

Ver. 1. In the sixth year.] Of Jeconiah’s captivity.

In the sixth month.] Elul, answerable to our August.

In the fifth day.] Which was Sabbath day, saith Junius.

As I sat in mine house.] In Mesopotamia, among the captives.

And the elders of Judah sat before me.] {a} As their wont was, upon the Sabbath day. {#2Ki 4:23} These Jews were ever learning, but never came to the knowledge of the truth. Yet God still bore with them, and taught them better. {b}

That the hand of the Lord God fell there upon me,] i.e., The Spirit (the spirit of prophecy, saith the Chaldee), to whom the absolving and perfecting of God’s work is congruously attributed. He is fitly said to brood the waters, {#Ge 1:2} to overshadow the Virgin Mary, {#Lu 1:35} to seal the elect, {#Eph 4:30} to add ultimam manum; for God the Father doth all by the Son, through the Holy Ghost. Ezekiel had here a mighty impulse of the Spirit, which fell upon him quasi fulgur efficax et penetrans, as lightning.

{a} Sedentes et quiescentes apti sunt ad percipiendam S. S. gratiam.

{b} Hinc apparet μακροθυμια Dei. -Lavat.

Ver. 2. Then I beheld, and lo a likeness.] Of a man, likely. This was the Lord Christ, whose eyes are like a flaming fire, {#Re 1:14} and even our God (as well as the Jews’ God) is a consuming fire. {#Heb 12:29} Here, in the fire, was set forth his vengeance against the wicked; in his brightness upwards, his majesty, say some; his clemency, say others.

As the colour of amber.] Or, Of a coal intensely hot, as #Eze 1:27

Ver. 3. And he put forth his hand.] As to me, it seemed; for all was visional, not real.

And took me by a lock of mine head.] Tanquam herus inofficiosum servum. The prophet seemeth to have had no great mind to the matter, but there was no remedy. Ducunt volentem fata, nolentem trahunt.

Where was the seat of the image of jealousy.] Of Baal, likely, for whom wicked Ahaz had been so zealous {#2Ki 16:14} and against whom God was ever so jealous, as to devour whole lands by the fire of his jealousy. {#Zep 3:8}

Ver. 4. And behold the glory of the God of Israel,] i.e., The glorious God of Israel. {#Ac 7:2} {See Trapp on "Ac 7:2"}

Was there,] scil., At the inner gate, where that image of jealousy stood. The Jews were great idolaters before the captivity, not so afterwards. {#Ro 2:22}

According to the vision.] See #Eze 3:23. This befell for his further confirmation, ne remum abjiceret, ut aiunt: this was now the third time, and all was but enough.

Ver. 5. The way toward the north.] Where was the greatest concourse of idolaters.

At the gate of the altar.] Why so called, see #2Ki 16:14.

This image of jealousy in the entry.] Idolatry committed in God’s own temple was most abominable, as when an adulteress hath her gallants under her husband’s nose, Messalina-like.

Ver. 6. That I should go far from my sanctuary.] Which is now become omnium turpitudinum arx (as was once said of Pompey’s great theatre at Rome), a receptacle of all roguery, et impiae gentis arcanum, as afterward Florus unworthily called it.

And thou shalt see greater abominations.] All sins are not equally sinful then, as the Stoics affirmed, but there are degrees of abominations. See #De 32:5. {See Trapp on "De 32:5"}

Ver. 7. And he brought me.] Mystagogus ille angelus. that angel who showed the sacred places.

To the door of the court.] Of the priests’ court.

A hole in the wall.] Which should have been kept in better repair.

Ver. 8. Behold a door.] A secret door, by which they entered into their idol chapel. Such privy passages there are in the Popish monasteries, and in the whole Romish religion not a few. Ante paucos annos suaviter convivebant monachi et nonnae, {a} &c. The Council of Trent was carried by the Pope with such infinite guile and craft as that themselves will even smile at the triumphs of their own wits, when they hear it but mentioned, as at a master stratagem. But the author of the history of that Council hath found a hole in the walls of Rome, and many of our worthy champions have digged and discovered their detestable practices.

{a} Oecolamp.

Ver. 9. Go in, and behold the wicked abominations.] No words are bad enough for sin. Solomon calleth it "wickedness of folly, even foolishness of madness"; {#Ec 7:25} "mischievous madness"; {#Eze 10:13} so #Lu 16:11, "mammon of unrighteousness," and "abominable idolatries." {#1Pe 4:3}

Ver. 10. And behold every form of creeping things.] These, belike, were their dii minorum gentium, their petty deities, their common idols, whereof as there was great number, so not so great respect given unto them. This piece of idolatry the Jews had learned of the Egyptians, who madly worshipped oxen, asses, goats, dogs, cats, serpents, crocodiles, the bird ibis, &c. Procter impietatem ingens stultitiae exuperantia ostenditur, saith Theodoret on this text; Besides their impiety, were these men in their wits, think we? And what shall we say of Popish superstition? Do not they religiously worship Agnus Dei’s, relics of saints, painted doves resembling the Holy Ghost, the ass whereon Christ rode, they say, on Palm Sunday? The tail of that ass they show still at Genoa, and require low obeisance to be done thereunto. {a}

{a} Wolph. Mem. Lect.

Ver. 11. And there stood before them seventy men of the ancients.] The whole Sanhedrim, or great council, haply. Councils may err, and have done often. The ill example of these ancients was very attractive. Magnates magnetes.

Jaazaniah the son of Shaphan.] A chieftain among them, and haply president of the council, whom they called Nasi, or prince. His father Shaphan was scribe in Josiah’s days, as some think. {#2Ki 22:12}

And a thick cloud of incense went up.] Abundantia nubis. Papists to this day cense their images; Semel singulis thuributum ducat sacerdos, saith the Roman mass book. The primitive Christians were pressed by their persecutors to throw at least a little frankincense into the fire; which, when Origen and Marcellinus did, through infirmity of the flesh, they were cast out of the hearts of good people, and branded with the name of Thurificati i.e., Incensed persons.

Ver. 12. What the ancients of Israel do in the dark?] Idolatry is a deed of darkness. The Athenians had their Eleusinia, the Romans the rites of their Bona Dea, and the Egyptians their Osiridis Pamylia, all done in the dark. The Popish temples are many of them dark, and some so stuffed with presents and memories that they are thereby made much the darker.

For they say, The Lord seeth us not.] Atheism is the source of all sinfulness. These fools, being in the dark, thought that God could not see what they did there.

The Lord hath forsaken the earth.] Hath cast off all care of us, and therefore we must see to ourselves, look us out some other deities. See #Jer 18:15. What a base speech is that of Pliny, {a} Irridendum vero curam agere rerum humanarum, illud quicquid est, Summum! It is no way likely that God taketh care what becometh of man’s matters. Os durum! Harsh mouth!

{a} Lib. ii. cap. 7.

Ver. 13. Turn thee yet again,] q.d., Little didst thou think, Ezekiel, that thy countrymen of Jewry were so prodigiously abominable as now thou seest! and what more sure than sight?

Ver. 14. And, behold, there sat women.] These were priests of Isis, whose impious and most impudent kind of worship is largely described by Herodotus, Diodorus Siculus, Plutarch, and Eusebius, as celebrated with very unseemly ceremonies, worse, if it might be, than those of Priapus. But who would ever have looked for such immodest doings among God’s professed people? See #1Co 5:1.

Weeping for Tammuz,] i.e., For Osiris, king of Egypt, and idolatrously adoring his image, which his wife Isis had advanced.

Ver. 15. Hast thou seen this?] q.d., And canst thou easily believe thine own eyes? Nevertheless, these flagitious persons have the face to say, "In all my doings they shall find none iniquity in me that were sin." {#Ho 13:8} Say not Popish idolaters still as much?

Thou shalt see greater abominations.] Idolatry is stintless.

Ver. 16. Were about five and twenty men.] These, say some, were the king and his council See #Eze 11:1.

With their backs toward the temple.] And yet in a part of it. Hoc fuit signum nimiae improbitatis. Veluti Dominum in certamen provocantes. Here to turn their posteriors upon God’s house and ark, which they were commanded to look towards as a type of Christ, was to bid open defiance to him, and to renounce his service, cum ingenti contumelia sanctitatis Domini! Oh, the unspeakable patience of God!

And they worshipped the sun.] So did the Persians, under the name of Mithra; the Assyrians, of Osiris; the Egyptians, of Orus son of Isis, &c. Heathens thought that Christians did so too, because anciently they prayed with their faces eastward. {a}

{a} Tertul. Apol.

Ver. 17. And, lo, they put the branch to their nose.] In honour th the sun, whose heat produceth the mot redolent wines; or they might be branches of laurel dedicated to the sun. R. Solomon rendereth it, They put a stink to my nose, even ventris crepitum pro suffitu. Vah, vah, vah! {a}

{a} ιδου, αντοι, ως μυκτηριζοντες.—Septuag.

Ver. 18. Mine eye shall not spare.] #Eze 5:11 7:4.

And though they cry in mine ears, &c.] Because it is the cry of the flesh for ease, and not of the spirit for grace.

Chapter 9

Ver. 1. He cried also.] God, to whom vengeance belongeth, calleth aloud and with a courage, as we say, to the executioners of his wrath, to come and fall on.

Cause them that have charge over the city.] Proefecti urbis -i.e., the angels, here called the visitations or visitors of Jerusalem, the prefects of the city.

Every man with his destroying weapon.] Called {#Eze 9:2} a maul, or battle axe, telum dissipatorium.

Ver. 2. And, behold, six men came.] Ad hunc Dei clamorem vel clangorem; the angels came, the Chaldees came, at the call of this Lord of hosts, who hath all creatures at his beck and check.

By the way of the higher gate.] Called also the new gate, {#Jer 26:10} built by Jotham. {#2Ch 27:3}

Toward the north.] Where stood the idol of jealousy, and whereby Nebuchadnezzar entered.

“ Per quod quis peccat, per idem punitur et ipse.”

One man among them.] This was a created angel, say some; {#Eze 10:2} Christ, the angel of the covenant, say others, with more likelihood of truth.

Clothed with linen.] As high priest of his people, and in addition an offering for them, and that without spot. {#Heb 9:14}

And a writer’s inkhorn by his side.] An ensign of his prophetic office, say some, as his linen clothing was of his priestly; and of his kingly, that he was among, or in the midst of, the six slaughtermen, as their captain and commander.

They went in and stood beside the brazen altar.] Where they might receive further instructions from God. So in the Revelation, those angels that were to pour out the vials of divine vengeance, are said to come out of the temple.

Ver. 3. And the glory of the God of Israel,] i.e., The Son of God appearing upon the glorious chariot, {#Eze 1:3 3:23} and being "the brightness of his Father’s glory, the express image of his person." {#Heb 1:3}

Was gone up from the cherub,] i.e., From those four cherubims upon which the glory of the Lord did then appear to the prophet. {#Eze 8:4} He was gone from his ark, to show that the refractory Jews were now discovenanted; and from his mercy seat, to show that he would show them no more mercy. Many moves God makes in this and the two following chapters to show his loathness utterly to move; and still, as he goeth out, some judgment cometh in. Here he removeth from the cherubims in the oracle to the threshold; and upon that removal see what followeth; {#Eze 9:3-7} so for the rest see #Eze 10:1,2,4,18,19 11:8-10,22,23; and when God was quite gone from the city, then followed the fatal calamity in the ruin thereof. But that he went away by degrees, and not soon and at once, was an argument of his very great love and longsuffering. He left them step by step, as it were, and pled loath to depart; but that there was no remedy. Tied he is not to any place, as these fond Jews thought he was to their visible temple, which now he is about therefore to abandon, and to make their very sanctuary a slaughterhouse.

Ver. 4. And the Lord.] That great Imperator, General.

Go through the midst.] Discriminate; make a difference; "take out the precious from the vile." God will sever his saints from others in common calamities, and deliver them, if not from the common destruction, yet from the common distraction.

And set a mark upon the foreheads.] Vulgate, Et signa Thau. Whatever this mark was, it was signum salutare. The letter Tau some think it was, as part of the word Tichieh—i.e., Thou shalt live; according to that, "The just shall live by his faith." Or as part of the word Torah—i.e., The law, to show that these had the law of God written in their hearts, and this made them mourn to see it so little set by. Howsoever, it is not the sign of the cross, as Papists would have it, but rather the blood of the cross, wherewith, when believers are sprinkled from an evil conscience, as the houses of the Israelites in Goshen were with the blood of the paschal lamb, they are sure of safety here and salvation hereafter. The election of God is sure, and hath this seal, "The Lord knoweth who are his," {#2Ti 2:19} and it shall appear by them. {#Ps 91} Tau is the basis of the Hebrew alphabet, saith one, and marking by Christ is the basis of all true comfort and sound profession. Tau endeth and closeth up the alphabet, saith another; so he who persevereth to the end shall be saved. The mark here mentioned was not corporal but spiritual, even the merit and spirit of Christ, the value and virtue of his death and sufferings.

Of the men that sigh and cry.] That sigh deeply and cry out bitterly for their own and other men’s sins and miseries, and this out of piety and pity. These are not many, yet some such are found in all ages. {#Re 11:3} Inter vepres rosa nascitur, et inter feras nonnullae mitescunt. {a} Let us mourn in time of sinning: so shall we be marked in times of punishing.

{a} Ammian.

Ver. 5. Go ye after him.] Go not till he hath marked the mourners, so chary and choice is God of his jewels. Mercy is his firstborn, saith one, and visits the saints ere judgments break out. {#Isa 26:20,21}

Ver. 6. Slay utterly old and young.] {a} A dreadful commission; see it fully executed, #2Ch 36:17: all sorts, sexes, and sizes of people were corrupted; and since there was no hope of curing, there must be cutting.

But come not near any upon whom is the mark.] These were the "precious sons of Zion," the "excellent ones of the earth"—as whatsoever is sealed is excellent in its kind, {#Isa 28:25} hordeum signatum. -these are the darlings, the favourites; handle them gently therefore for my sake, touch not mine anointed, come not near any such to fright them, but keep your distance.

And begin at my sanctuary.] From whence went forth profaneness into the whole land. {#Jer 23:15} These sanctuary men were an ill generation; at them therefore begins the judgment. God will be sanctified in all that draw near unto him. Nadab and Abihu found the flames of jealousy hottest about the altar. Uzzah and the Bethshemites felt that justice as well as mercy is most active about the ark. Murderers must be drawn from the altar to the slaughter. {#Ex 21:14} Holy places were wont to be refuges; not so here, but the contrary.

Then they began at the ancient men.] At those seventy seniors, {#Eze 8:11} whose foul offences had flown far upon the two wings of evil example and scandal.

{a} Immedicabile vulnus ense recidendum.

Ver. 7. Defile the house.] Once hallowed by myself, but now abhorred and rejected as a stew or sty of filthiness.

Fill the courts.] That where they have sinned, there they may suffer, as did Ahab. {#1Ki 22:38 2Ki 9:26}

Ver. 8. And I was left.] And, as I was apt to think, alone. {#Ro 11:3}

I fell upon my face and cried.] This is the guise of the gracious in evil times, as may be seen in Moses, Jeremiah, Paul, Athanasius, Ambrose, &c.

Ah, Lord God!] Adonai Jehovi (not Jehova, as elsewhere usually), so the saints have sometimes prayed, tanquam singultientes in patheticis precibus, {a} or rather sighed out their most earnest suits to God. {as #Ge 15:2-8 De 3:24 9:26}

Wilt thou destroy all the residue of Israel?] Brevis quidem est haec querimonia prophetae: at multa complectitur. {b} This is a brief but a complexive complaint, and hath much in it.

{a} Polan.

{b} Lavat.

Ver. 9. The iniquity of Israel is exceeding great.] Nimls veldt. Still there is a cause, to be sure; and God’s judgments are sometimes secret, ever just; and as swift rivers, when they once fall into lakes or seas, are at rest, so are our restless minds, when once they fall into the depth of the Divine justice, duly considered.

And the city full of perverseness.] Or, Wresting of judgment. Declinatione et detorsone iudicii. Mutteh, i.e., mishpat din Mitteh, saith the Hebrew scholiast; {a} that is, judgment turned from the bias, as it were: when the balance of justice is tilted on to one side, as Paul’s word, κατα προσκλισιν, importeth. {#1Ti 5:21}

For they say, The Lord hath forsaken the earth.] See on #Eze 8:12. Hic est fons omnium scelerum, saith A Lapide: hinc ruunt homines in celerum abyssam, saith Theodoret. When men are once turned atheists, what will they not dare to do? What should hinder them from laying the reins on the neck, and running riot in wickedness?

{a} One who writes explanatory notes upon an author; esp. an ancient commentator upon a classical writer. ŒD

Ver. 10. And as for me also.] Quapropter etiam ego, Wherefore also I; and there is a stop by an elegant aposiopesis. {a}

Mine eye shall not spare.] #Eze 5:11 7:4 8:18. See a just commentary upon these words, #Jer 9:3-17.

{a} A rhetorical artifice, in which the speaker comes to a sudden halt, as if unable or unwilling to proceed. ŒD

Ver. 11. And behold the man reported the matter.] The Vulgate hath it respondit verbum, as if he had been asked before whether he had done as was bidden.

I have done as thou hast commanded me.] So did David; {#Ps 119:112 Ac 13:22} and the Son of David; {#Joh 17:4 14:31} and Paul, witness his famous vox voice προαγωνιος. {#2Ti 4:6-8} Let every of us so carry the matter toward God that at death we may say with that servant in #Lu 17:9, "Lord, it is done as thou hast commanded."

Chapter 10

Ver. 1. Then I looked, and behold in the firmament.] Heb, In that expanse or firmament mentioned, #Eze 1:22.

That was above the head of the cherubims.] Called before "living creatures." {#Eze 1:5,13-15,19} Now God is represented as in his temple, where things are more clearly descried and described. {#Ps 29:9} In his temple doth every one speak of his glory. Cherubims the angels are called, from the greatness of their knowledge, saith Jerome, as God’s Rabbis; or rather, because the Lord rideth upon them {#Ps 80:1 99:1} as upon his chariot. {#1Ch 28:18} Here they are said to be under the firmament and near the throne to execute God’s commands with expedition. It is not therefore as those miscreants said, {#Eze 9:9} The Lord hath forsaken the earth.

There appeared over them as it were a sapphire stone,] i.e., Jehovah in his glory.

As the appearance.] It was but as, and as the appearance: we cannot see God as he is. Some have seen Mercabah velo harocheb, say the Hebrews, the chariot, but not the rider therein.

Ver. 2. And he spake unto the man.] See #Eze 9:2. Christ, who had marked the mourners, scattereth coals upon the rebellious city: "kiss the Son lest he be angry, and ye perish."

And scatter them over the city.] To show that Jerusalem was to be burnt by the Chaldees, as must likewise Rome by the kings of the earth; for strong is the Lord who judgeth her. {#Re 18:8}

And he went in my sight.] Saints see and foresee that which is often hid from others.

Ver. 3. Now the cherubims stood on the right side., ] i.e., On the south side; being now removed from the north door, {#Eze 8:3,4 9:3} as loathing that place of so great idolatry.

And the cloud filled the inner court.] {a} To signify that now upon God’s departure, there should be darkness in the temple, yea, in the priests’ courts. See #Ps 18:11 Re 15:8.

{a} Significat sequentia tempora nubila fore. -Lav.

Ver. 4. Then the glory of the Lord went up from the cherub,] i.e., From the cherubims; so it had done once before, {#Eze 9:3} and returned again, to show that he was even driven out by the people’s impenitence.

And stood over the threshold of the house.] As taking his last leave of it.

And the house was filled with a cloud.] Sublatenter abit a suo loco Dominus. {a} So #Isa 6:4; "The house was filled with smoke." Josephus saith, that when God departed, a voice was heard out of the temple, saying, Let us leave these seats; like as, a little before the last desolation of it, there was heard Migremus hinc, Let us go hence. And a heathen writer saith, that a voice greater than man’s was heard, that the gods were thence departing. {b}

{a} Oeoclamp.

{b} Audita maior humana vox, excedere deos. -Tacit.

Ver. 5. And the sound of the cherubims’ wings was heard.] As applauding Christ’s act, and rejoicing thereat.

As the voice of the Almighty God,] i.e., As thunder. {#Ps 29:3} Hereby might also be signified insignis et insolita mutatio in urbe, a notable noise that should be made in the city by clattering of arms, neighing of horses, roaring of enemies, &c. The Hebrew word here used is Shaddai, which signifieth vastatorem et victorem, saith Aben Ezra, a waster and a victor.

Ver. 6. When he had commanded the man.] Christ as mediator was at his Father’s command. {#Mt 12:18 Joh 14:31 15:10}

Then he went in and stood beside the wheels.] As considering, saith one, the mutability and uncertainty of all things, and observing the equity of the divine proceedings.

Ver. 7. And one cherub stretched forth his hand.] The holy angels, whom the Jews looked upon as ministers of God’s grace unto them (Josephus calleth them the keepers of the Jewish people), are here brought in as ministers of those weapons wherewith they were to be destroyed.

Who took it, and went out.] Nevertheless the city was not burned till four or five years after this vision.

“ Tam piger ad poenas Deus est, ad praemia velox.”

- Ovid.

Meanwhile, how jovial were the Jews! as if no such judgment were likely to befall them.

Ver. 8. And there appeared the form of a man’s hand under their wings.] Quasi gladius intra vaginam, as a sword within the scabbard, ready to be drawn out for execution. The hand, saith Aristotle, is the instrument of instruments. Nature hath given us hands, saith Cicero, multarum artium ministras, &c., to act and do business. Angels have neither hands nor wings, to speak properly, yet are said here to have both, to show their activity and celerity in God’s service. Hands of a man they are said to have, to show that they do all prudently and with reason; and these hands are under their wings, saith one, to signify their hidden nature and operation. A good man, like a good angel, saith another, {a} hath the wings of contemplation, the hands of action, the wings of faith, the hands of charity, wings whereon he raiseth his understanding, and hands wherewith he exciteth his will, &c.

{a} Essays Mor. and Theol., p. 33.

Ver. 9. And when I looked, behold the four wheels.] This chapter compared with the first, do, like glasses set one against another, cast a mutual light.

As the colour of a beryl stone.] Lapidis berylli thalassis. See #Eze 1:16. Wheels are voluble, and the sea tumultuous; so are all things and places in this present life: lay hold on life eternal.

Ver. 10. As if a wheel had been in the midst of a wheel.] So intricate and perplexed often times are God’s ways and works, that the wisest men know not what to make of them. {#Zec 14:6} In that day the light shall neither be clear nor dark, but between both, tanquam ηως κροκοπεπλος.

Ver. 11. Upon their four sides.] That is, to their several quarters assigned them by God, who doth things methodically, and in order.

But to the place whither the head looked.] {a} That is, God, who guided the whole chariot by a universal and equal inspiration. {#Eze 1:12,20,21}

{a} Translatio a re militari. -Jun., Diod.

Ver. 12. And the whole body,] viz., Of the cherubims. {as #Eze 1:19-21} The wheels are said to be full of eyes. God, who overruleth all, is ολοφθαλμος, All eye. His providence is like a well drawn picture, which vieweth all that are in the room. {a}

{a} Omnia in omnes partes illustrat Dei providentia. -Jun. Dei providentia oculatissima. -A Lap., Diod.

Ver. 13. It was cried unto them.] By him who sat upon the throne calling for their obedience, as indeed all things here, yea, even the senseless creatures, are God’s servants. {#Ps 119:91}

O wheel.] O round world—q.d., Hear the voice of thy Maker and Master; or, Oh how unstable and changeable art thou!

Ver. 14. The face of a cherub,] i.e., Humana quidem, sed splendidissima, saith Junius: Facies pueri alati, saith another. There are those who tell us, that in the Syriac tongue, the word cherub is taken from a word which signifieth drawing the plough, which is the bullock’s proper labour. We must believe therefore, say they, that cherub signifieth properly the figure of a bullock, under which hieroglyphically was represented an angel. The laborious preacher’s face shall once shine as an angel’s.

Ver. 15. Were lifted up.] Or, They lift up themsdves—scil., to follow and attend their departing Lord.

That I saw by the river of Chebar.] And now saw again, for further confirmation.

Ver. 16. And when the cherubims went.] Angels have a great stroke in ordering the affairs of the world, as hath already been noted. {See Trapp on "Eze 1:6"} Quod vero eandem rem saepe repeto, lectori molestum esse non debet, saith Lavater, in his preface to this prophet.

Ver. 17. When they stood.] See #Eze 1:21.

The spirit of the living creatures.] Or, Of life. God governeth all events; he moveth the angels, they the wheels. No clock hath so certain motions as the vicissitudes of all things are overruled by God.

Ver. 18. Then the glory of the Lord departed.] This the stubborn Jews would never be drawn to believe possible, till it befell them; hence they hear of it so often, but to little good purpose as to them.

Ver. 19. Over the east gate.] The gate of the court where the people met, and prayed with their faces westward; here now stood the cherubims, and here stood the glory over them, that all the city might see that God was going from them, and seek by all good means to retain him with them.

Ver. 20. And I knew that they were the cherubims.] Now at last I knew. Divine light is darted into the soul by degrees, and at different times.

Ver. 21. Every one had four faces apiece.] Ad taedium usque eandem rem repetit, ut nihil excusationis haberent. These careless and cross-grained Jews are told the same things thus over and over, to leave them without all excuse, if they would not be wrought upon by all.

Ver. 22. They went every one straightforward.] Let us, by their example, learn to advance forward to the high prize of the heavenly calling in Christ Jesus.

Chapter 11

Ver. 1. Moreover the Spirit lifted me up.] The same Spirit of God that lifted up and acted the living weights and the wheels; like as the same breath causeth the diverse sounds in the organs.

Unto the east gate.] Of the outward court. {#Eze 10:19}

Five and twenty men.] Proceres populi, the senators of the city, with their prefect or president. The like number is now at Rome, and likewise at London; an alderman in each of the twenty-four wards, and a mayor. See #Re 4:4.

Among whom I saw Jaazaniah.] I saw them, and knew them by name; but for no good.

“ Iudex locusta civitatis est malus.’’—Scaliger.

Ver. 2. These are the men that devise mischief.] That whet their wits and beat their brains about it; the politicians of the time, who, like children, are ever standing on their heads, and shaking their heels against heaven.

And give wicked counsel.] As Balaam and Ahithophel did of old, as Machiavel did at Florence, and Gondamor here did of later times. The prophet here nameth a couple, and taketh the same liberty to reprove them that they took to do amiss.

Ver. 3. Which say, It is not near,] sc., The evil day is not. The vision that he seeth is for many days to come; and he prophesieth of the times that are far off. {#Eze 12:22,27} See #Am 6:3 Isa 29:1 2Pe 3:4. And this was likely the evil counsel they gave the king and people, lulling them asleep in the cradle of carnal security.

Let us build houses.] Though Jeremiah hath counselled us to the contrary, {#Jer 29:5} though he, with all the wit he hath, hath told us that this city is the caldron, and we are the flesh. {#Jer 1:13} Some such thing Jeremiah had indeed foretold, and these profane scoffers made a jeer at it. Captant argutias quibus elevant omnem fidem doctrinae coelestis. This made good Jeremiah complain heavily: #Jer 20:7,8, "I am in derision daily, every one mocketh me," &c. Our prophet Ezekiel, though he name him not, yet confirmeth his holy sayings, and threateneth his scurrilous adversaries. Ministers should stand by and for one another.

Ver. 4. Therefore prophesy against them, prophesy.] Urger et repetit, ne cunctetur. Out of greatest indignation against these pests, he pricketh him on to prophesy, as having vengeance "in a readiness for the disobedient." {#2Co 10:6} Mockers shall be sure to have their "bands increased." {#Isa 28:22}

Ver. 5. And the Spirit of the Lord fell upon me.] Et irruit in me Spiritus Iehovae; with force and power. It was a mighty lapse from a God much offended.

Thus have ye said.] As #Eze 11:3; but better ye had held your peace. Or, Thus have ye thought, and as good ye might have spake out.

For I know the things that came into your mind.] Heb., And the ascensions of your spirit, I know it; i.e., I know them every one, as if they had all been but one. I understand your ironies, your sly jeers and will deal with you accordingly. See #Lu 24:38 De 31:21.

Ver. 6. Ye have multiplied your slain in this city.] Called therefore a bloody city, {#Eze 22:2 9:9 7:23} and it shall therefore despume you; Vos sicut spumae eieciemini. Evil counsellors are cruel and bloody-minded; their craft is never but accompanied with cruelty, and their cruelty seldom without craft. "None of them wanteth their mate," as the Scripture speaks of those birds of prey and desolation. {#Isa 34:16}

Ver. 7. Your slain.] Whether ye have slain them outright, or have laid them bleeding and dying by your oppressions; for a poor man’s livelihood is his life. {#Mr 12:44 Lu 8:43} He is in his house like a snail in his shell, crush that, and you kill him.

And this city is the caldron.] {a} Thus their own words, spoken in mockery, are wittily retorted upon them, and driven back again down their throats as it were.

But I will bring you forth out of the midst of it.] As rotten flesh, to be cast out; or as filthy scum, to boil over.

{a} Haec verba monachi funibus trahunt ad purgatorium probandum, nixi autoritate Originis.

Ver. 8. Ye have feared the sword.] And yet they made as if they feared nothing; they doubted not but to die in their nest; but all guilt hath fear, and all such fear hath torment.

And I will bring a sword upon you.] Such as all your craft can never keep off. Ineluctabilis vis fatorum, cuius fortunam mutare canstituit, consilia corrumpit. {a} See #Pr 10:24. {See Trapp on "Pr 10:24"}

{a} Velleius, lib. ii.

Ver. 9. And I will bring you out of the midst thereof.] The same again, for better assurance. We use to do so oft when we threaten aught.

Ver. 10. I will judge you in the border of Israel.] In the northern border, even at Riblah. {#2Ki 25:6,21 Jer 52:10,24,27}

Ver. 11. This city shall not be your caldron.] Ye shall not be so happy as to die in your own native country, atque ante ora patrum {a} but elsewhere, at Riblah or Antiochia.

{a} Virgil.

Ver. 12. And ye shall know that I am the Lord.] That which ye would not take knowledge of by the words of your prophets, ye shall now be made to know by the swords of your enemies.

For ye have not walked in my statutes.] When God is about to proceed in judgment against evildoers, there is ever a cause for it, and they shall know it.

Ver. 13. And it came to pass that when I prophesied.] God heweth men by his prophets, and slayeth them by the words of his mouth, and his judgments are as the light, or lightning, that goeth forth. {#Ho 6:5} Elisha hath his sword as well as Jehu and Hazael. {#1Ki 19:17} See #Jer 1:10 2Co 10:6.

Pelatiah the son of Benaiah died.] Suddenly, {a} and before his time, in Solomon’s sense. {#Ec 7:17} Driven away he was in his iniquity Cerinthus, Arius so were Ananias and Sapphira, Cerinthus, Arius, Stephen Gardiner, Cardinal Pool, Dick of Dover, as they called the persecuting suffragan {b} there; Nightingale, parson of Becking, &c. See #Pr 6:14,15.

Then fell I down upon my face.] Out of a holy solicitude about God’s elect, lest they also should have perished, as Petaliah had done, whose very name might seem somewhat ominous, for it signifieth "the escaped one of the Lord"; and therefore his sudden death might portend destruction to the remnant of Israel.

And cried with a loud voice.] Sudden or singular judgments put saints upon humble, earnest, and argumentative prayer.

{a} Magnum est subito opprimi.

{b} A bishop considered in regard to his relation to the archbishop or metropolitan, by whom he may be summoned to attend synods and give his suffrage. ŒD

Ver. 14. Again the word of the Lord came unto me.] In answer to my prayer, though there was something in it of unbelief and human frailty. See #Ps 31:22. {See Trapp on "Ps 31:22"}

Ver. 15. Thy brethren, even thy brethren,] i.e., Thine unbrotherly brethren of Jerusalem seek to unbrother and to unchurch thee and the rest of thy fellow captives. See #Isa 65:5. Papists and sectaries deal so by us.

The men of thy kindred.] Viri vindiciarum tuarum, or they that have the right of redemption.

And all the house of Israel.] Tota domus Israelis, quanta quanta est. The Jerusalemites challenged the Lord, and the land, and all therein, to be theirs, excluding, and as it were excommunicating, the captives at Babylon, who were dear to God. So dealt the scribes and Pharisees by the Christians; {#Joh 16:2 Ac 26:9-11} so did the Rogatian heretics and the Donatists, who gave themselves out, as now the Papists do, to be the only Catholics. The Arians called the orthodox, by way of scorn and contempt, Ambrosians, Athanasians, Homousians, &c.

Get ye far from the Lord.] Gressus removete, profani: Ita in malam crucem: εις κορακας. Ye are cut off from the people of God, and may go whither you will; we are heirs and owners of the promises, ye are outcasts and abjects.

Ver. 16. Although I have cast them.] What a cornucopia of comfort may this promise be to poor prisoners, forlorn exiles, and such as by sickness or otherwise are necessitated to keep from public ordinances, that they shall have God’s presence and protection, the comfort and conduct of his Spirit, &c.

Yet I will be to them as a little sanctuary.] Sanctuarium modicum. By heating their prayers, sanctifying their natures, bringing to their remembrance what things they have heard and learned touching me and my will, themselves and their duties. They should in Babylon worship God in spirit and in truth; and in the life to come the Lord God Almighty and his Lamb should be their temple. {#Re 21:22}

Ver. 17. I will even gather you from the people.] How impossible or improbable soever you may think it, and those of Jerusalem pronounce it. The prophet Isaiah in many chapters of his gospel, which beginneth at Eze. 40, setteth himself to cheer up these poor captives with good hopes of a return, after a little while, paulisper, as some render the word megnat in the foregoing #Eze 11:16.

Ver. 18. And they shall take away all the detestable things.] So God calleth their idols and monuments of idolatry, not deigning to call them by their usual names. After the captivity the Jews would never endure idols. They chose rather to die than to suffer Caligula’s statue to be set up in their temple by Petronins. To this day they say that there is an ounce of the golden calf in all their sufferings.

Ver. 19. And I will give them one heart.] Opposed to a "divided heart," such as the Paphlagonian partridges are said to have; {#Ho 10:2} that is, partly for God, and partly for the world. {#Eze 33:31} This oneness of heart truly and entirely cleaving to God alone, is that boon that David so dearly beggeth, {#Ps 86:11} that he might attend upon God without distraction. {#1Co 7:35} And as the visible beams are wholly bent upon the thing that is beheld by the eye, and as it were concentred in it, {a} so might his desires and endeavours be entirely carried toward God, and firmly fixed upon him.

And I will put a new spirit within you.] The same soul for substance, but altered in the frame, renewed in the qualities thereof. {#Mr 16:17} They shall "speak with new tongues"; so we read of a "new song"; the strings are the same, but the tune is changed. See #Ps 51:12 Eph 4:23 2Co 5:17.

And I will take away the stony heart.] Extraham, say the Septuagint. I will draw or pull it out, which none can do but the hand of Heaven. God only can make the flinty heart fleshly, that is, sensible, soft, pliant, penetrable, buxom, and obedient to his holy will.

{a} Plin., lib. xi. cap. 37.

Ver. 20. That they may walk in my statutes.] The covenant of grace is suited to all the exigencies and indigencies of a poor saint. It is "ordered in all things." {#2Sa 23:5}

Ver. 21. But as for them.] This is added lest any wicked men should misapply the promises, as they do qui sperando praesumunt et praesumendo pereunt.

Ver. 22. Then did the cherubims.] Now God is utterly leaving the refractory Jews. He did so much more after their rejection of Christ and his gospel.

Ver. 23. From the midst of the city.] From the east gate.

And stood upon the mountain.] Mount Olivet. There he made his last stand, to see if they would meet him with entreaties of peace, that he might stop or step back. Here it was that Christ wept over the city, and hence he went up to heaven; after which came the Romans and destroyed it.

Ver. 24. By the Spirit of God,] i.e., In a supernatural rapture.

Ver. 25. Then I spake unto them of the captivity.] These were his proper charge, and now God’s chiefest care. To them therefore he delivered the whole counsel of God, which he had seen and heard for their better settlement.

Chapter 12

Ver. 1. The word of the Lord also came unto me.] This variety of visions shows the great unbelief of the people, whose captivity and calamity is here further described and assured by a new type, which is set out in #Eze 12:1-6:, and then applied in #Eze 12:7:16. One sermon pegs in another, and the man of God must stick to his work, and επιστηθι, stand over it. {#2Ti 4:2}

Ver. 2. A rebellious house.] Heb., A house of rebellion, domus perduellis, that hath cast down the gauntlet of defiance against me.

Which have eyes to see, and see not,] sc., To any good purpose. They will not see, {#Isa 26:11} and who so blind as such? They wink wilfully, which is no small aggravation of their sin. {#Joh 9:4 Eph 4:18}

Which have ears to hear, and hear not,] i.e., Castigatiores non evadunt. They are not a button the better for what they hear. They draw not up the ears of their minds to the ears of their bodies, that one sound might pierce both.

Ver. 3. Therefore, thou son of man,] i.e., Nevertheless do thou as thou art bidden, and let what thou doest and sayest be for a testimony against them, stick in their souls and flesh, as the envenomed arrows of the Almighty throughout eternity.

Prepare thee stuff for removing.] Heb., Instruments, or vessels. Convasa res tuas, collae sarcinas, pack up and away. See if this way thou canst work upon them.

It may be they will consider,] sc., By this express sign, though they profit not by thy plain preaching. Ministers must study their people’s souls; turn themselves into all forms and shapes, of spirit and of speech, to win upon them.

Ver. 4. Thou shalt bring forth thy stuff.] Arma viatoria; travelling bags for an ocular demonstration. What surer than sight?

Go forth at even.] The king and his men of war were glad to do so, {#2Ki 25:4} but it would not do.

Ver. 5. Dig through the wall.] Make any shift. Necessitas magnum telum. He that digged Mortimer’s hole, as they call it, at Nottingham Castle, earned his liberty dearly. God might have said to the prophet at once, Get thee gone out of thy country—how sad a thing that is Ovid when banished setteth forth in many elegant elegies, sed cuncta per partes digerit -but he must do it piecemeal and by degrees, that it may the more affect them.

Ver. 6. In their sight shalt thou bear it upon thy shoulders.] To show that King Zedekiah himself should carry out some of his most precious things upon his shoulders when he fled. See #Eze 12:12. This was a base thing for a king to do. King Alphonsus indeed is renowned for drawing a poor perishing man out of a ditch, and bearing him on his back to a place of relief.

Thou shalt cover thy face.] In token that Zedekiah should be made blind. A just hand of God upon him who had eyes and saw not, {#Eze 12:2} like as it was upon Muleasses King of Tunis, who had those eyes of his dug out which had been inlets of lust, and which he oft covered with his hat pulled over them, that he might listen the better to wanton ditties and profane music.

For I have set thee for a sign.] Portentum, a sign portending their going into captivity.

Ver. 7. And did as I was commanded. Though well laughed at for my labour by the mad world, ever beside itself in point of salvation, and looking upon God’s Jordans as Naaman did, with Syrian eyes. The outward signs in our sacraments are in themselves mean and ordinary matters; yet the minister is to make use of them, and the people to climb up to heaven by them as ladders of life Hence even in the ancient church liturgy they had their Sursum corda, Lift up your hearts. Rideant athei et ringantur.

Ver. 8. And in the morning came the word of the Lord.] Mane, id est, mature. God not only betime, but timeously, admonished his people; but they refused to be reformed—would have none of his counsel.

Ver. 9. Hath not the house of Israel…said unto thee, What doest thou?] {a} q.d., Nothing less. So stupid they are, or so stubborn, that they never once asked any such question; or if they did, it was in a jeer, as who should say, You are a wise man to trouble yourself and us in this foolish and childish manner; a great deal of gravity sure you show therewhile.

{a} Quid sibi vult quod ita migras? Tu, habet emphasin.—Lavat.

Ver. 10. This burden concerneth the princes in Jerusalem.] There is an elegance in the original. Princes who overburden their people shall one day have their back burden of miseries. Potentes potenter torquebuntur.

Ver. 11. I am your sign.] And so it pleases you to make me your mocking stock. Sed risus hic est Sardonius. Of such mirth one may safely say, "It is mad; and of such laughter, What doeth it?" {#Ec 2:2}

Like as I have done.] My removal is mira, nova inimica, et ludicra; a marvel, newly hostile, and a show; but upon you it will fall heavily and horridly. That which hath befallen me in type only, shall befall you in truth and reality.

Ver. 12. And the prince that is among them.] Zedekiah, that profane, wicked prince. {#Eze 21:25}

Shall bear upon his shoulders in the twilight.] His precious things (see on #Eze 12:6). This, though it be not recorded in the holy history, yet that it was so, we are assured by this scripture. Great men in exigents stoop to low offices. This load upon his shoulders might hinder his flight and further his surprise, as it did Bajazet’s, when he was beaten out of the field by Tamerlane, that he stayed to water his horse. The Vulgate rendereth it, but not well, in humeris portabitur, he shall be carried on men’s shoulders. The Pope, indeed, is ordinarily so carried; but he was glad to foot it when forced by the German and Spanish soldiers; A.D. 1527, he was glad to secure himself in his castle St Angelo.

They shall dig through the wall.] The door haply, or inlet of some underground passage.

He shall cover his face.] See on #Eze 12:6. This he did haply through fear, or shame, or for a disguise; but his sin found him out.

Ver. 13. My net also will I spread upon him.] Princes usually love hunting and fowling. Lo, the Chaldees shall hunt him and overcatch him.

And he shall be taken in my snare.] Snares are set secretly, catch suddenly, hold certainly. A stronghold the Hebrew word here used doth also signify. {a}

Yet shall he not see it.] For his eyes were put out at Riblah. {#2Ki 25:7} And yet, behold, a greater blindness that befell him than this. Josephus {b} testifieth that Zedekiah not understanding these words of Ezekiel, and thinking them to be contrary to Jeremiah’s words, he resolved to believe neither of them.

{a} Jun.

{b} Joseph. Ant., lib. vi. x., cap. 10.

Ver. 14. And I will scatter toward every wind.] His bodyguard, σοματοφυλακες. Esquires of his body, auxiliaries. I will put him into a helpless condition. {#Ps 146:3} If the Lord do not help thee, whence shall I help thee? said that king to her that cried to him for help. {#2Ki 6:27}

Ver. 15. And they shall know that I am the Lord.] The Lord God of heaven, the great and terrible God. {#Ne 1:5} This they shall know magno suo male, his great wrong, who would not take knowledge what was said unto them by the prophets.

Ver. 16. But I will leave a few men.] Heb., Men of number, a company scarce considerable in comparison of the many.

That they may declare all their abominations.] Give glory to God, take shame to themselves, and thereby do much good to those heathens hardened before by their evil behaviour. Vere magnus est Deus Christianorum, Truly, great is the God of the Christians, said one Calocerius, a heathen.

Ver. 17. Moreover the word, &c.] See on #Eze 12:1.

Ver. 18. Eat thy bread with quaking.] With tumult and trepidation, as a frightened and perplexed person that eateth his bread in peril of his life.

Ver. 19. They shall eat their bread with carefulness.] Better fast than feed on such bread. Men may sooner by their carking care add a furlong to their grief, than a cubit to their comfort, saith one.

Because of the violence.] The Jews were ever, and are still, a covetous and cruel people.

Ver. 20. And ye shall know.] By woeful experience. {#Eze 12:15}

Ver. 21. And the word of the Lord.] See #Eze 12:1.

Ver. 22. What is that proverb.] We have also many profane proverbs common among us, as, Thought is free; Every man for himself, and God for us all; Words are but wind; In space comes grace; Fair and softly goes far, &c. The Greeks had many such ill proverbs, Chrysostom complaineth.

The days are prolonged.] Ludibrium crassum: gross mockery, "Because judgment is not speedily executed," &c.

Ver. 23. The days are at hand.] Opponit aliud dictum fere tot syllabarum; a plain and plenary confutation.

Ver. 24. For there shall be no more.] God could have really confuted them by present execution; but he is patient.

Ver. 25. For I am the Lord.] And that you shall shortly feel to your small comfort. What I have uttered with my mouth, I will perform with my hand without fail.

For in your days.] Within six years.

Ver. 26. Again the word.] See on #Eze 12:1.

Ver. 27. For many days.] Either it is nothing, or long hence.

Ver. 28. There shall none of my words be prolonged.] Abused mercy turneth into fury.

Chapter 13

Ver. 1. And the word of the Lord.] See on #Eze 12:1.

Ver. 2. Prophesy against the prophets.] Illis enim crania mala feruntur accepts. See #Jer 23:32,33,38.

That prophesy out of their own hearts.] Whose prophecies came by the will of man, {#2Pe 1:21} and not cum privilegio. with by right.

Ver. 3. Woe unto the foolish prophets.] Wise enough they were in their generation—and so are the foxes, whereto they are compared {#Eze 13:4} -but in the things of God, silly simples, blinder than moles.

That follow their own spirit.] Aud their own fancies, acted and abused by that great lying spirit.

And have seen nothing.] Nothing from God, though they thought and pretended they had seen something. All was but lies; {#Jer 27:10} dreams; {#Jer 23:32} things of naught. {#Eze 22:28} As Antipheron Orietes in Aristotle thought that everywhere he saw his own shape and picture going before him; so here. Now a woe is denounced against these; vae woe, is a little word, but very comprehensive, as there is often much poison in little drops.

Ver. 4. O Israel, thy prophets are like the foxes.] Cowardly, crafty, cruel, greedy: venatores eludunt, et cum mortuae videntur, reviviscunt. Heretics are such, and false prophets; Arius, for instance.

Ver. 5. Ye have not gone up into the gaps.] Reclaimed the people from their impieties, those inlets of plagues, nor interceded for them by your prayers to God to turn away wrath, but hastened it. Ye have built indeed a wall, and daubed it with mortar, but such as is untempered, {#Eze 13:10} arena sine calce, like ill architects.

Neither made up the hedge.] To keep foxes out of God’s vineyard; it is even opentide.

To stand in the battle.] As David’s three worthies did in the barley field and delivered it. {#1Ch 11:14} Or as Marulla the maid of Lemnos, who, like a fierce amazon, desperately fought with the Turks in defence of her country, Coccinum, a city in that island, and kept them out till more company came to her relief, moved with the alarm. {a}

{a} Turkish History, 417.

Ver. 6. They have seen vanity.] This is soon seen. {#Eze 13:3}

Saying, The Lord saith.] By a lying pretence, familiar with falsaries, to father their fancies upon God.

Ver. 7. Have ye not seen a vain vision?] i.e., I appeal to your own consciences, have ye not falsely feigned all? Seducers are extremely impudent, with perverse minds, and cauterised consciences.

Ver. 8. Behold, I am against you.] Heb., Be hold I against you, by an angry aposiopesis. {a} The Chaldee hath it, I will send my wrath against; you, and that is an evil messenger; for who knoweth the power of thy wrath? saith Moses. {#Ps 90:11}

{a} A rhetorical artifice, in which the speaker comes to a sudden halt, as if unable or unwilling to proceed. ŒD

Ver. 9. And my hand shall be upon the prophets] God’s hand is a mighty hand; {#1Pe 5:6} the heaven is spanned by it, the earth held in the hollow of it.

They shall not be in the assembly of my people,] {a} Or, In the secret, or councils; they shall have no communion with them. A heavy threat; for the communion of saints, next unto communion with God, is the greatest comfort here attainable.

Neither shall they be written,] As members of that commonwealth,—much less of the Jerusalem that is above, {#Isa 4:4} -but rooted out of the world, written in the earth (#Jer 17:13; see #Ps 69:28).

Neither shall they enter.] They shall never come back out of Babylon, nor enter into heaven.

{a} Dicit eos fore prorsus extraneos ab Ecclesia. Tesseris Eeclesiae aspectabilibus abalienati permanebunt. -Jun.

Ver. 10. Because, even because.] Heb., For that, and for that; an angry epizeuxis. {a} See #Eze 13:8.

Saying, Peace, peace.] Making all fair weather before them, whenas the storm of God’s wrath (never to be blown over) was bursting out upon them.

And one built up a wall.] Ipse oedificabat parietem; one of the devil’s chief dirt-daubers, such as was Shemaiah, Hananiah, &c., {#Jer 29:31} who, together with their women upholsterers that sewed pillows to all arm holes, {#Eze 13:18} made foul work, and did much mischief among God’s people; like as do the Jesuits and Jesuitists (into whom all the old seducers have fled and hid themselves) at this day.

And, lo, others daubed it.] By cunning collusion they plastered and parjetted over the mud walls that was so set up. Ita extruunt illi vel potius destruunt ecclesiam Dei; { b} such proper builders were these. Like unto whom are the Popish priests, who bring the poor people into a fool’s paradise, and such idle ministers among us as shoot off at best, a few popguns against gross sins; or when they have done their worst at it, lick them whole again with, I hope better things of you, or, I hope there are none such here, &c. Many silly people also judge themselves honest because the daubing minister will give them the beggarly passport, and so die like lambs, being woefully cheated, and willing to be so. {#Jer 5:31 Mt 24:11}

With untempered mortar.] Which will make but a bulging wall, not like to stand long.

{a} A figure by which a word is repeated with vehemence or emphasis. ŒD

{b} Jun

Ver. 11. Say unto them.] Tell them so from me, and they may trust to it. Dei dicere est facere. For God, to say is to do.

That it shall fall.] And the fall of it shall be great, as #Mt 7:27, where our Saviour seemeth to allude to this text.

There shall be an overflowing shower.] The Chaldean army. {#Isa 59:19 8:7,8}

Great hailstones.] Sept., λιθους πετροβολους, catapults, battering rams, to make breaches in stone walls. The Hebrew is Elgabiah, i.e, grandis grandinis lapides, huge hailstones of God’s own hurling. {a}

{a} Alloquitur grandinem velut imperator suos milites. -Lavat.

Ver. 12. Lo, when the wall is fallen.] As fall it will, and with a force, because made of ill mortar; and they that stand under it for shelter shall perish, as did sometimes seven and twenty thousand of Benhadad’s men in Aphek. Vocat autem eloquentiara secularem et rhetoricam inanem, lutum sine palea, &c., saith Oecolampadius here—i.e., by untempered mortar is meant worldly eloquence and empty rhetoric in sermons; this is as sand without lime, or as lime without litter, hair, chaff, or the like stuff to hold it together.

Where is the daubing?] What is your false doctrine come to? your work is lost, if not your souls. {#1Co 3:15}

Ver. 13. I will even rend it with a stormy wind.] Vento turbinum; with a whirlwind or hurricane. See #Isa 25:4 29:6 Jer 23:19.

And great hailstones in my fury.] Thrice in this one #Eze 13:11: is fury threatened, so hot is God’s displeasure against seducers.

Ver. 14. So that the foundation thereof shall be discovered.] So that all men shall see your falsehoods. See #2Ti 3:9 Re 17:16. The old whore is first made naked and then desolate. Mr Philpot, martyr, dealt plainly by the Popish prelates in open convocation when he said to them, Before God ye are all bare arsed. God hath detected you, &c. {a}

And ye shall be consumed.] See on #Eze 13:12.

{a} Acts and Mon.

Ver. 15. Thus will I accomplish my wrath.] God’s wrath is dreadful, when let out in little minums only; but when to be accomplished, who can abide or avoid it?

Neither they that daubed it.] It may very well be that some of these cementaries of Satan were slain by the people, when once they saw themselves cheated by them into remediless misery.

Ver. 16. To wit, the prophets of Israel.] A name too good for them; but so they would needs be called. See #Tit 1:12 2Pe 2:1.

Ver. 17. Likewise, thou son of man.] A prophet’s work is never done. Agricolis redit labor actus in orbem.

Set thy face against the daughters.] The prophet had rather have contended with men than women, and more honour it had been for him; but he must do as bidden. Mulieres genus fragile sunt; Women are delecate; yet the prophet must set his face against them as stout agents for the devil, who hath ever made great use of them. Such were Noadiah; {#Ne 6:14} that apocalyptical Jezebel, Bridget Matild; those two Jezebels of New England, Mrs Hutchinson and Mrs Dyer, our recent most impudent preacheresses in London and elsewhere. {a}

{a} Mr Weld’s "Sectar. of New England." Matildis Comitissa, vulgo dicta filia S. Petri.

Ver. 18. That sew pillows.] In token of most certain and constant rest and peace.

To make kerchiefs.] Vela vel pepla. The Roman soothsayers, caput velabant cum volebant exordiri suos exorcismos, used the like ceremonies; so did those that gave oracles at the den of Trophonius.

To hunt souls.] And so to destroy them. See #Pr 6:26. Women are insinuative creatures, especially when they have a repute for holiness, and are esteemed prophetic.

Will ye hunt the souls?] O indignum facinus Are precious souls no more set by?

Upon the head of every stature.] Fitting the humours of all sorts and sizes of people, by prophesying to the younger of pleasure, and to the elder sort for profit. David, by a like art, tells old men of gold and silver, young men of honey and honeycomb, to be found in God’s statutes. {#Ps 19:10}

Will ye save the souls alive that come unto you?] q.d., I hardly think you will. Will ye not kill and eat, as the hunter doth his prey? or rather, will not the devil deal by you both as the cock master doth by his fighting cocks, take pleasure in their mutual killing one another, that he may make a supper of them both?

Ver. 19. For handfuls of barley end for pieces.] Like so many base gypsies or common beggars. {a} Cato upbraided Marcus Caelius, and worthily, that, being a pleader, he would sell either his tongue or silence for a morsel of bread. These were low prized prophetesses. See #Mic 3:5.

To slay the souls,] scil., By denouncing death to them, or by stirring up the people to slay them as miscreants.

That hear your lies.] Such as deceive expectation; for so the word here used signifieth.

{a} A. Gell.

Ver. 20. Behold, I am against your pillows.] God’s hatred against sin is such that he hateth anything that is made use of about it. The serpent was cursed because he had been abused by the devil.

To make them fly.] High pitches, αεροβατουντις: as our high attainers, with their new truths and strange speculations, do now pretend to do. Such were the Swenkfeldians—Stinkfeldians, Luther called them, for their ill savour. Swenkfeldius himself bewitched many with those lofty terms, which were much in his mouth, of illumination, revelation, deification, the inward and spiritual man, &c. {a}

{a} Scultet. Annal.

Ver. 21. And they shall be no more in your hand.] God’s own people may be, for a time, in the hand of seducers, and taken in their nets, carried away by their false opinions; but God will at length deliver his people out of their hand.

Ver. 22. Because with lies ye have made the heart of my people sad.] False doctrines and wicked practices grieve the hearts of the godly, and strengthen the hands of the ungodly, as these unhappy times do abundantly evince. The times truly are good (and in many respects better than they have been), but the days are evil.

By promising him life.] Though he walk in hell’s ways.

Ver. 23. Therefore ye shall see no more vanity.] By rendering you not only contemptible, but ridiculous. Or by redding the world of such pestilent people.

Chapter 14

Ver. 1. Then came certain of the elders unto me.] Rulers and chieftains of the captives in Babylon, pretending to be far better than those elders at Jerusalem, complained about in #Eze 8:11,12, but indeed no better; nay, so much the worse, because they had lost the fruit of all their afflictions, and were as arrant hypocrites as those veteratores old hands, the scribes and Pharisees, that came to John’s baptism and to our Saviour’s sermons, with evil and exulcerate minds.

“ Non omnes sancti qui calcant limina Templi.”

A Doeg may set his foot as far within the sanctuary as a David.

And sat before me.] Demurely and, to see to, devoutly. But why could they not stand to hear the Word of God for reverence sake? Balak did so, {#Nu 23:18} though a king; and Eglon, though unwieldy; {#Jud 3:20} and a better man than they both, Constantine the Great, as Eusebius {a} records, and further tells us, that being pressed, after long time of hearing, to sit down, with a stern countenance he answered, It were a great sin in me not to hear with utmost attention when God is speaking.

{a} De Vita Const.

Ver. 2. And the word of the Lord came.] Lest the prophet, seeing these seniors coming thus unto him, should favour them too far, God uncaseth them, as he doth mostly such gross hypocrites in this present life; Jeroboam and his wife, Ananias and Sapphira, Simon Magus, and others for instance. How else indeed should the name of such wicked wretches rot as they must? {#Pr 10:24-29}

Ver. 3. These men have set their idols in their hearts.] Though they would seem to abhor idols, yet the devil is at inn with them, and their hearts are no better than so many idol temples, as thou wouldst easily perceive hadst thou but my fiery eyes, and couldst see their insides as I do. Sustulerunt stercoreos deos suos super cor suum, {a} they have laid their dungy deities upon their very hearts; a place where I only should be by right, for it is the bridal bed.

And put the stumblingblock of their iniquity,] i.e., They are impudent sinners, as the scholiast {b} interprets it, and resolved of their course whatever comes of it.

Should I be inquired of {c} at all by them?] q.d., No, never; I scorn the motion, I abhor such ludibrious devotion as this is. Away with it. Piscator rendereth the words, An ergo serio interrogor ab eis? Thinkest thou that I am seriously sought unto by these? q.d., Nothing less.

{a} Piscator.

{b} One who writes explanatory notes upon an author; esp. an ancient commentator upon a classical writer. ŒD

{c} Hoc significat crassum Dei contemptum et quasi professam rebellionem.

Ver. 4. I the Lord will answer him.] Or, As I am the Lord (oath wise), I will answer him, but with bitter answers

According to the multitude of his idols,] i.e., As by his abominations he hath well deserved; or, concerning the multitude of his idols; that is a sin he shall be sure to hear of, and to suffer for.

Ver. 5. That I may take the house of Israel in their own heart.] Ut deprehendam, or, as others, ut reprehendam; that I may convince their consciences of their impieties, and sting them to the heart with unquestionable conviction and horror.

Because they are all estranged from me.] And fallen in with the devil, who is ειδωλοχαρης, as saith Synesius, a great promoter of idolatry. Idola sunt prima saliva, et initium deficiendi a Deo. {a} Idolatry paveth the way to utter apostasy.

{a} Oecolamp.

Ver. 6. Repent, and turn yourselves.] Or, Turn others; for true converts will be converting their brethren. They like not to go to heaven alone.

And turn away your faces.] Alii dicunt uxores vestras, saith Lavater here; your wives, which are according to your hearts, like as in water face answereth to face. Wean them from their idols, and win them over to the true God.

Ver. 7. For every one of the house of Israel.] The same over again, and yet no win repetition: Duris enim illis capitibus res non potuit satis inculcari, to these dizzards nothing could be said too much.

Or of the stranger.] But proselyted to the Jewish religion, as Jethro, who was the first of that kind that we read of.

Which separateth himself from me.] As a harlot doth from her husband. See #Ho 4:14 9:10.

I the, Lord will answer him by myself.] Non verbis sed verberibus; not with words, but with blows. Or, According to my most holy truth and justice; or, By myself—scil., do I swear that I will do it. See #Eze 14:4.

Ver. 8. And I will set my face against that man.] Vultuose torveque illum intuear. I will look him to death. Or, Laying aside all other business, I will see to it that he be soundly paid.

And will make him a sign and a proverb.] That when men would express a great punishment upon any, they shall resemble it to his, as the Jews did to Ahab’s and Zedekiah’s, that naughty couple, {#Jer 29:22} and the heathens to that of Tantalus {a} and Tityus.

And I will cut him off from the midst of my people.] This is yet a further and a more formidable menace; this is far worse than to he a byword to the people.

{a} Tantalus, q. ταλαντατος, Ut vult Plato.

Ver. 9. I the Lord have deceived that prophet.] I had not only a permissive, but an active hand in that imposture; not as a sin, but as a punishment of other sins. See #1Ki 22:20 Job 12:16 Jer 4:10 2Th 2:11.

And I will stretch out mine hand upon him,] i.e., Upon that false prophet, who, although he hath thus acted, not without my providence, yet hath sinned against my law, which is the rule men must walk by, or else suffer for their transgression. Aut faciendum aut patiendum. Now God hath long hands, as we use to say of princes; neither may any think to live out of the reach of his rod.

Ver. 10. And they shall bear the punishment of their iniquity.] Neither shall excuse other; but as they have sinned together, so shall they suffer together, quia volentes et scientes errabant, they wilfully went astray. Quandoquidem hic populus vult decipi, decipiatur; they shall infallibly perish. An evil pilot may easily drown himself, and all that are with him, on the same bottom.

Ver. 11. That the house of Israel may go no more astray.] Thus "when God’s judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness." {#Isa 26:9} Those elect that were bad will become good, and they that were good will he made better. Poena ad paucos, metus ad omnes. When a few are punished, all fear.

Ver. 12. The word of the Lord came again to me.] The utter destruction of this perverse people is once again denounced and declared to be inevitable.

Ver. 13. Son of man.] See on #Eze 2:1.

When the land sinneth against me,] i.e., The inhabitants of the land; not as if the land itself were alive and indued with reason, as Origen {a} doated, and as Plato held that the Spirit of God was the soul of the world.

By trespassing grievously.] Praevaricando perfide; by doing evil as men could.

Then will I stretch out my hand.] See #Eze 14:9.

And will break the staff.] See #Eze 4:16 5:16.

And I will send famine.] Extreme famine, a heavy judgment, as hath eleswhere been shown out of sacred and profane history.

{a} Hom. 4, in loc.

Ver. 14. Though these three men.] See on #Jer 15:1.

Noah, Daniel, and Job.] What could not these three, so mighty with God, have done if the matter had been feasible? Daniel was now alive and in his prime; Ezekiel, his contemporary and fellow prophet, envieth him not, but celebrateth him; as also Peter doth Paul. {#2Pe 3:15,16}

They should deliver but their own souls.] Because the decree was past, an end was come. {#Eze 7:2,4-6,10}

Ver. 15. If I cause noisome beasts.] As lions, wolves, bears, serpents, &c. Great hurt hath been done not only by such, as #Nu 21:6 2Ki 2:24 17:25,26 Jos 24:12; but also by tamer creatures when set on by God. Rebellis facta est, quia homo numini, creatura homini. {a} Rats, conies, frogs, wasps, moths, have done much mischief.

{a} Augustine.

Ver. 16. Though these three men were in it.] All alive, and lustily tugging; yet it would not do. In common calamities heathens had their supplications and sacrifices. Papists have their litanies and processions, though to small purpose. Let us, in the like ease, up and be doing, that the Lord may be with us.

They shall deliver neither sons.] Heb., If they deliver sons, &c.; q.d., then never trust me more. Formula iurandi elliptica.

Ver. 17. Or if I bring a sword.] The sword, whensoever it comes is bathed in heaven. {#Isa 34:5}

Sword, go through the land.] When the sword rideth circuit, as a judge, it is in commission. See #Jer 47:6,7.

Ver. 18. Neither sons nor daughtens,] {a} Though never so dear to them: τα φιλτατα, the Greeks call them.

{a} Omnis pestilentiae coeca et delitescens est causa. -Fernel.

Ver. 19. Or if I send a pestilence.] Which Hippocartes calleth το Θειον, because God hath a special hand in it. Physicians can give no good reason for it.

In blood,] i.e., In great slaughter, laying heaps upon heaps.

Ver. 20. Neither son nor daughter.] Though it were an only one, and so more dear to them.

They shall but deliver.] Howbeit a good man also may die of the plague, as did Oecolampadius, Greenham, &c.

Ver. 21. My four sore judgments.] Every one of the four (Cardan reckons three more of like nature, viz., earthquakes, inundations, and great winds) are sore judgments indeed. Each of them is pessimum, most wicked, i.e., perniciosum. Cavete. Dangerous. Beware.

Ver. 22. Yet, behold.] See a thing sudden and serious.

They shall come.] Be captives here, as you are.

And ye shall see their way.] How wicked it was, and worthy of punishment.

Ver. 23. And they shall comfort,] i.e., Quiet and qualify your spirits.

Chapter 15

Ver. 1. And the word of the Lord came unto me.] This shortest chapter is added to all the foregoing as a corollary. It consisteth of a type or simile, and the application thereof. It is God’s usual way, and should be ours, to teach by similitudes. See #Ho 12:10. {See Trapp on "Ho 12:10"}

Ver. 2. What is the vine tree more than any tree?] The Jews took upon them, because a "vine brought out of Egypt," and such as God’s own right hand had planted. But insomuch as they were now become fruitless and also useless "trees twice dead, plucked up by the roots," {#Jude 12} what had they to glory in above other nations? Surely they were therefore worse than others, because they ought to have been better. True it is that a vine in itself, considered with the fruit it beareth, is no contemptible tree. But if it be withered or pulled out of the earth, it is no way comparable to other trees or shrubs, which, when felled, are put to sundry good uses that the vine— lignum tenus, gibbosum et tortuosum -a crooked, low, writhen thing—will never serve to; as to make spears, doors, tables, ships, houses, &c.

Ver. 3. Shall wood be taken thereof to do any work?] No, hardly. It is good for nothing; no, not so much as to make a pin or a peg of to hang a hat or bridle on, because it is a sappy and brittle wood. Think the same of that empty vine, the profligate professor, being abominable, disobedient, and unto every good work reprobate. {#Tit 1:16}

Ver. 4. Behold, it is cast into the fire for fuel.] But then it must be taken before it be overly dry; and so Cornelius A Lapide testifieth that they burn little else in Italy but fagots made of vine branches. See #Joh 15:6. {See Trapp on "Joh 15:6"}

The midst of it is burned.] Ustulatum; scorched and seared, so that it is altogether unuseful, and is therefore cast again into the fire, out of which, for some other purpose, it had been pulled. Woe to apostates; the hottest fire in hell abideth them.

Ver. 5. Behold, when it was whole.] The Jews, when at best, were too too bad; a foolish people and unwise, disobedient and gainsaying all the day long. How much more then now that they are hardened and seared with so many judgments?

Ver. 6. As the vine tree.] Adaptat parabolam. Here beginneth the apodosis or application of the parable. That which is not for fruit is for the fire. Salt which hath lost the savour is thrown out.

So will I give the inhabitants of Jerusalem.] Those sinners in Zion; {#Isa 33:14} those sacrificing Sodomites; {#Isa 1:10} I will make them a fiery oven in the time of mine anger; I will swallow them up in my wrath; {#Ps 21:9} besides that, hell gapeth for them.

Ver. 7. And I will set my face aguinst them.] See #Eze 14:8 Le 17:10.

They shall go out from one fire.] And then think themselves safe and happy; but this is but gaucdium lachrymosum; their preservation is but only a reservation; for

Another fire shall devour them.] A man pulleth a brand out of the fire sometimes, and then presently casteth it in again. He gathereth up the stick ends, but it is to cast them into the middle of the fire. So dealeth God often with the wicked; to whom also whatsoever they suffer here is but a typical Tophet. See #Am 5:19 Jer 48:43.

And ye shall know that I am the Lord,] i.e., True of my word, and terrible in mine executions. The prophets could not get you to believe that your sins were so heinous, that my wrath was so hot, that your judgments were so heavy, &c.; but now ye shall surely feel what you would not then believe, and cry out, Nos insensati, &c. Oh we fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets had spoken unto us.

When I set my face against them.] As being fully resolved to have my full blow at them, and to pay them home.

Ver. 8. And I will make the land desolate.] The land itself often suffereth, propter incolarum inemendabilem malitiam, "for the wickedness of them that dwell therein." {#Ps 107:4} Idolatry especially is a land desolating sin.

Because they have committed a trespass.] A grand trespass, a wickedness with a witness; they have deeply revolted, and backslidden with a perpetual backsliding. Apostates, as they sin not common sins, so, with Korah and his complices, they die not common deaths many times.

Chapter 16

Ver. 1. Again the word of the Lord came unto me.] For the better setting on of what had been said in the foregoing chapter, for cutting the combs of the self-conceited Jews, and convincing them of their wickedness and wretchedness thereby. The chapter consisteth of law and gospel, {#Eze 16:60} and is a lively type, animae peccatricis et poenitentis, of an offending and repenting soul.

Ver. 2. Cause Jerusalem to know her abominations.] Which as yet she taketh no knowledge of. Rebuke her therefore sharply, that she may be sound in the faith, if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth.

Ver. 3. Thy birth.] Heb., Thy cutting out. Compare #Isa 51:1.

And thy nativity.] Vide insignem genealogiam, vide γενεθλοιν pudendum. Mutato heroine de te fabula narratur. Cicero {a} saith the old Britons were as barbarous as the Scythians.

Thy father was an Amorite.] {b} An Amorite thou mayest seem to be rather than an Abramite; for thou hast filled the land, as they did, {#Ezr 9:11} from end to end with thine uncleanness.

And thy mother an Hittite.] Those worst of women. {#Ge 27:46}

{a} De Nat. Deor.

{b} Duris genuit te cautibus horrens Caucasus. -Virg.

Ver. 4. Thy navel was not cut.] None was so courteous as to do any of these necessary good offices for thee, a poor, forlorn, helpless wretch. No creature is so shiftless as a newly born babe, which, cast out and left to the wide world, must needs perish. {a}

{a} Plut., lib. De Amore Prolis.

Ver. 5. None eye pitied thee.] No, not thy mother, in whose heart God had planted natural affection for that purpose. Neither would thy Lucina become thy Levana (two heathen deities), to take thee up from the ground, where thou layest, alas! weltering in thy gore, and more like to a slain than a live child.

Ver. 6. And when I passed by thee.] Not by chance, {as #Lu 10:31} but of free choice, and according to mine eternal purpose.

And saw thee in thy blood.] In this deplorable condition. Blood is in this verse thrice mentioned, to set forth the greatness of man’s misery in his pure, or rather impure, natural state, and the freeness of God’s grace toward him all along. {#Mt 11:26}

I said unto thee, Live,] God speaketh spiritual life to his poor people, {#Isa 55:3} and often repeateth to them his precious promises, whereby they come to "partake of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust." {#2Pe 1:4}

Ver. 7. As the bud of the field.] He prosecuteth the allegory of a miserable maiden, with whom the matter beginneth to mend. Iam enim menses patiebatur, ubera creverant et pili circa pubem; so that now she was marriageable.

And thou art come to excellent ornaments.] Heb., To ornaments of ornaments, such as virgo nobilis, cum iam est nubilis, habet, young ladies have, when grown up especially.

Whereas thou wast naked and bare.] Heb., Nakedness and rejection. God looked upon us and loved us, whenas yet we had not a rag to our backs. Cum tu nuda esses, argue nudissima.

Ver. 8. Behold, thy time was the time of love.] When thou wast both fit for marriage, and desirous of it. For as the man misseth his rib, so the woman would be in her old place again, under the man’s arm or wing. See #Ru 3:1,9.

And I spread my skirt over thee.] See #Ru 3:9. {See Trapp on "Ru 3:9"} I covered thy nakedness, and took thee into my care and company as a wife. A marriage rite is imported by this expression.

Yea, I sware unto thee, &c.] So much ado God hath with us to make us believe. The apostle mentioneth "the work of faith." She hath somewhat to do before she can fasten.

Ver. 9. Then washed I thee with water.] I cleansed thee from all thy pollutions by the merit and Spirit of my dear Son. See #1Co 6:11.

And I anointed thee with oil.] Newly married wives were usually washed, anointed, and richly arrayed. The dead also were washed, as Dorcas; and embalmed, as Jacob; and #Pr 31:8, they are called bene chaloph, which signifieth "change of raiment." Death strips us all, but happy are they whom Christ hath spread his skirt over. See #2Co 5:2-4.

Ver. 10. I clothed thee also with broidered work.] Phrygionica veste variegata. With variety of precious graces, whereby thou didst outshine Solomon in all his bravery; for one grain of faith is of better worth than all the gold of Ophir, and one remnant of hope beyond all the gay clothing in the world.

And girded thee about with fine linen.] The Church hath a rich wardrobe for woollens and linens; God’s plenty of both.

Ver. 11. I decked thee also with ornaments.] See #Eze 16:7; such as render thee amiable and admirable. Christ himself, who was not moved at all with the offer of all the world’s good, {#Mt 4:9,10} confesseth himself ravished with them. {#So 4:9}

Ver. 12. And I put a jewel on thy forehead.] Heb., On thy nose. See on #Ge 24:47.

Ver. 13. Thus wast thou decked with gold and silver.] Yea, with far better habiliments; for what is gold and silver but the guts and garbage of the earth? It was observed of Queen Elizabeth (as of her father before her), that she loved to go very richly arrayed. Her sister Queen Mary had, at her coronation, her head so laden with jewels, that she could hardly hold it up. King Richard II had one coat of gold and jewels valued at 30,000 marks. This was much, but nothing to the Church’s beauty and bravery, which yet was all but borrowed, as is said in the next verse.

Thou didst eat fine flour and honey,] i.e., The very best of the best. Thou didst eat of the fat, and drink of the sweet of my holy ordinances.

Ver. 14. And thy renown went forth.] Pliny saith of Jerusalem that it was the most famous of all the cities of the East; of the world he might have said, all things considered.

Through the comeliness which I had put upon thee.] As Abraham’s servant put the jewels upon Rebekah. See on #Eze 16:13. That is a famous canon {a} of the second Arausican council, Tales nos amat Deus, quales futuri sumus ipsius dono, non quales sumus nostro merito: God loveth us such as we shall be by his free gift, and not such as we are by our own merit.

{a} Canon 12.

Ver. 15. But thou didst trust in thine own beauty.] Thou grewest proud of it, and thoughtest there was none such; whenas thou mightest well have said of it, as he in the holy history did of his hatchet, "Alas, master, it was but borrowed."

And playedst the harlot.] Being fair and foolish.

“ Lis est cum forma magna pudicitiae.”

Because of thy renown.] Being puffed up with the greatness of thy name and fame, which should have made thee more morigerous. {#Pr 27:21} {See Trapp on "Pr 27:21"}

And pouredst out thy fornications.] Indifferently and impudently, like a filthy strumpet.

His it was.] Quicunque vult; come as come would: so detestably insatiated wast thou. The Papists boast of their Church that she is a pious mother, that shutteth her bosom to no man. Meretricis scilicet hoc est meretricissimae.

Ver. 16. And of thy garments thou didst take.] Thou sparedst for no cost to trick up thy mawmets and monuments of idolatry. No more do Papists: witness their churches, yea, their cloisters and churchyards (for want of room within), stuffed with their vowed presents and rich vestments. Besides that they do garnish and furnish out their heretical doctrines with testimonies of Holy Scripture, which they wrest, and with authority of ancient fathers, whom they wrong, Quaerit diabolus a te ornari, said Augustine to a scholar of his, who was learned and lewd; that is, The devil would fain be dressed up by thee.

The like things shall not come.] Such a desperate idolomany as thine can hardly be matched or met with anywhere. So an Englishman Italienate ltalianised is even a devil incarnate. Julian the apostate was by some called Idolian.

Ver. 17. Images of men.] To be thy gallants, with whom thou mightest adulterise and idolise. Vah scelus! Surely he is a rare man that hath not some or other idol whereon he bestows pains and cost, "Little children, keep yourselves from idols." {#1Jo 5:21}

Ver. 18. And tookest thy broidered, &c.] See #Eze 16:16.

Ver. 19. My meat also…thou hast even set it before them.] Either as consecrated to them, or otherwise to be consecrated by them, which made Daniel so scrupulous of meddling with the king’s meat. {#Eze 1:8}

Thus it was.] Just so, and no otherwise, however thou would palliate the business, and art ready to put me to my proofs. {as #Jer 2:35}

Ver. 20. Whom thou hast born unto me.] Who at their birth were mine by virtue of my covenant, and who should therefore have been consecrated unto me. {a} Polanus here giveth this good note: A Church, though it be idolatrous, may bring forth children to God, by bestowing upon them the sacrament of initiation or regeneration; and God will acknowledge them for his children, till such time as he hath given a bill of divorce to that Church. {b} This is done whereas she openly betaketh herself to the bed of another husband, by disowning Christ for her God, Lord, Bridegroom, and Mediator; as the Asiatic Church hath done, by defecting first to Nestorianism, and now to Mohammedanism. Let this be well noted against the Anabaptists of these times.

{a} Diod.

{b} Pol. in loc.

Ver. 21. That thou hast slain my children.] Note that he yet calleth them his children, though so born, and so murdered. See on #Eze 16:20.

Ver. 22. Thou hast not remembered the days of thy youth.] Hence all thy haughtiness and hauntiness. We should often say, as that noble Iphicrates the Athenian once did, Εξ οιων εις ο ια, From how small to how great matters hath the Lord raised me!

Ver. 23. Woe, woe unto thee, saith the Lord God.] A double woe will fall very heavy here and hereafter; woe and alas for evermore.

Ver. 24. That thou hast also built unto thee.] How stintless is sin, and how like is this to Jeremiah’s preaching! {#Jer 2:3-8}

An eminent place.] Or brothel house, that thy madness may appear to all men.

Ver. 25. And hast made thy beauty to be abhorred.] By being made so cheap and common. Sin is a reproach to any people, {#Pr 14:34} idolatry especially. {#1Pe 4:3}

And hast opened thy feet.] See on #Eze 16:15.

Ver. 26. Great of flesh.] Torosi, scil., propter potentiam et petulantiam. The prophet persisteth in the metaphor, from the manner of shamelessly lascivious women: such as was Messalina, the wife of Claudius the emperor; and she in Apuleius that entertained the ass. See #Eze 23:20. Flesh is here and elsewhere taken for the privities, quod est membrum prorsus carneum.

Ver. 27. I have stretched out my hand over thee.] To cut thee short. {as #Ho 2:9}

And have diminished thine ordinary food.] Diminui demensum tuum. What should a father do but snatch away the meat from his child that marreth it? or a husband, but hold his wanton wife to straiter allowance?

The daughters of the Philistines, which are ashamed of thy lewd way.] It must needs be most lewd that Philistines were ashamed of. Zimmah signifieth wickedness with a witness. Jerome interpreteth it an execrable and villanous filthiness. So is Popish idolatry in the eyes of modern Jews; and the hellish blasphemies darted out against God and Christ so ordinarily and openly by pseudo Christians, abominable to the Turks, who do punish them for it with great severity.

Ver. 28. Thou hast played the whore also with the Assyrians.] By making sinful leagues, and gadding so much about to change thy way. {#Jer 2:36}

And yet couldest not be satisfied.] It is as easy to quench the fire of Etna as the thoughts set on fire by lust.

Ver. 29. In the land of Canaan.] Thou hast lived in my good land, but not by my good laws.

And yet thou wast not satisfied.] See on #Eze 16:28.

Ver. 30. How weak is thine heart.] Weak as water, melted in spiritual lust, putrefying alive, and perishing daily, as Tiberius said he perceived himself to do at Capreae. {a} This is here uttered by way of admiration; and the word rendered heart, being otherwhere of the masculine gender, is here made feminine, to show how idolaters are effeminated to a base and sensual esteem of God and his service. {Hebrew Text Note}

The work of an imperious whorish woman.] {b} Of a strong whore; {c} weak to do good, but strong to do evil; so are all idolaters with their hippomanes et cacoethes. The word rendered imperious signifieth a sultaness or queen; who, if with a queen, what will she not dare to do? See it in that whore of Babylon, who sitteth as a queen, &c. The unbridled boisterousness of idolaters, see #Jer 44:16,17.

{a} Sueton.

{b} Pervicacissimae et procacissimae.

{c} Une paillarde robuste. -French.

Ver. 31. And hast not been as an harlot, in that thou scornsst hire.] Whore should be written hore, as coming from the word hire; as the Latin meretrix a merendo. Harlot is said to come of Arlet, mother to our William the Conqueror; in spite to whom, and disgrace to his mother, the English called all whores harlots, adding an aspiration to her name, according to their manner of pronouncing.

Ver. 32. Which taketh strangers instead of her husband.] This is a foul mistake; wedlock should be chaste. The window of the ark shut, that the waters of the flood enter not into it.

Ver. 33. They give gifts to all whores.] See #Eze 16:31. Harlots are cruces and crumenimulgae, saith the comedian, crosses and suck purses. See #Lu 15:14.

“ Nuda Venus picta est, nndi pinguntur amores:

Nam quos nuda capit, nudos dimittat oportet.”

Ver. 34. And the contrary is in thee, &c.] The Jews, before the Babylonish captivity, were madly and above measure set upon the sin of idolatry, say their own Rabbis; so that if one clothed never so richly had seen an idol on the further side of a broad pool, he would have gone through thick and thin, etiam in cloacalem foetulentam, end even in foul smelling sewers to have worshipped it. {a}

{a} Oecolamp.

Ver. 35. Wherefore, O harlot.] A name good enough for such an odious housewife, the shame of her sex. He is not worthy of an honest name whose deeds are not honest.

Hear the word of the Lord.] Hear thy doom, thy sentence: stoned thou shalt be as an adulteress, slain with the sword as a murderess, burned with fire as an incendiary, because thou hast burned thy children in honour of Moloch. {a}

{a} απ εργων ου καλων ουκ εστιν επη καλα.

Ver. 36. Because thy filthiness.] Heb., Thy poison, aerugo tua. your ill will, Thy filthiness issuing from thee by reason of thine overly frequent and excessive adulteries. He meaneth the infamous fluxes of whores, saith Diodat.

And by the blood.] Heb., Bloods, because scattered about in several drops.

Ver. 37. With whom thou hast taken pleasure.] Or, With whom thou hast been commingled. Iocundata es.

And will discover thy nakedness unto them.] This is by modest women taken for a very great punishment. Polyxena, when she was sacrificed, took great care to fall handsomely. The Milesian maids would not be kept from killing themselves till there was a law made that such as so did should be drawn naked through the market. Till the days of Theodosius senior, if a woman were taken in adultery, they shut her up in a stews, and compelled her beastly, and without all shame, to play the harlot, ringing a bell while the deed was doing, that all the neighbours might be made privy to it. This evil custom that good emperor took away, making other laws for the punishment of adultery.

Ver. 38. And I will judge thee as women that break wedlock.] See #Le 20:10 De 22:22. The Egyptians cut off the harlot’s nose, and the adulterer’s privy members; the Romans beheaded them; the old Germans whipped them through the streets; Canutus, the Danish king in this land, banished them; Tenedius, a king in another land, did cut them in sunder with an axe; by our laws they are to be hanged, as by the Jews’ laws to be stoned. {#Eze 16:40}

And shed blood.] See #Eze 16:35.

I will give thee blood.] God loveth to retaliate.

Ver. 39. They shall throw down thine eminent place.] So did the Turks throw down many both images and churches in Christendom, when people would not be persuaded to cast images out of their churches.

They shall strip thee also of thy clothes.] So the Spaniards did the Dutch, when once they grew fond of the Spanish fashions, as Lavater here notes.

Ver. 40. They shall also bring up a company against thee.] The Chaldeans, that "hasty and bitter nation." {#Hab 1:6}

And they shall stone thee.] See on #Eze 16:35.

Ver. 41. In the sight of many women.] Those matrons whom thou hast misused; and many others who may well be warned, by thy just punishment, to keep their faith to God and man.

Ver. 42. So I will make my fury toward thee to rest.] Sept., I will dismiss mine anger upon thee. Like as when Haman was hanged, Ahasuerus’s wrath was pacified; {#Es 7:10} and as when Jonah was cast overboard, the sea was calmed.

Ver. 43. Because thou hast not remembered, &c.] Thou hast not cared to converse with thyself, nor to recogitate my goodness, and thine own badness.

But hast fretted me.] Or, Hast kept a stir with me; or rather, Stirred up thyself against me; and all through want of reflection and self-examination. See #Jer 8:6.

I also will recompense thy way upon thy head.] As the arrows of those Thracians, thrown up against Jupiter, for raining upon them unseasonably, came down again upon their own heads, {a} so here.

{a} Herodot.

Ver. 44. Behold, every one that useth proverbs.] Omnis paraemiator paraemiabit. That is skilful at, and exercised in gibing and jeering; as was Socrates—called therefore ο Σκωπτων, the Scoffer—Democritus, Lucian, Sir Thomas Moore, Erasmus, &c.

Shall use this proverb.] This taunting proverb.

As is the mother, so is her daughter.] The birth followeth the belly. Κακου κορακος κακον ωον. Ill birds lay ill eggs. Qualis hera, talis ancilla, &c.

Ver. 45. Thou art thy mother’s daughter.] As like her as if spat out of her mouth; so like her, that thou art the worse again.

Your mother was an Hittite.] And doth therefore seek her daughter in the oven, because she had first been there herself. See #Eze 16:3.

Ver. 46. She and her daughters,] i.e., Her cities and villages.

That dwell at thy left hand.] Thou art well set up therewhile, well neighboured.

That dwelleth at thy right hand.] That did do so, but new dwelleth with devils; being "thrown out for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire." {#Jude 7}

Ver. 47. Yet hast thou not walked after their ways.] But hast out sinned them. Nolunt solita peccare, Do not make a habit of sinning, saith Seneca of some, They will not sin in an ordinary way. Et pudet non esse impudentes, saith Augustine of others; i.e., they are ashamed not to be past shame.

But as if that were a very little thing.] Paululum pauxillumque; A peccadillo.

Ver. 48. As I live, saith the Lord God, Sodom thy sister hath not done.] Heb., If Sodom thy sister hath done, &c.; q.d., Then let me never be trusted more. Here, then, is a double oath taken by God, to assure this people that they had outsinned Sodom—a truth that they would not easily assent to. To this day we cannot get men to believe that their natures are so naught, their lives so lewd, their state so dangerous, as the preachers make them. Their hearts are good, their penny good silver, &c. The prophet Isaiah lost his life, say the Rabbis, for calling the rulers of Jerusalem rulers of Sodom, and the people of Judah people of Gomorrah. {#Isa 1:10}

Ver. 49. Behold, this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom, pride,] i.e., Haughty mindedness and high conceitedness of their own surpassing excellence and stable felicity. This was the first firebrand that set Sodom on fire.

Fulness of bread.] Gourmandise and surquedry. This fulness bred forgetfulness, and this saturity security.

“ Luxuriant animi rebus plerumque secundis:

Nec facile est aequa commoda mente pati.”

And abundance of idleness.] Tranquillitas tranquillitatis, rest of rest; and this abused to idleness, deep idleness, which is the devil’s pillow, and the mother of many mischiefs; for he shall not but do naughtily that does nothing.

Neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor.] Inhospitable they were, and unmerciful. The two angels might have lain in the streets for them; neither would they let them rest when Lot had lodged them.

Ver. 50. And they were haughty.] This sin of theirs is once more instanced as the root of the rest, the hate of heaven, and gate to hell.

And committed abomination before me.] That unnatural filthiness which taketh its name from them. This in the Levant is not held a vice, and in Mexico it is one of the Spanish virtues.

Therefore I took them away as I saw good,] sc., By raining down hell from heaven upon them. Hereby also God gave men an example of that rule, that heinous sins bring hideous plagues, as Herodotus also saith of the fall of Troy.

Ver. 51. Neither hath Samaria committed half thy sins.] And yet thou lookest aloof upon her as a far greater sinner than thyself, because already carried captive, whenas thou hast done and spoken evil things as thou couldst, {#Jer 3:5} outdone her a fair deal.

And hast justified thy sisters.] Who may well seem saints in comparison of thee, and yet are as naught as need to be.

Ver. 52. Thou also which hast judged thy sisters.] Passed many harsh and rash censures upon them, not looking at all to the hinder part of the wallet.

Bear thine own shame.] Thou shalt do it sure enough; for where sin is in the saddle, there shame is on the crupper. Accept therefore the punishment of thine iniquity; {#Le 26:43} give glory to God, take shame to thyself.

Ver. 53. When I shall bring again.] Or, If I bring again, which I shall never do. The Jewish doctors indeed would from this verse gather that Sodom and all shall one day be restored again; but that is like to be a long day. The Jews, as they had taken up the opinion of Pythagoras about transanimation, so they had that other of Plato about the great revolution or restitution of all things after certain years.

Then will I bring again the captivity.] The Jews were never perfectly restored, in respect to the glory of the temple, and the state of the kingdom, &c.

Ver. 54. In that thou art a comfort unto them.] #Eze 14:22. Solamen miseris socios habuisse doloris; to have companions in misery is some kind of comfort.

Ver. 55. When thy sister Sodom and her daughters.] See on #Eze 16:53. The Jews still dream that all this shall be done at the coming of their long looked for Messiah, and in his reign on earth for a thousand years. {a} That then also Jerusalem shall be rebuilt and made up of gold, silver, and precious stones, &c. So apt are they to work themselves into the fool’s paradise of a sublime dotage.

{a} Jerome in loc.

Ver. 56. For thy sister Sodom was not mentioned.] Thou thoughtest her not worthy to be named in the same day with thee, and little dreamedst that thou shouldst be matched with her in misery. Or thus, Thou wouldst neither hear nor speak of her, though I had thrown her forth for an example of divine vengeance. {#Jude 7}

In the day of thy pride.] Heb., Prides; for pride buddeth, {#Eze 7:10} and, like a great swelling in the body which breaks and runs with loathsome and foul matter, it breaks forth into odious practices.

Ver. 57. Before thy wickedness was discovered,] sc., By my punishments, by my sending the Syrians and Philistines upon thee, in the days of Ahaz, to despoil and despise thee. Compare #Isa 9:12.

Ver. 58. Thou hast borne thy lewdness,] i.e., The punishment of it, and yet art little the better. See #Isa 9:13.

Ver. 59. I will even deal with thee.] I will avenge upon thee the quarrel of my covenant. {#Le 26:25}

Ver. 60. Nevertheless I will remember my covenant.] Here beginneth the evangelical part of the chapter, which is for the comfort of the elect, who would be frightened to hear those direful threats; like as in a house we cannot beat the dogs but the children will fall to crying.

Ver. 61. And be ashamed.] With a saving and savoury shame, such as was that of Ezra and of the penitent publican, proceeding from true compunction, and producing repentance never to be repented of.

When thou shalt receive thy sisters.] Not Sodom only and Samaria, but all the Gentiles whom thou hast imitated; but now shalt become a worthy example of better things.

But not by thy covenant.] Made with thee in Mount Sinai, but by a covenant of grace made in Mount Zion.

Ver. 62. And I will establish my covenant.] My new spiritual and eternal covenant, grounded upon the Messias, and made with the whole Israel according to faith. {#Jer 31:31-34 2Co 3:3 Heb 8:8}

Ver. 63. That thou mayest remember.] Thy many strayings.

And never open thy mouth.] To extenuate thy sins, or to murmur at thy sufferings; but be silent and submissive.

Chapter 17

Ver. 1. And the word of the Lord came.] In the foregoing chapter God had threatened the inhabitants of Jerusalem for violating their covenant with him; and here he threateneth them no less for breach of covenant with men. In case of disobedience to himself, he showeth much patience many times; but in case of disloyalty to a lawful sovereign, against oath especially, he is quick and severe in his executions.

Ver. 2. Son of man, put forth a riddle.] Acue acumen, sharpen a sharpening, or whet a whetting. The prophet might have expressed God’s mind in fewer words; but then it would not have taken so deep an impression. Parents must whet God’s word upon their children, {#De 6:7} ministers upon their people, and Christians upon one another for the increase of love and good works. {#Heb 10:24} Riddles exercise the wit, and parables help the memory, and excite both attention and affection.

Ver. 3. A great eagle with great wings.] An eagle, that king of birds, is a fit emblem of an emperor; {a} as it is here of Nebuchadnezzar the Great. {#Eze 17:12 Jer 48:40 49:22} Monarchs, as eagles, have quick eyes, long talons, fly high pitches, aim at great matters, strive to get above all others, choose themselves high and firm seats, &c. See #Job 39:27-30, with the notes. Ajax is called αιτος, an eagle, in Pindarus; so is King Pyrrhus in Plutarch, and took delight in that title. The Spaniard was well laughed at by Captain Drake and his forces when they took Santo Domingo, 1585, and found in the townhall the King of Spain’s arms, and under them a globe of the world, out of which issued, not a well-plumed eagle, but a flying home, with this inscription, Non sufficit orbis the world is not enough. We could not so well bridle his Pegasus at Santo Domingo, yet we put a stop to him at Jamaica; but we have lately pulled his plumes in Flanders to some purpose, by gaining from him Dunkirk, now {b} held by the English, and likewise Berghen, another place of great strength, now held by the French; the good news whereof came to us yesterday, being June 27, 1658. Praised be the holy name of God for ever.

Came unto Lebanon,] i.e., Unto Judea, which lieth near the forest of Lebanon, which forest also lieth in the way from Babylon to Judea.

And took the highest branch of the cedar.] Taleam, the top branch. This was Jeconiah. {#2Ki 24:12}

{a} Vide Pier. in Hieroglyph.

{b} This was written June 28, 1658.

Ver. 4. He cropped off the top of his young twigs,] i.e., The nobles carried into captivity with their king, as is to be seen #Eze 17:12. So true is that saying of the Rabbis, Nulla est obiectio in lege quae non habet solutionem in latere, There is no riddle in the law that hath not a solution by the sides of it; and so little cause had that Jesuit, Barradius, to borrow an argument from this text to prove the Scriptures to be a riddle and obscure.

And carried it into a land of traffic.] Babylonia was so. See #Re 18:11. Rome is so, where all things are saleable and soluble. Omnia Romae vaenalia; as was long since complained.

He set it in a city of merchants.] Some city of Babylon, saith Diodat, assigned to the Jews, which was commodious for traffic, to keep them from all thoughts of war and state policy.

Ver. 5. He took also of the seed of the land.] No foreigner, but one of their own country, and of the blood royal too—viz., Zedekiah. This was a great mercy; as that most spitefully done of Attilus, king of Suecia, to make a dog king of the Danes; as did likewise Gunno, king of the Danes, make a dog king of Norway, appointing counsellors to do all things under his title and name.

And planted it in a fruitful field,] i.e., In Judea, that good land—as Rabahakeh also yieldeth it to have been, whatever Strabo saith to the contrary—where Zedekiah might have lived bravely and reigned prosperously, could he but have been content with his condition:

“ At Paris ut vivat regnetque beatus,

Cogi posse negat.’’—Horat., Epist. ii.

He placed it by great waters, and set it as a willow tree.] A well contented person grows up prosperously, as the willows by the water courses.

Ver. 6. And it grew.] And yet it had a great fall—viz, from a tall cedar to a low vine. Zedekiah, though he had still the title of a king, and was not left without wealth and dignity, yet it was far inferior to that of his predecessors.

“ Magna repente ruunt, summa cadunt subito.”

Whose branches turned toward him,] i.e., Toward Nebuchadnezzar, now the chief lord of the land. To him looked and leaned the lords of the land, and so long they did well, for they and the whole kingdom thrived.

Ver. 7. There was also another great eagle,] sc., Pharaoh, another potent monarch; why called an eagle, see on #Eze 17:3.

And, behold, this vine did bend her roots toward him.] Which was the worst chare for herself that ever she did. The devil of discontent put her upon this unhappy project, whereby, instead of mending herself, she soon marred all; so true is that of Solomon, "Wisdom is better than weapons of war: but one sinner destroyeth much good." {#Ec 9:18} Zedekiah little thought once ever to have been a king; Nebuchadnezzar made him so, whenas he might as well have refused him for the rebellions of his two predecessors. He had also dealt nobly with him, though his vassal, and would have defended him against any adverse power, &c., so that he had no reason at all to rebel, but that he was infatuated and besotted by ambition and avarice, which Plutarch finely and fitly calleth νοσηματα συμφυτα ταις δυναστειαις, diseases natural to potentates.

Ver. 8. It was planted in a good soil.] He was well enough, if he could have kept him so.

“ O fortunates homines, bona si sun norint!”

But discontent enjoyeth nothing: Zedekiah liketh not to be a vine, he must be a cedar. Aut Caesar aut nullus. Either Caesar or nothing.

Ver. 9. Shall it prosper?] How should it? say. "Hath ever any waxed fierce against God (or his substitute) and prospered?" {#Job 9:4} Is perfidy and perjury the right way to prosperity? I trow not.

Shall he not pull up?] He that is the great eagle, {#Eze 17:3} who would be upon them before they were aware.

Without great power, or many people,] i.e., For any great need there shall be of them, since the work shall be done with little ado. If the Chaldeans were but a few, and they all wounded men, they should yet rise up and burn this city, saith Jeremiah. See #2Ch 24:23,24. It is no hard matter, we know, to pluck up a vine, root and branch; God telleth us in the next verse that he can do it with a wind—with a wet finger, as we say.

Ver. 10. Shall it not utterly wither?] As Jonah’s gourd did when smitten with a worm; as Phocas’s wall came down with a witness, because built upon mines of gunpowder—sin lay at the bottom, as one told him—which, being once fired, would blow up all.

When the east wind toucheth it.] Which is very hurtful to vines, saith, Columella. As all creatures, so the winds are God’s agents; as to purge the air—Rupertus calleth them the besoms of the air—and to refresh men’s spirits, so to execute many of God’s judgments upon his rebels, as here. Aliorum perditio nostra sit cautio; Let other men’s destruction be our instruction.

It shall wither in the furrows where it grew,] i.e., In Egypt, where it rained not, but was all watered by furrows drawn from Nile, to run into all their fields. Here this vine should thrive, one would think, if anywhere—viz., in moist and fat furrows but it could not, because blasted by God’s curse.

Ver. 11. Moreowr, the word of the Lord came unto me, saying.] God had one saying more to this rebellious house by way of explication here, and another of application for comfort and encouragement to the better sort among them. {#Eze 17:22-24}

Ver. 12. Know ye not what these things mean?] q.d., It is much you should not. There is no such great difficulty in the parable, but that ye are self-blinded, and will not see far off; either your wits serve you not in the things of God, or if they do, you will make believe otherwise. Are ye not, therefore, rightly called a "rebellious house"

Tell them.] For their learnings, and that they may be left without excuse. See on #Eze 17:4.

Ver. 13. And hath taken an oath of him.] An oath of allegiance. Heb., Hath brought him into an execration, or an oath with cursing, that he shall be true and loyal to him, and hold his kingdom of him as his liege lord, and pay him tribute. This, though we find not in the book of Kings, yet from what we here find, we are sure it was so.

Ver. 14. That the kingdom might be base.] The mighty of the land being taken away, {as #Eze 17:13} and the spirits of the vest imbased by burdens and oppressions in their estates and liberties.

But that by keeping of his covenant.] The breach whereof was the break neck of the state, as it hath been of many others, and will be shortly of the Turks—who hold that there is no faith to be kept with dogs, that is, with Christians—and of the Popes, who hold that there is no faith to be kept with heretics, that is, with Protestants; and for all others, it is written by an Italian, no stranger to the court of Rome, that their proverb is, Mercatorum eat, non regum, stare iuramentis, that it is for merchants, and not for monarchs, to stand to their oaths. Shall such stand? shall they thus escape by iniquity?

Ver. 15. But he rebelled against him.] As Ottocarus, king of Bohemia, did against Rodolphus, the first emperor of Germany, by the instigation of his queen; and as Ladislaus, king of Hungary, did against Amurath, the Turkish emperor, by the encouragement of Capistranus, the Pope’s agent, to the very great reproach of the Christian religion.

Ver. 16. As I live.] So surely will I punish perjury and treachery. Histories are full of examples in this kind, and I have elsewhere recited some of them. That of Henry III of France, related by a reverend man, {a} deserves to be memorised: After great differences between him, the Cardinal, and Duke of Guise, he was reconciled unto them, confirmed the reconciliation with many oaths, took the sacrament upon it, and gave himself to the devil, body and soul, in case he meant or should attempt anything against them. Yet, saith the story, he caused the Duke to be killed in his own presence, and the Cardinal, his brother, the next day after. Here was breach of covenant; but did he prosper, escape, do such things, and have deliverance? No; within eight months after, he was slain by a friar in the midst of his army.

{a} Mr Greenhill.

Ver. 17. Neither shall Pharaoh.] God will cause the strongest sinew in the arm of flesh to crack. See #Ps 33:10,11.

Ver. 18. Seeing he despised the oath.] Despised it ex fastu quodam, out of pride and disdain, as the word signifieth, as Pascenius the Papist jeereth at King James for inventing the oath of allegiance. There is in our chronicles a memorable story of one Sir Ralph Percy, slain upon Hegely Moor, in Northumberland, by the Lord Mountacute, general for Edward IV He would in no way depart the field, though defeated; but, in dying, said, I have saved the bird in my breast, meaning his oath to King Henry VI {a} Had false Zedekiah done so, he had, for this once at least, escaped; but ambition—whose motto is said to be Sic mea fata sequor So I follow my destiny—was his ruin.

{a} Speed.

Ver. 19. Surely mine oath.] Because taken by my name, so that I am deeply engaged, highly concerned in it.

Ver. 20. And I will spread my net upon him.] See on #Eze 12:13. The history telleth us that when Zedekiah, with his nobles, were gotten into the plains of Jericho, and thought themselves out of danger, those great hunters the Babylonians caught him, and carried him to their king.

Ver. 21. And all his fugitives.] See on #Eze 14:13,14.

They shall know.] Sero sapient: vexatio tandem dabit intellectum. All too late they shall aknowledge it.

Ver. 22. I will also take of the highest branch of the high cedar.] {a} Understand this great and precious promise of Zerubbabel and his successors, but especially of Christ and his kingdom. How oft in the prophets is he styled the "branch." {#Isa 11:1} And how ordinary is it with God, after dreadful threats against the wicked, to come in with his attamen nevertheless for the comfort of his elect, who in their deepest distress have cause enough to encourage themselves in the Lord Christ their God, as did David at the sack of Ziklag. {#1Sa 30:6} Here they are excited, in the loss of all else, to fetch comfort from Christ’s descent from David, his exaltation to the kingdom of the Church universal, his bounty and benefits, his bringing in the fulness of the Gentiles, and his setting forth of his Father’s glory.

A tender one.] Tenellum. Christ, of weak and low beginning.

And will plant it.] Upon Zion, {#Ps 2:6} spiritual especially. Upon Calvary, saith Theodoret, expounding the Septuagint, who render the text thus, I will hang it upon the high mountain of Israel.

{a} Insignis est haec prophetia. -Lavat.

Ver. 23. In the mountain.] In the Church, that highest top.

And it shall bring forth boughs, &c.] Christ shall yield food and defence to all his.

All fowl of every wing,] i.e., The just, saith the Chaldee, who mind heavenly things, and mount upward.

Ver. 24. And all the trees of the field,] i.e., All men, high and low.

Have brought down.] This God loves to do, as heathens could say.

Have exalted the low.] Lavater thinks our Saviour alluded to this text in that parable {#Mt 13:3-8} of the grain of mustard seed.

Chapter 18

Ver. 1. And the word of the Lord came unto me.] This is oft prefaced by the prophets to make their sermons more authoritative and authentic. Pausanias telleth us that some heathen sages, to add weight to their works, were wont to prefix Θεος, Θεος, i.e., God, God.

Ver. 2. What mean you?] Or, What is come to you?— quoe vos dimentia cepit? -that you do so toss this sinful and senseless proverb among you, both at Jerusalem {#Jer 31:29} and also here at Babylon.

“ Delicta parentum

Immeritus Iudaeae luis?”

Must I be blasphemed rather than you faulted? Is it for your fathers’ sins only that ye suffer? And do ye thus think to put off the reproofs of the prophets, as if yourselves had not seconded and outsinned your fathers, and are therefore justly punished?

The fathers have eaten sour grapes.] Sin is no better. It is an "evil and a bitter thing to forsake the Lord." {#Jer 2:19} What wild sour grapes your fathers both bred and fed upon, see #Isa 5:2,8,11,20-22; and it was woe, woe unto them.

And the children’s teeth are set on edge.] Or, Stupefied. But is there not a cause? and are there not sins enough with you, even with you, to procure your ruth and your ruin? but that I must be injurious rather than you be found obnoxious?

Ver. 3. Ye shall not have occasion any more.] For I will shortly take an order with you; and not by words, but by blows, vindicate my just judgments from your cavils and scurrilities.

Ver. 4. Behold all souls are mine.] So that to show my sovereignty I may do with them as I see good. Howbeit, let me tell you that I slay none but for his sins, i.e., idque ipsi sua iniustitia eventit, non iniuria mea, the fault is merely in himself; so little reason is there that you should be thus quarrelsome and contumelious against me.

The soul that sinneth it shall die,] i.e., Shall suffer for his sin either here or hereafter, without repentance. Every man shall bear his own burden, every tub shall stand upon its own bottom, and every fox yield his own skin to the flayer, as the Jews at this day proverbially can say.

Ver. 5. But if a man be just.] Keep faith and a good conscience; do good acts, and have good aims; do all as well as any, not this or that, but this and that too, as here it followeth, duties of piety, and duties of charity.

Ver. 6. And hath not eaten upon the mountains,] i.e., Hath not offered there to idols; for at their sacrifices they feasted. {#Ex 32:1-6} The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play. See #Eze 20:28 Ho 4:13.

Neither hath lift up his eyes to the idols.] As every Papist doth daily, and is therefore no righteous person, such as is here described. Neither helpeth it, that they are the "idols of the house of Israel," and not the idols of the nations.

Neither hath come near to a menstruous woman.] Though his own wife. {#Le 18:19 20:18} Adulter enim est uxoris propriae ardentior amator, said a heathen; There is a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing. {#Ec 3:5}

Ver. 7. And hath not oppressed any.] Either by force or fraud.

Hath given his bread to the hungry.] Negative goodness alone is little worth. Men must not only rob the hospital, as we say, spoil the poor by violence, but "draw forth their souls," and their sheaves both, "to the hungry," and clothe the naked with a garment, or they cannot have the comfort and credit of just men.

Ver. 8. He that hath not given forth upon usury.] Of this sin, see what I have said elsewhere. {#Ex 22:25 Ps 15:5 Ne 5:10}

Neither hath taken any increase.] Interest we call it now, after the French, who first helped us to that fine word. {a} But let the patrons of usury consider that what distinctions soever they bring for it, God alloweth here of no usury, but condemneth both Neshec the biting, and Tarbith the toothless usury, as equally naught.

That hath withdrawn his hand from iniquity.] Whether it be injury to another, revenge, raking together riches of unrighteousness, reaching after honours, &c.

Hath executed true judgment.] Without partiality or passion, whether he be a judge or an arbitrator.

{a} Nihil interest inter funas et foenus; nihil inter mortem distat et sortem. -Ambros.

Ver. 9. Hath walked in my statutes.] Qui leges iuraque servat. It is as if the prophet had said There are many more characters of a righteous man, but I shall shut up all with this: He that is right in his obedience for matter, manner, motive, and end, he is the man I mean; "He shall surely live."

Ver. 10. If he beget a son.] As he may; for grace is not hereditary. Heroum filii noxae.

That is a robber.] Effractor. A breach maker, whether upon the laws of God, or of men; one that is a pestilent son, as the Septuagint here have it, a plague to his parents, and to his country.

And that doth the like to any one of these things.] Or, That doth to his brother besides any of these, as there are mille artes nocendi.

Ver. 11. And that doth not any of these duties.] Bare omissions may undo a man. Not robbing only, but the not relieving of the poor, was the rich man’s ruin.

Ver. 12. Hath committed abomination.] Such is every of the sins here instanced, whatsoever some can say in defence of them. Hath given forth upon usury, and all.

Ver. 13. He hath done all these abominations.] Or, If he have done but one of them, and undo it not again by true repentance.

He shall surely die.] Neither shall his father’s righteousness privilege him, or prevail at all for him.

His blood shall be upon him.] He is felo de se, his own death’s man, and his mends he hath in his own hands, as they say.

Ver. 14. Now, lo, if he beget a son that seeth.] And withal sigheth, his eye affecting his heart with grief and dislike.

And considereth,] viz., Of the ill consequence of those courses, et cavet et pavet. And consider and be frightened.

Ver. 15. That hath not eaten.] See on #Eze 18:6.

Ver. 16. See on #Eze 18:7.

Ver. 17. See on #Eze 18:8,9.

Ver. 18. Spoiled his brother by violence.] A man had as good deal with a Cossack or a cannibal as with a truly covetous criminal. "They hunt every man his brother with a net." {#Mic 7:2}

And did that which is not good among his people.] It should be every man’s care to be some way serviceable to God and profitable to men. Let no man turn himself into a cipher, nay, into an excrement, that lives in the world to no purpose, yea, to bad purpose. Oh it is good to do something whereby the world may be the better, and not to come hither merely as rats and mice, only to devour victuals, and to run squeaking up and down.

Ver. 19. Yet say ye, Why? doth not the son bear the iniquity of the father?] Thus these unreasonable refractories will not be said, but continue chatting against God, quasi dicant, certe tu non potes negare, &c. {a} Some are ατοποι; {#2Th 3:2} they have no topics; there is no talking to them; they will not be set down with right reason.

When the son hath done that is lawful and right.] What a meek, sweet, and satisfactory answer doth God make to these importunate complainers against him! Here we have their replication and his duplication; as #Eze 18:25, we have their triplication and his quadruplication. Oh the infinite patience of our good God!

{a} Piscator.

Ver. 20. The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father.] The innocent son shall not, unless it be in temporals only, and that in some cases. {#De 24:16 2Ki 14:6 2Ch 15:4} It was the cruel manner of Uladus, prince of Valachia, together with the offender, to execute the whole family, yea, sometimes the whole kindred. {a} A like cruelty was used in Scotland by the Pope’s appointment upon the kindred of those that had slain David Beaton, in revenge of the death of that butcherly bishop. {b} Lavater {c} telleth us here, out of the annals of the Switzers, his countrymen, that when Albertus, the son of Rodolphus Caesar, was slain by his nephew John Hapsburg and some other nobles, his children, Duke Leopold and Agnes Queen of Hungary, put to death not the murderers only, but their children and kinsfolk also not a few, and utterly overturned divers strongholds in Switzerland. But this was not the way of God, nor did it prosper in their hand. Cruelty calleth aloud for vengeance.

The righteousness,] i.e., It shall be well with the righteous, and woe with the wicked. {#Isa 3:10,11}

{a} Turkish History.

{b} Acts and Mon.

{c} Lav. in loc.

Ver. 21. But if the wicked will turn, &c.] That is, saith Theodoret, so far am I from punishing one for the sins of another, that I am ready to receive a returning sinner, how far or how fast soever he hath run out.

And keep all my statutes.] For the best and rightest repentance is a new life, saith Luther.

Ver. 22. All his transgressions.] So true is that of an ancient, Quem poenitet peccasse, poene est innocens -Penitence is nearly as good as innocence.

In his righteousness.] Or, For his righteousness, tanquam ob causum sine qua non, et ob promissionem Dei, {a} not of merit, but mercy and free grace.

{a} Piscator.

Ver. 23. Have I any pleasure at all that the wicked should die?] No, verily; for then he should do nothing but do and undo, make a world and unmake it again, since we provoke him continually; but he is longsuffering.

“ Atque dolet quoties cogitur esse ferox.”

And not that he should return.] Had not I rather pardon than punish? Is not this last my work, my strange work {#Isa 28:21}

Ver. 24. But when the righteous.] He that is good in his own eyes, and passeth for good in the esteem of others, but yet is not really righteous, if such a one do utterly fall away, and lose that little that he seemed to have, what wonder? Comman grace can never hold out, or stretch to eternity. Bellarmine saith well, That which is true grace, veritate essentiae, only may be lost: not that that is true veritate firma soliditatis, with the truth of firm solidity; which latter, being rightly understood, may be called special, as the other common grace.

Ver. 25. Yet ye say.] Ye will still hold your own, and no reason shall persuade you. A stubborn man standeth as a stake in a stream, lets all pass by him, but he standeth still where he was.

Is not my way equal?] This he had said before but he saith it again, Δις και τρις τα καλα. Cicero, aggravating the fact of a parricide, useth these words, Matrem tuam occidisti: quid dicam amplius? Matrem tuam occidisti -Thou hast killed thy mother, man: what should I say more? then hast killed thy mother, I tell thee.

Are not your ways unequal?] They are so, and that apparently: but that your mouth is out of taste, and ye cannot relish truth; your eyes are sore, and ye cannot behold the sunbeams; you are prejudiced, biased, perverted.

Ver. 26. When a righteous man turneth,] q.d, Shall I say the selfsame over again to you? I had need do so surely, and all little enough.

And dieth in them,] sc., In his wicked ways: this undoeth him. It is not falling into the water that drowneth a man, but long lying under it.

Ver. 27. Again, when the wicked man turneth away.] This also he had said before, {#Eze 18:21-23} but men had need to hear this sweet promise over and over, because there is in the best a natural Novatianism to doubt and question pardon for sins, if great and grievous ones especially.

Ver. 29. Because he considereth.] Consideration necessarily precedeth conversion. {#Ps 119:59 La 3:40 Jer 8:6} The prodigal came to himself first, and then went home to his father. See on #Eze 18:14.

Ver. 29. Yet saith the house of Israel.] Yet; for all that I can say to the contrary. They will still hold their own; they will be dicti sui domini, &c., such was their impudence and petulance. God therefore gives over the confutation, and comes to the conclusion of this contestation.

Ver. 30. Therefore I will judge you.] I will word it no longer with you, but clear up and vindicate my justice, which you have calumniated, in your deserved destruction, except ye repent.

Repent and turn yourselves.] Or, Others. Lay aside your complaints and contumelies against me, and take notice that the best thing you can do is to "take hold of my strength that ye may make peace with me, and ye shall make peace with me." {#Isa 27:5}

Ver. 31. Cast away from you, &c.] And so evidence the soundness of your repentance. He that repenteth with a contradiction, as continuing in his sins, shall be pardoned with a contradiction—that is, cast into hell.

All your transgression.] All, as well as any; else ye do but take pains to go to hell. Gideon’s one bastard slew all his seventy sons; so will one bastardly sin, reserved and allowed, slay the soul. Men should do by their sins as our forefathers did by the Danes here, make an utter riddance of them; and as the Sicilians did by the French among them, whom they not only massacred to a man, but also ripped up all their own women that were with child by the French, that not one drop of French blood might remain among them.

Make you a new heart.] Wait upon God for it in the constant use of means, that ye may bring forth fruits meet for repentance.

Ver. 32. For I have no pleasure.] See on #Eze 18:23 33:11.

Chapter 19

Ver. 1. Moreover take thou up a lamentation.] A threnodia, a doleful ditty. In all ages things joyful and sorrowful were made up in songs and ballads for popular use.

For the princes of Israel.] Those four last kings—princes rather than kings, because vassals to Egypt and Babylon—who, by starting unnecessary wars, wrought their own and their country’s ruin.

Ver. 2. What is thy mother?] Whereby is meant thy city of Jerusalem and people of the Jews, who took these four for their kings, and soon had enough of them.

A lioness.] So called for her nobleness, courage, and cruelty.

She lay down among lions.] Alludit ad coitum It signifieth that this state, by conversing with other heathen princes, had been corrupted by them and conformed unto them.

She nourished her whelps among young lions.] From whom they took in but few good principles for young princes. Wickedness is soon learned Of a certain prince of Germany it was said, Esset alius si esset apud alios, his company undid him: So it did Julian the apostate.

Ver. 3. And she brought up one of her whelps.] This was Jehoahaz.

It became a young llon.] Cunning and cruel, and having never a good property, though the son of good Josiah; who might better have said than that pope did of his wicked son, Caesar Borgia, Haec vitia me non commonstratore dedicit, He never learned it of his father.

It devoured men.] He was a very cannibal to his subjects, and made no more conscience to undo a poor man, to seek and suck his blood, than to eat a meal’s meat when hungry. {#Ps 14:4}

Ver. 4. The nations also heard of him.] His lion-like disposition and practices were soon noised and noticed.

He was taken in their pit.] As lions are taken by their hunters. Tyrants hold not their own long those beasts are "made to be taken and destroyed"; as Nero, whom the senate judged to death as an enemy to mankind; {a} and as Commodus, who was, saith Orosius, cunctis incommodus, a mischief to mankind.

{a} Ex condicto omnes conveniunt ut eum capiant.

Ver. 5. Now when she saw that she had waited and her hope was lost.] She looked for Jehoahaz’s return out of Egypt, as Sisera’s mother did for his safe and victorious return from the battle; but all in vain. "The hope of the hypocrite shall perish."

Then she took another of her whelps.] A brat of the same breed, and of no better condition. Judea changed her lords oft, but not her miseries. So did Rome in the times between Augustus and Constantine the Great; the names of those few of them that were good might be written within the compass of a signet, as one said. Scarce any of them died a natural death, unless it were Vespasian, qui solus imperatorum mutatus in melius, {a} who also was the only emperor that became better by his preferment.

{a} Tacitus.

Ver. 6. He went up and down, &c.] Of whom he learned to king it, and to lionise it. See #Eze 19:2,3.

Learned to catch the prey.] To pull his subjects, and to make havoc, as our Henry III did, who was therefore called Regni dilapidator. destroyer of the kingdom.

And devoured men.] As #Eze 19:3; see #Jer 20:17.

Ver. 7. And he knew their desolate places.] He had made them desolate, and bereft them of their right owners, whom he had devoured, and then seized them for himself. Some read and render it, He knew their desolate widows—i.e., He first killed up their husbands, and then lay with the widows: the men he devoured, the women he deflowered. Such work this wicked prince made, till God took him in hand; as he did also the other three here lamented, of whom may be said, as Plutarch doth of Galba, Otho, and Vitellius, emperors, that they were like kings in a tragedy, which last no longer than the time that they are represented on the stage.

Ver. 8. Then the nations set against him on every side.] Nebuchadnezzar, with the neighbour nations his auxiliaries.

They spread their net over him.] As they did also over the two last kings, though not here specified, Jehoiakim and Zedekiah, because they chose rather to run the hazard of ruin by rebellion, than to continue safely with slavery.

He was taken in their pit.] See #Eze 19:4, an ordinary way of taking lions, as Pliny telleth us. Leones maxime foveis capiuntur.

Ver. 9. And they put him in ward in chains.] Or, Hooks. As lions are not looked upon, but through a grate. In claustrum. God knows how to hamper the most truculent tyrants, as he did also Bajazet.

They brought him into holds.] Into some strong tower, or rock, where he died; and his body was afterwards thrown out upon a dunghill. {#Jer 22:18}

Ver. 10. Thy mother is like a vine in thy blood.] The same lamentation is here continued, though under another parable—viz., of a wasted vine. Jerusalem was once a generous fruitful spreading vine. It began to be so again in some sort under Zedekiah, if he could have been contented. See on #Eze 17:5,8.

Ver. 11. And she had strong rods for sceptres.] So firm were the branches of this vine, so many and likely to succeed him in the kingdom were Zedekiah’s children; his nobles also were men of great parts, and fit for greater employments.

And she appeared in her height.] High she grew, and in addition high minded, and so ripe for ruin.

Ver. 12. But she was plucked up in fury.] And so thrown with a force to the ground, as a man doth a dry or barren plant.

The east wind dried up her fruit.] See #Eze 17:10. It is ventus urens et exsiccans; burning and drying wind this was Nebuchadnezzar and his army.

Ver. 13. And now she is planted in a wilderness.] Babylon was no wilderness, but fruitful beyond credulity, {a} But the poor captive Jews had little joy from it, for some time at least.

In a dry and thirsty ground.] In terra sicca et sitioulosa. So it was to them, though never so well watered, because they wanted there the waters of the sanctuary, and many other comforts of their own country. See #Ps 137:1-6

{a} Herodot., lib. i. cap. 193; Plin., lib. vi. cap. 26.

Ver. 14. And fire is gone out of a rod of her branches,] i.e., Zedekiah, by his perjury and rebellion, hath ruined all, set all on a light fire.

So that she hath no strong rod, &c.] None to speak of till Shiloh come. Rulers indeed they had after this and governors, {#Hag 2:21} but no kings of their own nation.

This is a lamentation.] See on #Eze 19:1.

And shall be for a lamentation.] Jerusalem plangitur et plangetur. The nation of the Jews shall never want matter for mourning.

Chapter 20

Ver. 1. And it came to pass.] This chapter fitly followeth the former. There these malcontents had complained that the fathers had sinned and the children suffered. Here is evinced that there was never a better of them, that a viperous brood they had been from the first, that they were some of them naught all. {a}

In the seventh year,] scil., Of Jeconiah’s captivity: and every year seemed seven, till the seventy were expired. The years of our misery we reckon; not so of our prosperity, which yet we should duly prize and improve.

That certain of the elders of Israel.] Not Ananias, Azarias, and Misael, as the Jews fable: but worse men, rank hypocrites.

Came to inquire.] But were resolved of their course, and had made their conclusion before they came. {#Eze 20:32} Either the prophet should chime in with the false prophets, who told them they should be sent home ere long, or else they would, for peace sake, worship idols and comport with the Babylonians; which yet, if they had done, it might have proved nothing better with them than it did with those renegade Christians in Turkey, who, falling down, many thousands of them, before Solyman II, and holding up the forefinger, as their manner is, in token of their conversion to Mohammedanism, he asked what moved them to turn? they replied, it was to be eased of their heavy taxations. He, disdaining that baseness, or not willing to lose in tribute for an unsound accession in religion, rejected their conversion, and doubled their taxations. {b}

{a} κακοι μεν θριπες, κακοι ηδε και ιπες.—Eras. Adag.

{b} Sir Henry Blunt’s Voy. into Levant p. 111.

Ver. 2. Then came.] See on #Eze 18:1.

Ver. 3. Are ye come to inquire of me?] q.d., I scorn the motion, I loathe your false looks, be packing with your putrid hypocrisy. God will detect and shame gross hypocrites, as he did Jeroboam’s wife, the rotten hearted Pharisees, Ananias and Sapphira, that sorry couple, that consented to "tempt the Holy Ghost," as these elders also did—that is, to make trial whether he be omniscient, and able to detect and punish them.

I will not be inquired of by you.] "The sacrifice of the wicked is abomination; how much more when he bringeth it with a wicked mind?" as these did. {#Pr 21:27}

Ver. 4. Wilt thou judge them?] Or, Wilt thou excuse them? or, Wilt thou intercede for them? If thou hast never so good a mind to do so, yet do it not; rather reprove them for, and convince them of, their sins; spare thy charity, and exercise thine authority of "having in readiness to revenge their disobedience." {#2Co 10:6} An causam ageres eorum? Abigendi sunt potius quam docendi. Ostendit Dominus ulcus profundum esse.

Cause them to know the abominations of their fathers.] By themselves avowed, abetted, augmented; their fathers’ iniquity they have drawn together with cart ropes of vanity.

Ver. 5. In the day when I chose Israel.] Declared them to be my firstborn, and so higher than the kings of the earth. {#Ps 89:27}

When I lifted up mine hand unto them, saying, I am the Lord your God.] This sweet promise is not so easily, and, indeed, is never enough, believed, and is therefore here confirmed by God’s solemn oath thrice repeated, "that by two immutable things, wherein it was impossible for God to lie, his people might have strong consolation." {#Heb 6:18}

Ver. 6. Into a land that I had espied for them.] Humanitus dictum. Finding it out, as it were, by diligent search. {#Nu 10:33} Look how a father findeth out for his son a habitation fit for him, a help meet for him, other things necessary for his comfortable subsistence; so dealt God by his Israel. He brought them to a land which himself had carefully sought out; his eyes were always upon it, from the beginning of the year even unto the end of the year. {#De 11:12}

Flowing with milk and honey,] i.e., Abounding with choice and cheap commodities.

Which is the glory of all lands.] Or, Flower; decorem et desiderium. It was so then, it is not so now, since the Jews were disprivileged and dejected; but as in the earthly paradise, after man fallen, cecidit rosa, mansit spina, the rose fell off, the brier whereon it grew remained; so here. See on #Da 8:9 11:16.

Ver. 7. Then said I unto them,] viz., While yet in Egypt. This we find not in Exodus; it is enough that we find it here. See #Job 5:9. {See Trapp on "Job 5:9"}

Cast ye away every man the abominations of his eyes.] The idols to which your eyes are lifted up, {#Eze 18:6} and which are, or should be, to you, as Alexander called the Persian maids, dolores oculorum, eye griefs.

Ver. 8. But they rebelled against me.] I might say what I would, but they would do what they list. Good they were ever, if I may call it so, at resisting the Holy Ghost, obstinate idolaters from the very first; so that God had even as much ado to forbear killing them, as ever he had Moses in the same country for neglecting to circumcise his child. {#Ex 4:24}

Neither did they forsake the idols of Egypt.] This we read not of in Exodus either; it is enough that we have it here. The ingratitude of these Israelites was the greater, because God had done much for them, and was daily admonishing them of better things.

Then said I, I will pour out my fury.] It was not therefore for nothing that Israel suffered so much in Egypt. Many now marvel at their own miseries, but think not of their sins, the cause.

Ver. 9. But I wrought for my name’s sake.] Lest the heathens should say to my dishonour, Me non voluisse aut valuisse eos educere, that I either would not, or could not, bring them out of the house of bondage. Ergo quod nomen suum in nobis servandis asserat, sperandum est. It is also well to be hoped that God will deal favourably with the reformed churches, though ill deserving, for the dishonour that else would redound to himself. Fiat, fiat.

Ver. 10. Wherefore I caused them.] With a strong hand and an outstretched arm I caused it, against all the force of Egypt. {#Ex 13:18} God hath also mightily brought England out of Egypt spiritually, and dealt with it, not according to his ordinary rule, but according to his prerogative.

And brought them into the wilderneas.] Where I was not any "wilderness unto them, or land of darkness," {#Jer 2:31} but a God all-sufficient, raining bread from heaven upon them, and setting the flint abroach, rather than they should pine and perish.

Ver. 11. And I gave them my statutes.] Which were far beyond the laws of the twelve tables in Rome, whereof yet Cicero affirmeth that they were far beyond all the libraries of philosophers.

And shewed them my judgments.] Statutes and judgments are usually put in Scripture for one and the same, though the lawyers make a difference of them. Prosper’s conceit was, that this people were called Judaei. because they received ius Dei the law of God.

Which if a man do.] But that he can never do exactly; evangelically he may, and that sufficeth to life eternal.

Ver. 12. Moreover also, I gave them my Sabbaths.] A sweet mercy, without which the best would even grow wild. What a wretch then was that Egyptian in Phagius, who said that those Jews, and after them the Christians, had a loathsome disease upon them, and were therefore fain to rest the seventh day!

To be a sign between me and them.] A distinctive sign of my distinguishing grace to Israel above others, who jeered them for sabbatising, as those that lost a seventh part of their precious time. To be also both a sign of a godly person—anciently, when the question was propounded, Servasti Dominicum? Hast thou kept the Lord’s-day? the answer was returned, I am a Christian, and can do no less—and a means of conveying more holiness into his heart.

Ver. 13. But the house of Israel rebelled.] They did little else; they made it their trade for forty years long. {#Ps 95:8-11}

And my Sabbaths they greatly polluted.] They vehemently violated; either they rested only thereon, or else they shamelessly troubled and disquieted that sanctified day of God’s rest. The world, saith one, {a} is now grown perfectly profane, and can play on the Lord’s-day without book.

Then I said, I would pour out my fury.] God’s sayings are of two sorts; some are the sayings of his eternal counsel, and these are immutable; others of his threatening only, and these oft are conditional. God therefore threateneth that he may not punish, saith an ancient.

{a} Bishop King on Jonah.

Ver. 14. But I wrought for my name’s sake.] Oh how oft are we beholden to this motive, and do escape fair by this means! See on #Eze 20:9.

Ver. 15. Yet also I lifted up mine hand.] Here we have an epitome of Exodus and Numbers.

Flowing with milk and honey.] See on #Eze 20:6. If it be not so fertile and desirable now, it is for the Jews’ inexpiable guilt in crucifying the Lord of glory. The like befell Sodom—once as the garden of God, now a dead sea, where nothing can live.

Ver. 16. For their heart went after their idols.] Heb., Their dungy deities; those dirty delights carried them sheer away from God and goodness. Any beloved sin will do so.

Ver. 17. Nevertheless mine eye spared them.] It was by a non obstante of God’s mercy, and by a prop of his extraordinary patience, that they subsisted.

Ver. 18. Walk ye not in the statutes of your fathers.] With this text Frederick IV, prince palatine, answered another prince, who pressed him to be of his late noble father’s religion. Laban swore by the god of Nahor, or Abram, and of their idolatrous fathers; but Jacob sware by the "fear of his father Isaac," his immediate father more right in religion. {#Ge 31:53} Joshua would not follow the footsteps of his forefathers, {#Jos 24:15} but a better precedent. Christ saith, Ego sum veritas, non vetustas; I am the truth not antiquity, and contradicteth that which was said of old by those Kadmonim, who had corrupted the letter of the law by their false glosses. {#Mt 5:21} Antiquity must have no more authority than it can maintain.

Ver. 19. Walk in my statutes.] This is a surer and safer way. Lex, lux: "The commandment is a lamp, and the law is light." {#Pr 6:23} Come, therefore, to this light, that your deeds may be made manifest that they are wrought in God. {#Joh 3:21}

Ver. 20. And hallow my Sabbaths.] By abandoning as well spiritual idleness as corporal labour.

And they shall be a sign.] See on #Eze 20:11.

Ver. 21. See on #Eze 20:13.

Ver. 22. See on #Eze 20:14.

Ver. 23. See on #Eze 20:15.

Ver. 24. See on #Eze 20:16.

Ver. 25. Wherefore I gave them also statutes that were not good.] i.e., I gave them up to their own inventions and hearts’ lusts (which was worse than to be delivered up to Satan), because they were ingrati gratiae Dei, as Ambrose hath it; they received the grace of God in vain. By "statutes not good," some understand the ceremonial laws, which commanded neither virtue nor vice in themselves. Others, such decrees and ordinances of God in the wilderness as were not good for them, but hurtful; as that for the execution of the calf worshippers, of the Baalpeorites, of Korah and his company, of the murmurers at Kibrothhattaavah, &c. Solon being asked whether he had given the best laws to the Athenians? answered, The best that they could bear.

Ver. 26. And I polluted them in their own gifts,] i.e., I rejected both their persons and presents as unclean. So God would do our best performances (wherein there would not else be so much as truth and sincerity found), were they not wrought in us by the Holy Spirit, and perfumed with Christ’s sweet odours poured into them.

Ver. 27. Your fathers have blasphemed me.] Because they trembled not at my judgments while they hung in the threatenings, but went on wilfully in their wickedness, putting it to the venture. This is a kind of blasphemy. Compare #Nu 15:30,31. This is a sin scarce to be expiated with any sacrifice: such a sinner must be cut off.

Ver. 28. For when I had brought them into the land.] It hath been already observed that good turns aggravate unkindnesses, and men’s sins are much increased by their obligations.

Ver. 29. And the name thereof is called Bamah,] i.e., A high place; a name good enough in itself, but, as used by them, as odious to all good hearts as a brothel house is to a chaste matron. She is the worse to pass by it, and spitteth at it. So should we in like case. {#Ex 23:13 Ps 16:4 Ho 2:16,17 Zec 13:2 De 12:2}

Ver. 30. Are ye polluted after the manner of your fathers?] q.d., Are you good at that indeed? and have you yet a face to threadbare that paltry proverb of yours, The fathers have eaten sour grapes? &c. Give over, for shame.

Ver. 31. And shall I be inquired of by you?] Is it ever likely to do well, think you? Of witches’ good prayers, as some call them, one saith well: Si magicae, Deus non vult tales: si piae, non per tales. See #Jer 7:9,10. {See Trapp on "Jer 7:9"} {See Trapp on "Jer 7:10"}

Ver. 32. And that which cometh into your mind shall not be at all.] You are laying a plot for an accommodation with the Babylonish idolaters, a compliance with them, and thereby you think to ingratiate, to get their favour and friendship. But please not yourselves in such a project; it will never be. So, no peace with Rome. The Moderater, Sancta Clara, and other such as sought to bring us together, made a pretty show, saith one, if there had been no Bible. Such carnal professors are not unlike these in the text, as seeing the wicked’s full cups, and their own harder condition, are ready to revolt, that "waters of a full cup may be wrung out to them" also. {#Ps 73:10}

We will be as the heathen.] And so help ourselves as we can, since God will not help us.

Ver. 33. Surely with a mighty hand.] You are ready to say, as in #Jer 2:31, We are lords; we will come no more unto thee; but I shall sure subdue you as so many perverse slaves or sturdy rebels. So unhappy is apostasy; so little is got by struggling, or by starting aside like a deceitful bow. God will rule over such with rigour; he will have the better of them to their small comfort.

Ver. 34. And I will bring you out from the people.] The heathens with whom you have incorporated, hoping so to shun me, and to be out of the reach of my rod; but I shall sure find and ferret you out of all your starting holes; I shall be meet with you. So God was here with the English by the sweating sickness, which hunted and haunted also our countrymen in foreign parts, singling them out from others. It reigned, or rather God reigned by it, some forty years together. {a}

{a} Sennert. De Febrib., lib. iv. cap. 15.

Ver. 35. And I will bring you into the wilderness of the people.] Into the most solitary and savage places of the world, for a fulness of misery without the benefit of any good society.

And there will I plead with you face to face,] i.e., Solus cum solis et sine arbitris, Having you there alone, I will punish you to some purpose.

Ver. 36. Like as I pleaded with your fathers in the wilderness.] Where their carcases fell thick and threefold, till they were all consumed. "Behold we die, we perish, we all perish," said they once to Moses in a pet; "shall we be consumed with dying?" {#Nu 17:12,13}

Ver. 37. And I will cause you to pass under the rod, and I will bring you into the bond of the covenant.] Why, then, Feri, Domine, feri, Smite, Lord, smite, so my sins may be pardoned, and my soul saved. Hic seca, hic ure, ut in aeternum serves, Here suffer, here burn that you may protect us in eternity, said an ancient: Do even whatsoever thou wilt with me, so I may come to heaven, though I come to it by weeping cross.

Ver. 38. And I will purge out from among you the rebels.] Making first a difference, and then a riddance of them from among my covenanters.

And they shall not enter into the land of Israel.] But either die by the way, or, if they live to enter, they shall find it a strange land to what they or their fathers left it. See #Jer 44:14. Lavater maketh the sense to be, They shall not enter into the heavenly Canaan. {a} See the like, #Ps 95:11.

{a} Non eos perducam ad promissiones aeternas. -Oecol.

Ver. 39. Go ye, serve ye everyone his idols,] q.d., You may for me; and I had rather you would, than dissemble, as you do, and play on both hands, to the scandal of the weak, and scorn of the wicked. For my part, I have done with you for ever; take your own course.

And with your idols.] Away with these abominable mixtures. I will be served truly and totally, or not at all.

Ver. 40. For in mine holy mountain.] In my Church, and among my faithful people, for to these he now speaketh comfort.

There will I accept them.] Ibi occurram eis, scil., quasi in amplexum sponsoe; so some render and sense the text; i.e., there I will meet them, and accept them with much sweetness.

And there will require your offerings.] Not forbid and refuse them, as I did theirs. {#Eze 20:39}

Ver. 41. And I will be sanctified in you.] I will get me great glory by you among the heathen, while you are non aliunde noscibiles quam de emendatione vitiorum pristinorum, as Tertullian saith of the primitive Christians, no otherwise to be known better from others than by an alteration in you for the better.

Ver. 42. Into the land of Israel.] A pledge of a better place.

Ver. 43. Ye shall remember your ways.] Recognition is the first thing in reformation. See #Eze 16:61.

And ye shall loathe yourselves.] Dissecabimini in faciebus vestris. {a} Ye shall be, as it were, slashed with a sword over your faces, like as those {#Ac 2:37} were pricked at heart: they felt their sins as so many daggers at their hearts.

{a} Percutietis facies vestras. -Sept.

Ver. 44. And ye shall know that I am the Lord.] A sin pardoning and heart sanctifying God; a rich rewarder of all that diligently seek me. {#Heb 11:6}

Ver. 45. Moreover, &c.] See on #Eze 18:1.

Ver. 46. Set thy face.] Prophesy freely and boldly against Jerusalem, which is south from Chaldea.

Against the forest.] Against Judea, which is mountainous and woody, having good and bad trees in it.

Ver. 47. Every green tree.] Good and bad shall to the fire together. {#Eze 21:3 Lu 23:31}

Shall be burnt therein] Or scorched, if they may escape so.

Ver. 48. That I the Lord.] Who myself am a consuming fire. {#Heb 12:29}

Ver. 49. Doth he not speak parables?] Nonne artifex est parabolarum iste? Qui erga non vult intelligi, vult negligi. {a} He is so high that we cannot take him, and shall therefore slight him as a madman, or not much better. A preacher shall have much ado to please a profane people. Neither maketh it much to the matter; but it is grievous, ah, Lord.

{a} Davus sum non Oedipus.

Chapter 21

Ver. 1. And the word of the Lord.] See #Eze 18:1.

Ver. 2. Set thy face.] See on #Eze 20:46.

And drop thy word.] See #De 32:2 Am 7:16. As drops of rain follow one upon another, so do words. Speak thick, speak home, though they forbid thee to drop such vinegar or nitre on their galled conscience. {#Mic 2:6,11}

Toward the holy places,] i.e., Against the temple, which they so cried up, {#Jer 7:4} like so many oyster wives, ad ravim usque.

Ver. 3. Behold, I am against thee.] That is misery enough, for all the creatures are soon against such; as a nobleman’s servants draw their swords when their lord once draweth.

And will cut off from thee the righteous.] Who are sometimes wrapped up with the wicked in a common calamity. The husbandman cutteth down his corn and weeds together, but for a different end and purpose. If the righteous also be judged of the Lord, it is that they may not be condemned with the world. {#1Co 11:31}

Ver. 4. Seeing then that I will cut off from thee the righteons.] Velut eodem contubernio deprehensos. This is repeated for more assurance, because it might seem strange. The Septuagint hath it, The unrighteous and the wicked. The Chaldee, I will make the righteous flee, and destroy the wicked. But the Hebrew verity is as before; neither need we wonder, since the best have their infirmities.

Ver. 5. Have drawn forth my sword.] And put it in commission; not to return till the circuit ended, till it hath done full execution.

Ver. 6. Sigh therefore, with the breaking of thy loins.] Gemituque et gestu dolorem referas; show greatest grief, such as is deep and downright; sigh till thy buttons fly; or as a travailing woman. Non ut praeficae in funeribus solent.

Ver. 7. For the tidings.] Of the Chaldeans’ coming. This was to the wicked as those knuckles of a man’s hand were afterwards to Belshazzar, to write them their destiny; or as Daniel was to him, to read it unto them. Whenas the righteous man is no whit "afraid of evil tidings, his heart is fixed trusting in the Lord." {#Ps 112:7}

And every heart shall melt, &c.] As wax before the fire, which, before the danger, seemed to be made all of steel or adamant. The wicked, when in adversity, are woefully despondent and crest fallen, as was the king of Sodom; {#Ge 14:9-11} Manasseh among the bushes; {#2Ch 33:12} and others not a few, who in their prosperity seem to face the heavens and to draw the devil himself to a duel.

And all hands shall be feeble.] The spirits and blood being run to the heart, in that fright to relieve it.

And all knees shall be weak as water.] Heb., Shall go into water—that is, they shall bepiss themselves for fear, saith Jerome; they shall be all on a cold sweat, say others; or their knees shall shake, instar aquae tremulae, like trembling water, and knock together, as Belshazzar’s did. {#Da 5:6}

Ver. 8. Again the word.] See on #Eze 18:1.

Ver. 9 A sword, a sword is sharpened.] {a} Not only drawn, but sharpened, that it may wound swiftly and deadly; furbished also, that it may the more affray and make the quicker despatch. And that no doubt may be made of it, the ward sword is doubled.

{a} Exacutus et extersus, sharp and clean.

Ver. 10. Should we then make mirth?] Not if we be in our right minds; for would it not be now a mad mirth, whenas we should be most serious and seek God? See #Isa 22:12-14. {See Trapp on "Isa 22:12"} {See Trapp on "Isa 22:13"} {See Trapp on "Isa 22:14"}

It contemneth the rod of my son.] Other judgments forerun the sword, which, when they will not do the deed, the sword will then contemn the rod; that is, it will set at naught whatever those have done, and come furbished and sharpened for the slaughter. See #Eze 21:3.

Ver. 11. To give it into the hand of the slayer.] Nebuchadnezzar, who will therewith lay about him lustily, as Eleazar once did till his hand clave unto the sword, {#2Sa 23:10} or as since Scanderbeg, who killed many hundred Turks with his own hand, and fought oft with so much eagerness, that the very blood brake forth at his lips. {a}

{a} Turkish History.

Ver. 12. Cry and howl, son of man.] While others make mirth, {as #Eze 21:10} and are insolent against God. Mourners shall be marked, {#Eze 9:4} comforted. {#Isa 57:18}

Smite therefore upon thy thigh.] See on #Jer 31:19.

Ver. 13. Because it is a trial.] Sore and sharp; therefore cry and howl, especially since they are not bettered. Hang heavy weights on rotten boughs, they presently break; the best divination of men is at the parting way. See #Eze 21:21.

And what if the sword contemn even the rod?] q.d., What doth this silly rod do here? will they not stoop? will they not put their necks under the yoke of God’s Son? {#Eze 21:10} Let me come; I will make them either bow or break, either yield or bleed.

Ver. 14. Smite thy hands together.] So to show what I will do shortly. {#Eze 21:17}

Let the sword be doubled the third time.] Doubled and trebled, till it hath made an utter end of this untoward generation.

Which entereth into their privy chambers.] Ferreting and fetching them out of their lurking holes.

Ver. 15. Ah! it is made bright.] By this doleful exclamation the prophet venteth himself tanquam coram deformitatem cladis cerneret, {a} as if he had seen the execution.

{a} Oecolamp.

Ver. 16. Go thee one way or other.] This he speaketh to the bright and sharp sword, stirring it up to make impression that way whereunto it was appointed, quocunque occurrent tibires comparatae. {a}

{a} Tremel.

Ver. 17. I will also smite mine hands together.] As animating the enemy and rejoicing at thy ruin. {a} Chaldee, I will bring revenge upon revenge;

“ Animumque explesse iuvabit.”

“And he will help satisfy the spirit.”

{a} Exultat quasi hortator gladii saevientis. He exalts just as I will exhortthe angry sword.—Jerome.

Ver. 18. The word of the Lord.] See on #Eze 18:1.

Ver. 19. Appoint thee two wags.] Pinge duas vias, ut #Eze 4:1; by prophetic action draw out two ways, by either of which Nebuehadnezzar may march against Egypt, his present aim, as the great Turk’s now is Italy.

Choose it at the head of the wag to the city.] All this the Jews heard and slighted, as being infatuated, and so fitted for destruction.

Ver. 20. And to Judah in Jerusalem the defenced.] Either against the one or the other of them—not against both at once, {a} for they were both strong, and Jerusalem was well aware of it—for they had both revolted from Nebuchadnezzar, and one of them was enough at once to undertake.

{a} Ne Hercules quidem contra duos.

Ver. 21. For the king of Babylon stood at the parting.] Heb., At the mother of the way; ubi via una in ducts bifidata est. {a}

To use divination.] Without which, and offering sacrifice, the very heathens held it not fit to fight. But this their art of divination was, as one saith of alchymy, Ars falsissima et fallacissima.

He made his arrows bright.] Vulg., He mingled his arrows; that is, saith Jerome, he took two arrows, writing upon the one Jerusalem, and upon the other Rabbath. Then, putting them into a quiver together, he took one out, being blindfolded; upon which seeing Jerusalem written, he divined that he should go with success against Jerusalem.

He consulted with images.] In which the devil sometimes spake. See Aug., De Civitate Dei, lib. iv. cap. 18.

He looked into the liver.] This was much practised by the Roman generals, as by Caesar, when he went against Pompey. {b}

{a} Ubi se via findit in ambas. -Virg.

{b} Lucan.

Ver. 22. To appoint captains.] Heb., Rans; fierce and forward, to lead on their soldiers, let them get off as they could.

To open their mouth.] To storm and take it by an onslaught, and with a general slaughter, non sine barritu militari, vociferatione, et clangore insolenti.

Ver. 23. And it shall be to them as a false divination.] The Jews shall believe nothing, till wrath comes upon them to the utmost. They shall laugh at Nebuchadnezzar’s fopperies, and think thee, O Ezekiel, to be little wiser than him; ludificabuntur te, adeoque teipsum, divinationis nefariae, quam de Nebuchadnetzare praedicas, incusabunt; { a} but they shall rue this their madness.

To them that have sworn oaths.] But cared not at all to keep them. Lingua iuravi, mens iniurata est. The swore with their mouths but not from the heart. {b}

But he will call to remembrance the iniquity.] The perfidy and perjury which they make nothing of. They that harden themselves in any one sin, put God in mind, as it were, of the rest, which he had seemed to have forgotten. {c}

{a} Jun.

{b} Medea.

{c} Iusiurandum tanquam mantile adhibent quo novae noxae quotidie extergeantur. -Pacuvius.

Ver. 24. Because ye have made your iniquity.] Your old sins, by an addition of new ones.

Your sins do appear.] You are scandalous, shameless as Sodom. {#Isa 3:9}

Ver. 25. And thou profane.] Or, Worthy to be wounded to death.

Wicked prince.] Zedekiah, who now hath his own told him plainly by a prophet. See the like done, #1Sa 13:13 1Ki 18:18 2Ki 3:13,14. {See Trapp on "1Sa 13:13"} {See Trapp on "1Ki 18:18"} {See Trapp on "2Ki 3:13"} {See Trapp on "2Ki 3:14"}

Ver. 26. Remove the diadem.] This was a fine linen cloth, wherewith the king’s head used to be bound about, {a} and then the crown was set on.

Take off the crown.] Our Richard II, when to be deposed, was brought forth crowned and in royal robes. Never, saith the chronicler, was prince so gorgeous with less glory and more grief.

This shall not be the same.] Haec non erit haec. This crown or kingdom shall not be as it hath been.

Exalt him that is low.] Jeconiah, or, as some will, Christ the King of the Church.

And abase him that is high.] {b} Zedekiah. Let him not henceforth be the master of a molehill, nor owner of his own liberty. In him let it appear that mortality is but the stage of mutability.

{a} Diadema, of διαδειν circumligare.

{b} Just the same that Cambyses threatened unto Egypt, τα μεν ανω κατω, τα δε κατω ανω.—Herod., lib. ii.

Ver. 27. I will overturn, overturn, overturn it.] Curvam, curvam, curvam ponam eam, so the Tigurines translate. A crown there shall be still, but such as shall hang on one side of the head, as it were. Princes of the people there were. Those three high priests, Alexander, Aristobulus, and Hircanus, who called themselves kings, had very ill Success.

Until he come.] Christ the rightful King of Israel. To this text alludeth Nathanael. {#Joh 1:49}

Ver. 28. Concerning the Ammonites.] Who had likewise rebelled against Nebuchadnezzar, and were very injurious to God’s people. See #Eze 25:3,6 Zep 2:8,9.

“Τβρις και Μαγνμτας απωλεσε και Κολοφωνα.”

Ver. 29. To bring thee upon the necks of them that are slain.] To deal inhumanly with the dead, or to raise thyself upon the Jews’ ruin.

Ver. 30. Shall I cause it to return?] No, but it shall still eat your flesh and drink your blood, till none remaineth.

In the land of thy nativity.] In thine own nest, and on thine own dunghill.

Ver. 31. Into the hand of brutish men.] Or, Of burning men, Ardelionum, artificum perditionis.

Ver. 32. Thou shalt be no more remembered.] {a} The Ammonites were so rooted out by the Medes and Persians, that besides what we find in the Bible, there is no mention of their name. A type of such as are destroyed for ever in hell, being fuel for that black fire, and eternally forgotten.

{a} Saltem cum benedictione. -Polan.

Chapter 22

Ver. 1. Moreover the word.] See on #Eze 18:1.

Ver. 2. Wilt thou judge?] Or, Plead for, or excuse? See #Eze 20:4.

The bloody city.] The saints’ slaughter house.

Ver. 3. In the midst of it.] Publiae et impune.

Against herself.] As a sinner against her own soul.

Ver. 4. Thou hast caused thy days.] Thou hast accelerated thy punishment, as the old world did.

Ver. 5. Shall mock thee, which are infamous.] This was forethreatened. {#De 28:37} Our natures are most impatient of reproach; for there is none so mean but thinks himself worthy of some regard. Gens haec, saith Giraldus Cambrensis of the wild Irish, sicut et natio quaevis barbara, &c.; No nation is so barbarous, but that although they know not what belongeth to honour, yet do they exceedingly affect to be honoured, and will not abide to be reproached.

Ver. 6. Behold the princes of Israel.] Here beginneth the black bill or bed roll. And as in a fish corruption beginneth at the head, so in a nation at the rulers.

Ver. 7. In thee have they set light by father and mother.] Whom very heathens honoured as their θεοι εφεστιαι, household gods.

In the midst of thee, &c.] So Jerome complaineth of his country, In mea patria deus venter est, et in diem vivitur, that they were all belly gods, and had no goodness in them. So Bede complaineth of the ancient Britons immediately before their destruction by the Saxons. Bradford crieth out against the iniquity of the times in King Edward’s days. You all know, saith he in a certain letter of his, there was never more knowledge of God, and less godly living, and true serving of God. It was counted a foolish thing to serve God truly; and earnest prayer was not past upon. Preaching was but pastime; communion was counted too common; fasting was far out of use; alms was almost nothing. Malice, covetousness, and uncleanness was common everywhere, with swearing, drunkenness, and idleness. {a} &c.

{a} Acts and Mon.

Ver. 8. Thou hast despised mine holy things.] These are all foretokens of a perishing people. Emphasin habet quod dicit sancta mea, Sabbata mea. Shall that which hath the impress of God upon it be slighted, as his sabbaths, sacraments, ordinances? The holy God should in all his holy things be "sanctified in righteousness." {#Isa 5:16}

Ver. 9. In thee are men that carry tales.] Heb., Men of slanders. {#Ex 23:1 Le 18:16} Whisperers, backbiters, tale bearers—pedlars, the Hebrew word, signifieth such as drop a tale here and another there—are viri latrones, thieves, as the Septuagint here translate, yea, they are murderers. The devil was first a slanderer, and then a murderer. His agents first take away the credit of the Church, and then wound her. {#So 5:6} The primitive Christians were first belied, and then cruelly handled; so were the French Protestants before the massacre of Paris. Humphry, Duke of Gloucester was by the people of England, notwithstanding the open showing of his body, and his pretended crimes, thought to be doubly murdered—viz., by detraction and deadly practice—saith the chronicler.

Ver. 10. In thee have they discovered their father’s nakedness,] i.e., Carnally known their father’s wives or concubines, Reuben-like. See #1Co 5:1. {See Trapp on "1Co 5:1"}

Humbled her,] i.e., Ravished her: which was a double crime. See #Le 18:19 20:18 15:25.

Ver. 11. And one hath committed.] So the poet—

“ Hic thalamum invasit natae, vetitosque Hymenaeos,

Ausi omnes immune nefas, ausoque potiti,” &c.

- Virg. Aen., lib. vi.

Ver. 12. Thou hast taken usury and increase.] Usura quasi propter usum rei, saith one, and foenus quasi funus. Such money to necessity, is like cold water to a hot ague, that for a time refresheth, but prolongeth the disease. It is like the timber worm, which is wonderfully soft to touch, but hath teeth so hard that it eateth the timber. See on #Eze 18:13.

And hast greedily gained of thy neighbour.] Sept., Thou has consummated the consummation of thy wickedness in oppression.

And hast forgotten me.] All the forementioned evils are resolved into this as the root and origin of them. {a} See the like, #Ro 3:18.

{a} Dei oblivio convehit omnem vitiorum catervam. -Jerome.

Ver. 13. I have smitten my hand.] In token of utmost indignation, as #Nu 24:10.

At thy dishonest gain which thou hast made.] The Jewish doctors observe, that, whereas twenty-four different abominations are here reckoned up, the destruction of the city is attributed chiefly to covetousness. Lycurgus foretold his Lacedaemonians that filthy lucre would be the overthrow of their city, and it proved so. {a} The same is reported of Constantinople, of Babylon, the seat of the great Caliph, taken and sacked by Haalon, brother to Mango the great Khan of Tartary, who starved to death the rich but wretched Caliph in the midst of his hoards; {b} 1ike as the Roman soldiers first slew Ruffinus, who affected to be co-emperor with Arcadius, and then cutting off his right hand, carried it up and down the city, crying out to the people, Date stipem viro avaritiae inexplebilis, {c} Give an alms to a man of insatiable covetousness.

{a} Plutarch.

{b} Turkish History.

{c} Paraei, Med. Hist. Profan.

Ver. 14. Can thine heart endure, or can thine hands be strong?] Interrogatio continens latentem ironiam -q.d., Misella superbula, erisne ferendo mala futura? Thou pour, proud thing of nought, canst thou make thy party good with me? Canst thou either in mind or body bear my wrath? will not thine heart soon fall into thy heels, and thine hands be enfeebled when I shall grapple with thee, and take thee to do?

And will do it.] Thou thinkest, likely, that all these are but terrible words, devised on purpose to frighten silly people, but I will do it.

Ver. 15. I will scatter thee.] #De 4:27 28:25,64.

And will consume thy filthiness.] By thy captivity and misery I will refine and reform thee {a} {#Zec 13:9}

{a} Heb., Faciam ut integretur.

Ver. 16. And thou shalt take thine inheritance in thyself,] q.d., I will abandon thee. Or, Thou shall be profaned and polluted.

And thou shalt know that I am the Lord.] Thou shalt know me by my punishments, whom thou wouldst not know by my benefits.

Ver. 17. And the word of the Lord] See #Eze 18:1.

Ver. 18. The house of Israel is to me become dross.] Recrementum argenti; offal stuff. Silver they were once, but now nothing less. Haec ad nos quoque transferenda sunt. This is even our case; we are quite degenerate, and altogether unlike our zealous progenitors.

“ Heu! pietas ubi prisca! profana O tempora! Mundi

Faex, vesper, prope nox! O Mora! Christe veni.”

All they are brass.] See on #Isa 1:22.

Ver. 19. I will gather you into the midst of Jerusalem.] Velut catinum fusorium, as into a red hot furnace, or fiery crucible. {#Eze 24:10}

Ver. 20. As they gather silver and brass.] The righteous perish with the wicked; but either it is temporally only, or else the seemingly righteous, who are no better than "reprobate silver."

And I will leave you there.] A terrible threat. God will bring his enemies into the briers and there leave them. See #Eze 29:5. His own he will not leave, or at least not forsake. He will be with them in the fire and water, &c. "Lord, leave us not," saith the Church. {#Jer 17:17}

Ver. 21. And ye shall be melted in the midst thereof.] As in a fiery furnace. Such was anciently Egypt; {#De 4:20} afterwards Babylon; and in the year 1453, Constantinople, where cruelly perished by the hand of the Turks a very great multitude of Christians.

Ver. 22. As silver is melted.] The same again for better fastening. Tam diligenter de his malis concionatus est, ut conciones eius vix sine taedio legantur aut recitentur. {a}

{a} Lavat.

Ver. 23. And the word.] See #Eze 18:1.

Ver. 24. Thou art the land that is not cleansed.] From thy filthiness, and the fire of my judgments.

Nor rained upon.] Non compluta; no mercy shown thee, no good done upon thee by all.

Ver. 25. There is a conspiracy of her prophets.] They are all agreed to deceive the people and to persecute the true prophets. Here we have a lively description of the present Popish clergy.

Ver. 26. Her priests have violated my law.] {a} By infringing, and enforcing it to speak what it never meant; to go two miles when it would go but one, &c.

They have put no difference.] They have not taken out the precious from the vile, but made it open tide, and admitted all pellmell, as they say.

And have hid their eyes from my Sabbaths,] i.e., Either framed excuse that they might themselves break it; or else connived at others that have.

{a} Plane palamque contra faciunt, quam ipsis imperavi lege. -Jun.

Ver. 27. Her princes in the midst thereof.] Lupis ferociores et voraciores erant. There was in this state, as physicians say there is in some diseases, corruptio totius substantiae, a general defection: and here they are particularly told of it; so, as Isocrates saith in his oration to Philip King of Macedonia, That which is spoken to all is spoken to none. See #Mic 3:11 Zep 3:3.

Ver. 28. And her prophets have daubed them.] Similes iis qui parietem incrustant luto friabili et solubili. See #Eze 13:4, &c.

Ver. 29. The people of the land have used oppression.] Or, Deceit. Eadem hodie fiunt: charitas refrixit; omnia iniuriis, calumniis, rapinis plena sunt.

Ver. 30. And I sought for a man among them,] i.e., A competent company of holy men, as once at Sodom; {#Ge 18:23-32} at Jerusalem. {#Jer 5:1}

That should make up the hedge.] Which sin had thrown down.

And stand in the gap.] By his piety and prayers. The Primum Mobile, say astronomers, turneth about with such swiftness, that but for the counter motion of the planets and other spheres all would be fired; so would this wicked world but for the saints, who keep a constant counter motion to the corrupt practices thereof.

Ver. 31. I have consumed them with the fire.] Since thou wouldst not be cleansed, nor rained upon in the day of indignation. {#Eze 22:24}

Chapter 23

Ver. 1. The word of the Lord.] See #Eze 18:1.

Ver. 2. There were two women.] This is the same in effect with #Eze 16, but there more plainly, here parabolically expressed. Sermo est eraditus et elegans, simul tamen spurcas et obscaenus, {a} to set forth the hatefulness of idolatry, creature confidence, and adultery.

The daughters of one mother,] scil., Synagogae, vel Sarce. Some think the prophet alludeth to Jacob’s two wives who were sisters.

{a} Lavat.

Ver. 3. And they committed whoredoms in Egypt.] See #Eze 20:8 Jos 24:14.

They committed whoredoms in their youth.] Like the strumpet Quartilla in Petronius, who said, Iunonem ego meam iratam habeam, si unquam me meminerim virginem fuisse. {a}

There were their breasts pressed.] Violatam virginitatem mammarum laxitas consequitur.

{a} Petron. Satyricon.

Ver. 4. And the names of them were Aholah,] i.e., Her tent, not mine (so he calleth Samaria, or the ten tribes). What have I to do with it or her Compare #1Ki 12:16,28,31. She is gone to her tent, and hath set her up tabernacles, where to worship her golden idols.

The elder.] So called because more numerous and potent than the other two tribes. She was also first in the defection.

And Aholibah.] That is, my tent is in her. So Jerusalem is called, because the temple and testimonies of God’s special presence were there, as King Abijah well pleadeth it. {#2Ch 13:10,11}

Samaria is Aholah.] In figure she is; though some have held that these were the names of two notorious strumpets in Egypt.

Ver. 5. And Aholah played the harlot when she was mine.] Fornicata est sub me, under colour and covert of a marriage made with me. See what a fair gloss Jeroboam set upon his foul idolatry. {#1Ki 12:28}

On the Assyrians, her neighbours.] So they were now become, by the conquest of Syria.

Ver. 6. Which were clothed with blue.] With rich and gorgeous attire. Vestis luxuriae nidus.

Ver. 7. Thus she committed her whoredoms with them.] Heb., She bestowed her whoredoms upon them; she was no niggard. A little entreaty served turn. Cuilibet sui copiam faciebat, such was her idol madness.

Ver. 8. Neither left she her idols brought from Egypt.] Witness her two golden calves brought therehence by Jeroboam, in imitation of Apis, a calf dedicated by the Egyptians to Serapis, their chief idol.

“ Quis nescit, qualia demens

Aegyptus portenta colat?’’—Juvenal.

For in her youth.] See on #Eze 23:3.

And poured their whoredoms upon her.] This kind of language and the like is here and elsewhere used, not to teach men to speak or do foul things, but the contrary. Of Petronius’s Satyricon it is said, Tolle obscaena, et tollis omni: and that he was impurissimus scriptor purissimae Latinitatis. Of our prophet it may as truly be said, Tolle sancta et tollis omnia. See on #Eze 23:2.

Ver. 9. Wherefore I have delivered her.] #2Ki 17:23.

“ Per quod quis peccat, per idem punitur et ipse.”

Ver. 10. These discovered her nakedness,] i.e., They have shamefully punished her for a stinking strumpet. {as #Eze 23:26}

And she became famous.] For her sins and punishments, much talked of. Heb., A name.

Ver. 11. And when her sister Aholibah saw this.] And yet would not be warned; which was a just both presage and desert of her utter destruction.

She was more corrupt.] She was therefore the worse, because she should have been better.

Ver. 12. She doted.] Amantes amentes. Loving her lovers. See #Eze 23:5.

Ver. 13. Then I saw that she was defiled.] Whence it is that man’s nature is so prone to idolatry, and why that sin is compared to adultery, see Polanus upon this chapter, pp. 538-540.

Ver. 14. For when she saw men portrayed upon the wall.] So unbridled was her lust that she fell to doting upon those quos tantum per umbram et imaginem aspexerat, whose pictures only she had beheld. In some Popish churches there are to be seen wanton pictures, such as do rather kindle lust than quicken devotion. An eyewitness {a} hath told us in print that in some places they will assemble various of the fairest courtezans, when they would draw a picture of the Virgin Mary, to draw the most modest beauty of a virgin out of the flagrancy of harlots.

{a} Spec. Eur.

Ver. 15. Girded with girdles.] Rich clothes are oft but fine covers of the foulest shame. If every silken suit did cover a sanctified soul, it would be brave.

Ver. 16. And as soon as she saw them with her eyes.] Here began the mischief. Ut vidi ut perii! Conciliatorem peccati oculum Talmudici nominant.

“ Oculi sunt in amore duces.”

Many have died of the wound in the eye.

And sent messengers unto them.] Being themselves, therefore, not long after, sent into captivity unto them, that they might have enough of them.

Ver. 17. Into the bed of love.] Or, Of breasts, which are the symbols of love and seats of delight, as naturalists note. See #Pr 6:19 7:18.

And her mind was alienated from them.] Heb., Loosed or disjointed, to dote another while upon the Egyptians. Etiam vota post usum fastidia sunt.

Ver. 18. Then my mind was alienated from her.] So #Jer 6:8; see there.

Ver. 19. In calling to mind the sins of her youth.] This was to recommit them, because she remembered them with delight. It argueth an unmortified frame when recalling former evil acts proveth a snare.

Ver. 20. Whose flesh is as the flesh of asses.] Qui sunt bene mentulati (honos sit nutibus) et qui semine abundant. Commodus the emperor, who had never a good property in him, was for this called the Ass, as Jerome noteth.

And whose issue is as the issue of horses.] Fluxus equorum est fluxus eorum -that is, they are extremely libidinous and superstitious, so that there is no ho with them. Circumfluunt et exundant omni scelere et impietate copiosissime.

Ver. 21. Thus thou calledst to remembrance.] See #Eze 23:19.

Ver. 22. Therefore, O Aholibah.] Flagitium et flagellum sunt ut acus et filum. Sin and punishment are inseparable companions; they are tied together with chains of adamant.

Ver. 23. Pekod, and Shoa, and Koa.] The inhabitants of these several countries, subject to the Babylonians. See #Jer 50:21. Koa is by Strabo called Gaugamela.

Ver. 24. I will set judgment before them,] i.e., I will put thee into their hands to be punished.

And they shall judge thee according to their judgment.] Without mixture of mercy; whereas I use in the midst of judgment to remember mercy.

Ver. 25. And they shall take away thy nose and thine ears.] He seemeth to allude to the custom of the Egyptians, which was to cut off the nose and the ears of the adulteress. {a} John, a certain antipope, was served in like sort by the Romans. {b} Paul II deserved to be so served; of whom it is recorded that he was so proud that he painted his face to please his concubine; and that he was once in a mind to have taken to himself the name of Formosus, but that he thought it was ominous because his predecessor of that name came to so ill an end. {c}

{a} Rhodigin., lib. xxiv. cap. 45.

{b} Pet. Damian, lib. i. cap. 21.

{c} Jacob. Revius, De. Vit, Pont.

Ver. 26. They shall also strip thee out of thy clothes.] Wherein thou hast so much prided thyself.

And take away thy fair jewels.] Instrumenta mundi tui; the instruments of thy decking. {#Isa 3:18-24}

Ver. 27. Then will I make thy lewdness to cease from thee.] Thy prepensed wickedness. This benefit thou shalt reap and receive of thine enemies’ cruelty.

Nor remember Egypt.] Without regret.

Ver. 28. I will deliver thee.] God hath a holy hand in all the evils that befall his people, by whomsoever.

Ver. 29. And they shall deal with thee hatefully.] As ill as the wit of malice can devise to do.

All thy labour,] i.e., All that thou hast laboured for. Oh, lay up grace, quae nec eripi nec surripi potest.

And the nakedness of thy whoredoms.] Nuditas tua scortationibus dedita. {a}

{a} Piscator.

Ver. 30. Thou art polluted with their idols.] Whereby thou thoughtest to have purged away thy sins, as Papists also do; but it proveth otherwise.

Ver. 31. Therefore will I give her cup into thine hand.] An allusion to the manner of feasts, whereat the symposiarch or governor gave every guest his cup fitly tempered. God is the great Modimperator.

Ver. 32. Thou shaIt drink of thy sister’s cup deep and large.] Yea, though it have eternity to the bottom.

Ver. 33. Thou shalt be filled with drunkenness and sorrow.] That dry drunkenness, ut si catapotium bibas.

Ver. 34. And thou shalt break the sherds thereof,] i.e., Of the cup, which thou shalt cast away with utmost indignation: but thou hast thy bane.

And pluck off thine own breast.] For a revenge of thy fornication therewith committed.

Ver. 35. Because thou hast forgotten me.] This was the source of all their sins, and cause of all their calamities.

And cast me behind thy back.] As a harlot loatheth her husband. It is laid to David’s charge that in that foul fall of his he had "despised God’s commandment." {#2Sa 12:9}

Ver. 36. Wilt thou judge?] See #Eze 20:4 22:2.

Ver. 37. And blood is in their hands.] Adultery is the devil’s nest egg, and causeth many sins to be laid one to and upon another; as here, murder, idolatry, &c.

To devour them.] Not only to purge and to dedicate them.

Ver. 38. They have defiled my sanctuary in the same day.] When they had done evil as they could, they exercised mine external worship that they might seem religious. So #Isa 66:3.

Ver. 39. For when they had slain.] When their hands were full of blood, and even reeking hot therewith. This was detestable impudence.

Then they came the same day into my sanctuary.] Citra conscientiam, as if they had done God good service. So Erasmus {a} telleth of a fierce friar, Augustine of Antwerp, who openly in the pulpit there preaching to the people, wished that Luther were present, that he might bite out his throat with his teeth; so doing he would nothing doubt to resort to the altar with the same bloody teeth, and receive the body of Christ. Fiducia in federibus.

{a} Eras. Ep., lib. xvi. ad obtrect.

Ver. 40. Ye have sent for men.] Ye have trusted to foreign forces and carnal combinations.

For whom thou didst wash thyself.] Omnino te comparas ut Thais impudentissima, ad pelliciendos et inescandos amatores; thou hast acted the whore to the life to inveigle thy paramours.

Ver. 41. And satest.] For entertainment sake.

Whereupon thou hast set mine incense] So fighting against me, as it were, with mine own weapons, and abusing my best gifts to my greatest dishonour, contrary to #Pr 3:9.

Ver. 42. And a voice of a multitude being at ease.] Or, Being jolly and jocund, as at brothel houses.

And with the men of the common, sort.] Heb., To the men. The basest and most abject people also were taken into confederacy; even Arabians, Ethiopians, Tartars, so cheap didst thou make thyself, so fond wast thou of their fopperies.

Ver. 43. To her that was old in adulteries.] Inveteratae et detritae, withered and overworn.

And she with them?] Is she—as Helen was παλαι γυνη—the same still, no changeling yet?

Ver. 44. Yet they went in unto her.] They committed idolatry without mean or measure, being woefully hardened and habituated therein.

Ver. 45. And the righteous men.] So the Chaldees are called, because less wicked than the Jews (as the Scythians were better than the Athenians, and now the Indians than the Spaniards), and because they executed the righteous sentence of God upon those flagitious Jews.

Ver. 46. I will bring up a company.] A numerous army, which shall make much havoc and slaughter.

Ver. 47. And the company shall stone them.] As by the law they did adulteresses.

Ver. 48. Thus will I cause lewdness to cease.] Thus, if it may be done no otherwise. Thus still, if men will not mend by fair means, they are taken away by death, that they may sin no more.

That all women may be taught.] That all cities and states may hear, and fear, and do no more so.

“ Exemplo alterius qui sapit, ille sapit.”

Ver. 49. And ye shall bear the sins,] i.e., The punishment of your idolatry; neither shall ye have colour of cause to complain of my severity.

And ye shall know that I am the Lord God.] This comes in ever and anon, velut versus intercalaris, and hath much weight in it to set on what is said before.

Chapter 24

Ver. 1. Again in the ninth year.] Of Jehoiakim’s captivity, {#Eze 1:2} three years before the destruction of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar.

Ver. 2. This same day.] Ezekiel in Mesopotamia is told by God, and telleth others the very day that Nebuchadnezzar laid siege to Jerusalem. {#2Ki 25:1 Jer 39:1 52:4} Heathen historians all us of Apollonius Tyanaeus, that in the self-same day and hour wherein Domitian the emperor was slain at Rome, he got up into a high place at Ephesus in Asia, and calling together a great multitude of men, he spake these words, Καλως Στεφανε, ειγε Στεφανε—Well done, Stephen, strike the murderer home, pay him soundly; thou hast struck him, thou hast wounded him to the heart, thou hast slain him outright; {a} I commend thee for it. This, if it were so, was brought to him by the devil doubtless. Our prophet had a better intelligencer.

{a} παιε τον μιαιφονον, επλεξας, ετρωσας, απεκτεινας.—Dio Domit.

Ver. 3. Set on a pot.] Deus cum propheta loquitur tanquam cum coquo: anything to make them sensible of their danger, and the destruction of their city now fully determined. This pot is Jerusalem, and a lively representation of hell, saith A Lapide; {a} the pouring of water into it, a long siege; the flesh, the citizens; the fat, the rich ones, lauti et lascivi; the bones, the stoutest and best warriors, &c. These scurrilous Jews had jeered at Jeremiah’s caldron or pot; {#Jer 1:13 Eze 11:3} now they are cast into the pot, and their jeer driven back down their very throats.

{a} Repraesentat Tartarum, et ollam Vulcaniam inferni.

Ver. 4. Gather the pieces thereof into it.] Let people of all sorts flock into the city for safety sake, that there, as in a pot, they may be boiled by a long siege, and have sorrow enough.

Ver. 5. Take the choice of the flock.] The king and his peers.

And burn also the bones.] The dry bones, the common people, for these will burn like wood.

And let him seethe the bones.] The choice bones. {#Eze 24:4}

Ver. 6. Woe to the bloody city,] i.e., Blood guilty, and full of crimes capital that call for blood.

To the pot whose scum is in it.] Who are hardened in their wickedness, which is evident to all men, and are not amended by punishments.

Let no lot fall upon it,] i.e., Let none escape unpunished. In wars often they cast lots to save some and slay some.

Ver. 7. For her blood is in the midst of her.] She careth not who knows of her murders and oppressions. He seemeth to allude to that law, that blood being let out of a beast should be covered in the ground.

She set it upon the top of a rock.] Super limpidissimam petram, saith the Vulgate, as glorying in it. So Abimelech slew all his brethren upon one stone; {#Jud 9:5} the Jews crucified our Saviour on Mount Calvary.

She poured it not.] Pudet et non esse impudentem. It is shameful not to be shameless.

Ver. 8. I have set her blood upon the top of a rock.] {a} Where it will be seen afar off and for a long time. As her sin was in propatulo, in open view, so, to cry quittance with her, shall her punishment likewise be; my visible vengeance shall follow her close at heels as a bloodhound.

{a} Agit cum illa ex lege talionis. -Pol.

Ver. 9. Woe to the bloody city.] See #Na 3:1 Hab 2:12.

I will even make the pile for fire great.] They shall undergo a long and sore siege.

Ver. 10. Heap on wood, &c.] See on #Eze 24:3.

And spice it well.] Vulgate, Coquatur tota compositio; let the whole composition be boiled, till all the virtue be boiled out; a metaphor from apothecaries.

Ver. 11. That the brass of it may be hot, and may burn.] This Gregory {a} fitly applieth to Rome, taken and wasted by the Lombards. This city, ever since it was Papal—and then it first began to be so—was never besieged, but it was taken by the enemy.

{a} Iam vacua ardet Roma: iam enim et ipsa olla consumitur, in qua prius carnes et ossa consumebantur. -Hom. 18 in Ezek.

Ver. 12. She hath wearied herself with lies.] With seeking and trusting to lying vanities, creature comforts. Others render it, She hath wearied me with lies—i.e., With false promises of amendment; others, Frustra sudatum est, Pains is taken with them to no purpose.

And her great scum went not forth out of her.] But is sodden into her partly, and partly sodden over into the fire. A godly man cleareth himself of sin, as spring water worketh itself clean; as the sea will endure no poisonous thing, but casteth it upon the shore; as the sweet water, made brackish by the coming in of the salt water, gets to be sweet again, so do God’s people work out brackish and sinful dispositions, &c. The good heart admitteth not the mixture of any sin; though sin may cleave to it as dross doth to silver, yet, like right wine or honey, as the scum ariseth, still it casteth it out; so here.

Ver. 13. In thy filthiness is lewdness,] i.e., Thou art desperately stiff and stubborn; thy disease is complicated, and threateneth death.

Because I have purged thee,] i.e., Called upon thee by my prophets to "cleanse thyself of all filthiness of flesh and spirit"; sought also to purge thee by the soap of afflictions, and by the cudgel of calamities. {#Isa 1:16 27:9 cf. Isa 1:5-7}

And thou wast not purged.] From thy sin, which had gotten into thy very frame and constitution, was weaved into the texture of thine heart.

Thou shalt not be purged.] But shalt perish in thy sins—which is worse than to die in a ditch—"and pine away in thine iniquities." {#Eze 24:23} He who is filthy, shall be filthy still; a fearful sentence.

Till I have caused my fury to rest upon thee.] Till I have purged thee in hell fire, which will be ever doing, but never be done; donec omnia tela vindictae meae in te exhausero, till I have emptied my quiver, spent my wrath upon thee.

Ver. 14. I the Lord have spoken it.] And you may write upon it, Sententia haec stabit. Think not that these are only big words, bugbear terms, devised on purpose to frighten silly people; for do it I will, yea, that I will.

Ver. 15. Also the word of the Lord.] See #Eze 18:1.

Ver. 16. Behold, I take from thee the desire of thine eyes,] i.e., Thy wife, who is impendio dilecta et visu pergratiosa, thy dearly beloved and greatly delighted in.

With a stroke.] With pestilence, palsy, or some similar sudden death. This was no small trial of the prophet’s patience and obedience. Let us learn to hang loose to all outward comforts.

Yet neither shalt thou mourn nor weep.] Which, might he have done, would have been some ease to him; {a} for

“ Expletur lachrymis, egeriturque dolor.”

As hinds by calving, so do men by weeping, cast out their sorrows. {#Job 39:3}

{a} Est quaedam flere voluptas. -Ovid. Fletus aerumnas lennet. -Sen.

Ver. 17. Forbear to cry.] Heb., Be silent, and so suffocate thy sorrows; Ne plangas, ne plores. Not as if the dead were not to be lamented—tears are the dues of the dead, {a} Mors mea ne careat lachrymis -or that it were unbeseeming a prophet to bewail his dead comfort, but to set forth by this figure the greatness of their ensuing sorrow, bigger than any tears; for, Curae leves loquuntur ingentes stupent.

Bind the tire of thy head upon thee.] Mourners, it seems, used to go bare headed and bare footed, to cover their mustaches, to eat what their friends sent them in at such a sad time to cheer up their spirits. {#Jer 16:5,7} The prophet must do none of all this, but keep his sorrows to himself. {b}

{a} Πατροκλον κλαιωμεν: ο γαρ γερας εστι θανοντων.

{b} Singultus devorat.

Ver. 18. And at even my wife died.] Though a good woman probably, and to the prophet a great comfort, the sweet companion of his life and miseries, yet she died suddenly, and by some extraordinary disease; all things come alike to all.

And I did in the morning as I was commanded.] Grievous though it were, and went much against the hair with me, yet I did it. Uxorem posthabuit praecepto Dei. Obedience must be yielded to God even in the most difficult duties, and conjugal love must give place to our love to him.

Ver. 19. Wilt thou not tell us.] They well knew that there was something in it more than ordinary, for the prophet was no stoic, but sensible enough of what he suffered.

Ver. 20. Then I answered them.] The prophet was ready to tell them the true meaning of all; so should ministers be. See #Job 33:23. {See Trapp on "Job 33:23"}

Ver. 21. Behold, I will profane my sanctuary.] I will put it into the hands of profane persons to be spoiled and polluted, for a punishment of your manifold pollutions of it.

The excellency of your strength.] The Jews had too high a conceit of, and did put too much confidence in, their temple, which therefore they called, as here, the "excellency of their strength," the "desire of their eyes," and that which their soul pitied, animarum indulgentiam. "The temple of the Lord!" they cried; but the Lord of the temple they cared not for. {#Jer 7:4}

Ver. 22. And ye shall do as I have done.] Your grief shall be above tears, you shall be so overgone with it; besides you shall have neither leisure nor leave of your enemies to bewail your losses, &c.

Ye shall not cover.] See on #Eze 24:17. Antonius Margarita, a Christian Jew, hath written a book of the Jewish rites or superstitions at the burial of the dead, and otherwise; so hath Leo Modena, another Jew, but no Christian.

Ver. 23. But ye shall pine away for your iniquities.] Non tam stupidi prae maestitia, quam prae malitia stipites. {a} This was long since threatened, {#Le 26:39} and it is reserved to the last, as not the least of those dismal judgments.

{a} Oecolamp.

Ver. 24. Thus Ezekiel is unto you a son.] Portentum; portending no good to you. Whether he were made dumb till these things were fulfilled, as some gather from #Eze 24:27, I have not to say.

Ver. 25. When I take from them their strength.] Their kingdom, temple, all.

And that whereupon they set their minds.] Heb., The lifting up of the soul, or the burden of their souls, that whereof they are most solicitous.

Ver. 26. To cause thee to hear it,] viz., The performance of that which now thou fortellest, but canst not be believed, till experience, the mistress of fools, hath better taught it them.

Ver. 27. In that day shall thy mouth be opened.] Meanwhile make use of a sacred silence, wait till a new prophecy concerning this people shall be committed unto thee, as was done Eze. 33. Till then, prophesy against foreigners, Ammonites, Tyrians, Egyptians.

Chapter 25

Ver. 1. The word of the Lord.] Contra gentes; against those nations chiefly that molested the Jews after their overthrow by the Babylonians. Sins they had enough besides, but for none did they suffer more deeply than for their malignity towards God’s poor afflicted. The Ammonites, Moabites, Edomites, and Philistines are here more briefly threatened; the Tyrians and Egyptians more at large, because it seemed impossible that they should be brought down.

Ver. 2. Set thy face against the Ammonites.] Look upon them firmo, torvo, et minaci vultu, as if thou wouldst look through them; and having so lightened, thunder accordingly.

Against the Ammonites.] Who have had their part already of threatenings, {#Eze 21:28} but not their full due.

Ver. 3. Because thou saidst, Aha.] Insolently insulting over mine Israel when under hatches; as when a tree is down, every man will be pulling at the branches, and Leoni mortuo vd mus insultat. But it is ill meddling against God’s Church, be it but by a frown or a trump, as here. An aha or an euge shall not escape unpunished. {#Ps 35:21}

Ver. 4. I will deliver thee to the men of the east.] To the Arabians, Keturah’s posterity, who were shepherds and camel masters.

They shall eat thy fruit and drink thy milk.] Sept., πιοτητα, Thy fatness. Est enim adeps lac coagulatum. The Ammonites, as now the Flemmings, were γαλακτοφαγοι, butter boxes, as we say, and lived much upon dairy products; so do we. Let us use our plenty to God’s glory, lest we lose all.

Ver. 5. And I will make Rabbah.] The metropolis of the Ammonites. It signifieth that great city; and was afterwards rebuilt by Ptolemy Philadelph, and called Philadelphia.

“ Valet ima summis

Mutare, et insignem attenuat Deus

Obseura premens,” &c.

- Hor., lib. i. Od. 34.

Ver. 6. Because thou hast clapped thine hands.] Manibus plaudis, pedibus complodis, &c. God is very sensible of the least indignity and injury, affront or offence, done to his poor people, by words, looks, gestures, &c. Cavete. Beware.

Ver. 7. Behold, therefore I will stretch out my hand upon thee.] God loveth to retaliate.

I will cause thee to perish out of the country.] So little a distance is there again, saith Seneca, between a great city and no city.

“ Ludit in humanis divina potentia rebus:

Et certam praesens vix habet hora fidem.”

Ver. 8. Behold, the house of Judah is like unto all the heathen.] As ill-protected and provided for as they; as much scourged by the Babylonian. See to the contrary in #De 33:29, "Happy art thou, O Israel; who is like unto thee, O people saved by the Lord, the shield of thy help, and who is the sword of thine excellency! and thine enemies shall be found liars unto thee; and thou shalt tread upon their high places!" Some read it, ‘Behold the house of Jehovah,’ and note an emphasis in that word, as savouring of contempt and blasphemy, as in #2Ki 18:33,34.

Ver. 9. Behold, I will open the side of Moab.] Heb., The shoulder—that is, the border that is fortified—to let in the enemy; like as the side being opened, an entrance is given into the body through the ribs for the destruction thereof, because the strongest defence is taken away. {a}

{a} Dr Mayr.

Ver. 10. That the Ammonites may not be remembered among the nations.] A fearful hand of God upon them, as it was also upon some other peoples, who are so utterly extinct that the learned can now hardly divine where their seats were.

Ver. 11. And I will execute judgments upon Moab.] Or, In Moab, where was no care to execute justice and judgment; sed frigebant leges: ius situm erat in manibus, &c. Might overcame right.

Ver. 12. By taking vengeance.] Heb., By revenging revengement; out of a vindictive spirit rejoicing at Judah’s harms, and saying, They were well enough served. See the prophecy of Ob 10-16 and #Ps 137:7 Their father Esau was of a spiteful spirit, {#Ge 27:41} and they took after him, proceeding upon the old score. Hence they are put for God’s and the Church’s enemies by a specialty. {#Isa 63:1-6 Joe 3:9-17 Am 9:1-10} A learned man hath given us this note: Esau signifieth a doer or a worker; Edom, a ruddy, bloody, or earthy man. These Edomites were a type of justiciaries, who will needs be saved by their works and merits. These are the deadliest enemies of God’s people, war upon them continually, seek and suck their blood, and shall at length suffer condign punishment.

And hath greatly offended and revenged himself upon them.] Wishing, as Caligula did by the people of Rome, that they had all but one neck, {a} that he might cut them off at one blow. Plane sunt serpentes, saith Luther concerning hypocrites, quo nullum est animal vindictae cupidius, they are very serpents, than which there is no living creature more revengeful.

{a} ειθ´ ενα αυχενα ειχετε.

Ver. 13. I will stretch out mine hand upon Edom.] God hath vengeance ready for revengers. Immune verbam est ultio, saith Seneca; they shall not escape unpunished. See #Pr 24:17,18. The Duke of Bourbon being displeased at Cardinal Wolsey, intended to have sacked Rome, and taken the Pope; but at the first assault of the town, the Duke was the first man that was slain.

Ver. 14. I will lay my vengeance upon Edom.] Edam ultionem in Edom. See #Eze 25:13.

By the hand of my people Israel.] In the time of the Macchabees likely this was done. Or, By the hand wherewith I shall smite my people; that is, by the Babylonians: so Piscator.

According to my fury.] And not as the commanders will. Titus would have saved the temple at Jerusalem from being burned, but the soldiers would not. {a}

{a} Josephus.

Ver. 15. Because the Philistines have dealt by revenge.] See on #Eze 25:12,13. Heathens thought revenge lawful, and tallying of injuries to be but justice. But Christianity teacheth us that non minus mali est referre iniuriam, quam inferre, {a}

For the old hatred.] The Philistines were of the old inhabitants the Canaanites, and kept up a deadly feud.

{a} Lactant.

Ver. 16. I will cut off the Cherethims.] These were a part of the Philistines. {#Zep 2:5} There is an elegance in the original: q.d., Exscindam exscissores, I will cut off the cutters.

And destroy the remnant of the sea coast.] Palestina lay upon the midland sea. {#Zep 3:5}

Ver. 17. And I will execute great vengeance upon them.] Heb., Vengeances. I will pay them for the new and the old together.

Chapter 26

Ver. 1. In the eleventh year.] Of Jehoiakim’s captivity and Zedekiah’s reign.

In the first day of the month,] i.e., Of the fifth month, when the news came to Tyre of the destruction of Jerusalem twenty days before, which occured on the ninth day of the fourth month. {#2Ki 25:1}

Ver. 2. Because that Tyrus hath said.] Wicked men shall give account for their "hard speeches also," {#Jude 15} if not sooner, yet certainly at the last day, with the whole world all on a light fire about their ears. Tyre was the chief city of Phoenicia, built before Solomon’s temple, saith Josephus; {a} and anciently called Sarra, {b} saith Servius, of the Hebrew tsor, which signifieth a rock, because it was built upon a rock. It became the most famous and wealthy market town of the whole East; and having so great a resort to it from all parts, it was a very sinful place; and framing comedies out of the Church’s tragedies, hath this prophecy to champ upon, for a rebater of its pride and petulance.

Aha.] See #Eze 25:3.

That was the gates of the people.] Whereinto they entered by troops and caravans, for religion and traffic.

She is turned unto me.] Vide hic ingenia mercatorum. Her ruin shall be my rise. Lo, this is the world; envy and avarice rejoice at, and are fed with other men’s tears and losses; sed gaudent pyraustae gaudium. Contrariwise, God is rich to all that call upon him; {#Ro 10:12} and in spiritual things there is no envy, because they may be divided in solidum, in the whole, one may have as much as another, and all alike.

I shall be replenished.] Mercibus et opibus; with wars and wealth. But how long will it hold?

{a} Antiq., lib. viii. cap. 2.

{b} Sarrano dormiat ostro. -Virg. Gorg., lib. ii.

Ver. 3. Therefore thus saith the Lord God.] And thy merchants will soon do thee word of it; for they are great newsmongers, and ill news is swift of foot. {a}

Behold, I am against them.] Neither can thine Apollo help or deliver thee out of my hands; no, though thou chain that idol and nail him to a post, that thou mayest be sure of him; for so these Tyrians did when Alexander besieged their city and took it.

{a} αι γλαγαι ποδωκεις.—Pindar.

Ver. 4. And they shall destroy the walls of Tyrus.] Which thou holdest to be inexpugnable. Hence this and the two following chapters, purposely to undeceive thee, if it may be.

I will also scrape her dust from her.] Brought from other places, to make her gardens; for she was built upon a rock, et in petram glabram: to a naked rock will God now reduce her.

Ver. 5. It shall be a place for the spreading of nets.] Of fishers’ nets, hung up in the sun to be dried. The prophets usually fetch their comparisons from things the people were most acquainted with and accustomed to as here. Let ministers now do the like.

Ver. 6. And her daughters which are in the field,] i.e., Other cities and colonies sent out by her, and subject to her; as she was olim partu clara urbibus genitis, as Pliny saith of her, the mother of many fair cities, Leptis, Utica, Carthage. Some take it literally for people of both sexes.

Ver. 7. Behold, I will bring upon Tyrus Nebuchadnezzar.] A name as dreadful then as was at any time the name of the great Turk: a man as famous for his valour and victories as ever was Hercules, saith Megasthenes in Josephus, {a} and such as whom we may well call, as Orosius doth Alexander, magnum miseriarum gurgitem, et totius Orientis atrocissimum turbinem, The great troubleworld.

{a} Antiq., lib. x. cap. 13.

Ver. 8. He shall slay with the sword.] See on #Eze 26:6.

He shall lift up the buckler.] Or, A continued series of bucklers,

“- ut omnes

Ferre queant subter densa testudine casus.”

Ver. 9. He shall set engines of war.] Helepoles inieciet. A graphic description of a siege.

And with his axes.] Or, Battering rams, or slings. Heb., With his swords; Gr., With his lances, ferramentis mueronatis helepoleos. Vide Am. Marcell, lib. xxiii.

Ver. 10. Thy walls shall shake.] With the noise of one chariot, walls and windows seem to shake; what, then, with the rattle of so many? Methought I heard the noise and fright that shall be at the last day, said one, {a} that was at the taking of a town in the low countries. The fragor and terror was so great, say the Turkish histories (speaking of a bloody battle between Amurath III and Lazarus, despot of Sernia), that the angels in heaven, so they are pleased to hyperbolise, amazed with that hideous noise, for that time forgot the heavenly hymns wherewith they always glorify God. {b}

When he shall enter into thy gates.] As our Henry VIII did into Tournay, a city of France, which was ever counted so impregnable, that this sentence was engraven over one of the gates, Iannes ton me a perdu ton pucellage, i.e., Thou hast never lost thy maidenhead.

{a} A Lapide.

{b} Turkish History.

Ver. 11. And thy strong garrisons.] Or, Statues, or idols. Their chief idols were Apollo, Hercules, and Astarte. {a} See on #Eze 26:3.

{a} Curt., lib. iv.; Plut. Probl.

Ver. 12. And they shall make a spoil of thy riches.] Raked together by right and wrong. See on #Eze 26:2. Male parta male dilabuntur. {a}

{a} Sallust.

Ver. 13. And I will cause the noise of thy songs to cease.] The Tyrians were much addicted to music. {#Isa 23:16 Eze 28:13} Pleasure mongers shall suffer deeply, by pain of loss and pain of sense.

And the sound of thy harp.] Qua tu, O Tyre, mercatrix quasi meretrix mercatores ad te pellicis, wherewith thou gettest custom.

Ver. 14. Thou shalt be built no more,] i.e., Not in haste, and not at all by the same inhabitants, nor with the like neatness and celebrity. Some say it was not built in the same place with Palaetyrus, or old Tyre; yet was it a famous city again, near unto which our Saviour wrought miracles, in which Paul abode seven days with the brethren. Here Origen died, {a} Ulpian the great lawyer was born, {b} &c. Of this city read Gul. Tyrius, de Bello Sacro, lib. xiii. cap. 1.

{a} Jerome.

{b} Ulp. Digest. Tit. de Cens.

Ver. 15. Shall not the isles.] See the like, #Isa 23:1-16

Ver. 16. All the princes of the sea,] i.e., Of the neighbouring islands.

Clothe themselves with trembling.] Luth., With mourning.

Ver. 17. And they shall take up a lamentation.] The like shall be done shortly at Rome. {#Re 18:9}

That wast inhabited of seafaring men.] Who are usually the worst of men, whence the proverb, Maritimi mores, &c.

On all that haunt it.] Haunt the sea, littorales qui sunt fere duri, horridi, immanes, latrociniis dediti, feri et inhospitales, tales olim Britanni.

Ver. 18. Now shall the isles tremble.] And seeing thy shipwreck, they shall look better to their tackling. Alterius perditio tua sit cautio. {a}

At thy departure.] Into captivity. Or, Tuus exitus, hoc est, tuum exitium.

{a} Isidor.

Ver. 19. When I shall bring up the deep upon thee.] As #Eze 26:3; great forces.

And great waters shall cover thee.] So that thou shalt be irrecoverably lost, as places drowned, and never seen any more; Goodwin sands here in Kent, for instance. These did once belong to Goodwin, Earl of Kent, as his lands; but in the reign of William Rufus they were flooded, and remain to this day a dangerous sandy place, where perished, this present year 1658, Col. Reynolds and others, in their return from Mardike.

Ver. 20. With the people of old time.] The multitude of those that are dead from the beginning of the world; or with the people of the old world, as Jerome will have it; and that the Tyrians’ destruction, both temporal and eternal, is hereby hinted.

When I shall set glory in the land of the living,] i.e., In Judea (where the living and true God is worshipped, and where are the right heirs of life) will I re-establish my Church, which is my glory; or when I shall glorify mine elect in mine heavenly kingdom.

Ver. 21. Yet shalt thou never be found again.] See on #Eze 26:14.

Chapter 27

Ver. 1. The word of the Lord.] See on #Eze 18:1.

Ver. 2. Take up a lamentation for Tyrus.] Fitly here compared to a goodly ship, {a} and her desolation to a dismal shipwreck. Theodoret’s note on the text is, that when we correct sinners, or threaten them, it should be done with commiseration and compassion. Here we have God’s own example for it.

“ Ille dolet quoties cogitur esse ferox.”

{a} Apud Horat. Resp. navis nomine significatur. -Carm. lib. i. od. 14.

Ver. 3. O thou that art situated at the entry of the sea.] As now the city of Venice is,

“ Media insuperabilis unda.”

Environed with her embracing Neptune, to whom (as the ceremony of throwing a ring into the sea implieth, saith one) she marrieth herself with yearly nuptials. But hath she so learned Christ? and doth not the Nebuchadnezzar of Constantinople now threaten her sore?

Thou hast said, I am of perfect beauty.] So that nothing can be added to me: I am ocellus orbis. But who made thee to differ? Is not all thy beauty borrowed? will not this thy bulging wall down ere long?

Ver. 4. Thy borders are in the midst of the sea.] Wherewith thou art compassed and crowned, as it were, {#Isa 23:8} being half a mile distant from the continent, till first Nebuchadnezzar, and then Alexander the Great, by casting earth, wood, and stones into the sea, made of it an island, a peninsula, &c.

Thy builders.] The Sidonians, saith Justin; {a} 240 years before Solomon’s temple was built, saith Josephus. {b}

{a} Lib. xviii., lib. viii.

{b} Ant., cap. 2.

Ver. 5. They have made all thy ship boards.] Of the most precious materials, which, with thy rich freight, did incite and entice the arch-pirate to surprise and make prize of thee.

Ver. 6. Of the cakes of Bashan.] Those very best of the best. See #Eze 27:5.

Out of the isles of Chittim,] i.e., Of Greece and the Archipelago, {#Ge 10:4} far set and dear bought. Benches and decks might well have been made of worse matters: sed opulentiam fere sequitur superbia, luxus, libido, &c.; wealth breeds swelth, which is a dangerous symptom, as in the body, so in the mind too.

“ Pulcherrima regna

Luxuries vitiis, odiisque superbia vertit.”

- Claudian.

Ver. 7. Fine linen.] When coarse canvas might have served the turn as well.

From Egypt.] Which is held to be the finest, whitest, and costliest. Oh this unnecessary bravery! Luxus est anteambulo ruinae: Luxury portends your ruin, how many hath it utterly undone! When a man shall see a cloak embroidered over with woods and parks and lordships, and lined with obligations and bonds and statutes, will not the beggar soon catch such a prodigal by the back?

From the isles of Elishah,] i.e., Of Italy, saith the Chaldee paraphrast; of Greece, say others; the Fortunate islands, say some, which are called the Elysian islands for their pleasure and plenty.

Was that which covered thee.] The poop deck of thy ships. Of Cleopatra’s sumptuous ship or barge, the poop deck whereof was of gold, the oars silver, the sails purple, &c., see Plutarch in Anton.

Ver. 8. The inhabitants of Zidon.] Famous all the world over for their skill at sea and otherwise.

Thy wise men were thy pilots.] Wise they had need to be that sit at the stern of a state. Let them not therefore be ignorant, or idle, or otherwise faulty, lest they mar all: let them be active Argonauts. They have their names here in the Hebrew from the ropes of the ship, which they as pilots must skilfully order, shifting sails according to the wind. Counsel also, in that tongue, hath its name from the same root. {a}

{a} הלובחת

Ver. 9. The ancients of Gebal.] Great architects, {#1Ki 5:18} but persecutors of the Church. {#Ps 83:7}

Thy calkers.] Or, Stoppers of chinks, stuppa, pice, aliaque materia, when the ship springeth a leak.

Ver. 10. They set forth thy comeliness.] They were to thee both for muniment and for ornament.

Ver. 11. And the Gammadims.] These were not pigmies, as the Vulgate rendereth it; nor Medes, as Symmachus; nor Cappadocians, as the Chaldee paraphrast; but Syrians of a city called Gamalla, whereof see Pliny. {a}

{a} Nat. Hist., lib. ii. cap. 91.

Ver. 12. Tarshish,] i.e., The Carthaginians, say some; the citizens of Tarsus, another colony of the Tyrians, say others.

They traded in thy fairs.] Heb., In thy derelictions, because they left their commodities behind them, taking others in exchange; for,

“ Non omnis fert omnia tellus.”

Ver. 13. Javan, Tubal, and Meshech,] i.e., Grecians, Spaniards, and Muscovites or Cappadocians, who were naturally of a servile disposition: they were anciently called Meschines, saith Josephus, {a} of Meshech, the son of Japhet. {#Ge 10:2}

They traded the persons of men,] i.e., They bought and sold slaves, as now they do in Turkey.

{a} Lib. i. cap. 6.

Ver. 14. They of the house of Togarmah,] i.e., The Germans, saith the Targum, who are still excellent horsemen. The Jews call the Turks the house of Togarmah.

Ver. 15. The men of Dedan.] Arabians. {#Ge 10:7} The Septuagint render them Rhodians.

Horns of ivory.] The elephant’s two great tusks, crooked as horns.

And ebony.] Hebenum, which hath affinity with Eben, which signifieth a stone, for ebony is a wood hard and heavy as a stone. The Chaldee rendereth it peacocks.

Ver. 16. The wares of thy making.] Heb., Works. The Tyrians were ingenious workmen, as Hiram, whom Solomon therefore so admired that he called him his father.

And agate.] Or, Chrysoprasus, or crystal, or carbuncle, or onyx. Jerome confesseth that he knoweth not what to call it.

Ver. 17. Wheat of Minnith.] Where the best grew, even the kidneys of wheat, as Moses hath it. {#De 32:14 cf. #Jud 11:33 Ac 12:20}

Pannag.] Rosin or balsam, whereof Judea yielded the best in the whole world.

For the wine of Helbon,] i.e., Of Aleppo, say some, famous then for wine, now for milk, whence also it hath its name, for the Turks call milk alep; and if the Via lactea Milky Way were on earth, it would be found there, saith one.

Ver. 19. Dan also.] Anciently called Laish. {#Jud 18:29} Javan, or the Grecians, were great travellers. {a}

Going to and fro.] Discursatory.

“ Impiger extremos currit mercator ad Indos.”

- Horat.

{See Trapp on "Ps 38:11"}

{a} Graecus vagabundus. -Vatab.

Ver. 20. in precious clothes.] Heb., Clothes of freedom, such as are worn by gallants and magnificos.

For chariots.] Or, Saddles or trappings, ad vehiculum for carriages.

Ver. 21. They occupied with thee in lambs.] Heb., They were the merchants of thy hand, or at thy hand, for cattle could not be carried far.

In these were they thy merchants.] Merchants are as useful in a commonwealth as mechanics, for exporting and importing commodities; only they must observe the gospel standard, "Whatever ye would that men should do to you, do ye the same to them."

Ver. 22. The merchants of Sheba and Raamah,] i.e., Ethiopians and Indians. Erat enim Tyrus emporium propemodum totius mundi. {a}

With chief of all spices.] All aromatic wares. Pliny reports of cinnamon that in his time a pound of it was worth a thousand denarii, that is, 150 crowns of our money. Galen writeth that it was hard to be found, except in the storehouses of great princes.

{a} Oecolamp.

Ver. 23. Haran.] In Mesopotamia, or Charrae, in Parthia, where Crassus was slain.

And Channeh,] Or, Chalne, where the tower of Babel was built nine miles high. {a}

And Eden.] Where paradise once was: sed periit rosa, mansit spina.

Chelmad,] i.e., Medea, saith the paraphrast.

{a} The tower of Babel was 9164 paces from the ground.

Ver. 24. In all sorts of things.] In omnibus perfectissimis; in the very best commodities, whether for worth or workmanship.

Ver. 25. Thou wast replenished and made very glorious.] Or, Very heavy: {a} as a ship, though not top full, may yet have freight enough to sink it; so had this metaphorical ship Tyre enough to sink it, though not enough to satisfy it.

{a} Aggravata es.

Ver. 26. Thy rowers have brought thee into great waters.] Narrat Tyri naufragium. Here beginneth the prophecy of Tyre’s woeful shipwreck. {a}

The east wind.] Called the "Mariner’s misery." The Chaldees were east from Tyre, the great wealth whereof solicited their poverty to set upon them, as the wealth of Cyprus did the Romans.

{a} Omnium horum ruinam et rapinam praenunciat.

Ver. 27. Shall fall into the midst of the seas.] As a ship that sinketh, and cannot be buoyed up again.

Ver. 28. The suburbs shall shake.] Or, The waves, or the boats which they throw out of the ship. See on #Eze 26:10.

Of the cry of thy pilots.] At their Conclamatum est: but why, did they then steer no better? Here we see—all covet, all loose.

Ver. 29. And all that handle the oar.] That have escaped to land with their lives.

Ver. 30. To be heard against thee.] Or, For thee, or over thee. {#Eze 27:31 Re 18:11,15,16}

Ver. 31. And they shall make.] Moerebunt induti saccis, inducto calvitio. If this had been for sin, as it is offensivum Dei, et aversivum a Deo, then it had been right.

Ver. 32. What city.] An elegant mimesis.

Like the destroyed.] Quae obmutuit, like her that lost her voice and life together.

Ver. 33. When thy wars.] Good things are fairest on the back side; the worth of them is best known by the want of them. Our eye seeth not things but at a distance.

Ver. 34. In the depths of the waters,] i.e., In the overflowing of the wars. {#Eze 27:26}

Ver. 35. They shall be troubled in their countenance,] i.e., Appalled and dispirited.

Ver. 36. The merchants shall hiss at thee.] Either as astonied at thee, or rather as deriding thee, {a} like as he who seeth another fall into the dirt, first pitieth him and then jeereth him. See the like, #Jer 19:8 49:17.

Thou shalt be a terror.] Because God hath hanged thee up in gibbets, as it were. Or thou wast a terror once, but now a scorn.

And never shalt be any more.] See on #Eze 26:14.

{a} A Lapide.

Chapter 28

Ver. 1. The word of the Lord.] See on #Eze 18:1.

Ver. 2. Say unto the prince of Tyrus.] Princes must be told their own, as well as others. It was partly by flattery that this prince was so high flown. His glory, wealth, and wit also had so blown him up that he forgot himself to be a man. Tabaal, Josephus, out of Berosus, calleth him; Diodorus Siculus, Ithobaal; others, Ethbaal. A most proud and presumptuous person he was, and a type of the devil, who is the "king of all the children of pride." {#Job 41:34} Here he holdeth himself to be wiser than Daniel; {#Eze 28:3} yea, to be the sum and perfection of all wisdom; {#Eze 28:12} to excel the high priest in all his ornaments, os humerosque Deo similis {#Eze 28:13} yea, to be above Adam (ib.); above the cherubims; {#Eze 28:14} lastly, to be God himself, and to sit in his seat. {#Eze 28:2} O Lucifer outdeviled! And yet as there were many Marii in one Caesar, so by nature there are many Ethbaals in the best of us; for "as in water face answereth to face, so doth the heart of a man to a man." {#Pr 27:19} Julius Caesar allowed altars and temples to be dedicated unto him, as to a god; and what wonder, whereas his flatterers told him that the freckles in his face were like the stars in the firmament? {a} Valladerius told Pope Paul V, and he believed it, that he was a god, that he lived familiarly with the Godhead, that he heard predestination itself whispering to him, that he had a place to sit in council with the Divine Trinity, &c. Prodigious blasphemy! Is not this that "man of sin," that Merum scelus, pure wickedness spoken of by Paul in #2Th 2:4? See more of this there. Was it not he that made Dandalus, the Venetian ambassador, roll under his table, and, as a dog, eat crusts there? and that suffered the Sicilian ambassadors to use these words unto him, Domine Deus papa, miserere nostrum; O Lord God the Pope, have mercy upon us. And again, O Lamb of God, that takest away the sins of the world, grant us thy peace.

In the midst of the seas.] Where none can come at me. Yes, Nebuchadnezzar could, and did, though after thirteen years’ siege, as Josephus writeth. A hard tug and hot service he had of it; but yet he did the deed, as did afterwards also Alexander the Great, who never held anything unseizable.

{a} Sutton.

Ver. 3. Behold, thou art wiser than Daniel.] That oracular man, who was πανσοφος, as one saith of Homer, και παντα ανθρωπεια επισταμενος, the most wise and knowing man alive. His name was now up at Babylon; and Ezekiel, his contemporary, commendeth him; so doth the Baptist, Christ; and Peter, Paul. {#Eph 3:15} Though there had been a breach between them, {#Ga 2:14} there was no envy. But such another braggart as this in the text was Richardus de Sancto Victore, a monk of Paris, who said that himself was a better divine than any prophet or apostle of them all. {a} But how much better, saith Gregory, {b} is humble ignorance than proud knowledge!

{a} Paraei, Hist. Sac. Medul.

{b} Moral., 17:

Ver. 5. Thine heart is lifted up because of thy riches.] Like as the higher the flood riseth, the higher also doth the boat that floateth thereon. A small blast will blow up a bubble, so will a few paltry pounds puff up a carnal heart.

By thy great wisdom.] Here God did nothing. And such, for all the world, saith Oecolampadius, are our freewill men, with their ego feci, this I did. Such feci’s I did it’s are no better than faeces, dregs saith Luther; that is, dregs and dross.

Ver. 6. Because thou hast set thine heart as the heart of God.] Thou thinkest thy wisdom to be divine, and thyself the only one. The Tyrians were famous for their great wisdom, {#Zec 9:2} and they are said to be the inventors of many arts; yet should they not have overly weaned themselves in this sort; which because they did, let them hear their doom.

Ver. 7. Behold, therefore I will briny strangers upon thee.] Who shall not at all regard thy great wisdom, but grasp after thy wealth, and suck thy blood for it. Neither will they favour thee the more because thou art a king, but slay thee the rather, and say, Hunc ipsum quaerimus, This we seek ourselves, This is the right bird, as that soldier said who slew the most valiant King of Sweden at the battle of Lutzen.

Ver. 8. They shall bring thee down to the pit.] There shall lie the greatness of the god of Tyre.

And thou shalt die the death.] Death will make no difference between a prince and a peasant, a lord and a lowly. The mortal scythe is master of the royal sceptre.

Ver. 9. Wilt thou say before him that slayeth thee, I am God?] That will prove a poor plea, and thou wilt soon be confuted, as afterwards great Alexander confuted his flatterers, when, being wounded in fight, he showed them his blood.

Ver. 10. Thou shalt die the death of the uncircumcised.] Not only a temporal, but an eternal death, as they must needs do that are out of the covenant of grace, whereof circumcision was the seal. This is the sad catastrophe of such as dream of a deity. Of which number were Caligula, Herod, Heliogabalus, Dioclesian, and other monsters, uncircumcised vice gods, as we may, in the worst sense, best term them.

Ver. 11. Moreover the word.] See on #Eze 18:1.

Ver. 12. Take up a lamentation for the king of Tyre.] Who shall have little leisure to lament for himself, his destruction shall be so sudden. See on #Eze 27:2.

Thou sealest up the sum,] i.e., Thou art a pattern of perfection, in thine own conceit at least; for a seal hath in it the perfect form of him that is thereby represented, and then is a letter perfected when the last act of setting to a seal is done to it. {a} Tu es omnibus numeris absolutum exemplar; so Vatablus and the Tigurines.

{a} Literae consignatae et clausae et absolutae sunt. -Oecolamp.

Ver. 13. Thou hast been in Eden.] As a bird of paradise, or as a tree growing there—{a}

“γαγενημενον εκ Διος ερνος.’’—Hom.

Thou art equal to Adam in the state of innocence; and thy Tyre is no whit inferior to the garden of God.

“ Flores in pratis fragrant, et purpura campis:

Gemma coloratis fulget speciosa lapillis.”

Every precious stone was thy covering.] Not thy diadem only was decked with them, as the Pope’s triple crown is at this day with gems of greatest value, but thy royal robe—not inferior, haply, to that of Demetrius, king of Macedonia, which none of his successors would wear propter invidiosam impendii magnificentiam, it was so extreme stately and costly—yea, thy pantofies possibly, as Dioclesian’s the emperor holding forth his feet to be kissed, as doth also the Pope at this day, who hath the cross in precious stones set upon his pantofle, to the great reproach of Christianity.

The sardius, topaz, and the diamond.] Nine of those rich stones that were set in the high priest’s rationale or breastplate. See on #Eze 28:2.

The workmanship of thy tabrets.] At thy birth, and at thine inauguration, there was great mirth made, concrepantibus tympanis, tibiis et tubis. What a deal of joy and jollity was there lately expressed in many places for the birth of the prince of Spain.

{a} φυτον ουρανιον.—Plato.

Ver. 14. Thou art the anointed cherub.] Or, Thou art a cherub ever since I anointed thee for protector. {a} As the cherubims cover the ark with their wing, so dost thou thy people; and therefore takest upon thee as if an earthly angel.

Thou wast upon the holy mountain of God.] Thou hast been in heaven: or, at least, on Mount Sinai with Moses, where God appeared with millions of his angels, having a fiery pavement under his feet. {#Ex 24:10}

In the midst of the stones of fire,] i.e., Of seraphims, say some, those flaming creatures of lightnings and thunderbolts, say others, which thou hurlest about at thy pleasure.

“ Saevum praelustri fulmen ab arce venit.”

{a} Trem.

Ver. 15. Thou wast perfect in thy ways] As the evil angels also were; but now it is otherwise. Heaven spued out them in the very first act of their sin, and soon after they were created. Look thou therefore to speed accordingly, since iniquity is found in thee. Potentes potenter torquebuntur.

Ver. 16. By the multitude of thy merchandise.] Many merchants think they may do anything for their own advantage; cheating and overreaching pass for virtues with them. {a}

And thou hast sinned.] By suffering it so to be; for there is a passive injustice as well as an active.

I will cast thee.] I will bring thee down with a vengeance, and make thee an example of that rule, Great sins have great punishments. {b}

{a} Multae sunt fraudes ubi mercatura fervet. -Oecolamp.

{b} Μεγαλων αδικηματων μεγαλαι εισι αι τιμωριαι παρα του Θεου.

Ver. 17. Thine heart, &c.] Fastus inest pulchris.

By reason of thy brightness.] Thine own splendour hath dazzled thee. Magna cognatio est, ut rei sic et nominis, divitiis et vitiis.

That they may behold thee.] And beware by thee.

Ver. 18. Thou hast defiled thy sanctuaries,] i.e., Thy kingly palaces, where thou art looked upon and honoured as a god, but a wretched one, and which for stateliness may vie with my sanctuary. Add hereto, that as none might come into the temple but priests only; so none might come into the palace but confiding persons. The Turks at this day suffer no stranger to come into the presence of their emperor, but first they clasp him by the arms, under colour of doing him honour, but indeed to bereave him of the use of his hands, lest he should offer him any violence. {a}

Therefore will I bring forth a fire in the midst of thee.] Thou shalt perish by thine own sins, as a house is burnt by fire kindled within itself.

And I will bring thee to ashes.] Which shall remain as a lasting monument of the divine displeasure; as did the ashes and cinders of Sodom; and Herodotus saith the same of the ashes of Troy.

{a} Turkish History, 715.

Ver. 19. Thou shalt be a terror.] As kings exceed all others in glory, so their fall is oft with so great ignominy, that they become a wonder and a terror to all people.

Ver. 20. Again the word of the Lord.] See #Eze 18:1.

Ver. 21. Set thy face against Zidon.] An ancient and eminent city of Phoenicia, little inferior to Tyre: in Joshua it is called "Zidon the great." {#Jos 11:8} A very superstitious place, and a great enemy to God’s people.

Ver. 22. Behold, I am against thee.] Heb., I against thee—by an angry aposiopesis.

I will be glorified,] viz., In thy just destruction.

And shall be sanctified in her.] See on #Le 10:3.

Ver. 23. For I will send into her.] These are God’s evil angels.

And the wounded shall be judged in the midst of her.] This was done likely by Nebuchadnezzar; but certainly by Artaxerxes Ochus the Persian, as the prophet Zechariah had foretold, {#Zec 9:3-5} and as Diodorus Siculus hath left upon record.

Ver. 24. And there shall be no more a pricking brier.] For God will take away the Canaanite out of the land, {#Zec 14:21} omnem spinum dolorificum: he will by his judgments provide for his own glory, and for his people’s comfort.

Ver. 25. Then shall they dwell in their land.] Provided that they cleave close to me; otherwise I will out them again. It hath been elsewhere noted that the promises are with a condition; which is as an oar in a boat, or stern of a ship, and turns the promise another way.

Ver. 26. And they shall dwell safely therein.] Or, In confidence. And this is reiterated here to show what a mercy of God it is to live secure, and free from the fear of enemies.

Chapter 29

Ver. 1. In the tenth year.] The year before Jerusalem was taken. {#Eze 24:1}

In the tenth month.] Called "Tebeth," {#Es 2:16} and it answereth to our January, saith Bede. Chronology is the eye of prophecy, as well as of history.

Ver. 2. Set thy face against Pharaoh.] This was Pharaohhophra, whom Herodotus {a} calleth Apries, and saith that he gave out that no god, how great soever, could deprive him of his kingdom. Dionysius, the tyrant of Sicily, also was wont to say that his kingdom was tied unto him with chains of adamant; but it proved otherwise. Noli gloriari. Do not brag!

And against all Egypt.] Which held itself able to hold out against all the world, and is therefore here threatened at large in this and the three next chapters.

{a} In Euterp.

Ver. 3. The great dragon.] Or, Whale, or crocodile, the figure of Pharaoh; whose princes also and people are fitly compared to lesser fishes, and Egypt to waters, wherewith it aboundeth. These shall all suffer together, saith the prophet: Principis enim calamitas, populi clades est. {a} Compare #Ps 74:13,14.

That lieth in the midst of his rivers.] That lieth at ease in the swollen waters of his Nile, and battleth.

Which hath said, My river is mine own.] The river Nile watereth Egypt, and maketh it fruitful beyond credulity. They do but cast in the seed, and have four rich harvests in less than four months, say travellers. Hence the Egyptians were generally proud, riotous, and superstitious above measure:

“ Nequitias tellus scit dare nulla magis.”

- Plin., Paneg.

The most poisonous flies are bred in the sweetest fruit trees. See on #1Ti 6:17.

And I have made it for myself,] i.e., Useful and serviceable to my country with much pains and expense, by ditches, channels, water courses, &c. These were cleansed and repaired by the command of Augustus Caesar, when he had subdued Egypt, and reduced it into a province. {b} Some render it, Ego feci me ipsum, I have made myself; a most arrogant speech!

“ Sum felix; quis enim neget hoc? felixque manebo;

Hoc quoque quis dubitet? tutum me copia fecit.

Maior sum quam cui possit fortuna nocere.’’—Ovid.

{a} Oecolamp.

{b} Sueton.

Ver. 4. But I will put hooks in thy jaws.] Speaking to Tyre, a sea town, sea metaphors were made use of. Now he fetcheth them from waters and fishes, that he may frame himself to his hearers. A good precedent for preachers.

To stick unto thy scales.] Thy subjects shall all follow thee into the field, that there you may all fall together. Had they kept themselves in Egypt, they might have been far safer; for that country could hardly be come at by an enemy. But they went forth to meet their bane, as if they had been ambitions of destruction. God had a holy hand in it.

Ver. 5. And I will leave thee thrown into the wilderness.] As fish when they are caught are cast upon the dry land, and there they die: for how should a fish live out of his own element? It may be the Chaldees fought Pharaoh and his forces in the wilderness, killed him and cast him out unburied, which the heathens held a great unhappiness: for they thought their ghosts could not pass the river Styx, but must wander through hell’s waste wildernesses, unless their dead bodies were buried.

I have given thee for meat.] Whale’s flesh is no better worth.

Ver. 6. And all the inhabitants, &c.] Shall feel my power in their just destruction, though they think themselves insuperable.

Because they have been a staff of reed.] See this fully expounded in the next words; see also on #Isa 36:6 Jer 37:7,8. Egypt was a reedy country; as Pliny {a} telleth us, Arando autem ipsa per se fluctuat, et in necessitate eludit.

{a} Lib. xiii. cap. 11.

Ver. 7. When they took hold of thee by thy hand,] i.e., Made a covenant with thee, and hoped for help from thee. See #Job 8:20. The Holy Scripture is its own best interpreter.

Thou didst break.] So unfaithful are many friends, so uncertain are all human helps.

And madest all their loins to be at a stand.] Thou leftest them in the lurch, as we say, to shift for themselves as they could.

Ver. 8. And cut off man and beast.] With both which thou aboundest exceedingly, as being a very fruitful country; populosa et pecorosa.

Ver. 9. Because he hath said, The river is mine, and I have made it.] With this proud speech he is twice twitted. {see #Eze 29:3} The Egyptians so trusted in their river Nile, as if they needed no help from heaven.

“ Aegyptus sine nube ferax,”

saith Claudian. {a} And Lucan to like purpose:

“ Terra suis contenta bonis, non indiga mercis

Aut Iovis; in solo tanta est fiducia Nile.”

How much better might God have said to these Egyptians, than Vespasian did, Haurite a me tanquam a Nile, Come ye to me, "the fountain of living waters," and "hew not out thus to yourselves broken cisterns that can hold no water!" But they used in mockery to tell the Grecians, that if God should forget to rain, they might chance to starve for it; they thought the rain was of God, but not the river:

“ Te propter nullos tellus tua postulat imbres:

Arida nee pluvio supplicat herba Iovi.”

- Tibul. de Nilo.

God therefore threateneth here to dry it up, and so he did; ingratitude forfeiteth all. In the reign of Cleopatra, Nile overflowed not the banks for two years together, saith Seneca. He brings in Callimachus, telling of a time wherein it had not done so for nine years’ time. Hence Ovid: {b}

“ Creditur Aegyptus caruisse iuvantibus arva

Imbribus, atque annis sicca fuisse novem.”

Thus their gold flowing {c} and fruit giving {d} river failed them, because they attributed too much to it. In Joseph’s time they had seven years’ famine.

{a} Epigram. 6.

{b} Art., lib. i.

{c} χρυσοροας.—Athenaeus.

{d} καρπ ωδοτης.—Nazianz.

Ver. 10. And against thy rivers.] The jealous God will down with the earthly idol, whatever it be. See on #Eze 29:9.

And I will make the land of Egypt utterly waste.] Heb., Waste of wastes.

From the tower of Syene,] i.e., From south to north.

Ver. 11. No foot of man or beast shall pass through it.] This was solitudo solitudinis indeed, a dreadful desolation. When it happened no history mentioneth, but that it was so is most sure. Oh the dismal effects of sin in all ages, as now in various parts of Turkey, utterly unpeopled, though once flourishing!

Ver. 12. In the midst of the countries.] Palestine, Moab, Edom, Judea, &c. See #Jer 46:18-20

And her cities.] Which are said to have been twenty thousand in the reign of Amasis, the chief whereof were Alexandria, Thebes, Babylon, Memphis, &c.

Ver. 13. Will I gather the Egyptians.] God loveth to help men that are forsaken of their hopes. Cyrus sent them home likely about that time that he took Babylon; and his son Cambyses had somewhat to do to subdue them, so high they were soon grown and headstrong. Humbled they were, but not humble; low, but not lowly.

Ver. 14. Into the land of Pathros.] A part of the lower Egypt; a corner of the country, say some, but big enough to hold the remnant that returned.

And they shall be there a base kingdom.] Reditum et regnum illis promittit, sed humile. A kingdom God promiseth them, but base and abject, because subject and tributary to the Persian, so that the Israelites shall no more lean upon it. God often removeth occasions of sin from his people, taketh away their stumblingblocks, that they may not fall under his heavy displeasure.

Ver. 15. It shall be the basest of the kingdoms.] And worthily, for their worshipping the basest creatures, {see #Ro 1:23,24} but especiailly for their faithlessness to God’s Israel.

For I will diminish them.] As God hath likewise done the Persians at this day—who have undone their confederates, the Egyptians and Georgians {a} -and the Grecians no less, who have now lost their liberty, and are so degenerate, by means of the Turkish oppression, that in all Graecia is hardly to be found any small remembrance of the glory thereof. {b}

{a} Turkish History.

{b} Ibid., 260.

Ver. 16. And it shall be no more the confidence.] For I will cut them and keep them short enough; I will pull their plumes, so that they shall not stretch their wings beyond the nest; they shall have nothing so many clients and adherents.

Which bringeth their iniquity to remembrance.] Creature confidence is so hated of God, that it inmindeth him of former miscarriages also, and causeth him to plague men for the new and the old together.

Ver. 17. In the seven and twentieth year.] Of Jeconiah’s captivity, as Ezekiel ordinarily counteth, or of Nebuchadnezzar’s reign, say the Jewish doctors; {a} whereas Tyre was overthrown, some part of Egypt wasted, Jeremiah and Baruch taken into his protection.

The word of the Lord came.] This was Ezekiel’s last sermon, his swan song, showing wherefore and whereby Egypt should be so laid waste.

{a} Sedar Olam.

Ver. 18. To serve a great service.] For thirteen years together, as saith Josephus.

Every head was made bald,] sc., By continual carrying, upon their heads and shoulders, earth, wood, and stones—for which they were much laughed at by the Tyrian soldiers—to fill up that strait of the sea which separated Tyre from the continent, before it could be taken.

Yet had he no wages.] The Tyrians, when they saw they could hold out no longer, had sent much of their wealth away to Carthage and other places; much of it also they cast into the seat saith Lyra; so that Nebuchadnezzar, at his entrance, found nothing but a bare rock,—saith Jerome, out of an old Assyrian chronicle.

Ver. 19. Behold, I will give the land of Egypt.] As pay for his pains at Tyre. God is a liberal paymaster, and his retributions are more than bountiful; serve him, therefore, with cheerfulness.

Ver. 20. I have given him the land of Egypt.] As the great Turk gave his soldiers the rich spoil of Constantinople; {a} and as Tamerlane never forgot the good service of his servants, nor left the same long unrewarded, often saying that day to be lost wherein he had not given them something. {b}

Because they wrought for me.] By mine instinct, though beside their own intent.

{a} Turkish History, 345.

{b} Ibid., 227.

Ver. 21. The horn,] i.e., The strength, power, and authority, in the kingdom of Christ especially. {#Lu 1:69}

The opening.] Occasion to bless my name.

They shall know.] Nebuchadnezzar also, and his Babylonians.

Chapter 30

Ver. 1. The word of the Lord.] See #Eze 18:1.

Ver. 2. Woe worth the day.] Ah! de die ista. This shall be the voice much more of reprobates at that last "day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God." {#Ro 2:5} Enoch foretold this dreadful day before Noah predicted the deluge. That day is longer before it comes, but shall be more terrible when it is come.

Ver. 3. A cloudy day.] Heb., A day of a cloud, which was rarely seen in Egypt.

Ver. 4. Great pain.] Heb., Pain upon pain, as the throes in childbirth.

Ver. 5. Chub.] Certain Africans, who shall be worse put to it than were those succeeding Africans, who had a prophecy (but not of like credit with this of Ezekiel), that when the Romans sent an army into their country, Mundus cum tota sua prole periret, which made them think the world should then be at an end. But afterwards the Romans sent an army thither under the conduct of one Mundus, who in battle was slain, together with his sons, by the Africans, and discovered the illusion of the devil. The Septuagint render Chub Spaniards, which I like the better, saith Lavater, {a} because Strabo saith Nebuchadnezzar came with his victorious army as far as Spain.

{a} Lib. xv.

Ver. 6. They that uphold Egypt shall fall,] i.e., Their confederates; or, as some, their tutelar gods. Herodotus writeth that Cambyses wasted with the sword Egypt and Ethiopia, killed their god Apis, and defaced all their idols. This he did, doubtless, rather in scorn of all religion than hatred of idolatry.

And the pride of her power shall come down.] Tumbling down as a great and weighty bullet from a very high and steep mountain.

From the tower of Syene.] See #Eze 29:10.

Ver. 7. And they shall be desolate.] See #Eze 29:10.

Ver. 8. And they shall know that I am the Lord.] Men will not take knowledge of this till they have paid for their learning, Vexatio dat intellectum. Smart makes wit. {a}

When I have set a fire in Egypt.] War is fitly compared to fire; it feeds upon the people. See #Isa 9:19. {See Trapp on "Isa 9:19"}

{a} Non est perissologia: repetitur cum fructu. -Lavat.

Ver. 9. In that day shall messengers go forth from me,] i.e., The Chaldeans, by an instinct from me to subdue Ethiopia also.

In ships.] For Nile was navigable:

“ Lene fluit Nile.’’—Claudian.

To make the careless Ethiopians.] Heb., Confident Cush. Security ushereth in calamity.

As in the day of Egypt.] That cloudy day, {#Eze 30:3} when clouds of blood were dissolved upon them. Or that dismal day of old, when they perished in the Red Sea. {#Ex 15:10}

Ver. 10. I will also make the multitude.] Or, The great noise and hurry. They shall have no more cause to complain that they are too many of them, so that they cannot one live by another.

Ver. 11. The terrible of the nations.] Tyranni gentium. Homo homini lupus.

Ver. 12. And I will make the rivers dry.] The Chaldees shall drink them up; {as #2Ki 19:24} or I will dry them up, for a punishment of your vain trust in them, and boasting of them. {#Eze 29:3,9}

And sell the land.] Pass it away utterly from you. "The earth is the Lord’s"; he is the true proprietary.

Ver. 13. I will also destroy their idols.] He did so by Cambyses. See on #Eze 30:6. He doth so still by the Turks. When they invade Popish countries, they break down their mawmets.

Out of Noph.] Called also Moph, {#Ho 9:6} afterwards Memphis (the metropolis of idolatry; Nazianzen calleth it ανοια, the mad city, because ειδωλομανης, madly set upon idols, Apis especially), afterwards Babylon, and now Alcair; famous for its incredible greatness, fair situation, pillars and pyramids. It was the seat royal of the sultans, till taken by the Turks from Camson Gaurus and the Mamelukes about the year 1515.

And there shall be no more a prince.] For forty years at least.

Ver. 14. And I will set fire.] See on #Eze 30:8.

In Zoan.] Or Tanis, the inhabitants whereof are said to be those giants called Titans.

And will execute judgments in No.] Populous No, {#Na 3:8} called afterwards Alexandria, now Scanderoon.

Ver. 15. And I will pour my fury upon Sin.] {a} Called afterwards Pelusium, and now Damiata.

The strength of Egypt.] The key of the kingdom.

{a} Deserto Sinis nomen dedit.

Ver. 16. I will set fire in Egypt.] See #Eze 30:8.

Ver. 17. Aven.] Called also Heliopolis, and Thebe.

Phibeseth.] Or Bubastis, called by Ptolemy, Heroum civitas.

Ver. 18. At Tehaphnehes.] Or, Daphne, the gate of Egypt, at which the Chaldees entered.

A cloud shall cover her.] See #Eze 30:3.

Ver. 19. And they shall know.] See on #Eze 30:8.

Ver. 20. In the eleventh year.] The year wherein Jerusalem was destroyed, notwithstanding Pharaoh’s fair promises and proffers to relieve her.

Ver. 21. I have broken the arm.] Ita ut nulla arte vel ope; so that by no means or medicines it can be made whole again. Losses received in war can hardly be repaired.

Ver. 22. And will break his arms.] I will utterly disable him, and drive the field of him. He shall neither be able to defend himseff or offend his enemy. See #Ps 37:17.

Ver. 23. And I will scatter the Egyptians.] Send them captive into other countries, as by a whirlwind or hurricane. This metaphor we have often met with. He was afterwards hanged.

Ver. 24. And I will strengthen the arms of the king of Babylon.] {a} God, as he sends the sword, {#Eze 14:17} musters the men, {#Isa 13:4} orders the ammunition, {#Jer 50:25} renders the weapons vain or prosperous, {#Isa 54:17} so he strengtheneth and weakeneth the arm of either party.

{a} Herod.

Ver. 25. But I will strengthen.] See #Eze 30:25.

And they shall know.] See on #Eze 30:8.

Ver. 26. See #Eze 30:23. They would hardly believe it, and therefore are so often assured of it.

Chapter 31

Ver. 1. In the third month.] Two months after the former prophecy, and a month before the city was taken.

Ver. 2. Speak unto Pharaoh.] Unto Pharaohhophra. {#Eze 29:2} Say unto him (though it will be to small purpose), "Hear, and give ear, be not proud, for the Lord hath spoken it." {#Jer 13:15}

Whom art thou like in thy greatness?] q.d., Thou thinkest thyself the only one, and that there is none such; but what sayest thou to the Assyrian, whom yet the Babylonian hath now laid low enough?

Ver. 3. Behold, the Assyrian was a cedar.] See #Eze 17:3,22,23 Da 4:10,11. {See Trapp on "Eze 17:3"} {See Trapp on "Eze 17:22"} {See Trapp on "Eze 17:23"} {See Trapp on "Da 4:10"} {See Trapp on "Da 4:11"} The cedar is a very tall, fair, shady, leafy, and lively tree. Such was Esarhaddon, King of Assyria, once a most potent monarch, now not the master of a mole hill. Now, therefore (by an argument from the greater to the less), if he so fell through his pride, shalt not thou much more?

Ver. 4. The waters made him great.] He had a confluence of all prosperities. Watered he was, non aquis sed abyssis; est autem abyssus, inexhausta felicitas et rerum affluentia. He overabounded with all outward happiness. In wealth, victories, and triumphs, he gave place to no man.

Ver. 5. And his boughs were multiplied.] Amplissima ludit copia verborum. {a}

{a} Oecolamp.

Ver. 6. All the fowls.] See #Da 4:12.

Ver. 7. Thus was he fair in his greatness] Once again he setteth forth with how great power and glory God had adorned this first monarchy.

Ver. 8. The cedars in the garden of God.] No kingdom in the world was comparable to the Assyrian for thirteen hundred years together.

Ver. 9. So that all the trees of Eden…envied him.] Summa petit livor. The tallest trees are weakest in the tops, and envy always aimeth at the highest.

Ver. 10. Because thou hast lifted up thyself.] Here he comes to describe casum et cladem, the downfall and destruction of this flourishing empire, beginning with a short apostrophe to Pharaoh: "Be not high minded, but fear." Believe not him who said, Decent secundas fortunas superbiae, {a} Pride well becometh prosperity; but rather believe what another saith, and experience confirmeth, Sequitur superbos ultora tergo Deus, {b} God punisheth the proud surely and severely. A better author than either of them telleth us that "pride goeth before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall. Better it is to be of a humble spirit with the lowly, than to divide the spoil with the proud." {#Pr 16:18,19}

{a} Plaut.

{b} Seneca.

Ver. 11. I have therefore delivered him into the hand of the mighty one.] Of Merodach Baladan, who of governor had made himself King of Babylon; and in the twelfth year of his reign, having overcome Esarhaddon, son to Sennacherib, and last monarch of Assyria, he adjoined that whole empire to the Babylonians, and reigned after that forty years. {a}

He shall surely deal with him.] Heb., In doing he shall do unto him; i.e., he shall do what he list with him; {b} as Tamerlane since did with Bajazet, whom he carried about in an iron cage, using him on festival days for a footstool, and feeding him like a dog with crumbs fallen from his table. All which Tamerlane did, not so much for hatred to the man, saith the historian, {c} as to manifest the just judgment of God against the arrogant folly of the proud.

{a} Metashenes, Josephus, lib. i. cap. 2.

{b} Pro libitu tractabo. -Piscat.

{c} Turkish History, 220.

Ver. 12. And strangers have cut him off.] The greater wealth the greater spoil awaiteth a man; as each one desireth to lop the tree that hath thick and large boughs and branches.

And his boughs are broken,] i.e., His vassals, homagers, and auxiliaries.

And all the people of the earth.] Who once sheltered under his shadow. But the rule is,

“ Arbor honoretur cuius nos umbra tuetur.”

And have left him.] And joined themselves to the Babylonian.

“ Sic cum fortuna statque caditque fides.’’—Ovid.

Ver. 13. Upon his ruin shall all the fowls.] His dead body shall want decent burial, as afterward did great Alexander’s, great Pompey’s, our William the Conqueror’s, Richard III’s, &c.

Ver. 14. To the end that none of all the trees.] This is the use men should make of God’s heavy judgments upon others. This man’s father Sennacherib had a statue set up in Egypt, saith Herodotus, {a} with this inscription, Let him that looketh upon my misery learn to be modest and to fear God.

Neither their trees stand up in their height.] Neque stent in seipsis; neither stand in themselves, because of their height. Magna repente ruunt: in te stas et non stets, said the oracle to Augustine, Thou standest on thine own bottom, thou wilt surely down.

For they are all delivered uuto death.] Without difference, pell mell, lords and lowlies together; as the poet also singeth,

“ Sub tua purpurei veniunt vestigia reges,

Deposito luxu, turba cum paupere mixti;

Omnia mors aequat.’’—Claudian.

{a} Lib. ii.

Ver. 15. I restrained the floods thereof.] I made them keep home, as mourners use to do.

And I caused Lebanon to mourn for him.] Heb., To be black; i.e., in mourning habit. Athenienses non nisi atrati sapiunt, said one.

Ver. 16. I made the nations shake at the sound of his fall.] As the earth seems to shake at the fall of some mighty cedar.

“ Sic subito casu, quae valuere, ruunt.”

Shall be comforted.] In so noble a companion and partaker of their misery. Compare #Isa 14:1-3

Ver. 17. They also went down into hell with him.] It was wont to be said that hell was paved with kings’ crests and shavelings’ bald pates. Henry VIII was told on his deathbed that he was now going to the place of kings. See #Isa 30:33. What a coil kept this Esarhaddon in his time, as being superstitibus terror, praemortuis laeitia, complicibus exitium, sui ipsius ruina! {a}

{a} Oecolamp.

Ver. 18. To whom art thou like?] He fitly returneth to Pharaoh, applying all this discourse to him.

In the midst of the uncircumcised.] #Eze 28:10.

This is Pharaoh.] This is like that of the poet,

“ Hic finis Priami fatorum: hic exitus ilium

Sorte tulit.’’—Virg., Aeneid., lib. ii.

Chapter 32

Ver. 1. In the twelfth month.] About a year and a half after the city was taken.

Ver. 2. Take up a lamentation,] i.e., A lamentable prophecy, destructive to the Egyptians; and it is very likely that they heard of it but heeded it not; tanquam monstra marina Dei verba praetereuntes.

Thou art like a young lion.] For pride, fierceness, and cruelty.

And thou art as a whale.] Or, Crocodile; thou domineerest over sea and land, far and wide; thou playest rex.

Thou camest forth with thy rivers.] With the arms of thy Nile into the midland sea, insanis bellis inquietans omnia, breeding a great bustle in the countries near adjoining.

Ver. 3. I will therefore spread out my net.] Thou shalt be taken in an evil net, when thou little thinkest of it: "Evil shall hunt the violent man, to overthrow him." {#Ps 140:11} Look how Leo cassibus irretitus ait, Si praescivissem; and as the whale, enclosed by fishers, is lugged to land, done to death, cleft in pieces with axes, his flesh being made a prey for birds and beasts, his blood far and near drenching the earth, so shall it fare with Pharaoh and his forces.

Ver. 4. Then will I leave thee upon the land.] As whales are sometimes left by an ebb, while they pursue lesser fishes. There was one so taken near Greenwich lately, {a} a piece of whose flesh was showed unto me.

{a} In June 1658.

Ver. 5. With thy height.] Celsitudine tua; { a} with thy glory, which thou holdest dearer than thy flesh or life.

{a} Oecolamp.

Ver. 6. I will also water with thy blood.] Instead of thy river Nile.

The land wherein thou swimmest.] Egypt, where thou sportest, as the whale doth in the mighty waters.

Even to the mountains.] {a} A most elegant hyperbole, the like whereto see #2Ki 21:16.

{a} Natabunt colles et valles cruore tuo.

Ver. 7. And when I shall put thee out.] Or, Extinguish thee, who art for thy power and glory as one of the world’s great luminaries.

I will cover the heaven, {a} &c.] So great a fume, or rather so vile a snuff, shall exhale, that the heavens shall seem to be muffled, &c. It shall be once again deep darkness over all the land of Egypt; another hyperbole.

{a} Hypallage poetica.

Ver. 8. All the bright lights of heaven.] See #Eze 32:7. All this shall befall the world really and without a hyperbole at the last day {#Mt 24:29}

“ Impiaque aeternam patientur saecula noctem.”

Ver. 9. I will also vex.] Or, Grieve. See #Ec 7:3, where the same word signifieth anger and sorrow. Nebuchadnezzar’s growing greatness shall be a cut and a corrosive to them.

Ver. 10. When I shall brandish my sword.] As fetching my blow at them too, and aiming where to hit them.

Every man for his own life.] Which he knows he hath forfeited, and hath now great cause to fear, since his neighbour’s house is on fire. {a}

{a} Iam proximus ardet. -Ucalegon.

Ver. 11. The sword of the King of Babylon.] Here is that delivered plainly which was before parabolically.

Ver. 12. By the swords of the mighty.] Or, Of the heroes, or giants.

The terrible of the nations.] Grassatores, as Munster hath it; inexpugnabiles, as the Vulgate; such as with whom there is no dealing.

Ver. 13. All the beasts thereof.] Egypt, a most moist and fat country, was full of cattle.

Ver. 14. Then will I make their waters deep.] There shall not be men left to drive them by ditches and channels into their grounds and pastures, for the making of them fruitful.

And cause their rivers to run like oil,] i.e., Smoothly and silently.

“ Lene fluit Nilus, sed cunctis amnibus extat

Utilior, nullas confessus murmure vires.”

- Claudian.

Ver. 15. When I shall make the land…desolate.] See here the sad effects of sin, and beware.

Then shall they know that I am the Lord.] Pleraque supra habuimus: ideo sum brevior, saith Lavater on #Eze 32:12.

Ver. 16. This is the lamentation.] And this is the epilogue of this former prophecy; the latter followeth, being of the self-same argument—viz., a funeral dirge and exequies over Egypt.

Ver. 17. In the fifteenth day of the month,] i.e., Of the twelfth month, {#Eze 32:1} and about a fortnight after the former prophecy. God loves to foretell, and to do it often.

Ver. 18. Wail for the multitude.] Prophesy their destruction, but do it not without grief and regret.

Cast them down.] Do thou foretell it, and I will not fail to fulfil it. {#Jer 1:10} {See Trapp on "Jer 1:10"} Let them know that hell gapeth for them; and here I give thee the keys thereof. So God doth to every faithful minister; {#Mt 16:19} not to Peter only, nor to his pretended successor, the Pope, whom therefore Luther bravely slighted in these words of his, Contemptus est a me Romanus et favor et furor, -I care neither for the Pope’s favour nor frowns.

Ver. 19. Whom dost thou pass in beauty?] What art thou better than other thy compeers and complices in sin? Thou must also dance down to hell down to hell, with the rest.

Be thou laid with the uncircumcised.] Strangers to the covenant, whereof circumcision was a seal Sinners the Chaldee here calleth them, such as the devil sweeps. They are his birds, saith Mr Bradford, martyr, {a} whom, when he hath well fed, he will broach them and eat them, chew them and champ them, world without end, in eternal woe and misery.

{a} Serm. of Repent., p. 70.

Ver. 20. They shall fall.] Carcases have their names both in Greek and Latin from falling. {a}

“ Fit subito funus, qui modo virus erat.”

We wonder now and then at the sudden death of a man. In war many thousands exhale their breath without so much as, Lord have mercy on us! Death heweth its way through a wood of men in a minute of time, &c.

{a} πτωμα. Cadaver.

Ver. 21. The strong among the mighty.] Who might have seen many fair summers, had they not been cut off by Pharaoh’s sword.

Shall speak to him out of the midst of hell.] What they say to him, see #Isa 14:10, where we have the like personification in poetry.

Ver. 22. Ashur is there.] To wit, in the belly of hell, among the uncircumcised, as Lazarus and other saints are in the bosom of Abraham, the place of bliss. Slain they were with the sword; but that was but a beginning of their sorrows, a trap door to eternal torment. Virgil, by a like figure, brings in Aeneas going down to hell, and there seeing Agamemnon, Dido, the Titans, Cyclopes, and other tyrants.

Ver. 23. Whose graves are set in the sides of the pit.] In the bottom of the burning lake, which from the high top of a kingdom is a foul fall. Their being there buried may import that they shall never come out.

Which caused terror.] As breathing nothing but blood and slaughter, raising a tempest wherever they came, so that they became terrores terrae, terrors of the earth, as dreadful as devils.

Ver. 24. There is Elam.] The Persians, who in the reign of Cyaxares had been subdued by the Scythians, and slain in great number. {#Jer 49:34, &c.}

Into the nether parts of the earth.] Into hell, as that rich glutton in #Lu 16:23, where our Saviour seemeth to allude to this place, {a}

Yet have they borne their shame.] Carried the matter of it to hell with them, where is perpetual shame and confusion, beside the vexing snuff they have left behind them upon earth.

{a} Jun.

Ver. 25. They have set her a bed,] i.e., The devils have set the Persian multitude a bed, but an uneasy one, such as they set for that rich wretch, {#Lu 12:19,20} who thought to take his ease, but was not suffered.

With all her multitude.] The grave is the "congregation house of all living." {#Job 30:23} Hell is of many dead, that die in their sins.

He is put in the midst.] In the hottest fire of hell.

Ver. 26. There is Meshech and Tubal,] i.e., Say some, the Cappadocians and Spaniards; others, the Scythians and Sarmatians.

And all her multitude.] See #Eze 32:25.

Ver. 27. Which are gone down to hell with their weapons of war.] They died not gloriously as conquerors, nor were buried triumphantly with their arms under their heads, as valiant warriors were wont to be; sed ingloria vita recessit, but they died like dogs and were basely buried, and yet that was not the worst of it either.

But their iniquities shall be upon their bones.] They shall rue for their cruelty and bloodshed. These shall be as a murdering weapon in their bones {#Ps 42:10} throughout all eternity.

Ver. 28. Yea, thou shalt be broken.] Thou, O Pharaoh, shalt have a deeper degree of torment in hell. Potentes potenter torquebuntur.

Ver. 29. They shall lie with the uncircumcised.] Though they were circumcised, as now the Turks are, yet that shall not profit them. Faciunt et vespae favos, et

“ Simia quam similis turpissima bestia nobis!”

Ver. 30. There be the princes of the north,] i.e., Saith Junius, The Syrians, Tyrians, and others.

And all the Zidonians.] All the hunters, saith the Vulgate, taking the word appellatively.

Which are gone down.] The same again, ad maius pathos.

Ver. 31. Pharaoh shall see them.] This is the epilogue or preclose of this doleful ditty.

And shall be comforted.] This was a miserable comfort, the Like whereto is that of some profane persons among us, who, when threatened for their foul practices, use to reply, If we do go to hell, yet we shall have company.

Ver. 32. For I have caused my terror.] By Pharaoh’s exemplary punishment. This will make good men tremble at my judgments, and bad men beware how they come under my wrath.

Chapter 33

Ver. 1. Again the word of the Lord came unto me, saying.] A new commission to preach again to his countrymen, which he had not done since #Eze 24:27. {See Trapp on "Eze 24:27"}

Ver. 2. Speak to the children of thy people.] I say, "of thy people"; for I can scarce find in my heart to own them, they be so bad.

When I bring the sword upon a land.] The sword is of God’s sending; {#Eze 14:17} and whencesoever it cometh, it is bathed in heaven. {#Isa 34:5} Think the same of any other public calamity, {#Am 3:6} and therefore frame to a patient and peaceable behaviour under it. Among philosophers the most noted sect for patience was that of the Stoics, who ascribed all to fate.

Ver. 3. He blow the trumpet.] Hence the ancients {a} infer that a bishop must preach, and that Praelati officium est sollicitudo non celsitudo. He taketh upon him the office of a constant preacher, saith Gregory, that undertaketh to be a minister.

{a} Clemens, Bernard.

Ver. 4. His blood shall be upon his own.] The blame shall rest wholly upon himself. Not to be warned is both a just presage and desert of destruction.

Ver. 5. But he that taketh warning.] Foresight is the best means of prevention.

Ver. 6. He is taken away in his iniquity.] This is a dismal kind of death, far worse than that of dying in prison, or of dying in a ditch.

As the watchman’s hand.] By whose treachery, or indiligence at least, he miscarried.

Ver. 7. {See Trapp on "Eze 3:17"}

Ver. 8. {See Trapp on "Eze 3:18"}

Ver. 9. {See Trapp on "Eze 3:19"}

Ver. 10. Thus ye speak.] {a} But not well, while ye have hard thoughts of God and heavy thoughts of yourselves, as if your sins were unpardonable, and that ye were already ruined beyond relief; whereas true repentance is a ready remedy, a plank after shipwreck, that would set you safe, and render you right again. This they had been told before, {#Eze 18:25-32} but to little purpose: the word was not mingled with faith in their hearts, and did therefore run through them, {#Heb 2:1} as water runs through a riven vessel.

And we pine away in them.] Ita punimur ut pereamus. And so be punished and perish. This the prophet had threatened, {#Eze 24:23} and they still stomachfully object it to him: it lay as hard meat, and they raise a cavil upon it, whereto the Lord answereth,

{a} Refricat verba desperantium. Omnis restitutionis species et spes a Deo nobis praecisa est.

Ver. 11. As I live, saith the Lord God, &c.] This is one of those precious places, those mellifluous honeycombs, which we should go on sucking towards heaven, as Samson once did towards his parents. {#Jud 14:9} Here, if anywhere, we may find "strong consolation." God, when he swears, desires certainly to be credited, saith Tertullian. {a} Oh happy we, for whose sakes God vouchsafeth to swear! and oh, thrice wretched we, if we believe not God, no, though he swear to us! Oh, saith Theodoret here, who can ever sufficiently admire the Lord’s great goodness, who, being so shamefully slighted by the sinful sons of men, doth yet swear his readiness to receive them graciously who have revolted grievously? Well might Nazianzen say that God delighteth in nothing so much as in man’s conversion and salvation: {b} φοβεισθαι βουλεται, ου φονευσαι, saith Basil—i.e., he would we should fear him, not fall by his hand: Redire nos sibi, non perire desiderat, as Chrysologus phraseth it, return unto him, not "perish from the way." {#Ps 2:12}

For why will ye die?] Turn ye must, or burn. See #Eze 18:31,32.

{a} Lib. de Poenitent., cap. 4.

{b} Suffundere mavult sanguinem quam effundere. -Tertul.

Ver. 12. Say unto the children.] The same as before, only with a proviso of perseverance in welldoing, for else all is lost. Non enim quaeruntur in Christianis initia sed finis, saith Jerome, The end is better than the beginning.

Ver. 13. When I shall say to the righteous.] See on #Eze 18:24.

If he trust to his own righteousness.] As thinking that he hath thereby purchased a licence to commit iniquity.

Ver. 14. Thou shalt surely die,] viz., Except thou repent; for that altereth the case. Penitence is almost as good as innocence.

If he turn from his sin and do.] These two parts make up true repentance.

Ver. 15. Give again that he had robbed.] Quod rapuit reddideret. The law for restitution, see #Nu 5:6,7.

Ver. 16. None of his sins.] This is point blank against the doctrine of purgatory.

Ver. 17. Yet the children of the people say.] This was a second cavil of theirs. See #Eze 33:10 18:25. Archesilas was surnamed Cavillator: so might these well have been.

Their way is not equal.] There is no equity at all in this causeless quarrel of theirs.

Ver. 18. When the righteous turneth.] To set them down, if right reason would do it (and man should be mancipium rationis, a slave to reason), he repeateth what he hath said before.

Ver. 19. He shall live thereby.] Provided that he rest not in his righteousness, but learn to live by the faith of the Son of God. {#Ga 2:20}

Ver. 20. Yet ye say.] But therein ye lie, which is not the guise of God’s children. {#Isa 63:8}

I will judge you every one after his ways.] And so wring a testimony, if not from your mouths, yet from your consciences, of mine impartial justice; such as is that in #De 32:4, "A God of truth, and without iniquity, just and right is he."

Ver. 21. In the twelfth year.] Some read the eleventh year; and indeed it was wonder that such ill news came no sooner, for αι βλαβαι ποδωκεις, saith Sophocles.

That one that had escaped.] {a} This God had promised. {#Eze 24:26}

The city is smitten,] i.e., Sacked and burnt. This man spoke much in few.

{a} Superates tragis.

Ver. 22. The hand of the Lord,] i.e., The Spirit of the Lord, which acted me and carried me out. {#2Pe 1:21 1Co 12:3}

And my mouth was opened.] As God had promised. {#Eze 24:27} And this happened before the messenger’s narration. This was much for the prophet’s honour.

Ver. 23. Then the word of the Lord.] See #Eze 18:1.

Ver. 24. They that inhabit those wastes of the land of lsrael.] Those poor few now left in the land. {#2Ki 25:12,22 Jer 40:5,6} Surely they are poor, they are foolish, they have lost the fruit of their affliction; Miserrimi facti sunt et pessimi permanent, as Augustine saith of some in his time, They are nevertheless wicked for being wretched.

Speak.] Bubbles of words. Antiquum obtinent. They are no changelings, not at all crest fallen.

Abraham was one.] {a} And no such one but that we may match him. Thus these proud hypocrites hit up their counter for a thousand pounds, and stand upon their comparisons without all shame or sense.

The land is given to us.] And here we will hold our own, for we are well worthy.

{a} Verba faecis populi recitat. Abrahae se conferre, imo praeferre audebant.

Ver. 25. Ye eat with the blood.] Which wicked Saul would not do, {#1Sa 14:32-34} much less would righteous Abraham have done it, since it was against the light and letter of the law. {#Ge 9:4 Le 7:26 De 12:16} Nay, ye do worse things; and are you Abraham’s children, and heirs of the promised land, together with that faithful patriarch? I think not. See a like manner of reasoning, #Mic 2:7 Joh 8:39. So the learned Linaker, having read our Saviour’s sermon in the mount, and considering how little it is lived among us, broke out into these words, Certainly either this is not gospel, or we are not right gospellers.

Ver. 26. Ye stand upon your sword.] Vivitur ex rapto. He that hath the longest sword carrieth it among you: ye are also very revengeful, ready to say with him in the poet,

“ Virtus mihi numeri, et ensis

Quem teneo.

Dextra mihi deus, et telum quod missile libro.” {a}

Ye work abomination.] This R. Solomon understandeth de venere obscaeniore. It is in the original, Ye women work abomination, as prostituting yourselves to an unnatural filthiness, as the casuists complain still of some Spanish courtezans. {b}

And shall ye possess the land,] q.d., Ye shall be set up: what should you expect better than exilium et excitium, banishment and destruction?

{a} Caparene ap. Statum. Theb., 2. Mezent. ap. Virg. Aeneid, 10.

{b} Martin Vivald., in Candelab.

Ver. 27. They that are in the wastes.] #Eze 33:4.

Shall die of the pestilence.] Or else of the famine, which is worse. When, where, and how this was fulfilled upon them, we read not; in Egypt likely, whither they went after Gedaliah’s death; if not sooner at home, as Jeremiah also had before prophesied. {#Jer 42:13,14}

Ver. 28. For I will lay the land most desolate.] Heb., Desolation and desolation. God made clean work there; there was not a Jew left in the country. See #Zec 7:14.

Ver. 29. Then shall they know.] By woeful experience.

Ver. 30. The children of thy people.] These captives in Babylon, no whit better than those in Jewry.

Still are talking.] Detracting from thee, and deriding thee.

By the walls.] Susurros miscentes clancularios; fearing lest any one behind them should hear them, they get the walls at their backs.

Come, I pray you, and hear.] Thus they jeer; {a} and there are too many such scoffers at this day.

{a} Uti otiosi et sauniones in foro facere solent.

Ver. 31. And they come unto thee.] Very goodly.

And they sit before thee.] Very demurely, and, to see to, devoutly, taking up all the seats.

They hear thy words.] But they were as heartless in hearing, as they were listless in praying. {#Eze 33:10}

They will not do them.] Of the Athenians also it was said of old, that they knew well what was good and right, but would do neither.

Their heart goeth after their covetousness.] Their heart is on their halfpenny, as we say; neither can the loadstone of God’s Word hale them one jot from the earth. It should be Sursum corda; up from the heart, but when many men’s bodies are in sacculis, in their purse, their hearts are in sacculis, in their purse, as Augustine complaineth; as serpents have their bodies in the water, their heads out of the water, so here; as those Gergesites, they more mind a swine sty than a sanctuary. {a}

{a} Haram domesticam arae Dominicae praefer.

Ver. 32. As a very lovely song.] Or, A love song. {a} The word leaves no more impression upon carnal men’s consciences than a sweet lesson upon the lute in the ear when it is ended, for then both the vocal and instrumental sweetness dissolve into the air and vanish into nothing. Happy was Augustine, who, coming to Ambrose to have his ears tickled, had his heart touched.

{a} Canticum amatorium. -Vatab.

Ver. 33. That a prophet.] See on #Eze 2:5.

Chapter 34

Ver. 1. And the word.] See #Eze 18:1.

Ver. 2. Prophesy against the shepherds.] Good shepherds they should have been, but they were naught, {#Jer 23:1-4} and naught would come of them, for their maladministration.

Woe be to the shepherds of Israel.] Both to princes and priests, by whose evil government the people were so bad, as in the former chapter is fully set forth. Qualis rex, talis grex; the sheep will follow the shepherd; the common people are like a flock of cranes—as the first fly, all follow.

Should not the shepherds feed the flocks?] Such flocks especially as have golden fleeces, precious souls. Oh feed, feed, feed, saith our Saviour to Peter! {#Joh 21:15} feed them for my sake, as the Syriac there hath it, rule them well, teach them well, go before them in good example, do all the offices of a faithful shepherd to them, and be instant, or stand close to the work; {#2Ti 4:2} Dominus prope, the Arch-shepherd is at hand.

Ver. 3. Ye eat the fat.] Ecce, lac et lanam recipitis. This ye might do, if in measure, for the workman is worthy of his wages, {see #1Co 9:7} but ye gorge yourselves with the best of the best. Et si ventri bene, si lateri, as Epicurus in Horace, If the belly may be filled, the back fitted, that is all you take care for. In parabola ovis capras quaeritis, et vestrum maxime compendium spectatis; ye are all for your own ends, nourishing your hearts as in a day of slaughter, or of good cheer. {#Jas 5:5}

Ye kill them that are fed.] Heb., Ye sacrifice them; so ye pretend, but mind your own fat paunches. See #Pr 7:14.

But ye feed not the flock.] As being falsi et ficti imo picti pastores, mock shepherds.

Ver. 4. The diseased have ye not strengthened.] Five sorts of sheep are here reckoned up that needed the shepherd’s best care and cure, but nothing was done; or, if anything, it was overdone, for with force and cruelty they ruled over them. See #1Pe 5:3.

Ver. 5. And they were scattered, because there is no shepherd.] None but an idol shepherd, {#Zec 11:17} a foolish shepherd; {#Eze 34:1-5} and the sheep, being a foolish creature, even to a proverb, {a} and apt to wander into harm’s way, will never return to the fold, if not fetched back, but stick in the thorns, or die in a ditch, or run into the wolf’s mouth.

{a} προβατων ηθος; and προβατιου βιον ζην.

Ver. 6. My sheep wandered.] Through the shepherd’s supine negligence, or bloody truculence. Surely, as the herd of deer forsake and push away the wounded deer from them, so did these cruel shepherds, being non pastores sed impostores, non episcopi sed aposcopi, non praelati sed Pilati, as Bernard wittily; sheep biters rather than shepherds; "greedy dogs"; {#Isa 56:10,11} "grievous wolves." {#Ac 20:29}

And none did search or seek after them.] Nec erat qui quaereret aut requireret.

Ver. 7. Therefore, ye shepherds, hear the word of the Lord.] And oh that this word might ever sound aloud in the ears of all shepherds as the voice of heaven’s trumpet!

Ver. 8. As I live, saith the Lord, surely because,] {a} God here seemeth to be in a great heat, in a perturbation of spirit, causing a kind of impediment in his speech, so thoroughly was he moved against these lewd shepherds, whose faults he rippeth up again to make better way to their sentence.

Because my flock became a prey.] To the Chaldees, but especially to that old man slayer.

Because there was no shepherd.] None but a company of nominals, or rather nullities.

{a} Hyperbaton aetiologicum.

Ver. 9. Therefore, O ye shepherds.] See #Eze 34:7,8.

Ver. 10. Behold, I am against the shepherds.] Heb., Lo, I against,—by an angry aposiopesis. {a}

And cause them to cease from feeding the flock.] They shall be officiperdae, quondams, laid aside like broken vessels, as have been some kings of this land in their several generations—one of recent remembrance—Popish bishops not a few, Bonner and others, outed and deprived.

{a} A rhetorical artifice, in which the speaker comes to a sudden halt, as if unable or unwilling to proceed.

Ver. 11. Behold, I, even I, {a} will both search.] Ego, ego reposcam et anquiram. Rather than the work shall be undone, I will do all myself, and then it is sure to be well done. Aristotle telleth of a certain Persian, who, being asked, What did most of all feed the horse? answered, The master’s eye; and of a certain African, of whom, when it was demanded, What was the best manure or soil for a field? answered, The owner’s footsteps—that is, his presence and perambulation. Praesul ut praesit et prosit suis, ab iis non absit, Shepherds should reside with their flocks; the Arch-shepherd will not fail to do so.

{a} Ego, ego, nominativus absolute positus -OEconom., lib. i.

Ver. 12. As a shepherd.] He prosecuteth the allegory drawn from shepherdy all along, striking still upon the same string with much sweetness.

So will I seek out my sheep.] See #Mt 15:24 Ps 119:176 Isa 40:11.

In the cloudy and dark day,] i.e., In the time of their calamity and captivity. When things are at worst, God himself will set in; he reserveth his holy hand for a dead lift.

Ver. 13. And I will bring them out from the people.] This they could very hardly believe, therefore he assureth them of it again and again. God will do the like for all his elect, seem it never so impossible.

And fled them upon the mountains of Israel.] Which are very high mountains; but the Church, God’s hill, is higher. {#Isa 2:2} {See Trapp on "Isa 2:2"}

Ver. 14. I will feed them in a good pasture.] Daily and daintily; feed them among the lilies; {#So 2:16 Ps 23:1-3} feed them with the flesh and blood of my dear Son {#Joh 6:51-58}

There shall they lie in a good fold.] Having a blessed calm in their consciences, full of spiritual security, and freed from all annoyances {#Mic 5:5}

Ver. 15. I will feed my flock.] Doing all the offices of a good shepherd for them, and charging mine undershepherds to do so too.

And I will cause them to lie down.] By giving rest to their souls, {#Mt 11:28} together with many happy halcyons, that they may serve me without fear. {#Lu 1:74}

Ver. 16. I will seek that which was lost, &c.] As he did Peter, Paul, the good thief, Matthew, Zaccheus, the disciples after their shameful flight, Augustine, all us who, like sheep, were gone astray, &c.

But I will destroy the fat.] Pinguem et petulcam; such as in whom fulness breedeth forgetfulness, as in Jeshurun. {#De 32:15} Queen Elizabeth was told, in a sermon by Mr Deering, that once she was tanquam ovis, like a meek sheep, but now tanquam indomita iuvenca, as an untamed heifer; and therefore wished her to meet God by repentance. Here good Oecolampadius complaineth, and cause enough he had, of some of Christ’s fatter sheep who were too too haunty and troublesome to their fellows. The Lutherans of Suevia he might well mean, who, in their Syngramma, used him very coarsely; and Luther himself, in his book of private mass, set forth A.D. 1533, passeth a very uncharitable censure upon his disease and death.

And I will feed them with judgment.] Putting a difference, and dealing with them as it is fit.

Ver. 17. And as for you, O my flock.] I have a saying to you also, such as are unruly especially, as well as to your shepherds.

Behold, I judge between cattle and cattle.] Between sincere Christians and hypocrites, sheep and goats; and can soon shed them, and show them to the world, who are fierce rams, and who are nasty goats. At last day, howsoever, all shall out, and a separation shall be made. The precious shall be taken out from the vile.

Ver. 18. Seemeth it a small thing unto you.] Extenuant hypocritae suam culpam honesto titulo. {a} Hypocrites make the best and the least of their sins, which good men acknowledge with aggravation; but the works of the flesh are manifest. And here we have a lively picture of the Popish clergy, who eat up the best, and tread down the rest, et pro salutaribus aquis suam salivam hominibus obtrudunt, and for wholesome, obtrude brackish waters upon men to quench their thirst,

{a} Oecolamp.

Ver. 19. And as for my flock, they eat.] The poor, misled, and muzzled people are glad to eat such as they can catch. They are fed with traditions, legendary fables, indulgences, vowed pilgrimages, penances, &c. If Luther had not come in our way, say they, we could have persuaded the people to have eaten grass.

Ver. 20. I, even I, will judge between the fat cattle.] These are, saith Augustine, those that presume of their own strength, and boast of their own righteousness, being proud, insolent, and void of charity.

Ver. 21. Because ye have thrust with side and with shoulder,] {a} i.e., With pretence of law on your side, and with power in your hand to do what you list; for who can withstand you?

And pushed all the diseased with your horns,] i.e., With your excommunications and persecutions. See #Isa 66:5.

Till ye have scattered them abroad.] For how should they abide it? They drive them out of the fold, flock, pasture, so that they must either fly or die.

{a} Toto corpore et conatu.

Ver. 22. Therefore will I save my flock,] viz., By Christ the true shepherd, who once found out him whom the Jews had unjustly excommunicated, {#Joh 9:35} and gave him encouragement. He knows all his sheep by name, {as #Ex 33:12,17} and hath promised them safety here, and salvation hereafter. {#Joh 10:27} It is not with the saints, as #Isa 31:4, or as #Am 3:12, but as #Jer 31:10-12.

Ver. 23. And I will set up one shepherd.] Who, indeed, is the only shepherd. Magistrates and ministers are shepherds; but Christ is the "good shepherd"; {#Joh 10:11} the "great shepherd and bishop of souls"; {#1Pe 2:25 Heb 13:20} the true shepherd, above all for skill, love, and power; above Jacob, above David, of whom he descended, and by whose name he is here called. {so #Jer 30:9 Ho 3:5 Eze 37:24}

Even my servant David,] i.e., Christ, the son and successor of David, not David George as that odious heretic who died at Basil blasphemously applied this text to himself, as if he had been the man here intended. The Jews themselves confess that Messiah is here meant.

He shall feed them.] This is thus repeated, as that which containeth a world of comfort. It showeth also that Christ will do it to the utmost. Jacob was a sedulous shepherd; Christ much more.

Ver. 24. And I the Lord will be their God.] This is that beehive of heavenly honey we so oft meet with in the Old Testament, which therefore those sectaries have so little reason to reject.

And my servant David a prince among them.] Captain of the Lord’s hosts, {#Jos 6:2} captain also of his people’s salvation, {#Heb 2:10} Messiah the prince. {#Da 9:25}

Ver. 25. And I will make with them a covenant of peace.] Pactum pacis, pacis omnimodae {#Jer 31:13 Isa 11:10 Joh 14:27}

And will cause the evil beasts.] That were wont to worry the flock. I will set them safe from Satan and his imps, his instruments, such as was Nero the lion, and bloody Bonner, the Pope’s slaughter slave here.

Ver. 26. And I will make them a blessing.] By blessing them with all spiritual benedictions in Christ Jesus, {#Eph 1:3} so that they shall be felices et faecundi, happy and fruitful.

There shall be showers of blessing.] Or, Very large showers {#2Co 9:6} of divine doctrine, {#Isa 55:9} and of righteousness. {#Ho 10:12}

Ver. 27. And the tree of the field shall yield her fruit.] There shall be a confluence of all comforts and contentments.

When I have broken the bands of their yoke.] Freed them from the Babylonish bondage, but especially from the tyranny of sin and terror of hell; when I have broke the devil’s yoke from off the necks of their souls.

Out of the hands of those that served themselves of them.] As did the devil, whose drudges they were, and who had them wholly at his beck and check.

Ver. 28. And they shall no more be a prey to the heathen.] As the Jews then were, and are to this day, being used by the Papists as sponges. The Christian Hebrews also suffered with joy the spoiling of their goods; but then, for an allay to their grief, they knew within themselves that which did sufficiently support them, and make up their loss. {#Heb 10:34}

Ver. 29. And I will raise up for them a plant of renown,] {a} i.e., Christ the true tree of life. Or the Church planted and rooted in Christ, and much renowned all the world over. Christ mystical is a vine covering the whole earth.

And they shall be no more consumed with hunger.] They shall have enough of all good things, a sufficiency, though not a superfluity; a David’s sat habeo, because the Lord hath heard the voice of my supplications. {#Ps 116:1}

Neither bear the shame of the heathen any more.] God will bring them in credit with those which formerly slighted and reproached them. God fashioneth men’s opinions, ruleth their tongues, promiseth to them who, by patient continuance in well doing, seek for glory and honour and immortality, eternal life, where the saints shall shine as the sun in his strength. {#Ro 2:7 Mt 13:43}

{a} Plantam pacis. -Sept.

Ver. 30. Thus shall they know that I the Lord their God am with them.] They shall understand the lovingkindness of the Lord; {#Ps 107:43} they shall know the salvation of their God; {#Ps 50:23} they shall have a plerophory of faith. {as #Ro 8:38}

Ver. 31. And ye my flock…are men.] Sheep ye are, but rational sheep, having your spiritual "senses habitually exercised to discern good and evil," {#Heb 5:14} so that ye "taste and see" my goodness. {#Ps 34:8}

Chapter 35

Ver. 1. Moreover the word of the Lord.] #Eze 18:1.

Ver. 2. Set thy face.] #Eze 6:2.

Against Mount Seir.] Inhabited by the Edomites.

And prophesy against it.] This had been done before, {#Eze 25:12} but not enough. God hath a further saying to them, and that for the comfort of his poor people who might thus object. Peace and security from danger is promised us in the foregoing chapter; but we have still many deadly enemies, and none worse than our near allies and next neighbours the Edomites. Here, therefore, they are heavily threatened with utter desolation for their malignity against Israel, and their blasphemy against God.

Ver. 3. Behold, O Mount Seir, I am against thee.] Ecce ego ad te; have at thee.

And I will stretch out my hand against thee.] I will have my full blow at thee.

I will make thee most desolate.] Heb., Desolation and desolation. I will make an utter end; desolation shall not rise up the second time; {#Na 1:9} I will make short work. {#Ro 9:28}

Ver. 4. I will lay thy cities waste.] Even Teman, Dedan, Bozrah, mentioned in Scripture; besides many others mentioned by geographers, Maresa, Rhinocorura, Raphia, Gaza, Anthedon, &c.

And thou shalt know.] To thy small comfort.

That I am the Lord.] A Lord of lords, a God of gods, "a great God, a mighty and a terrible, which regardeth not persons, nor taketh reward." {#De 10:17}

Ver. 5. Because thou hast had a perpetual hatred.] A hereditary deadly feud against Israel. Heb., An enemy of ages, yea, of many ages continuance; such as is, as we use to say of Runner, the older the stronger.

And hast shed the blood of the children of Israel.] Ut diffluant; hast let out their life blood: all malice is bloody.

In time of their calamity.] Watching the worst time to do them the most mischief.

In the time that their iniquity had an end.] When I had in a manner done with them, yet thou hadst not done with them; but didst stir up Nebuzaradan to burn the city and temple with fire. This was to help forward the affliction. {#Zec 1:15} {See Trapp on "Zec 1:15"}

Ver. 6. I will prepare thee unto blood.] Thou shalt have blood thy bellyful, which thou hast so greedily sought and sucked. Satiabis te sanguine quem sitiisti, cuiusque insatiabilis semper fuisti, as the Scythian queen said to Cyrus’s head.

Even blood shall pursue thee.] As a bloodhound. It shall, it shall, believe me it shall.

Ver. 7. Most desolate.] See #Eze 35:3. Iterum repetit, ne excidisse videatur. I am in good earnest.

Ver. 8. And I will fill his mountains.] Oh the woe of war! The Greek word {a} for it signifies much blood.

{a} πολεμος q. πολυαιμος. Bellum a belluis. War from wild beasts.

Ver. 9. I will make thee perpetual desolations.] For thy perpetual hatred. {#Eze 35:5}

And thy cities.] See #Eze 35:4.

Ver. 10. Because thou hast said.] Ungodly men must answer for their ungodly speeches also. {#Jude 15}

These two nations.] Israel and Judah.

Shall be mine.] Such was their avarice and ambition that they made account all was their own; they had in their hopes devoured these two countries which God had reserved for a better purpose. He kept the room empty till the return of the natives; and the land kept her sabbaths, resting from tillage, &c. And yet these miscreants added,

Whereas the Lord was there.] Or, Though it be a Jehovahshammah, as #Eze 48:35; be it that the Lord is there—scil., to keep possession against us—we will out him, and have it in despite of him. O tongues worthy to be pulled out, cut in gobbets, and driven down their throats, that did thus blaspheme!

Ver. 11. I will do even according to thine anger.] Let the Romish Edomites expect the like punishment: their malice and mischief will come home to them.

And according to thine envy.] That quicksighted and sharp fanged malignity which none can stand before. {#Pr 27:4}

Ver. 12. And that I have heard all thy blasphemies.] Of both sorts; those in the first table against myself, and those in the second table against my people.

They are laid desolate.] And we have helped after.

They are given us to consume.] Heb., To devour. Nay, but stay till they be; and then know that ye may devour that on earth, that ye shall digest in hell.

Ver. 13. Thus with your mouth ye have boasted.] Heb., Magnified, setting your mouths against heaven, your tongues also have walked through the earth. {#Ps 73:9; see the notes there}

And have multiplied your words against me.] When it would have better become you to have multiplied your words before me in prayer and praises, as the Hebrew word ( רתע) here used, mostly signifieth.

Ver. 14. When the whole earth rejoiceth,] scil, For my people’s deliverances. Or, When the whole land, scil., of Israel, rejoiceth; as it is sometimes hale and well with the Church, when the wicked are in the suds. Judea was the world of the world, as Athens was the "Epitome of Greece," the "Greece of Greece."

Ver. 15. As thou didst rejoice.] As thou wast sick of the devil’s disease, rejoicing at other men’s harms; so, by a strange turn of things, others shall rejoice at thy just destruction, and revel in thy ruins: and at the last day especially, when thou shalt be awarded thy portion with the devil and his angels. {#2Th 1:6-8}

Thou shalt be desolate, O Mount Seir.] This was accordingly effected shortly after by Nebuchadnezzar and his Chaldees, as Josephus {a} testifieth; and is daily executed on the Church’s enemies, who shall all be ere long in the place that is fittest for them—scil., under Christ’s feet.

And all Idumea, even all of it.] The Edomites, that thought of seizing on others’ lands, lost their own. They who covet all, do oft lose all; yea, even the pleasure of that they possess; as a greedy dog swalloweth the whole meat that is cast him, without any pleasure, as gaping still for the next morsel.

{a} Lib. xii. cap. 11.

Chapter 36

Ver. 1. Prophesy to the mountains of Israel.] Better things than thou didst to Mount Seir in the foregoing chapter. See #Isa 3:10,11. {See Trapp on "Isa 3:10"} {See Trapp on "Isa 3:11"}

Ye mountains.] That is, ye mountaineers, qui sere asperi atque inculti. Sed

“ Nemo adeo ferus est qui non mitescere possit,

Si modo culturae patientem accommodet aurem.”

- Horace

Ver. 2. Because the enemy hath said.] The Church fareth the better for her enemies petulancies and insolencies against her.

Even the ancient high places.] Or, The everlasting altitudes. Judea lay high; the Church is much higher.

Are ours in possession.] Thus the Edomites triumphed before the victory. So did the Spaniards in 1588, and God heard them, {as #Eze 35:13} for he is all-ear, all-eye, &c. He is jealous for his people, {#Zec 1:14} and jealousy is quick sighted, quick conceited.

Ver. 3. Because they have.] Heb., Because and because; importing earnestness and heat of indignation. So #Le 26:43.

And ye are taken up in the lips of talkers.] Heb., Ye are made to ascend upon the lip of the tongue, and upon the evil fame of the people. God takes it extreme ill that his people should be traduced and defamed; which yet hath been their lot in all ages; but he will not fail to vindicate them, and to avenge them.

Ver. 4. Therefore thus saith the Lord God to the mountains.] For men there were hardly any left, or not very fit to be dealt with. See #Eze 36:1.

Which became a prey.] To those man eaters, {#Eze 36:3} qui diruerunt et devoraverunt, who did eat up God’s people as they ate bread, {#Ps 14:4} making themselves merry with their misery.

Ver. 5. Surely in the fire of my jealousy.] Jealousy is hot as hell; {#So 8:6} it is implacable, {#Pr 6:34,35} and very vindictive. See #Zec 1:14. {See Trapp on "Zec 1:14"} Here God swears he will be even with these Edomites.

Which have appointed my land.] This the Lord hath never done with, so ill be took it.

Ver. 6. Say unto the mountains and to the hills.] To those lifeless creatures he directeth his speech, to show that every creature groaneth and waiteth for the redemption of our bodies. It fareth the better also in this life present, for the elect’s sake, as it was once cursed for man’s sin, and hath lain bedridden, as it were, ever since.

Because ye have borne the shame of the heathen.] This the Lord could not bear with any patience.

Ver. 7. I have lifted up mine hand.] Sworn solemnly. Men, when they swear, do so as taking God to witness. Three fingers they do often lift up, and hold down two, to signify, saith Lavater, that God, who is three in one, hath prepared a place in heaven for such as swear rightly, but will thrust down to hell those that forswear themselves.

They shall bear their shame.] They shall be paid home in their own coin, be overshot in their own bow, be covered with their own confusion.

Ver. 8. Ye shall shoot forth your branches.] Reflourish and fructify; the Christian churches (those spiritual mountains) shall especially. {#Re 22:2}

For they are at hand to come.] To come home out of captivity, or to return to God by repentance. The fall of Antichrist cannot be far off.

Ver. 9. For, behold, I am for you.] Or, I come to you, and I come with a cornucopia in mine hand.

Ver. 10. All the house of Israel, even all of it.] The Israel of God in the kingdom of the Messiah, totum totum, quantum quantum, not one of them shall be missing.

Ver. 11. And will do better unto you.] This must necessarily be understood of spiritual blessings by Christ; for temporals, they never had the like to those in the days of Joshua, David, Solomon, Hezekiah, &c.

Ver. 12. Thou shalt be their inheritance.] Yea, a type and pledge of that heavenly inheritance. {#1Pe 1:4 Re 21:1-10,22-27 22:1-5}

And thou shalt no more henceforth bereave them.] Provoke God to bereave them.

Ver. 13. Thou land devourest up men,] {a} scil., By pestilence, famine, sword, evil beasts: thou art an unlucky land, an unblest country, feral and fatal to thine inhabitants. Hesiod saith the like of his country Ascre; and another {b} of St David’s in Wales, that it is a place neither pleasant, fertile, nor safe. Strabo saith the like of Judea, but with a despiteful mind. {as #Eze 36:5} Those malevolent spies said no less. {#Nu 13:32}

{a} Terra abortiens populos.

{b} Girald., Cambrens.

Ver. 14. Neither bereave thy nations any more.] Either by consuming them, or spuing them out. {as #Le 18:28,20:22 26:20,22} See what is said of heaven, #Re 22:3-5.

Ver. 15. Neither will I cause men to hear.] I will cut off all occasions, and remove all such stumblingblocks as whereat the nations dash and split themselves.

Ver. 16. Moreover the word.] See #Eze 18:1

Ver. 17. When the house of Israel.] Ubique Scriptura vindicat gloriam Dei, maxime autem hoc loco. {a} This place of Scripture doth singularly set forth the glory of God’s grace, while it showeth that man’s destruction is wholly of himself, his help only of God.

As the uncleanness.] As a menstruous clout, abhorred by all.

{a} Oecolamp.

Ver. 18. For the blood which they had shed.] These two gross sins are instanced, viz., murder and idolatry, lest they should plead, as in #Jer 2:35, "I have not sinned"; or as in #Ho 12:8, "In all my works they shall find none iniquity in me; that were sin."

Ver. 19. And I scattered them among the heathen.] Whose idols they had worshipped, and whose manners they had imitated.

Ver. 20. These are the people of the Lord.] And these are the fruits of their religion. Are these the holy people? &c. Lactantius {a} complaineth of his times, that God’s truth was evil spoken of by the heathen, because Christians lived loosely and lewdly. Whereupon Erasmus {b} crieth out, O rem miseram! Oh, lamentable! Even in those purer times the piety of Christians was so much abated, that the gospel was therefore evil spoken of, for the evil lives of many that professed it. What marvel then, saith he, that Turks cry out upon us? that the banks of blasphemy are broken down in persons disaffected to the power of godliness?

{a} Lactant., de Opific. Dei; Proaem.

{b} Erasm. in Lactant.

Ver. 21. But I had pity for my holy name.] So he hath still, or else it would be wide enough with us. Some render it, I spared, or tendered, mine holy name; and, to free it from those imputations, I freely forgave my people, and re-established them.

Ver. 22. I do not this for your sakes.] To do good without respect of desert is royal, yea, it is divine.

But for mine own holy name’s sake.] God maketh our utter unworthiness a foil to set forth the freeness of his love, in making us worthy whom he found not so.

Ver. 23. And I will sanctify my great name.] I will recover my reputation among the heathen, by declaring my justice in your punishment, and my mercy in your restoration. God, as he is moved by his own grace to do his people good, so he aimeth therein at his own glory.

Ver. 24. For I will take you, &c.] I will effectually call you out of darkness into my marvellous light, and cull you out from this wicked world. And this is the first thing that God here promiseth to his covenanters. More than this, he promiseth them in the following verses justification, sanctification, and preservation, or provision of temporal blessings, that nothing may be wanting to them that may make them happy. We should be often counting of this coin, telling of this treasure.

Ver. 25. Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you.] He alludeth to the legal purifications, especially that made by the ashes of a red cow mixed with running water, wherewith the people were sprinkled, and so cleansed from legal defilement. {#Nu 19:17-19} Semblably the saints, sprinkled with Christ’s blood from an evil conscience by the hyssop bunch of faith, and so washed with clean water {#Heb 10:22} in baptism, the saving virtue whereof is permanent, {#1Pe 3:21} are justified and sanctified. {#1Co 6:11} This blessed sprinkling David prayeth for. {#Ps 51:2} The Baptist also, and others, sprinkled those whom they baptized, both to answer the types of the law and this prediction of the prophet, understood by Jerome {a} of baptism, which is a visible sign and seal of our being washed from the filth of sin by the merit and Spirit of Jesus Christ. {#Tit 3:5}

{a} Epist. 83.

Ver. 26. A new heart also will I give you.] For the old heart will never hold out the hardship of holiness; the old fabric must be taken down, and a new set up. See #Eze 11:19. A "new man" both in constitution and conversation one must be, or else he is no man in Christ. {#2Co 5:17}

And I will taks away the stony heart.] The natural heart, which is hard and refractory, "to every good work reprobate." Hard is that which resisteth the touch. The old heart is inflexible to God’s Spirit, insensible of his word and judgments, and impenetrable to his grace. Where, then, is man’s freewill? Garriant illi, nos credamus; { a} there is no such thing, believe it. Nature is wholly stony: it is God alone that "of these stones raiseth up children to Abraham."

And I will give you an heart of flesh,] i.e., Tractable, and capable of divine impressions, ready to every good work. {#Tit 3:1}

{a} Augustine.

Ver. 27. And I will put my Spirit within you.] Qui mulcendo et molliendo. Who, by melting and mollifying your hard hearts, shall bring you to a better obedience.

And cause you to walk in my statutes.] Lex iubet, gratia iuvat. God undertaketh for himself and his people too, viz., to work in them what he requireth of them. Therefore it is an "everlasting covenant, ordered in all things"; and the fruits of it are "sure mercies," "compassions that fail not," &c. See on #Eze 11:20.

Ver. 28. And ye shall dwell in the land,] i.e., In Judea, or rather in the Church, {a} which began in Judea, saith the Jesuit well The Church of Rome, then, is not the mother Church; no, though we take it in its primitive purity.

{a} A Lapide.

Ver. 29. I will also save you from all your uncleannesses.] This is often promised, because not easily believed. No article of our creed is so much opposed by Satan, as that of the forgiveness of sin by Christ’s merits, which is the very life and soul of a Church. All the former articles of the creed are perfected in this, and all the following articles are effects thereof: hold it fast, therefore.

And I will call for the corn.] I have it at my call, and a mandamus from me will do it at any time. See #Ho 2:21,22. {See Trapp on "Ho 2:21"} {See Trapp on "Ho 2:22"}

And lay no famine.] Which comes also at God Almighty’s call. {#Ps 105:16}

Ver. 30. That ye shall receive no more reproach.] The heathen were often twitting God’s people with their outward wants and crosses, as if caused by their religion. So the persecutors did by the primitive Christians, and so the Papists still deal with the New Gospellers, as they scornfully call the Reformed Churches.

Ver. 31. Then shall ye remember.] The goodness of God shall lead you to repentance; so many mercies heaped upon so undeserving, nay, so illdeserving creatures, shall bring you to a deep detestation of your iniquities.

Your own evil ways, and your doings that were not good.] There are some things, saith one, that we can hardly forget, viz., our sorrows and our pleasures, as Esau; some things we can hardly remember, as our faults and our friends, as Joseph’s butler. Augustine was famous, saith another for two of his works: his Retractions, which are the confessions of his errors; and his Confessions, which are the retractions of his life. See #Eze 20:43.

And shall loathe yourselves.] Or, Ye shall look upon yourselves as worthy to be destroyed. Or, Ye shall scold within yourselves against your iniquities. Litigabitis intra vos contra flagitia vestra.

Ver. 32. Not for your sakes.] See on #Eze 36:22.

Be ashamed.] Abashed and abased, as was Ezra, {#Ezr 9:6} Ephraim, {#Jer 31:19} the publican. {#Lu 18:13}

Ver. 33. I shall have cleansed you.] See on #Eze 36:29.

I will also cause you to dwell.] See #Eze 36:28.

Ver. 34. And the desolate land shall be tilled.] As now, blessed be God, it is in the Palatinate and other parts of Germany, though now is no small danger of a new war, quod Dominus avertat. because she turned away from God.

Ver. 35. This land.] Such a change can God soon make for worse or better. Fear him therefore; fear the Lord and his goodness. {#Ho 3:5}

Ver. 36. Then the heathen.] Haec iam ex parte fata sunt, saith Oecolampadius. This day is this scripture fulfilled in our eyes: the ruined churches are rebuilt, and the matter well amended by this blessed Reformation, and Rome knows it.

Ver. 37. I will yet for this be inquired of,] i.e., Though I have promised my people all these boons, yet I look they should put my promises in suite, by praying them over. Prayer is an indispensable duty, and must not on any pretence whatsoever be neglected.

I will increase them with men like a flock.] Plenty of men and store of children is a great blessing of God. Yet some are ready to say of them, as that rustic did of his afflictions, when he was told they were God’s love tokens, Ah quam velim alios amare, non me. Oh how I wish to love others, not myself. {a}

{a} Luther.

Ver. 38. As the holy flock.] The sheep that come up for sacrifice, at the passover especially; so will I multiply the sheep of Christ, the true shepherd.

Chapter 37

Ver. 1. The hand of the Lord,] i.e., The force and impulse of the Holy Spirit, fitly called "the hand of the Lord"; {a} because holy men of old spake and acted as they were moved or carried out by the Holy Ghost. {#2Pe 2:22}

In the spirit,] i.e., In a spiritual rapture.

And set me down.] Not really, but visionally.

In the midst of the valley.] That same valley, some think, where {#Eze 1:3} he saw that glorious vision. Prophecies were often received, and prayers are best made, in one and the same place.

Which was full of bones.] So it appeared to him in his ecstasy.

{a} Manus est impellere; manus est organum agendi. -Theodoret.

Ver. 2. And, lo, they were very dry.] Ex vetustare et carie. This added to the miracle.

Ver. 3. Can these bones live?] In the resurrection at the last day he knew they should, for among the Jews that was generally believed; {#Joh 11:24} but whether in this world, and at this time, that was the question. The Jewish doctors boldly, but groundlessly, answer that these dead bones and bodies did then revive, and that many of them did return into the land of Israel, and married wives and begat children. But this is as true as that other dotage of theirs, that the dead bodies of Jews, in what country soever buried, do by certain underground passages travel into Judea, and there rest until the general resurrection.

O Lord God, thou knowest.] And he to whom thou art pleased to reveal it. Επεχω. The Russians in a difficult question use to answer, God and our great duke know all this.

Ver. 4. Prophesy upon these bones.] Be thou the interpreter of my will, who by mine all-powerful word do quicken the dead, and call things that are not as if they were. {#Ro 4:17}

And say unto them, O ye dry bones.] Together with God’s word many times there goeth forth a power; {#Lu 5:17} as when he said, Lazarus, come forth. {#Joh 11:43} So it is in the first resurrection, and so it shall be at the last. {#Joh 5:25,28,29 {See Trapp on "Joh 5:25"} {See Trapp on "Joh 5:28"} {See Trapp on "Joh 5:29"}

Ver. 5. Behold, I will cause breath to enter into you,] i.e., Into each number of you that belong to each body. Neither need the resurrection of the dead be held a thing incredible, {#Ac 26:8} considering God’s power and truth. The keeping green of Noah’s olive tree in the time of the flood, the blossoming of Aaron’s dry rod, the flesh and sinews coming to these dry bones, and the breath entering into them, what were they all but so many lively emblems of the resurrection?

Ver. 6. And cover you with skin.] Superindam; that the flesh may not look ghastly. The word rendered cover is Chaldee, and found only here and #Eze 37:8.

And put breath in you, and ye shall live.] As when man was first created. {#Ge 2:7} And cannot God as easily remake us of something as at first he made us of nothing?

Ver. 7. So I prophesied.] He might have said, Why should I speak to these bones? will it be to any purpose? But God’s commands are not to be disputed, but despatched without sciscitation.

And there was a noise.] A rattle, perhaps a thunderclap.

And behold a shaking.] Perhaps an earthquake, as was at Christ’s resurrection. God will one day shake both the heavens and the earth. "The heavens shall pass away with a great noise; the earth also and the works therein shall be burned, and fall with a great crack." {#2Pe 3:10} Then "the Lord shall descend from heaven with a shout," &c. {#1Th 4:16} -such as is that of mariners in a storm, or of soldiers when to join battle with the enemy.

Ver. 8. Lo, the sinews and the flesh came up upon them.] The body is the soul’s sheath, {#Da 7:15} the soul’s suit. The upper garment is the skin, the inner the flesh; the inmost of all, bones and sinews.

Ver. 9. And say to the wind.] To the reasonable soul, that "breath of God"; {#Ge 2:7} divinae particula aurae, as one calleth it. In this better part of man he is not absolutely perfect till after the resurrection; for though the soul do in heaven enjoy an estate free from sin, pain, or misery, yet two of the faculties or operations of the soul, viz., that of vegetation and of sense, are without exercise till it be reunited to the body. Here we have a representation at least of the resurrection, which the Hebrews call Gilgul, the revolution.

Come from the four winds, O breath,] i.e., From God that gave you, return again at his command to your own numerical bodies wherever they lie. And to this text our Saviour seemeth to allude, #Mt 24:31.

Ver. 10. And the breath came into them.] De foras, from without: as at first they were infused by God, so they are still. This Augustine sometime and for some length of time doubted about, and was therefore censured boldly, but unadvisedly, by one Vincentius Victor, as Chemnitius relateth it.

And they lived, and stood up upon their feet.] As life will show itself by sense and motion. Live things will be stirring. Arida etiam peccatorum cords Deus gratis vitali vegetabit.

Ver. 11. These bones are.] That is, they signify and betoken. And here we have the accommodation or application of the preceding parable or type; where also we may soon see that this chapter is of the same subject and method with the former, only that which is there plainly is here more elegantly discoursed, viz., the deplorable condition of the Israelites in Babylon, together with their wonderful deliverance and restitution in this and the three next verses.

Our bones are dried.] We lie in Babylon as in a sepulchre; we are buried alive, as it were; we are "free among the dead," free of that company.

We are cut off for our parts,] q.d., Let them hope as hope can: we have hanged up all our hopes now that the city and temple are destroyed. Thus carnal confidence, as it riseth up into a corky, frothy hope, when it seeth sufficient help, so it sitteth down in a faithless, sullen discontent and despair, when it can see no second causes.

Ver. 12. Behold, O my people.] God owneth them still, though they had little deserved it. "Shall men’s unbelief make the faith of God without effect?" {#Ro 3:3} Tumulos desperationis aperit; he openeth the graves of desperation, and lets in a marvellous light. So the Lord did for his poor Church by this blessed Reformation begun by Luther, whose book, De Captivitate Babylonica, did abundance of good. As for that wrought here in England, a foreigner {a} saith of it, that it is such as the ages past had despaired about, the present worthily admireth, and future ages shall stand amazed at. O beatos qui Deum ducem e spirituali Babylonia eos educentem secuti sunt!

{a} Scultet., Annal. Dec. 2, ep. ded.

Ver. 13. And ye shall know that I am the Lord.] Ye shall experiment it. The Reformed Churches have done so abundantly. Gloria Deo in excelsis.

When I have opened your graves.] This is spoken over and over for their confirmation who were apt to think the news was too good to be true.

Ver. 14. And shall put my Spirit in you.] Even my "spirit of adoption," that soul of the soul: this was more than all the rest. Thrice happy are they that are thus spirited; they shall live, and live comfortably.

Ver. 15. And the word of the Lord.] See #Eze 18:1.

Ver. 16. Take thee one stick.] A cleft stick, which is res vilis et exilis, a poor business in itself; but if God please to make use of so slender a thing, it may serve for very great purpose; as here by the uniting of two sorry sticks in the hand of the prophet is prefigured the uniting of Judah and Israel, yea, of Jews and Gentiles, "in the hand of the Lord," that is, in Christ Jesus, who is the hand, the right hand, and the arm of God the Father.

His companions,] i.e., Benjamin and Levi. {#2Ch 11:12,13}

Ver. 17. And join them one to another into one stick.] See on #Eze 37:16. Man and wife are as these two branches in the prophet’s hand, enclosed in one bark; and so closing together that they make but one branch.

Ver. 18. Wilt thou not show us what thou meanest by these?] People, though they should not be question sick, as some in St Paul’s time were, {#1Ti 6:4} yet they should be inquisitive after truth according to godliness. {#Tit 1:1}

Ver. 19. And make them one stick.] Taking away the deadly feud that hath so long time been between them, breaking down the partition wall, &c. I will once more bring them all under one king, and make them of one mind. Religion is the only best bond of affection. The very heathens honoured the primitive Christians for their unanimity. See #So 6:9. {See Trapp on "So 6:9"}

Ver. 20. Shall be in thine hand before their eyes.] That by this vision publicly acted they may be the better affected.

Ver. 21. Behold, I will take the children of Israel,] This was fulfilled when the Jews, and with them many of the ten tribes also, returned to their own country under Zerubbabel and Ezra. As for the rest of the ten tribes that returned not, they degenerated into Gentiles. The Jews say that they were shut up by Alexander the Great in the Caspian mountains, and shall therehence break forth when the Messiah appeareth. Of the Jews in general Tacitus hath observed, that they are very kind to their own countrymen, but to all others very cruel. This might haply move Alexander to serve them in that kind. There are those who understand that text, {#Re 16:12} the kings of the East, concerning the ten tribes whom they place in China, which is called the "land of Sinim," as Junius conjectureth; {#Isa 49:12} and who knows but that when all Israel shall be called, {#Ro 11:26} raised from the dead, {#Eze 37:14} joined into one stick, as here, many of those poor heathens in Asia and America may have part in the same resurrection?

Ver. 22. And I will make them one nation.] Who were before at deadly feud, and fought many bloody battles. Solemur et nos hac promissione contra schismata, Let us also comfort ourselves with this promise against schisms, saith Oecolampadius. Christ will cause the false prophets and the unclean spirit to pass out of the land; {#Zec 13:2} he will also so work in the hearts of his people, that they shall, "with one mind and one mouth, glorify God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ." {#Ro 15:6}

Ver. 23. Neither shall they defile.] After the captivity the Jews could never endure idolatry. The Popish image worship is at this day a very great stumblingblock to them.

Out of all their dwellingplaces.] Where, being mingled among the heathen, they learned their works. {#Ps 106:35}

Ver. 24. And David my servant,] i.e., Christ, who came to do the will of his Father in the shape of a servant. {#Php 2:7 Isa 42:1}

And they shall all have one shepherd.] Even David their king is for his clemency here called a shepherd, saith Jerome, tending and tendering his people. See #Eze 34:23,24

They shall also walk in my judgments.] All Christ’s subjects can say, as those primitive Christians did, Nos non eloquimur magna, sed vivimus. Athenagoras in his apology saith, No Christian is a bad man, ει μη υποκρινηται τον λογον, unless he be a counterfeit.

Ver. 25. And they shall dwell in the land.] So they did for six hundred years, or nearly so; and in heaven, whereof Canaan was a type, they shall live and reign for ever.

Ver. 26. Moreover, &c.] See #Eze 34:25.

And it shall be an everlasting covenant with them.] With all the Israel of God.

And I will place them,] sc., In the Holy Land, saith Piscator; or else I understand not what this word "place them," or give them, meaneth.

And will set my sanctuary in the midst of them,] i.e., I will indwell in them, and walk in them, &c. {as #2Co 6:16} The Jews pray earnestly for the rebuilding of their material temple. Pray we as hard for the building up of the mystical temple.

Ver. 27. My tabernacle also,] i.e., Mine ordinances, those testimonies of my spedal presence. See #Re 21:3.

Ver. 28. Do sanctify Israel,] i.e., Do set them apart for mine use, and will see to their safety.

When my sanctuary.] Wherehence they shall have continual both direction and protection.

Chapter 38

Ver. 1. And the word.] This particle and showeth the dependence of this discourse upon the former. God’s people shall be brought to their own country. The Lord Christ also shall sit upon the throne of his father David. But between these two great benefits the Church shall suffer much, and her enemies a great deal more, when once God takes them to do.

Ver. 2. Set thy face against Gog,] i.e., Against those last enemies of the Church, before Shiloh come; the kings of the lesser Asia and Syria before his first coming (see the books of Maccabees), the Pope and Turk before his second coming. See #Re 20:8. {See Trapp on "Re 20:8"} Against these Ezekiel is commanded to "set his face," that is, to prophesy with utmost intention of spirit and contention of speech. {a}

The land of Magog.] Or, In the land of Magog, which some make to be Gog’s country, and especially Hierapolis (for which they allege Pliny, lib. v. cap. 23), a chief city of Syria. This Hierapolis had its name from the multitude of religious houses or idol temples there erected. {b} May not Rome, the metropolis of idolatry, be rightly so called?

The chief princes of Meshech and Tubal.] People neighbouring upon the Syrians, and subject unto them, great enemies to Israel. See on #Eze 27:13. In Meshech, or Cappadocia, the Turks began to grow great and formidable. As for Tubal, Jerome and Josephus among the ancients, Bellarmine and Gretserus among the Jesuits, understand it to be the Spaniards; Rabbi David and Aben Ezra take Meshech for the Italians.

{a} Virtute opus est contra Antichristum dicturo. -Polan.

{b} Ptolom, In quarta Asiae tabula.

Ver. 3. Behold, I am against thee, O Gog.] Ecce ego ad re, Have at thee, Gog,

The chief prince of Meshech and Tubal.] These two are thus conjoined to show, as some think, that Turks and Popelings shall at length join their forces to root out the true religion, and that, while they are tumultuating and endeavouring the Church’s downfall, Christ shall come upon them and confound them. See on #Re 16:14,16. The Jews hold that this whole prophecy shall be fulfilled at the coming of their long looked for Messiah, and while they take all things therein according to the letter, they run into many very great errors. Propheta omnia loquitur magnificis verbis per hyperbolas.

Ver. 4. And I will turn thee back.] As he did Antiochus Epiphanes by the Jews; the Turks oft by Hunniades; the Pope’s forces by the Hussites in Germany, and lately by the Swedes. It hath been long ago foretold, and for many ages believed, and by the Turks themselves not a little feared, that the Mohammedan superstition, by the sword begun, and by the sword maintained, shall at length, by the Christian sword, also be destroyed, so that the name of Gog and Magog, saith the historian, {a} shall be no more heard of under heaven. A cold sweat also stands at this time upon the limbs of the western antichrist, by reason of the growing greatness of the Protestant princes.

And put hooks into thy jaws.] A metaphor from those that catch whales. Compare #Eze 29:4.

And I will bring thee.] But for an ill bargain.

{a} Turkish History, 1153.

Ver. 5. Persia, Ethiopia, and Libya.] A numerous army from all parts. The Church is against all the world, and all the world against the Church. Hic vir totius orbis impetum sustinuit, saith one once concerning Athanasius. A silly poor maid, in the midst of many fierce and savage creatures assaulting her every moment, is a true picture of the Church, saith Luther.

Ver. 6. Gomer, and all his bands.] The Cimbrians or Cimmerians, saith Melanchthon; the Galatians, saith Theodoret.

The house of Togarmah.] The Phrygians, as some; the Armenians, as others will. Of antichrist’s great power, see #Re 9:1-20 20:8. See on #Eze 27:14.

Ver. 7. Be thou prepared.] Comparator et compara te; muster up all thy forces, and see to their safety. But canst thou ward off my blows? moat thyself up against my fire?

Ver. 8. After many days thou shalt be visited,] sc., By mine heaviest judgments; for "shall not God avenge his own elect…though he bear long with them? I tell you that he will avenge them speedily." {#Lu 18:7,8}

In the latter years thou shalt come into the land.] Antiochus, that little antichrist, did, and made havoc. It is the opinion of some very grave divines that the great antichrist, before his abolition, shall once again overflow the whole face of the west; Quod Deus avertat. because God may turn away.

Which have been always waste,] i.e., A long while.

Ver. 9. Thou shalt ascend and come like a storm.] With great hurry and terror, but it shall soon blow over.

Thou shalt be like a cloud.] Sed cito transibis.

Ver. 10. Things shall come into thy mind.] Ascendent verba super cor tuum. Thou shalt machinate mischief, but it shall fall on thine own pate. Oh pray, pray, said a holy man once, Pontifex enim Romanus et Concilium Tridentinum mira moliuntur, for the Pope and his Council of Trent are hatching strange businesses.

Ver. 11. I will go up to the land of unwalled villages.] That care not to fortify their towns, but commit themselves to God, and think to escape us, but we shall soon show them their folly therein. The Hebrews have one and the same word for folly ( לסכ) and confidence. (#Ps 49:14 Ec 7:25 Ps 78:7 Job 31:24) See on #Job 4:6 But "in the fear of the Lord is strong confidence; and his children," though their towns be unwalled, "have a place of refuge." {#Pr 14:26}

Ver. 12. To take a spoil.] Heb., To spoil the spoil, and to prey the prey. The antichristian rout are all for robbing and ravaging. What vast sums of money raked the Pope once out of England, which was therefore truly and trimly called by Pope Innocent IV, Hortus deliciarum et puteus inexhaustus, His delicate garden, and pit that could not be drawn dry.

To turn thine hand.] To plunder them to the very bones, as they say. There was a time when the Pope’s receivers here left not so much money in the whole kingdom as they either carried with them, or sent to Rome before them. Of this Papal expilation King John heavily complained, and could get no remedy, but Henry VIII would bear it no longer. England is no more a babe, said he, in his protestation against the Pope; there is no man here but now he knoweth that they do foolishly that give gold for lead, more weight of that than they receive of this, &c. {a}

{a} Acts and Mon., 990.

Ver. 13. Sheba and Dedan.] The Arabians, who lived by roving and robbing.

With all the young lions.] That lie in wait for gain, as lions do for prey.

Art thou come to take a prey?] q.d., If thou art, we are ready to set in with thee, or to traffic with thee for it. Mohammed came of these Arabians; the Pope hath his money merchants’ great store. {#Re 18:3-11-17}

Ver. 14. Prophesy and say unto Gog.] Say it over again, that it may be the better considered, for the strengthening of the hands and hearts of my people.

Shalt thou not know it?] sc., By thine intelligencers; and wilt thou not think to make thine advantage of it? The Pope hath his Coricaei in every corner of Christendom; the Jesuits’ colleges, placed upon the walls of cities, afford them passage into the city, or abroad into the world, at pleasure, to give or receive intelligence as occasion serveth.

Ver. 15. Out of the north parts.] Ab aquilone nihil boni. From spiritual Babylon comes all mischief to the Church. The king of Syria is called "king of the north" in #Da 11:6.

A great company, and a mighty army.] Such was the army of Antiochus Epiphanes against the Jews, of the Turk against Christians, of the Pope against the Hussites, Waldenses, &c. He deceiveth the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, to gather them together to battle, the number of whom is as the sand of the sea. {#Re 20:8} He hath at his command the Italians, Walloons, Spaniards, whom Bellarmine {a} rightly reckoneth among the soldiers of antichrist.

{a} De Rom. Pont., lib. iii. cap. 16 and 17.

Ver. 16. And thou shalt come up against my people.] Oh happy they in such a privilege, maugre all thy malice! {#De 33:29}

In the latter days.] Before the coming of the Messiah, first and second.

And I will bring thee.] But for thy bane.

Against my land.] "The earth is the Lord’s, and the fulness thereof"; {#Ps 24:1} but that land where God is sincerely served is his peculiar portion. It was said of old, Anglia regnum Dei; England was the kingdom of God, {a} it is now so much more.

When I shall be sanctified in thee,] i.e., Glorified in thy just and utter destruction.

{a} Polyd. Virg.

Ver. 17. Art thou he?] It is sure enough thou art he; for I cannot be deceived in thee, nor shall fail to suppress thee.

By my servants the prophets.] Enoch {#Jude 14 Ho 2:1 Joe 3:1 Da 11:1,2 Zec 14:1 Re 20:8 2Th 2:1}

Which prophesied of thee.] Though under another name.

Ver. 18. My fury shall come up in my face.] Though it do not presently break forth. Ira Dei quo diuturnior, eo minacior.

“ Poena venit gravior, quo mage tarda venit.”

God delighteth to make fools of his enemies; he lets them prevail a while, and carry the ball on the foot, as it were, that they may fall with the greater disappointment.

Ver. 19. For in my jealousy.] God first kindleth, and then speaketh, and then shaketh the earth. His wrath is like Elijah’s cloud, which was at first but a small matter to see to; or as thunder, which we hear at first a little roaring noise afar off, but stay awhile, it is a dreadful crack; or as fire, that at first burneth a little upon a few boards, but when it prevaileth, bursteth out in a most terrible flame.

Ver. 20. Shall shake at my presence.] And wriggle into their holes, as worms do in time of thunder.

And the mountains shall be thrown down.] Hyperbolical threats, to set forth the dreadfulness of God’s fierce wrath, which burns as low as hell itself.

Ver. 21. And I will call for a sword.] Against Antiochus by the Maccabees; against the Turk and Pope by the Christian princes, Hunniades, Scanderbeg, Queen Elizabeth, the late and present kings of Sweden, the English and French forces in Flanders now before Gravelin, after Dunkirk and Bergen taken from the Spaniard. Certain it is, that ere long the beast and the false prophet shall be taken, and all the fowls of the heaven filled with the flesh of those kings and captains that fight against the gospel. {#Re 19:19-21}

Ver. 22. An overflowing rain, and great hailstones.] As once at the general deluge, destruction of Sodom, discomfiture of the kings of Canaan in Joshua’s days. {#Jos 10:11} Some think that these judgments here threatened shall, towards the end of the world, be executed upon antichrist and his adherents according to the letter. See #Re 16:21. {See Trapp on "Re 16:21"}

Ver. 23. Thus will I magnify myself.] This end God proposeth to himself in all his works; and well he may, since he hath none higher than himself to whom to have respect. And let all this that hath been said comfort us against the rage and good success, if any such yet be, of the antichristian rout, since these are but—as he said once of decaying Carthage—the last sprunts and bites of dying wild beasts.

Chapter 39

Ver. 1. Prophesy against Gog.] Prophesy again against him, for my people’s greater comfort. The Jews—noted ever to have been a light, serial, and fanatical nation, apt to work themselves into the fool’s paradise of a sublime dotage—expounding this prophecy according to the letter, conclude that Christ is not yet come, because these things here foretold are not yet fulfilled. When he doth come, they say, he shall set up his kingdom at Jerusalem, gather all Israel out of all coasts unto himself there, send each one to his own tribe, and that most certainly, by the operation of his Holy Spirit. There they shall be no sooner settled, and the kingdom not yet fully established, but Gog and Magog shall bring a huge army against Jerusalem, where they shall fall by the sword, lie unburied, &c.

Ver. 2. And I will turn thee back.] Convertam vel conteram te. {a} See #Eze 38:3.

And leave but the sixth part of thee.] Or, Strike thee with six plagues, or draw thee back with a hook of six teeth. {as #Eze 38:4} Sextabo re.

And will cause thee to come.] This is much and often inculcated, that it is God who brings in and drives out the Church’s enemies. This is a quieting consideration.

{a} In frusta vel scintillas redigam te. -Pintus.

Ver. 3. And I will smite thy bow out of thy left hand.] I will disarm thee. As Herodotus {a} reporteth of Sennacherib and his Assyrians in Egypt, that their quivers, bow strings, and targets were gnawn to pieces by mice and rats in one night, so that they were forced to flee for their lives. And as our chroniclers {b} tell us, that in the battle between Edward III of England and Philip of France, there fell such a piercing shower of rain as dissolved their strings, and made their bows unuseful.

{a} Lib. ii.

{b} Dan, 237.

Ver. 4. Thou shalt fall upon, the mountains of Israel.] Thither thou shalt come indeed, as Antiochus did into the temple, antichrist into the Church of God, {#2Th 2:4} but there thou shalt take thy end.

Ver. 5. Thou shall fall upon the open field.] Heb., The face of the field, which thou shall dung with thy dead carcase.

Ver. 6. And I will send a fire on Magog.] So God will one day on Rome, that Radix omnium malorum root of all evil things. {#Re 18:18,19}

And among them that dwell carelessly in the isles.] Who must not think there to moat up themselves against my fire.

Ver. 7. I will not let them pollute my holy name.] As if I were less able to deliver my people, or less mindful of my promises.

Ver. 8. Behold, it is come, and it is done.] It is as good as done. So, "Babylon is fallen"—i.e., It will fall certainly, quickly, utterly.

This is the day.] O dieculam illam! O that short time. When shall it once be? O mora! Christe veni. O delay! Christ, come.

Ver. 9. And they that dwell.] Hyperbolical expressions; though the Jews hold otherwise. See on #Eze 39:1.

Shall set on fire and burn the weapons.] Do not the Church’s champions so at this day, ever since they proclaimed and proved the Pope to be that antichrist; burning up his weapons—his false doctrines and heresies—by the fire of God’s Word, and giving their bodies to be burned for the testimony of Jesus?

And they shall burn them with fire seven years,] i.e., Diutissime et saepissime! Most long and most often. This seven years is not yet out. The Jesuits say Satan sent Luther, and God sent them to withstand him. But there is a succession of Luthers to find them work enough still, and to burn up their weapons that the churches may be at rest.

Ver. 10. So that they shall take no wood.] This must needs be hyperbolic, as are also sundry other passages in Holy Scripture. When Luther burnt the Pope’s decrees and decretals at Wittemberg, it was a fair fire doubtless, as Solon once said of the fire he caused to be made at Athens of the bills and bonds of the Athenian usurers.

Ver. 11. I will give unto Gog a place there of graves.] That is all the portion or possession he gets in the Holy Land.

On the east of the sea.] The Dead Sea, or the lake of Sodom—a fit place for antichrist to be buried in: he shall at last be cast alive into a worse lake. {#Re 19:20}

And it shall stop the noses of passengers.] By reason of stench, or the mouths of passengers from speaking evil of God’s people.

And they shall call it.] For a lasting monument of God’s great mercy, in ridding the country of such pests.

Ver. 12. And seven months shall the house of Israel be burying of them.] That is, a long while; like as the Reformed Churches were in rooting out Popery, those damnable doctrines, ceremonies, images, relics, bulls, and books. Here in England, the Romish religion stood a whole month and more after the death of Queen Mary, as before. December 27, it was permitted that the Epistles, Gospels, Ten Commandments, Lord’s Prayer, Creed, and Litany should be used in the Vulgate tongue. March 22, when the Estates of the realm were assembled, by renewing of a law of Edward VI, was granted the whole use of the Lord’s Supper—that is, under both kinds. June 24, the sacrifice of the mass was abolished, and the liturgy in the English tongue established. In July, the oath of supremacy was ministered; and in August, images were removed out of churches, broken or burnt. {a}

“ Tantae molis erat Romanam abscondere gentem.”

{a} Camden’s Elisabeth.

Ver. 13. And it shall be to them a renown.] A monument or trophy of their triumph. When the Switzers, A.D. 1443, had vanquished the Thuricenses in battle, they banqueted in the place where they won the victory, using the dead bodies of their adversaries instead of stools and tables. {a}

{a} Lanquet Chron., p. 263.

Ver. 14. And they shall sever out men of continual employment.] Viros quotidianos; men that shall stick to it, making it their business: Pollinctores: vespillones. So do our public professors and others, to confute Popish tenets, and to decry their customs. In doing whereof, they are assidui et accubui. constant and near.

Ver. 15. Then shall he set up a sign by it.] A statue, pillar, or sepulchral monument, that the butlers may bury it. Oh that in like sort God would cause the prophet, all relics and rags of Popery, and other heresy, together with the unclean spirit, to pass out of our land. {#Zec 13:2}

Ver. 16. And also the name of the city shall be Hamonah,] i.e., Multitude or tumult; and all to keep up the memory of that signal victory. Near unto the University of Cambridge, on the southeast side, there appear aloft certain high hills called Gog Magog hills; but wherefore I know not. But not far from them is Heretics’ hill, so called by the Papists because Bilney and Latimer were wont there to walk.

Ver. 17. Speak unto every feathered fowl.] A further explanation of that which had been said. {#Eze 39:4}

Assemble yourselves.] #Jer 12:9 Re 19:17;

To my sacrifice.] To this great slaughter of enemies whom I do sacrifice, as it were, to my justice.

Ver. 18. Ye shall eat the flesh of the mighty.] Whose flesh may he, perhaps, more delicate.

And drink the blood.] Blood royal, of a noble alloy. Sed nihil inde colligas, quam perpetuam eorum damnationem qui verbum Dei persequuntur, quique populum Israel spiritualem exagitant. {a} It importeth the eternal damnation of atheists and antichrists.

{a} Oecolampadius.

Ver. 19. Of my sacrifice.] Or, Of my good cheer. So God calleth it, to show how well pleased he is with the destruction of his Church’s enemies.

Ver. 20. With horses and chariots,] i.e., With men that ride on horses, and fight out of chariots.

Ver. 21. And all the heathen shall see my judgment.] Antiochus did so, and Maximinus the emperor, and other tyrants, when seized upon by such judgments of God as they could neither avoid nor abide.

Ver. 22. From that day and forward.] Their experience shall breed confidence.

Ver. 23. And the heathen shall know.] They shall be convinced of the equability of my proceedings, and the truth of my menaces.

Ver. 24. According to their uncleanness.] I have not shown my sovereignty, or exercised tyranny towards them, but done them right.

Ver. 25. Now will I bring again.] Three things he here promiseth his people, notwithstanding all the sorrow, (1.) Effectual vocation; (2.) Justification here; (3.) Glorification. {#Eze 39:29} The Sun of righteousness loves not to set in a cloud.

And will be jealous.] Or, Zealous; "the zeal of the Lord of hosts," his free grace, "shall effect it,"

Ver. 26. After that they have borne their shame.] Are become soundly ashamed of their sinful practices: Hoc enim ingenium est verae fidei, saith Oecolampadius, for this is the nature of true faith, to blush and bleed for sins past.

When they dwelt safely in their land.] And so settled on their lease through carnal security.

Ver. 27. And am sanctified in them,] i.e., Have fully shown my sanctity and majesty, both by their punishment and by their deliverance.

Ver. 28. And have left none of them any more there.] Here the Jews triumph and say, When was this promise ever fulfilled? and how, then, can the Messiah be come already? Hereunto it is rightly answered, that this prophecy is to be taken partly literally, and so it was fulfilled at the return of the captives out of Babylon. See #Ezr 3:1. Partly spiritually; and so Christ will at the last day raise up every one of his elect,—that Israel indeed,—and gather them to himself; not one of them shall be missing. {a}

{a} Lavat. in loc.

Ver. 29. Neither Will I hide my face any more from them.] They shall have beatiful vision and fruition for ever. See on #Eze 39:25.

For I have poured out my spirit.] Have already, and will do yet more liberally in the days of the gospel. {#Ac 2:2-7 Joh 7:38}

Chapter 40

Ver. 1. In the five and twentieth year; &c.] After the defeat of Gog and Magog cometh, in these last nine chapters, a new prophecy, aptly depending upon the former, concerning the Christian Church, and the spiritual state and constitution thereof; which is here prefigured by types of rebuilding the temple, restoring the Levitical rites, and repossessing the promised land. To those Jews who here hence expect a most glorious temple and state at the coming of their imaginary Messiah, and for whose sakes these high things are thus expressed, Christ may well say, as afterwards he did to Nicodemus, {#Joh 3:12} "If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe if I telI you of heavenly?" The wiser of their Rabbis, {a} as Galatinus testifieth, convinced by good reasons, understand these chapters not of an earthly building according to the letter, but of a heavenly, and in a mystical sense. And John the divine so interpreteth this scripture {#Re 21:1-11,22-27 22:7} -viz., of the heavenly Jerusalem, that mother of us all. It is ordinary with the prophets to speak figuratively of the amplitude, splendour, and magnificence of the Christian Church; as #Isa 54:11,12, "I will lay thy stones with fair colours, and lay thy foundation with sapphires," &c.—that is, I will erect and raise my Church and temple among the Gentiles, and adorn and deck it with lustre and variety of precious graces. Divines observe, that God here showeth Ezekiel a new temple larger than the old Jerusalem, and a new Jerusalem larger than all the land of Canaan; yea, according to the account of some learned Rabbis, larger than all the world; for {#Eze 48:35} it was round about eighteen thousand measures—i.e., leucas, say they. Now in opening of this prophecy, it must not be expected that something should be said to every verse, as elsewhere hath been done; and yet we must know that there is nothing in Holy Scripture that is not useful and profitable, {#2Ti 3:16} though at first sight it may seem otherwise. Metals lie hidden in hardest quarries; wholesome herbs are found often in the roughest places, and precious stones in barren sands. Hippocrates saith that in the faculty of medicine there is nothing small, nothing contemptible. {b} Aristotle saith in all nature nothing is so mean, vile, and abject that deserveth not to be admired. The Rabbis have a saying that there is a mountain of sense which hangeth upon every apex of the Word of God, &c.

And brought me thither,] scil., To Jerusalem, in vision, that valley of vision. In the beginning of this book, the Spirit carried him into the plain of Shinar, there to see a vision purporting the destruction of the material temple. Here, toward the close of it, he is by the same hand carried to Jerusalem to see a mystical temple, set up in the stead thereof, far more stately. "The sufferings of this life are in no comparison worthy of the glory that shall be revealed." {#Ro 8:18}

{a} R. Abba, R. Solomon.—Gal., lib. v. cap. 12.

{b} ουδεν μικρον ουδεν καταφρονητεον.—De Part. Anim., lib. i. cap. 5.

Ver. 2. Brought he me,] i.e., The Spirit brought me, who is called God’s hand, {#Eze 40:1} quia a Patre Filioque quasi marius dimanat: so he is called the "finger of God" {#Ex 8:19} -that is, his power.

And set me upon a very high mountain.] Moriah, where had stood the temple which overlooked the city, and had been a kind of heaven upon earth, wherein the holy priests and Israelites were as stars.

By which was the frame of a city.] So the temple seemed to him, for its many courts, walls, towers, gates, &c. So doth the seraglio at this day.

Ver. 3. And, behold, there was a man.] Christ the sovereign architect of his Church. {as #Re 11:1} This might well be brought in with an Ecce Behold. He appeared after another manner in that first dreadful vision. {#Eze 1:1}

Whose appearance was like the appearance of brass.] Bright and durable; importing Christ’s purity and eternity.

With a line of flax in his hand.] Christ’s measuring line is the Holy Scripture and the preaching of the Word; so is also his measuring rod here said to be of reed, but in #Re 11:1 of gold. Both these are in Christ’s hand, to show that the power and efficacy of the Word read or preached is from him alone. {#1Co 3:9-18 2Co 10:13-17}

Ver. 4. Son of man.] A most kind compellation, holding forth Christ’s philanthropy or love to mankind. He calleth us "sons of men," who for our sakes became "The Son of man," that we might become the sons of God. It is observed that Ezekiel, with the Seventy, is υιος ανθρωπου, the Son of man; but Christ is υιος του ανθρωπου—that is, the Son of Adam: he was the next and only other common person.

Behold with thine eyes, and hear with thine ears, and set thine heart, &c.] We should give all possible diligence and heed to a discourse of the New Jerusalem, that city of pearl; setting to work both our outward and inward senses, and those well exercised, to discern both good and evil. {#Heb 5:14}

Declare all that thou seest unto the house of Israel.] For therefore hast thou seen it. The manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit with. {#1Co 12:7} And as any man hath received the gift, so let him minister the same to others. {#1Pe 4:10} What use is there of a candle under a bushel?

Ver. 5. And behold a wall on the outside of the house.] Betokening God’s almighty protection of his Church and chosen. {#Isa 26:1 Zec 2:9 Job 1:10 Ps 125:1,2 46:1-3}

Ver. 6. Then came he unto the gate.] Henceforth we shall read of gates, greeces, posts, porches, courts, chambers, windows, &c., after the manner of Solomon’s temple, now burnt to ashes. Concerning all which, various and very different are the opinions of interpreters. We shall see hereafter the whole building in heaven. Meanwhile, for many things here mentioned, we must content ourselves with a "learned ignorance," and not call it descriptionem insulsam, as that Popish commenter blasphemed, {a} or think that the holy penman spake he knew not what. This was basely to "speak evil of the things that he knew not." How much better those Rabbis who, meeting with many things here inextricable and inexplicable, say, Elias cum venerit solvet omnia.

{a} Sanctius: Argum. in hoc.

Ver. 7. And every little chamber.] Or, Porter’s lodge.

Ver. 8. He measured, also the porch.] This porch, which had neither doors nor roof that we read of, was symbolum coeli: coelum enim undique conspicuum lateque patens significabat, saith Josephus. {a} It represented heaven.

{a} De Bell. Jud., lib. vi. cap. 6.

Ver. 9. And the porch of the gate was inward.] Or, This was the porch of the inner gate.

Ver. 10. And the little chambers.] Here lay the doorkeepers, whose office was to keep out the unclean. {#2Ch 23:19} Oh for such officers among us!

Ver. 11. And the length.] That is, the height of the gate.

Ver. 12. The space also before the little chambers.] Which space served either for seats, walks, or eaves rather at either end.

Ver. 13. Door against door.] The one facing the other in a direct line.

Ver. 14. Even unto the post,] i.e., The height was the same everywhere. See these things best set forth by pictures at the end of Castalio’s and Lavater’s annotations on the text.

Ver. 16. Narrow windows,] i.e., Narrowed, the better to let in light, and so shadowing out that spiritual illumination and joy wrought in the hearts of the children of light. See #Isa 42:7 49:6 60:19,20 Mic 7:8 Lu 2:32 Joh 3:19 8:12 9:5 12:35,36,46.

Were palm trees.] As for ornament, so in token of victory gotten by the saints, who do overcome. {#Ro 8:31-37 1Co 15:54,55}

Ver. 17. Then brought he me into the outward court.] In this temple were more courts and more chambers than ever were in Solomon’s. Heaven is large, and full of mansions. {#Joh 14:2}

And a pavement made.] More costly and stately than that of Ahasuerus. {#Es 1:6} God’s people are said to be living stones; {#1Pe 2:5} more precious than sapphires; {#Isa 54:11} firm as a pavement by faith, and low by humility; submitting to their teachers, {#Heb 13:17} and obeying from the heart the form of doctrine delivered unto them. {#Ro 6:17}

Ver. 18. Was the lower pavement.] See on #Eze 40:17.

Ver. 19. An hundred cubits.] Square.

Ver. 21. Of the first gate,] i.e., Of the east gate, first measured.

Ver. 22. And their windows.] See #Eze 40:16.

And they went up unto it by seven steps.] Whereby was noted the saints’ progress in knowledge and holiness, {#Lu 17:5 Ro 1:17 Re 22:11} still climbing up toward the heavenly temple. {#Ps 84:7}

Ver. 31. And palm trees.] See on #Eze 40:16.

Eight steps.] See on #Eze 40:22.

Ver. 35. And measured it according to these measures.] Vilalpandus here noteth that whatsoever is measured in one gate, the same is common to all the rest.

Ver. 38. Where they washed the burnt offering.] All must be pure and clean in God’s service.

“ Pura Deus mens est,” &c.

This washing of the burnt offering prefigured baptism, saith Polanus, as did the tables, {#Eze 40:39} the Lord’s Supper, wherein Christ the Lamb of God is slain in our sight.

Ver. 39. Two tables.] See on #Eze 40:38.

Ver. 40. As one goeth up to the entry of the north.] Hereby was signified, say some, that our corrupt affections must be mortified, and our lives laid down, if need be, for the truth’s sake, seem it never so hard to be done. Sicut a Septentrione venti flant asperi, as north winds are cold and comfortless.

Ver. 41. Four tables.] Not altars, nor yet oyster boards, as the Papists scornfully call our communion tables.

Ver. 42. Wherewith they slew the burnt offering.] The faithful ministers of the do daily execute their priestly offices, and have their instruments according. See #Ac 10:13 Ro 15:15,16 Php 2:17. The saints also, as spiritual priests, &c. {#Ro 12:1 1Pe 2:9}

Ver. 43. And within were hooks.] Where hung the beasts when they were flayed, and afterwards the priests’ and offerers’ portions, till after the sacrifice they were shared out.

Ver. 44. Were the chambers of the singers.] These were to set forth that pastors should have all necessary help in their places by the other church officers. The Levites were singers and porters. {#1Ch 23:2,5}

Ver. 45. For the priests.] Let none else intrude into them. See #2Ch 26:16.

Ver. 46. Which come near.] #Ex 19:22 Le 10:3 21:17,18,21,23.

Ver. 47. So he measured.] Christ doeth all things in his Church in number, weight, and measure. By his Spirit he ordereth the length, breadth, and depth of his spiritual house, and bestoweth his gifts by measure to each member. {#Ro 12:6 1Co 12:28,29 Eph 3:7 4:7}

Ver. 48. The porch of the house.] Which was covered over-head, to keep them dry in foul weather. What Christ doth for all his. See #Isa 4:5,6 25:4. {See Trapp on "Isa 25:4"}

Ver. 49. The length of the porch was twenty cubits.] After the cubit of the sanctuary, the weights and measures whereof were twice as large as those of the commonwealth, to show that God expects much more of those that serve him there than he doth of others.

Chapter 41

Ver. 1. Afterward.] This chapter is no less dark and difficult than was the former, which made Jerome ready to desist and give over commenting, but that he thought it better to say something than nothing, and was brought to know and say that the greatest part of those things he knew were but the least part of that he knew not. What I do understand is good, so I think is that I understand not, said Socrates once of a certain dark author. We may be sure it is so here, and must mirari potius quam rimari; waiting for more light, and praying to that purpose. {as #Eph 1:17,18}

He brought me to the temple.] Who had hitherto been held in the porch. There was a new church to be now erected by the preaching of the gospel; and this, the measuring of the house, {#Eze 40} of the temple, {#Eze 41} of the courts, {#Eze 42} and of all the parts, noteth.

And measured the posts.] Or, Fronts, or frontispiece, as the Vulgate hath it.

Which was the breadth of the tabernacle.] Made of old by Moses.

Ver. 2. And he measured the length thereof,] i.e., Not of the door, as Jerome would have it; but of the temple, the body and basilic thereof, called "the first sanctuary" {#Heb 9:2}

Forty cubits.] This noteth, say some, the longsuffering and patience of the saints, like as the breadth, twenty cubits, doth their charity.

Ver. 3. Then went he inward.] Toward the Holy of holies.

And the door.] Which in the second temple was but a veil, and rent at Christ’s passion.

Ver. 4. And the breadth thereof twenty cubits.] So it was a just square, intimating the stability of the kingdom of heaven, a kingdom that cannot be shaken, {#Heb 12:28}

This is the most holy place.] The Holy of holies, the Oracle, the house of the soul, wherein the only firm hope of Israel resteth—so the Jews called it—the Adytum, or inaccessible place, whither none might come but the high priest only, and that but once a year. Pompey and Heliodorus, for presuming to press into it, were heavily plagued.

Ver. 5. He measured the wall.] With the counterforts added to it for strength and ornament; these are commonly called pilasters or pillars.

Six cubits,] scil., In breadth.

Ver. 6. And the side chambers were three, one over another, and thirty in order,] i.e., Three stories, {a} and thirty in each story. Resemblably, there is a threefold rank or order of the members of the Church; there are lowermost, middlemost, and uppermost. These, as they have their several offices and gifts accordingly, so they must keep to their own stations, do their own business, live in love, and wait till called unto a higher room.

{a} Substractiones. -Polan. Coatae. -Vatab.

Ver. 7. And there was an enlarging and a winding about still upward.] This might inmind God’s people of heavenly mindedness, whereby their hearts will be enlarged when got once above the world, as birds sing sweetly when got aloft into the air.

Went still upward.] Let there be continual ascensions in our hearts: Sursum corda.

Ver. 8. The foundations.] Plus rei quam ostentationis habebant, {a} The good soul rather seeks to be good, than seems to be so.

{a} Oecolamp.

Ver. 9. And that which was left.] Area pura, {a} the void place.

{a} Piscat.

Ver. 10. And between the chambers.] Vulgate, The treasuries. In the Church much more room is taken up by such as are void of the treasure of God’s grace than by better men, "rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom of Christ."

Ver. 11. Toward the place that was left.] Which served the faithful, saith Jerome, for an oratory, whither they went to pray.

Ver. 12. The separate place.] The temple, or at least some part of it.

Ver. 13. An hundred cubits.] The temple of Ephesus was 245 feet long, and 220 feet broad. Howbeit for spiritual employment, mystical signification, none ever came near this edifice.

Ver. 14. Also the breadth…an hundred cubits.] Whereas Solomon’s temple was but twenty cubits broad.

Ver. 15. An hundred cubits.] See on #Eze 41:13.

With the inner temple and the porches thereof.] Summa et infima iuxta curat, nihil aspernatur. {a}

{a} Oecolamp.

Ver. 16. And the narrow windows…and the windows were covered.] Here Jerome cries out, "Oh the depth of the wisdom and knowledge of God!" Here be windows, but narrow and covered, which shows that we see not yet, nor can see, into heavenly things but obscurely and obliquely. How little a thing doth man understand of God. {#Job 26:14} The holy place was without windows, only there burned lights perpetually; but in the most holy place there was no light at all.

Ver. 17. By measure.] Heb., Measure. See on #Eze 40:47.

Ver. 18. And it was made with cherubims and palm trees.] Viz., Upon the partition walls. This was to teach Christians, who are the temples of God, (1.) To live like angels for holiness; (2.) To suffer, as palm trees, any pressures or pains for his sake with invincible patience. {a} By their piety in their lives, and patience at their death, the primitive Christians won much upon their persecutors.

{a} Pressa sub ingenti ceu pondere palma virescit. -Plin., lib. xiii. cap. 4. Sub cruce sic florent dedita corda Deo.

Ver. 19. So that the face of a man.] See #Eze 1:10.

And the face of a young lion towards the palm tree.] The palm tree, as it grew best in Judea, so it is probable that from the temple at Jerusalem it came at first, that the heathens put the palm for a sign of victory, and that the picture of Victory among them had in the one hand a palm, and in the other an olive branch. Wisdom (the praise of a man) and courage (the property of a lion), zeal and discretion, as they make a good mixture, so they conquer and carry it.

Ver. 20. And on the wall of the temple.] Yet this is no warrant for the use of pictures in our churches, whether for worship, as Papists, or for ornaments only, as Lutherans. At a consultation held not many years since at Hamburg by Lutheran ministers, concerning the cause and cure of Germany’s calamities, they concluded it was because their images were not adorned enough, which, therefore, they would procure done. {a} A sad business!

{a} Mr Burroughs on Hos., vol. i. p. 465.

Ver. 21. The posts of the temple,] i.e., Of the doors of the temple, were not round or arched, but square; as are at this day the doors of the Pantheon in Rome, saith Vilalpandus, built of old in honour of all gods, and now consecrated by the Pope to the honour of all saints with like superstition.

Ver. 22. The altar,] scil., That for incense, whereof see #Ex 30:6,7, but here of a much larger size. See on #Eze 40:1. This altar of wood and square was a type of Christ (not of the cross, as Vilalpandus doateth), in whom our prayers come before God as incense, and he is the propitiation for our sins. {#1Jo 2:2 Ex 30:1 Ps 141:2 Re 5:8} The size of this altar above that of old, showeth that the saints under the gospel would make much more improvement of the Lord Jesus in prayer, and make use of his mediation and intercession by faith in their heavenly sublimated supplications, than the saints of old were ordinarily wont to do. {a}

This is the table.] One and the same Christ is all in all to his people—an altar to sanctify them and their offerings; a table also to feed and feast them with the most precious provisions. See #Ps 23:5,6 36:9 65:5 Pr 9:1,2 Isa 25:6-8.

{a} Cobbet, Of Prayer, p. 235.

Ver. 23. Had two doors.] Understand hereby the means of grace, and ministers dispensing the same, whereby souls are brought home to Christ.

Ver. 24. Two leaves.] There are variety of ordinances.

Ver. 25. Cherubims and palm trees.] Let ministers resemble angels, and they shall be victorious, and well rewarded. The palm is a symbol of constance, and of a crown.

Ver. 26. And thick planks,] i.e., The heads or ends of thick beams or joists, supporting the rafters. We see what use there is of architecture, among other arts, in expounding Scripture. Vilalpandus saith he bestowed two and twenty years’ study upon this fabric of the temple here described.

Chapter 42

Ver. 1. Then he brought me forth into the utter court,] scil., Of the temple, at both ends and on either side whereof there were spacious places, in manner of our churchyards, saith one. Sequitur locus valde confusus et multo impeditissimus, saith Castalio. This is a very dark and difficult chapter, the sense whereof I would fain learn of some other, for I know not what to make of it: thus he. Oecolampadius also to like purpose, after R. Solomon, and thus prayeth, Suggerat Dominus conanti quae ad gloriam illius, certe quae non officiant, precor, &c., i.e., The Lord help our honest endeavours, that we may do what may be for his glory, and not for the hurt of any reader. That was a holy prayer of his colleague Zuinglius in like case, and may it be ours also, Deum Opt. Max. precor ut vias nostras dirigat, &c., I beseech Almighty God to direct our ways, and if at any time, Balaam-like, we shall obstinately resist the truth, let him set his angel against us, who, with the terror of his sword, may so dash this ass (our ignorance, I mean, and presumptuous boldness) against the wall, that we may feel our feet (that is, our carnal sense and reason) crushed and broken; that we no longer dishonour the name of our Lord God. {a}

{a} Zuing. Epist., lib. iii.

Ver. 2. Before the length of an hundred cubits.] The measure mentioned in this chapter, and whatsoever followeth touching the division of the land, the seats of the tribes, the portions allotted to the prince, priests, and Levites, the manner of their sacrifices and oblations, are all new, {a} varying from that which is in Moses (though for their weakness by those outward things he shadoweth heavenly), to show both the abrogating of the legal ceremonies and the establishing of a spiritual Christian Church, the magnificence whereof is here set forth to the prophet by the Lord Christ, qui mystagogus noster est, who is our God, and will be "our guide even unto death."

{a} "The Calling of the Jew," by Finch.

Ver. 3. Which were for the inner court,] viz., Of the temple. This was a figure of the Church invisible, as the outward court, described in this chapter, was of the visible and external.

The pavement which was for the utter court.] Which might signify that those who would enter into heaven must keep themselves unspotted of the world, "undefiled in the way." {#Ps 15 Ps 24:3-5}

Ver. 4. A way of one cubit.] A narrow way, but such as led them into spacious walks of ten cubits’ breadth inward. "Strait is the gate, and narrow the way, that leadeth unto life eternal"; {#Mt 7:14} but they that hit it, hold it, shall once walk arm in arm with angels. {#Zec 3:7; see the note there} "Through many tribulations we must enter into God’s kingdom"; {#Ac 14:22} but there God shall set our feet in a large room. {as #Ps 31:8} We shall walk at liberty on the everlasting mountains. Let it be remembered that this narrow way is but short, it is but of one cubit, &c.

Ver. 5. Now the upper chambers were shorter.] As being a kind of cock lofts, and not so fit for habitation.

Ver. 6. Therefore the building was straitened.] As the rules of architecture direct, and as right reason required, lest the building should shrink under its own burden. Ne structura pondere dissiliret.

Ver. 7. Here the Rabbis call again for the help of their Elias. See on #Eze 40:6.

Ver. 8. Here the Rabbis call again for the help of their Elias. See on #Eze 40:6.

Ver. 9. Here the Rabbis call again for the help of their Elias. See on #Eze 40:6.

Ver. 13. They be holy chambers.] Or, Cells of the sanctuary, belonging to those that serve in the sanctuary. God appointeth his ministers their various stations, together with the bounds of their habitations,

Shall eat the most holy things.] Ministers must eat as well as others; they are not of the chameleon kind—cannot live upon air; and the Lord Christ "hath ordained that," as "they which waited at the altar were partakers of the altar," "so also should they that preach the gospel live of the gospel," {#1Co 9:13,14}

And the meat offering and the sin offering,] i.e., The priests’ share out of them; for, besides they tithes and glebe, or suburbs, the priests had many rich revenues, and were far better provided for than today’s gospel ministers are, however begrudged that little that is allowed them.

Ver. 14. Then shall they not go out of the holy place.] Ministers may not leave their station, lay aside their holy calling, entangle themselves with worldly cares and businesses; but hoc agere, make their ministry their business, giving themselves wholly to it. Verbi minister es, hoc age; this was Mr Perkins’s motto. And "say to Archippus, Take heed to the ministry which thou hast received in the Lord, that thou fulfil it." {#Col 4:17}

But there they shall lay their garments.] And not go among the people in them, lest they make themselves overly cheap, or the people superstitious, by placing holiness in their seeing or touching those holy vestments.

And shall put on other garments.] Ministers, as in doing their office, they must use all becoming gravity and authority, as the ambassadors of Christ; {a} so, at other times, they must familiarise themselves with their people, becoming all things to all men, in Paul’s sense, that they may win some.

{a} Oecolamp.

Ver. 15. Now when he had made an end of measuring the inner house.] The inner part of the Church. The Church invisible is first and chiefly to be looked into, rather than the external adjuncts, as multitude, prosperity, clarity, antiquity, &c.; the substantials rather than the accidentals. The Church of Rome borrows her mark from the market, plenty or cheapness, &c. Vilissimus pagus, saith Luther. The mean stivilage seems to me to be an ivory palace, if there be but in it a faithful pastor, and a few true believers.

Ver. 16. Five hundred reeds.] Lo, here the large extent of the Holy Catholic Church, the communion of saints. {See Trapp on "Eze 40:1}

Ver. 17. He measured the north side, five hundred reeds.] To show that many should come from all coasts and quarters to sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. {#Mt 8:11} {See Trapp on "Mt 8:11"}

Ver. 18. He measured the north side, five hundred reeds.] To show that many should come from all coasts and quarters to sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. {#Mt 8:11} {See Trapp on "Mt 8:11"}

Ver. 20. He measured it by the four sides.] The Church is fair and firm, for it is quadrangular; so is every true member thereof homo quadratus, square, steadfast and immovable, ανικητος και ακινητος, always abounding in the work of the Lord, &c. {#1Co 15:58} His heart is fixed, trusting in the Lord. {#Ps 112:1} He quits himself well in all estates, and comes off a gainer. Gold is purged in the fire, shines in the water; as, on the other side, clay is scorched in the fire, dissolved in the water. The new Jerusalem is said to lie square. {#Re 21:16} {See Trapp on "Re 21:16"}

Chapter 43

Ver. 1. Afterwards he brought me.] Non nisi dimenso prius montis ambitu. The prophet saw not the glory of God till he had first seen the mount measured, the temple restored. Men must usually wait upon God in the use of means ere they see the King in his glory.

Even the gate that looketh toward the east.] Men must awake out of the west of wickedness, and stand up from dead courses and companies, if Christ, the Day Star from on high, shall give them light. {#Eph 5:14 Lu 1:78,79}

Ver. 2. And behold the glory,] i.e., The vision of the glory. God, who by the east gate had left the temple and the city, {#Eze 10:19} doth now the same way return, and filleth the house with the glory of his presence.

And his voice was like a noise of many waters.] Importing the multitude of his attendants, and his irresistible power, in his gospel especially, which is the power of God to salvation, and, like a mighty torrent, bears down all before it.

And the earth shined with his glory.] How can it do otherwise when the Sun of righteousness cometh in place, and irradiateth both organ and object. {#2Co 4:6} Into Solomon’s temple God came in a thick cloud; not so here. Light is now more diffused than ever. Woe be to those that wink, or who seek straws to put out their eyes with, as Bernard hath it.

Ver. 3. And it was according to the vision.] Being so much the sweeter and the welcomer to me. Hence he so oft repeateth it; and the Jewish doctors observe that eight times in this one verse, visionis ac videndi vocabulum repetitur, the word for vision and to see it is made use of.

When I came to destroy the city,] i.e., To foretell the destruction of it, {#Eze 9:2,5} from which time forth it was a done thing. See #Jer 1:10. {See Trapp on "Jer 1:10"}

And I fell upon my face.] In reverence to his majesty, in admiration of his mercy, and in the sense of mine own unworthiness. The nearer any one cometh to God, the lower he falleth in his own eyes, and the more doth "rottenness enter into his bones."

Ver. 4. And the glory of the Lord.] See #Eze 43:2.

By the way of the gate.] The ordinary entrance into the temple. There, if anywhere, God is to be found. Where should a man be sought for but at his house? Say he be from home a while, yet thither he returneth; so here.

Ver. 5. So the spirit took me up.] Who was fallen upon my face. The lowly shall be lifted up.

And brought me into the inner court.] As being a priest. So is every true believer. {#1Pe 2:9 Re 1:6}

Filled the house.] God’s presence is the full glory of each good soul. See #Hag 2:7.

Ver. 6. And I heard him speaking unto me.] The man Christ Jesus, standing by. Here, then, is a meeting and the mystery of the blessed Trinity; yea, here is a double mystery to be taken notice of, viz., those two wonderful unions of three persons in one God, and of Christ’s two natures in one person.

Ver. 7. The place of my throne, and the place of the soles of my feet,] i.e., My Church, which is unto me instead of heaven and earth. Behold the place of my throne, &c., {#Isa 60:1} so some read it; others, As for the place of my throne, &c.

No more defile.] But hallow; for negative holiness alone is little worth.

Nor by the carcases of their kings,] i.e., Their idols; {a} not unfitly called "carcases:"—(1.) Because void of life; (2.) Stinking stuff. See #Le 26:30 Jer 16:18. These were oft brought in, and countenanced by their kings.

{a} Piscat.

Ver. 8. In their setting of their threshold by my thresholds.] By broaching falsehoods for truth, and setting human devices in competition with the good Word of God. That detestable decree of the Council of Trent is well known, whereby the Apocrypha is set cheek by jowl, as they say, with the holy canon; the Vulgate translation with the original; traditions with Scriptures, and unwritten verities with those that are written. This is intolerable presumption. Jews and Turks do the like in their Talmud and Koran; that I speak not of our sect masters, who boldly obtrude their placits without just reproof, and require to be believed.

And the wall between me and them.] Which they have wretchedly set up by their sins, to their singular disadvantage; {#Isa 59:2} or, They have come under my nose, as it were, to provoke me; or, The nearer they were to Church, the farther from God.

Ver. 9. Now let them put away their whoredom.] So shall all be well between us. See #Jer 3:1 Isa 1:18. {See Trapp on "Jer 3:1"} {See Trapp on "Isa 1:18"} Piscator; Ictus sapiat. Some read it, Now they will put away, &c.; and so they did, after the captivity, but will not be yet drawn to worship the true God aright. The Lord persuade their hearts thereto. Fiat, Fiat! Do it, Do it!

And the carcases.] See on #Eze 43:7.

And I will dwell in the midst of them for ever.] This is the same with that in #Mt 28:20, "I am with you to the end of the world."

Ver. 10. Show the house.] Heb., That house—sc., Which I have showed thee in visions; the idea of that temple which shall shortly be set up, its figure and dimensions.

That they may be ashamed.] Of having dealt so unworthily with a God so gracious.

And let them measure the pattern.] Ut metiantur universe; that, by a holy geometry, they may, in the spirit of their minds, take all the dimensions of it, and be transformed into the likeness of the heavenly pattern. These are those holy and heavenly mathematics, which none can learn but those that are taught of God, and without which none can be Christ’s disciple; like as none might be scholar to Plato that had not the grounds of geometry. {a}

{a} Scholae Platonis haec fuit inscriptio, ουδεις αγεωμετρητος εισιτω.

Ver. 11. And if they be ashamed of all that they have done.] If they blush and bleed at heart for their iniquities. Penitents are to be taught the truth which is according to godliness, and all such are exactly to know and to do the whole will of God, as had not rather be carnally secured than soundly comforted.

Ver. 12. Upon the top of the mountain.] The Church is as a city on a hill, seen far and near, {#Mt 5:14} and the members of it are still ascending from one degree of grace to another, from strength to strength, till they see the face of God in Zion. {#Ps 15:1 Heb 12:22,23}

The whole limit thereof round about shall be most holy.] All the Lord’s people are so, at least in profession, first steps, honest endeavour, divine acceptation, and shall be so one day in all perfection. {#Re 21:8,27 22:14,15}

Ver. 13. And these are the measures of the altar,] viz., Of burnt offerings, which was in the priests’ court, and not at all spoken of till now.

The cubit,] viz., That of the sanctuary.

Even the bottom.] Heb., The bosom.

This shall be the higher place.] Heb., The back, as that which bore all. "We have also an altar," {#Heb 13:10} even Jesus Christ, the just one, who is both our Ariel (God’s lion, #Re 5:5) and our Hareel (God’s mount) of four cubits, as being "preached unto the Gentiles" in all parts, "believed on in the world, received up into glory." {#1Ti 3:16}

Ver. 14. And from the bottom upon the ground.] This so exact measuring of the altar may import, saith Polanus, the faithful and perfect preaching of the gospel by the apostles, and all faithful ministers of God’s word after them. {#2Co 10:13-18 1Co 4:1,2 Re 11:1}

Ver. 15. So the altar.] Heb., Hareel, the hill of God, or the only place of sacrifices.

And from the altar.] Ariel, the lion of God; so called because the fire of this altar devoured the sacrifices, as a lion doth the prey. See #Isa 29:16.

Ver. 16. Square in the four squares thereof.] Christ, the Christian altar, is complete, firm, and fixed.

Ver. 17. And his stairs shall look toward the east.] As leading to the Sun of righteousness, and the light of eternal blessedness, arising out of heaven.

Ver. 18. These are the ordinances of the altar.] Christians also have their sacrifices, though of another alloy, to offer, and must look to the ordinances of their altar; ministers must especially.

Ver. 19. And thou shalt give to the priests.] All this is to be understood spiritually, as being figuratively spoken.

A young bullock.] Together with a goat and a ram. {#Eze 43:22,23,25} All that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh, with the affections and lusts, {#Ga 5:24} and are still doing at it.

Ver. 20. And thou shalt take of the blood.] Christ, as mediator, was consecrated and qualified for the work.

Ver. 2l. Without the sanctuary.] So Christ suffered without the gate. {#Heb 13:11,12}

Ver. 22. And they shall cleanse the altar.] To set forth how Christ cleanseth and sanctifieth his people. {#Heb 9:19-24 Joh 17:19 Heb 9:13,14}

Ver. 23. Thou shalt offer.] See on #Eze 43:19.

Ver. 24. And the priests shall cast salt upon them.] Christians must "have salt {a} within themselves," {#Mr 9:50} and see to it that all their speeches be seasoned with the salt of mortification and discretion; {#Eph 4:29 Col 4:6} so shall God make an everlasting covenant with them, even a "covenant of salt." See #Le 2:13.

{a} Plato sal nominat Θεοφιλεστατον diis churis. Nihil utilius sale ac sole. -Coel. Rhodig., lib. vi. cap. 1.

Ver. 25. Every day a goat.] Mortification must be a Christian’s daily practice.

Ver. 26. They shall purge.] Thou and they together. We must also sanctify the Lord God in our hearts. {#1Pe 3:15}

Ver. 27. It shall be upon the eighth day.] The services of mortified men shall be accepted, on the eighth day especially, the Christian Sabbath, in the holy assemblies.

Chapter 44

Ver. 1. Then he brought me back.] From the east gate, which was found shut, to the north gate, where the prophet received large instructions. {#Eze 44:4} Christ must be followed, though he seem to lead us in and out, backward and forward, as if we were treading a maze.

Ver. 2. This gate shall be shut.] Is, and shall be, save only to Messiah the Prince, and to whomsoever he, as having the keys of David, shall open it. "This gate of the Lord into which the righteous shall enter" {#Ps 118:20} -sc., By that "new and living way," which Christ, their forerunner, {#Heb 6:20} hath prepared and paved for them with his own blood. {#Heb 10:20} See #Heb 7:8,9,11,12,24 9:11,12.

And no man shall enter in it.] No mere man, no man unless it be Emmanuel. See #Joh 3:13.

Ver. 3. It is for the prince.] For "Messiah the Prince"; so Christ is called in #Da 9:25; or for the chief priest, who, as he had a singular privilege herein above other priests, so hath Christ, the high priest of the Church Christian, singular privileges above all his brethren.

He shall sit in it to eat bread.] He shall sit at the right hand of the majesty on high, and enjoy heaven’s happiness, which is oft compared to a feast, as #Mt 8:11 22:1,2 Isa 53:11. He shall ascend up into heaven, and therehence come again to judge the quick and the dead. {#Ac 1:11 Heb 9:28} Some by "prince" here understand the ruler of the people, {see #Eze 46:1,2} who is peculiarly licensed to enter in at the east gate, and there to sit, and eat and drink his part of the peace offering. Compare #Ex 24:11. It is not meant of Peter the apostle, to be sure, much less of the Pope, his pretended successor, as some of his parasites would have it.

Ver. 4. Then brought he me.] See on #Eze 44:1.

The glory of the Lord.] See #Eze 43:2,5.

And fell upon my face.] See #Eze 43:3 1:28.

Ver. 5. Mark well, and behold with thine eyes.] Summon the sobriety of thy senses before thine own judgment. See #Eze 40:4. The refining of the ministry and discipline of the Church, with the same charge in regard of the excellency of the matter repeated for attention, to #Eze 44:17, and laws prescribed to that purpose, #Eze 44:17-31.

Ver. 6. And thou shalt say to the rebellious.] Heb., To rebellion. Vulgate, To the exasperating house.

Let it suffice you.] Ye have sinned enough, and more than enough. {#1Pe 4:3} Now that I have set you up a new temple, turn over a new leaf for shame; {as #Eze 43:10} when shall it once be? {#Jer 13:27}

Ver. 7. Strangers.] Yourselves are no better; {#Am 9:7} strangers from the covenants; {#Eph 2:12} degenerate children, {#Isa 1:4} alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in you, {#Eph 4:18} and through your blind leaders of the blind, priests of your own making, &c.

Uncircumcised in heart.] Erroneous in judgment.

Uncircumcised in flesh.] Enormous in practice.

When ye offer my bread,] i.e., The fat and the blood, as it followeth, which I seem to feed upon as a man doth upon bread.

Because of all your abominations.] Or, Besides all your abominations mentioned. {#Eze 44:6}

Ver. 8. For yourselves.] Pro vestro arbitratu, non pro mea voluntate; as best suited with your own ends, and fitted to your own humours.

Ver. 9. Shall enter into my sanctuary.] See a like prohibition in #1Ti 3:3,8 Tit 1:7. Such as were the scribes and Pharisees, the Arian bishops, the Popish priests, the cleri (ut vocant)—dehonestamenta among us, till cast out.

Ver. 10. And the Levites.] The apostate priests, that for fear or favour have comported with idolaters: such as were the posterity of Ithamar, those time servers in Ezra; {#Ezr 2:61,63} those in the books of Maccabees, Demas (if Dorotheus may be believed), Paulus Diaconus, Pendleton, Pflugius and Sidonius, authors of the "Interim" in Germany, &c.

They shall even bear their iniquity,] i.e., Degradation, as a punishment of their iniquity.

Ver. 11. Yet they shall be ministers in my sanctuary.] Though lapsed, they shall not be altogether discarded, {see #2Ki 23:9 Ne 13:28} partly for the honour of the priesthood, but principally for the encouragement of such as, having fallen by infirmity, rise again by repentance. Capite minuuntur, sed non penitus efficiuntur.

Ver. 12. Because they ministered unto them before their idols.] Being carried down the stream of the times, and hurried away by violent temptation, which they afterwards regretted and repented of. So did not those Popish bishops and priests at the coming in of Queen Elizabeth, who were therefore worthily turned out, even fourteen bishops, six abbots, twelve deans, as many archdeacons, fifty prebendaries, fifteen presidents of colleges, many parsons, and other stiff mass priests. {a}

{a} Camden’s Elisabeth.

Ver. 13. And they shall not come near unto me.] How great then was the love of the Lord Jesus to Peter and the rest of his disciples after his resurrection, as in sending them that sweet message, {#Mr 16:7} so in readmitting them to the work of the ministry after so foul a revolt. {#Joh 20:21-23} And doth he not the very same still for his poor sinful servants, who desire indeed to fear his name, but are often overtaken in a fault through infirmity of the flesh? Surely, Father Traves, said Mr Bradford, martyr, in a letter to him, I have clean forgotten God; I am all secure, idle, proud hearted, utterly void of brotherly love; I am envious, and disdain others; I am a very stark hypocrite, &c. {a} Thus he, and much more to like purpose, in his heavenly letters.

{a} Acts and Mon., 1511.

Ver. 14. But I will make them keepers.] Which was one of the meanest offices.

Ver. 15. But the priests, the sons of Zadok.] Who follow their father’s footsteps, and are careful to fulfil the ministry that they have received in the Lord; to be best in the worst times as right heirs of Moses’s benediction. {#De 33:9, &c.}

Saith the Lord God.] "Them that honour me I will honour." {#1Sa 2:20} This is a bargain of God’s own making. Huius rei fides penes Deum tota est; { a} we may trust to it.

{a} Oecolamp.

Ver. 16. To my table,] i.e., To mine altar, {#Eze 41:22 Mal 1:7,12} which as often as they do, they receive a double pledge of the pardon of their own sins. {#Joh 20:23}

Ver. 17. They shall be clothed with linen garments.] As so many earthly angels, {#Mt 28:3 Re 4:4 7:13} for innocence and victory over their corruptions.

And no wool shall come upon them.] No brutish and sensual lusts and practices shall be found in them. Ex brutorum lana vestes contexuntur. {a}

{a} Lavat.

Ver. 18. They shall have linen bonnets upon their heads.] In token of constant subjection to God. {#1Co 11:6,7,10}

They shall have linen breeches.] For honesty sake; and to admonish them to procure and "provide for things honest not only in the sight of the Lord, but in the sight of men." {#2Co 8:21}

With anything that causeth sweat.] That they may not have an ill savour, or seem to do God’s work to their own trouble: the Lord loveth a cheerful giver.

Ver. 19. They shall put off their garments.] See #Eze 42:14.

They shall not sanctify the people with their garments,] i.e., By the touch of their garments. See #Ex 29:37 30:29 Eze 46:20. To "sanctify the people," in this text, is to persuade them that they are sanctified by the touch or sight of the priestly vestments. The monks at this day make the silly people believe that they cannot be damned when they die if they be buried in a Franciscan’s cowl.

Ver. 20. Neither shall they shave their heads.] What can the Popish shavelings say to this, qui ne pilum ullum viri bona habere videntur, as Cicero {a} saith of Fannins Chaereas? noting it to be a sign of crafty malice to be shaven. And indeed is so bald and heathenish a ceremony that some priests in France are ashamed of the mark, and few of them have it that can handsomely avoid it. {b}

Nor suffer their locks to grow long.] As women’s: some heathen priests nourished their hair to a great length. A shag-haired minister is an ugly sight: bushes of vanity become not such, of any men.

They shall only poll their heads.] Or, Round them. Certainly, saith one, {c} the devil had forgotten this text when he raised up that reproach of Roundheads. To have hairy scalps is the garb of God’s enemies. {#Ps 68:21}

{a} In Orat. pro Rosc. Comaedo.

{b} Spec. Eur.

{c} Mr Burroughs.

Ver. 21. Neither shall any priest drink wine.] Wherein is excess. {#Eph 5:18 Le 10:9}

Ver. 22. Neither shall they take for their wives.] Ministers, of all men, should be careful whom they wed, for many reasons. Hear what good counsel one minister {a} of mine acquaintance gave another:

“ Quaere tibi uxorem quae sit Pia, Pulchra, Pudica,

Provida, verborum Parca, et Parere parata.”

“Seek for yourself a wife who is pius, beautiful, chaste,

has forsight, of few words, and prepared to have children.”

{a} Mr Thomas Dugard.

Ver. 23. And they shall teach.] Ministers must be able and "apt to teach." {#1Ti 3:2 Tit 1:9 Ac 20:28}

Ver. 24. They shall stand in judgment,] i.e., Stand to the right, and not stir from it; in matters of religion especially, accounting every parcel of truth precious.

They shall keep my laws.] Not observe them only, but preserve them from the violations of others.

Ver. 25. And they shall come at no dead person.] Not defile their consciences with dead works.

They may defile themselves.] So they keep a mean. Something they may yield to nature, nothing to impatience. Mens e luctu eluctetur, the mind surmounts difficulties from grief.

Ver. 26. And after he is cleansed.] This is a new sanction in the new temple, as Vatablus observeth.

Ver. 27. He shall offer his sin offering.] Because we do easily overshoot ourselves in things permitted. Licitis perimus omnes. We perish in permitting all things.

Ver. 28. And it shall be, &c.] This that followeth shall be their inheritance, {#Eze 44:29-31} and whatsoever they want more shall be made up in me.

Ver. 29. They shall eat.] See on #Eze 44:28.

Ver. 30. That he may cause the blessing.] Tithe and be rich. See #Mal 3:10. {See Trapp on "Mal 3:10"}

Ver. 31. The priests shall not eat, &c.] They shall not be greedy of filthy lucre, nor oppressive. Popish priests made so much gain of the dead, and so "devoured widows’ houses," under a pretence of dirges, trentals, masses for the dead, &c., that there was a necessity in, this kingdom of a statute of mortmain {a} to restrain them.

{a} The figurative use is often based on the notion that the ‘dead hand’ means the posthumous control exercised by the testator over the uses to which the property is to be applied. ŒD

Chapter 45

Ver. 1. Moreover, when ye shall divide by lot.] As #Eze 48:29, where we have the division of the land, and the several seats assigned to each tribe. Here we have first provision made for the church service, which Christ’s people are most zealous of, and do therefore allot, before any divident, a portion for the Lord’s house and servants, and that very large, to prefigure the largeness of the Church of the New Testament. See #Re 7:9,10, &c. Here Jerome aeknowledgeth himself to be in a labyrinth. The Jews call again for their Elias. Oecolampadius comes in with his huius loci mysteria tacitus veneror, and thinks this part of the prophecy such as no human understanding can fathom. Howbeit—

“ Nil desperandum Christo duce, et auspice Christo.”

The length shall be.] {See Trapp on "Eze 40:1"}

Ver. 2. For the suburbs.] Which hath its name in Hebrew from its being severed from the city, and, as it were, cast out of it. It is better rendered, as in the margin, void places.

Ver. 3. The length of five and twenty thousand.] Here the same again is repeated, {as #Eze 45:1} and further is shown how this holy portion of ground was to be employed to the use of the priests.

Ver. 4. And it shall be a place for their houses.] Ministers should he resident upon their charges, and as incumbent, dwell near, and as it were lean over their work.

Ver. 5. For twenty chambers,] i.e., For twenty rows of chambers.

Ver. 6. And ye shall appoint the possession of the city.] After the church service settled, and the ministry provided for. Aristotle’s {a} advice is πρωτον περι θειων επιμελει, first take care of divine things—that is the best policy.

It shall be for the whole house of Israel.] A rendezvous for them at festival times.

{a} Polit., lib. vii. cap. 8.

Ver. 7. And a portion shall be for the prince.] See on #Eze 44:3. Understand it of the civil magistrate, who is lord keeper of both tables of the law, and ought to have a special care of the Church’s welfare. Here his portion is said to lie on both sides of the oblation of the holy portion; and {#So 8:9} magistrates are required to hem ministers in with boards of cedar, i.e., to provide for their security, that they may be "without fear among them," as Timothy. {#1Co 16:10}

Ver. 8. And my princes shall no more oppress my people.] As Samuel foretold they would do, {#1Sa 8:11-18} and accordingly they did. But in the Christian commonwealth it should be better, as indeed it was in the days of Constantine the Great, Valentinian, and Theodosius,—which three godly emperors called themselves the vassals of Christ,—and is now, blessed be God, among us at this day.

Ver. 9. Let it suffice you.] Be content with your double portion, your so large a lot; and that ye may be so, hear the laws that I lay upon you: remove violence and spoil, execute judgment and justice; take away your exactions, &c.; see that ye have just balances and a just ephah. Let these things be done, or you will be quickly undone. Is it not enough to be above men, but you must needs be above mankind, as those princes would be that would not be under the law?

Ver. 10. Ye shall have just balances.] #Le 19:35,36 Pr 11:1 16:11 20:10,23 Mic 6:10,11; {See Trapp on "Le 19:35"} {See Trapp on "Le 19:36"} {See Trapp on "Pr 11:1"} {See Trapp on "Pr 16:11"} {See Trapp on "Pr 20:10"} {See Trapp on "Pr 20:23"} {See Trapp on "Mic 6:10"} {See Trapp on "Mic 6:11"} The gospel rule is, "Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them." {#Mt 7:12} And, "Let no man go beyond and defraud his brother in any matter; because that the Lord is the avenger of all such"; and the civil magistrate is his minister, "a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil" either by force or fraud. {#Ro 13:4}

Ver. 11. The ephah and the bath shall be of one measure.] Of the same capacity, only the ephah is the measure of dry things, and the bath of moist.

Ver. 12. And the shekel shall be twenty gerahs] #Ex 30:13 Le 27:25 Nu 3:47.

Fifteen shekels, shall be your maneh.] Or, μνα, mina, pound weight.

Ver. 13. This is the oblation.] After order taken that both prince and people might have whereof to make oblations. {#Eze 45:9-12} Here follow laws concerning these matters also.

Ver. 14. Out of the cor, which is an homer.] Only "cor" is the Chaldee word, "homer" the Hebrew.

Ver. 15. Out of the fat pastures.] Those that are well watered and most fruitful. God must have the very best of the best, and that on pain of a heavy curse. {#Mal 1:14}

Ver. 16. For the prince,] i.e., Upon a levy made by the prince for that purpose. Of these oblations, prefiguring evangelical sacrifices, the use followeth, {#Eze 46:4} it being first premised what the prince should do over and above these offerings of wheat, barley, oil, and lambs.

Ver. 17. He shall prepare the sin offering.] Or, He shall offer, so some render it, and apply it to Christ. {so #Eze 45:22} This prince then is in addition a priest of the tribe of Judah. See #Ps 110:4 Heb 7:11-8:6. Non mirum quod hic haereant Iudaei; { a} here the Jews are puzzled.

{a} Oecolamp.

Ver. 18. Thou shalt take.] Thou, O prince, shalt.

A young bullock.] One, and no more. Ut unitas singularis sacvificii Christi intimaretur.

Ver. 19. And put it upon the posts.] This and other ceremonies were not enjoined by the law of Moses. The Jews cannot tell what to say to it. They will not see that old things are past, and all things become new.

Ver. 20. And so thou shalt.] This also is a new injunction, {see #Eze 45:19} and very comfortable to those that sin of passion or precipitancy. See #1Jo 2:1,2.

Ver. 21. In the fourteenth day.] Upon that very day, not duly observed then by the Jews, was "Christ our passover sacrificed for us." {#1Co 5:7}

Ver. 22. Shall the prince prepare.] See #Eze 45:17.

Ver. 23. A burnt offering.] In token of self-denial.

Ver. 24. A meat offering.] Made of meal, in token of mortification, and submission to God in all things.

Ver. 25. In the feast of the seven days,] i.e., Of tabernacles, wont to be of eight days. {#Le 23:34,35} Quam sunt nova omnia There are all thing new. Of Pentecost here is no mention at all.

Chapter 46

Ver. 1. Thus saith the Lord God.] In this chapter are set forth rationes et ritus, the laws and rites that were to be observed by prince and people in offering their sacrifices. It is the manner of performance that maketh or marreth any duty. There may be malum opus in bona materia, ill work in a good matter.

The gate of the inner court.] Of the priests’ court.

That looketh toward the east.] That pointeth to Christ, the day spring from on high, the Sun of righteousness, who shineth sweetly upon such as rightly sanctify the Sabbath, and shall much more when they come to rest with him in heaven.

Shall be shut the six working days.] Six days shalt thou labour and do all thy work. Neither doth this hinder holiness, as the abbey lubbers pretend, but further it: (1.) By preventing temptation; (2.) By nourishing experience of God’s bounty and providence; (3.) By filling the heart with objects of heavenly thoughts; (4.) By stirring up to prayer and praise for each day’s mercies.

But on the Sabbath it shall be opened.] That the people may see Christ in the glass of the ceremonies, and call upon his name. We under the gospel have a clearer light and free access, on Lord’s days especially, and other times of holy meetings.

Ver. 2. And shall stand by the post of the gate.] Waiting at the posts of the gates of wisdom. {#Pr 8:34} Constantine the Great stood up constantly at the time of God’s public worship for honour sake. So did our Edward VI.

Then he shall go forth.] And the people come in, {#Eze 46:3} whose souls are as precious to God as his.

But the gate shall not be shut until the evening.] The gate is open till the evening; be ready therefore. When the bridegroom is once gone in, the gate is shut, and fools excluded. {#Mt 25:10-12}

Ver. 3. Likewise the people of the land.] The meanest of his subjects, if faithful, may have as near access to God as himself.

Ver. 4. Six lambs without blemish.] This was a larger sacrifice than Moses had appointed {#Nu 28:9} -Christians have more cause than Jews had to sanctify the Sabbath—as that for the new moons {#Eze 46:6} was lesser. See #Nu 28:11. Hereby it appeareth that God was about to abrogate the Mosaical worship, and the Levitical priesthood: Lex enim posterior derogat priori. This the Jewish doctors would fain say something to, but cannot tell what. The wit of these miscreants, reprobate concerning the faith, will better serve them to devise a thousand shifts to elude the truth, than their obstinace will suffer them once to yield and acknowledge it.

Ver. 5. As he shall be able to give.] Heb., The gift of his hand. Some render it, According as it shall be given unto his hand—i.e., as God shall put into his heart to give; and here he is not tied, as in the law, to such a proportion, but left to his Christian liberty.

Ver. 6. And in the day of the new moon.] Which pointed them to the coming of Christ, by whom all things are become new.

It shall be a young bullock.] It was wont to be two. See on #Eze 46:4.

And six lambs and a ram.] To signify, saith Rabanus, that as it is necessary for us to keep the Sabbath; so it is likewise that we rely upon Christ for expiation as of our week days’ sins, so also of those that we fall into even on that holy day.

Ver. 7. An ephah for a bullock.] This was to shadow out, saith Polanus, the communion of the saints with Christ, and that Christ offereth and presenteth his Church with himself and in himself to God the Father.

According as his hand shall attain unto,] i.e., As he is able and willing, for God straineth upon none.

Ver. 8. He shall go in by the way of the porch.] This was the prince’s privilege, that, as likewise the priests, he might go in and go out at the same east gate. It is fit that the word and sword should hold together, and that magistrates and ministers should be singular in holiness.

Ver. 9. Shall go out the way of the south gate.] For more easy passage sake, in such a multitude of people. But withal to teach us many things; as (1.) Not to turn our backs upon the holy ordinances; {a} (2.) To "make straight paths for our feet"; {#Heb 12:13} not looking back with Lot’s wife; {#Lu 17:32} not longing for the onions of Egypt, as those rebels in the wilderness, but advancing forward with St Paul, {#Php 3:13,14} looking forthright, {#Pr 4:25} having our eye upon the mark, and making daily progress toward perfection; (3.) That our memories are frail, and here we shall meet with many things that will withdraw us from thinking upon God; (4.) That our life is but short; a very passage from one gate to another: where to go back—i.e., to add anything to our lives—it is not granted, since our time is limited, {#Job 14:3 Ac 17:26} and we are all hastening to our long home. {#Ec 12:5} One being asked what life was? made an answer answerless; for he presently went his way.

{a} The Jews at this day depart out of the synagogue with their faces still toward the ark, like crabs going backward.

Ver. 10. And the prince in the midst of them, &c.] For example sake, Vita Principis censura est, and to see that all things be rightly carried in God’s service. And although the prince hath many weighty occasions, yet he is to be at the public assemblies with the first, and to stay till the last.

Ver. 11. An ephah to a bullock, and a hin of oil.] A whole ephah, and a whole hin, whereas in the Mosaical service there was required but a certain part only of either; because the Jewish Church was but of a part of mankind, but the Church Christian is universal. {a}

{a} Polan.

Ver. 12. A voluntary burnt offering…one shall then open him the gate, &c.] Here is warrant for our week day lectures, a voluntary service well accepted; provided that afterwards one shut the gate, and men return to their honest labours.

Ver. 13. Thou shalt daily prepare a burnt offering.] God must be served daily and duly, not on the Sabbath day only. See #Ps 72:15. The Papists are at their mass every morning, and they bind much upon this text for it. They have a proverb also, Mass and meat hindereth no man’s thrift.

Ver. 14. The sixth part of an ephah.] This is also different from the Levitical ordinance, {#Nu 15:3-12 28:3-5 Ex 29:40} though R. Solomon here extremely troubleth himself, but to no purpose, to reconcile them.

Ver. 15. Every morning.] Understand it of every evening also. {as #Ex 29:38}

Ver. 16. If the prince give a gift unto any of his sons.] As Jehoshaphat did cities to every one of his sons; though they long enjoyed them not, through the barbarous cruelty of their elder brother Jehoram. Christ, the Church’s king, giveth all his children gifts of great price; such as the world can neither give nor take from them, "spiritual blessings in heavenly" things and "places"; {#Eph 1:3} yea, he bestoweth himself upon them, and is therefore called "The gift," {#Joh 4:10} and "The benefit." {#1Ti 6:2}

Ver. 17. But if he give a gift of his inheritance to one of his servants.] As Alexander the Great, who, going to subdue a great part of the habitable world, gave away to his servants almost all he had, and when one of his officers asked him what he would leave for himself? he said, Hope. Messiah the prince, besides his choicest gifts ( Dona throni) to his dear children, giveth gifts unto men, even to the rebellious also; {#Ps 68:18} these are common gifts ( Dona scabelli), temporal favours, external privileges. See #Mt 7:22,23 25:14-30 Lu 19:12-27, &c. But as "the servant abideth not in the house for ever," as the son doth; {#Joh 8:35} so these gifts to servants, but for the behoof and benefit of his sons, are but till the year of liberty, or jubilee, till the last day at utmost. {#Le 25:10} Then shall the wicked give a dreadful account of all, with the whole world flaming about their ears.

Ver. 18. To thrust them out of their possession.] Ill accidents attend such princes, as affecting to be absolute in power, will be too resolute in will, or dissolute in life; oppressing their subjects to enrich their servants and parasites.

Ver. 19. Afterward he brought me.] Here he returneth again to things sacred—viz., to show where the priests should boil and bake.

Into the holy chambers of the priests.] These holy cells or chambers are particular Christian churches, committed to the care of Christ’s faithful ministers {a} {#Ac 20:28 1Pe 5:2}

{a} Polan.

Ver. 20. Where they shall bake the meat offering,] i.e., The ministers shall indite or boil good matters in their hearts for the use of the people, and then their tongues shall be as the pen of a ready writer. {#Ps 45:1} They shall not feed their hearers with crude and indigested stuff, but such as is well boiled and baked with the fire of the Holy Spirit, kindled on the hearth of their own hearts; that from the heart they may speak to the heart.

To sanctify the people.] As in promiscuous communions, where all are pell-mell admitted.

Ver. 21. In every corner of the court there was a court.] And buildings in every of them for the same purpose round about. {#Eze 46:22} These served, saith Jerome, to set forth the four parts of the world, out of all which the Church is gathered by ministers, &c. It served also, saith another, to show that in God’s house, which is his Church, there shall always be provision both for his ministers and people. Those that have but from hand to mouth have their bread hot, as it were, from God’s hand, which is best of all.

Ver. 22. Courts joined.] Or made with chimneys. Caminata, vaporaria. See on #Eze 46:21.

Ver. 23. With boiling places.] Such as the ancients called popinas.

“ Nolo ego Florus esse,

Latitare per popinas.” {a}

“I do not wish to be Florus,

to hide in the kitchens.”

{a} Adrian. Imp.

Ver. 24. These are the places of them that boil.] Of God’s cooks, who dress spiritual food for the use of his people. See #Eze 46:20.

Chapter 47

Ver. 1. Afterward he brought.] Christus mystagogus me duxit. Θεω επου, Follow God whithersoever he leadeth thee; this was an ancient rule among the heathens. Christo ducente et docente.

And, behold, waters issued out,] i.e., The gospel of grace, and the gifts of the Holy Ghost thereby conveyed into the hearts of believers, and poured out upon the world by the death of Christ. The prophet seems to allude to those waters, which by conduits were conveyed to the altar to wash away the blood of the sacrifices and filth of the temple, which else would have been very offensive and noisome. See the like in #Zec 14:8, where the eastern and western Churches also are pointed out. See #Re 22:1.

From under the threshold.] Quod gloria Dei dudum triverat. {a} Christ is that door, {#Joh 10:7} and fountain of living water. {#Jer 2:13 Isa 12:3 55:1} And from the temple at Jerusalem flowed forth the waters of saving truth to all nations; and first eastward, not Romeward, though the faith of the Romans was not long after spoken of throughout the whole world. {#Ro 1:8}

{a} Oecolamp.

Ver. 2. And, behold, there ran out waters.] As out of a vial.

On the right side.] The right side is a place of honour and defence. The doctrine of the gospel hath the pre-eminence, and is maintained by the right hand of God against all opposites.

Ver. 3. And when the man that had the line in his hand.] The man Christ Jesus, the sole architect of his Church, and measurer of his gospel; and that by his gospel, which is the line in his hand, nec solum recta, sed et regula, not only by riht but also by rule.

He measured a thousand cubits.] It was not for nothing that Plato said, Ο Θεος αιει γαωμετρει, God is always measuring the world.

The waters were to the ankles.] Grace is but a small thing at first; no more is the gospel. {#Mt 13:31-33} The Church were at first but a very few, {#Ac 1:15} that is, one hundred and twenty, of all the great multitudes which had formerly followed Jesus: Sed vix diligitur Iesus propter Iesum. It was more for the loaves than any great love that the most followed him.

Ver. 4. Again he measured a thousand.] This is a number of perfection. The gospel is a perfect doctrine, and is "able to make the man of God perfect, thoroughly furnished (or perfected) unto all good works." {#2Ti 3:17}

The waters were to the knees.] Grace grows by degrees; and the Scriptures have their shallows wherein the lamb may wade, like as they have their profundities wherein the elephant himself may swim. Augustine {a} condemned the Holy Scriptures at first, as neither eloquent nor deep enough for the elevation of his wit. But afterwards, {b} when he was both a better and a wiser man, he saw his own shallowness, and admired the never enough adored depth of God’s holy oracles.

{a} Confess., lib. v. cap. 13.

{b} lbid., lib. vii. cap. 21.

Ver. 5. A river that could not be passed over.] Representing, as the fathomless depth of the Scriptures—which is such as that we may well do by it as the Romans did by a lake, the depth whereof they could not sound, they dedicated it to Victory—so the abundance of spiritual graces in the Church, the love of Christ which passeth all knowledge, {#Eph 3:19} the over abounding goodness of God, {#1Ti 1:14} the super pleonasm of it, as the apostle hath it there. Oh, saith Chrysostom, speaking of this subject, I am like a man digging in a deep spring: I stand here, and the water riseth upon me; and I stand there, and still the water riseth upon me. It is indeed a sea that hath neither bank nor bottom.

Ver. 6. Son of man, hast thou seen this?] And art thou soundly sensible thereof? It is very fit thou shouldst, that God may have the glory of his great goodness and power in propagating the gospel, and bringing forward the work of his grace in the hearts of his people, maugre the malice of earth and of hell. The Reformation wrought in Germany, from how small beginnings grew it! The establishing of that among us, how imperfect soever, to be done by so weak and simple means, yea, by casual and cross means, against the force of so potent and political an adversary, this is to be looked upon as a just miracle.

To the brink of the river.] Where my work was to stand and cry, Oh the depth! Oh how great things hath God prepared for those that fear him! Oh the joy, the joy! Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, &c.

Ver. 7. Behold, at the bank of the river were very many trees.] These were trees of righteousness, fruitful Christians. Arboretum Christi est Ecclesia. The trees of Christ are the churches. See #Ps 1:3 92:12 Isa 44:3-5 55:11-13 Jer 17:8 Re 22:2, where and elsewhere it is easy to observe that John the Divine borroweth the elegancies and flowers of this and other prophets in his description of the Church Christian.

Ver. 8. These waters issue out toward the east country.] In Galilaeam anteriorem. {a} See #Ac 9:31—the churches in Galilee, "walking in the fear of the Lord and comforts of the Holy Ghost, were multiplied."

And go down into the desert.] Or, Plain; i.e., into the plains of Moab. {#Nu 22:1} The gospel worketh upon the worst, even to a transmentation.

And go into the sea.] The Dead Sea. The law of the Spirit of life which is in Christ Jesus, freeth men from the law of sin and of death. {#Ro 8:2}

The waters shall be healed,] i.e., Made wholesome and useful; so great a cure is done upon corrupt nature by the grace of the gospel. He who was before vitiorum vorago, lacus libidinum, mare sceleribus amarum ac mortuum, a lake of lusts, a guzzle of vices, a dead sea of wickedness and wretchedness, shall by a strange change become a pleasant river, pure, clear, sweet, and savoury; beset not with such mock fruit as the banks of the Dead Sea are said to be, but with trees richly laden with the choicest fruits; as was to be seen in the penitent thief, who, as soon as gospelised and converted, bestirred him and bore abundance of fruit in a very little space.

{a} Piscat.

Ver. 9. Whithersoever the river shall come, shall live.] Not die immediately, as they used to do in the Dead Sea, so bituminous and sulphurous were the waters thereof; {a} but live the life of grace here, and of glory in heaven. See #Zec 14:8 Ac 5:20.

And there shall be a very great multitude of fish,] i.e., Of Christians. See #Mt 4:19. {See Trapp on "Mt 4:19"} Christ himself, from the initial Greek letters of his names and title, was by some of the ancients called ιχθυς, a fish. {b}

And everything shall live whither the river cometh.] The gospel is the true aqua vitoe, the true aurum potabile, the true physic for the soul, {c} as one said once concerning the library at Alexandria.

{a} Plin., lib. v. cap. 16.

{b} Ιησους Χριστος υιος Θεου σωτγρ.—Aug. De Civit. Dei, lib. xviii, cap. 13.

{c} το της ψυχης ιατπειον.

Ver. 10. The fishers shall stand upon it.] Upon the Dead Sea, where formerly they had little enough to do. This sea is the wide world dead in sins and trespasses. {#Eph 2:1} These fishers are Christ’s apostles and ministers, who are called fishers of men, {#Mt 4:19} and their preaching compared to fishing. {#Mt 13:47} They fish with various success, as did Peter; {#Lu 5:5} but may enclose a great multitude, as he did; {#Ac 2:41} and as Farellus, who gained five cities to Christ, who brought them to hand by whole shoals. Histories tell us of five hundred and eighty Jews converted to the Christian faith at Axvernum by one Avitus, a bishop, and baptized. {a}

From Engedi.] Called also Hazazontamar; {#2Ch 20:2} that is, the city of palms, where grew the best balsam in the world, though it were near to the Dead Sea. {b}

Even unto Eneglaim.] Which is likewise a place adjacent to the Dead Sea, where Jordan falleth into it, as Jerome testifieth.

They shall be a place to spread forth nets.] Dr Preston being asked why he preached so plainly, and did so much dilate his sermons, being of such abilities? answered, he was a fisherman. Now such, if they should wind up their net, and so cast it into the sea, they should catch nothing; but when they spread the net, they catch the fish. I spread my net, because I would catch souls, said he; and indeed he had a very happy hand at it. {c}

The fish shall be according to their kinds.] The sea, they say, hath as many kinds of living creatures as the earth hath. "There is that leviathan, and there are creeping things innumerable." {#Ps 105}

{a} Pappi, Eccles. Hist. Epit., p. 214.

{b} Joseph., De Bel., lib. i. cap. 13.

{c} Mr Wall’s "None but Christ," p. 400.

Ver. 11. But the miry places thereof and the marishes, shall not be healed.] Sensual souls are seldom wrought upon by the word. Behemoth (the devil) lieth in those fens and quagmires. {#Job 40:21} They are void of the Spirit. {#Jude 18,19} They say unto God, "Depart from us," we had rather dance to the timbrel and harp; {#Job 21:11} whoredom and wine, and new wine, take away their hearts. {#Ho 4:11} He who had married a wife, or rather was married to her, sent word flat and plain he could not come; others excused themselves more mannerly. {#Lu 14:18-20} Such persons choose to remain in the sordes filth of their sins, and so are miserable by their own election.

They shall be given to salt.] Delivered up to strong delusions, {#1Th 2:15,16} vile affections, {#Ro 1:26} just damnation. {#Re 22:11}

Ver. 12. Shall grow all trees for meat.] Arbores esibiles; these are Χρηστοι, useful Christians, such as whose lips are feeding, and their tongues trees of life. {#Pr 11:30 15:4} {See Trapp on "Pr 11:30"} {See Trapp on "Pr 15:4"}

Whose leaf shall not fade.] They will not fail to make a bold and wise profession of the truth. See on #Ps 1:3 Jer 17:8.

Neither shall the fruit thereof be consumed.] But as the lemon tree, which ever and anon sendeth new fruits as soon as the former are fallen down with ripeness. Or as the Egyptian fig tree, which yieldeth fruit seven times a year, saith Solinus, and if you pull off one fig, another groweth up presently in the place thereof.

Because their waters they issued out of the sanctuary.] Hence their so great fruitfulness, viz., from the divine influence, {#Ho 14:8} the Word and Spirit going together. {#Isa 59:21} Hence it is that the saints are "neither barren nor unfruitful." {#2Pe 1:8}

And the leaf thereof for medicine.] God’s people, by their holy profession of religion, do much good to many souls, as did various of the martyrs and confessors. Lucianus, an ancient martyr, persuaded many Gentries to the Christian faith by his grave countenance and modest disposition, insomuch that Maximinus, that persecuting emperor, dared not look him in the face, for fear he should turn Christian. And so Beda {a} telleth us of one Alban, who, receiving a poor persecuted Christian into his house, and seeing his holy devotion and sweet carriage, was so much affected with the same, as that he became an earnest professor of the faith, and in the end a glorious martyr for the faith. The like is recorded of Bradford, Bucer, and others.

{a} Hist. Ang., lib. i. cap. 7.

Ver. 13. This shall be the border.] Here the prophet returneth again to the dividing of the land, begun #Eze 45:1,2, &c., having hitherto interposed many most memorable matters, and of great use to the Church.

Joseph shall have two portions.] He had so by his father’s will, and for his two sons adopted by his father.

Ver. 14. And ye shall inherit one as well as another.] Spiritual blessings are divided in solidum in gold coin among the community of God’s people; they all partake of one and the same saving grace of God, righteousness of Christ, and eternal life, though there are several degrees of grace and of glory. See #Ga 3:26-29. All God’s sons are heirs, heirs of God, and co-heirs with Christ. {#Ro 8:17}

Ver. 15. And this shall be the border of the land,] i.e., Of the Christian Church, the borders whereof are here set forth as far larger than those of the land of Canaan ever were.

From the great sea.] The Mediterranean Sea.

The way of Hethlon.] From one end of the kingdom of Damascus to another.

Ver. 16. Hamath, Berothah, Sibraim.] Towns of Arabia Deserta. All this is to set forth the amplitude of the Christian Church, spread far and near upon the face of the whole earth, and therefore rightly called Catholic. Roman Catholic is contradictio in adiecto, for it is a particular universal

Ver. 17. And the border from the sea shall be Hazarenan.] Forasmuch as the borders in this description of the land are set to be such as never were in the Israelites’ possession, the Jewish doctors are, will they nill they, forced to confess that the land of Israel in the world to come shall be larger than ever it had been. Now gospel times are called "the world to come." {#Heb 2:5}

Ver. 18. From Hauran.] A town of Arabia Deserts (Ptolemy calleth it Aurana), but Felix in this, that it is taken into the Church.

Ver. 19. From Tamar.] Hazazon Tamar, {a} which was near the sea of Sodom. {#Eze 47:10}

In Kadesh.] Not in Rephidim. {#Ex 17:7}

{a} This was Palmyra, afterwards Adrianople.

Ver. 20. Till a man come over against Hamath.] To that place of the great sea, from which lieth a straight way from Hamath eastward.

Ver. 21. So shall ye divide.] Epilogus est. There is one and the same "inheritance of the saints in light."

Ver. 22. An inheritance unto you, and to the strangers that sojourn among you.] What can the spiteful Jews say to this? who stick not to say, that rather than the bastard Gentiles (so they call Christians) should share with them in their Messiah, they would crucify him a hundred times over and over. Under the Old Testament, though strangers lived with the children of Israel, yet they had no inheritance with them at any time, as now they are appointed to have.

Ver. 23. See on #Eze 47:22.

Chapter 48

Ver. 1. Now these are the name, of the tribes.] Who are in this chapter assigned their several seats, and the land divided among them; but this division is much different from that of old, which was a plain prediction of a perfect and total abrogation of the Mosaic polity and Levitical worship, together with a new state of the Church of God after the coming of Jesus Christ.

To the coast of the way of Hethlon.] #Eze 47:15-17. Judea was not, say geographers, over two hundred miles long, and fifty miles broad; but R. Kimchi here noteth, that the Talmudists affirm that the possession of Israel shall extend unto the utmost coasts of the earth, id quod ex spiritu dictum existima, {a} This was well and truly spoken, though they understood not what they spake, as dreaming only of an earthly kingdom. But as elsewhere, so here, the land of Canaan is put for the whole world, {#Ps 89:11,12} whereof all true believers are heirs, together with faithful Abraham, {#Ro 4:11} whether they be Jews or Gentiles. Christ’s kingdom runs to the end of the earth. {#Ps 2:8 72:8}

A Portion for Dan.] This tribe, which was, for their shameful revolt from the true religion, {#Jud 18:30} cut out of the roll, as it were, {#1Ch 7:1,13,14,20,30 Re 7:5-8} is here reckoned first of those who had partem et sortem, part and lot among God’s people. So true is that of our Saviour, "Many that are first shall be last, and the last shall be first." {#Mt 19:30 20:16} "Judge not therefore according to the appearance," &c. Repent, and God will re-accept. The fable of Antichrist to come of this tribe is long since exploded.

{a} Oecolamp.

Ver. 2. From the east side to the west.] The longitude is described, not the latitude. For why? Christ’s kingdom is limitless, and his dominion without dimension.

Ver. 3. A portion for Naphtali.] There are many portions of inheritance in Christ’s kingdom; there are also in heaven many mansions, {#Joh 14:2} all which shall be divided among the elect.

Ver. 4. A portion for Manasseh.] Which they do not, of their own accord, and as they see good, seize upon, but take their share set them out of the divine sentence.

Ver. 5. A portion for Ephraim.] An equal portion with his elder brother Manasseh. In Christ’s kingdom all is of grace, nothing of merit.

Ver. 6. And by the border of Ephraim.] There is a continuity and conjunction of all the portions, to set forth the communion that is between the saints; a sweet mercy, a heaven beforehand.

Ver. 7. A portion for Judah.] Who is set next to the sanctified oblation of the Lord, wherein were the portions of the priests, Levites, city, and prince. He must be a "Jew inwardly," a confessor and witness of the truth, who shall have part and portion in the privileges of God’s people.

Ver. 8. Shall be the offering.] Whereof see #Eze 45:1-7.

Of five and twenty thousand reeds.] Which being exactly cast up, saith one, come to forty-five miles, and therefore cannot be meant of any city to be built by the Jews again after their return from Babylon, but must be understood as the Church under the gospel.

Ver. 9. Unto the Lord.] As distinguishing it from other oblations; here stood the sanctuary.

Ver. 10. And for them, even for the priests.] No mention is here made of cities of refuge, as of old; "for they shall not hurt nor destroy in all God’s holy mountain: but the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea." {#Isa 11:9}

Ver. 11. Of the sons of Zadok.] See #Eze 44:15-18.

Which went not astray.] To be faithful with God in a common defection is a singular praise. See my Righteous Man’s Recompense, p. 695.

Ver. 12. And this oblation of the land.] Ministers of God’s Word may lawfully take maintenance of the Church. {#1Co 9:7-13}

Ver. 13. The Levites shall have.] But after the priests. There are degrees of officers in the Church, and good order must be well observed there.

Five and twenty thousand in length.] These different portions set together make up a perfect square, which serveth well to set forth the beauty and firmity of the Church of Christ.

Ver. 14. And they shall not sell of it.] This law is here occasionally, and by the way, inserted. It seemeth to hold forth, that lands given to the ministers of Christ under the New Testament may never be again taken away, or put to any other use, but to their maintenance for ever. See Mr Clark’s Mirror, chap. of Sacrilege.

The firstfruits of the land,] i.e., This part thus consecrated to God, as the firstfruits of the earth were.

Ver. 15. Shall be a profane place,] i.e., A common place; and so all Israel were profane in a sense—sc., as compared to the priests and Levites, those consecrated persons. Symmachus and Theodotion render it λαικον. See #De 20:6.

And the city shall be in the midst thereof.] Ten miles at least distant from the temple, some say many more; to show, say they, what a long way he must go that would attain to eternal life. He must get above the world, howsoever, who would serve God acceptably.

Ver. 16. And these shall be the measures thereof.] This representation is merely figurative and mystical, showing us how specious and spacious the Church of Christ is.

Ver. 17. And the suburbs of the city.] These were much larger than the suburbs of the temple, as may be observed by comparing Eze.

40. See #Eze 45:2.

Ver. 18. For food to them that serve the city.] To all the citizens, who all are to turn servitors to their fellow brethren that come to the public meetings, to serve one another in love, which they that do shall not lose their reward, but verily they shall be fed.

Ver. 19. Shall serve it out of all the tribes,] i.e., At the common charge, and by a general contribution.

Ver. 20. Ye shall offer the holy oblation four square.] See on #Eze 48:13. All our dealings must be square, or else we are not of the holy portion, of the new Jerusalem. {#Re 21:16}

Ver. 21. And the residue shall be for the prince.] His occasions are many, and therefore his proportion is very large; yet must he not be regni dilapidator, the waster of the kingdom, by his profuseness, as our Henry III was called, whereby he became ill-beloved of his people.

Ver. 22. Being in the midst of that which is the prince’s.] The prince was taught, by this position of his portion, to have an equal care of Church and State.

Ver. 23. Benjamin shall have a portion.] The division of the land, as it ended with Judah’s portion, in speaking of the seven former tribes, {#Eze 48:8} so here it beginneth with Benjamin, in speaking of the five following.

Ver. 24. {See Trapp on "Eze 48:2"} {See Trapp on "Eze 48:3"} {See Trapp on "Eze 48:4"} {See Trapp on "Eze 48:5"} {See Trapp on "Eze 48:6"} {See Trapp on "Eze 48:7"}

Ver. 25. {See Trapp on "Eze 48:2"} {See Trapp on "Eze 48:3"} {See Trapp on "Eze 48:4"} {See Trapp on "Eze 48:5"} {See Trapp on "Eze 48:6"} {See Trapp on "Eze 48:7"}

Ver. 26. {See Trapp on "Eze 48:2"} {See Trapp on "Eze 48:3"} {See Trapp on "Eze 48:4"} {See Trapp on "Eze 48:5"} {See Trapp on "Eze 48:6"} {See Trapp on "Eze 48:7"}

Ver. 27. {See Trapp on "Eze 48:2"} {See Trapp on "Eze 48:3"} {See Trapp on "Eze 48:4"} {See Trapp on "Eze 48:5"} {See Trapp on "Eze 48:6"} {See Trapp on "Eze 48:7"}

Ver. 28. Even from Tamar.] Not Jericho, but Palmyra, called afterwards Adrianople, of the Emperor Adrian, who rebuilt and beautified it.

And to the river.] The river of Egypt, called Sihor. {#Jos 13:3}

Ver. 29. This is the land.] This is the epilogue of the whole chapter as to the greatness of the holy city. It remaineth only to touch at the situation and measures thereof, the gates also, and the ministers, together with their use and maintenance, the elegance, lastly, and perpetuity of the city.

For inheritance.] Not from the brook, as Tremellius mistranslateth it.

Ver. 30. And these are the goings out of the city.] That is the utmost bounds, as Rabbi Solomon glosseth.

Ver. 31. And the gates of the city.] Through which all the Israel of God, both Jews and Gentiles from all parts, qua data porta, ruunt, do enter into the Church of Christ, flowing and flocking thereto, as waters do to the sea, and as the doves to their windows.

Three gates northward.] Twelve in all; the reason whereof, see in the note on #Re 21:13.

One gate of Levi.] Who, though he had no lot in the land, yet he had a gate into the city, as Vatablus here noteth.

Ver. 32. Four thousand and five hundred.] And the like on each side; of all which are made up fifty-four miles, at the least, so large is the city of God. Nineveh was nothing to it; no more is Alcair, Scanderoon, or Cambalu, the metropolis of Tartary, which yet is said to be twenty-eight miles around.

Ver. 33. One gate of Simeon.] Here all along the tribes are reckoned, not as they were before in this chapter, but as they are set down in Numbers at the marching of the tabernacle in the midst of them, saving that whole Joseph hath here but one gate, and Levi is taken into the number of the twelve tribes. And forasmuch as it entereth not into the heart of man what God hath prepared for them that love him, and since this city is a type of heaven’s happiness, which is fitter to be believed than possible to be expressed, therefore I am the less troubled, saith good Oecolampadius here, that I understand no more of this surmounting matter.

Ver. 34. At the west side, &c.] See on #Eze 48:32,33.

Ver. 35. It was round about eighteen thousand measures.] See on #Eze 48:32 Re 21:16.

The Lord is there.] Jehovahshammah. This is the true Church’s name, and the true Christian’s happiness, such as no good can match, no evil overmatch—viz., that wheresoever he is, there God is, and therefore there heaven is; like as where the king is, there his court is. This very name implies God’s everlasting being with his Church, according to those precious texts of Scripture, every syllable whereof droppeth myrrh and mercy. {#Le 26:11,12 Mt 18:20 28:20 Joh 14:23 1Co 15:28 Re 7:14-17 21:3-5 22:3-6} This is the truth of that which the temple, while it stood as a type or figure, did represent, "This is my rest for ever; here will I dwell." {#Ps 132:14} God will not forsake his Church as he did the synagogue, but have it up to heaven to him, {#Re 21:1-3} where are crowns, sceptres, kingdoms, beatiful visions, unutterable ecstacies, sweetest varieties, felicities, eternities; and all because Jehovah-shammah, the Lord is there; to him be glory and praise everlasting. Amen. So be it.

Soli Deo Gloria

The Jews, having finished a book, add— Benedictus qui dat fatigato robur.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Chapter 26

Chapter 27

Chapter 28

Chapter 29

Chapter 30

Chapter 31

Chapter 32

Chapter 33

Chapter 34

Chapter 35

Chapter 36

Chapter 37

Chapter 38

Chapter 39

Chapter 40

Chapter 41

Chapter 42

Chapter 43

Chapter 44

Chapter 45

Chapter 46

Chapter 47

Chapter 48