Amos

Chapter 1

Ver. 1. The words of Amos] Not of that Amos who was father to Isaiah (as some ancients, for want of Hebrew, mistook it), but a man of meaner rank; "rude in speech, but not in knowledge," #2Co 11:6, tam sensuum nomine quam simplicitate verborum clarus, as Jerome saith of Didymus. The Jews surname him ψελλος, the stammerer; as if he had been a man, not only of a low, but of a letsome language; one that had an impediment in his speech (μογιλαλος), as #Mr 7:32, and this they gather from his name Amos, which signifieth a burden, as if this herdsman had had bovem in lingua, a clog upon his tongue; and could not utter himself freely (like Michael Balbus). But let this pass for a Jewish tradition. True it is, that Amos is by interpretation a burden; and no less true, that the words of Amos are onerosa prophetia, the burden of the word of the Lord to Israel by him, {See Trapp on "Mal 1:1"} who is a vehement prophet, laden with reproofs and threatenings comminationibus ae reprehensionibus onustus (as Luther saith of him), such as the land was not able to bear, said that malcontent Amaziah, {#Am 7:10} who had fel in aure, his gall in his ears, as they write of some creatures. But truth must be spoken, however it be taken: neither may God’s ministers meddle with toothless truths only (as Balak did, Neither curse nor bless at all), but bind heavy burdens, if need be, upon the shoulders of obstinate sinners, that may cripple their iron sinews, and make them buckle under the sense of God’s unsupportable displeasure.

Who was among the herdmen of Tekoah] He was no prophet, neither was he a prophet’s son; but a herdman, and a gatherer of sycomore fruit, #Am 7:14, and extraordinarily called to this high office by Him "who chooseth the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and the weak things of the world to confound the mighty," #1Co 1:27, who enabled the dumb ass to forbid his master’s madness, #2Pe 2:16, and sent this downright neat herd to deal with a brutish people, worse than the ox and ass that have no understanding, #Ps 32:9 Isa 1:8 Job 10:4, and who had changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into a fourfooted calf and creeping things, #Ro 1:28. Tekoah is said to be six miles from Bethlehem, twelve from Jerusalem, situated in the tribe of Judah, #2Ch 11:6. Quinquius, that learned Hebrew, therefore, is utterly out in saying that Tekoah was a great town in the tribe of Asher.

Which he saw concerning Israel] He not only heard these words, but saw them in a vision; he had them by revelation from God. {See Trapp on "Ho 1:1"}

Concerning Israel] Or, against Israel, that is, the ten revolted tribes, who had many prophets sent them to foretell their captivity. God loves to foresignify.

In the days of Uzziah, &c.] At the same time with Hosea and Isaiah and Micah, when Procas Sylvius was king of the Latins, and Sardanapalus of the Assyrians, as Jerome saith.

And in the days of Jeroboam] The second; not that funestum Iudaeis caput, that Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, who caused Israel to sin, #2Ki 14:23,27 2Ch 26:6-12. Under the reign of these two kings Judah and Israel were in great prosperity; and, bewitched therewith, applauded themselves in their impiety, as #Ps 73:5,6. This prophet, therefore, is sent to rouse them and rub them up, to tell them their own, and what they should trust to.

Two years before the earthquake] That notable earthquake, famous and fresh in most men’s memories. Whether it fell out just then, when Uzziah attempted to offer incense, and was therefore smitten with leprosy, #2Ki 15:5, as some ancients affirm; or whether at that instant when Isaiah in a vision saw the Lord in his glory, and the posts of the door moved, #Isa 6:4, as some Rabbis tell us, I have not to say. It seems to be foretold, #Am 3:5, and so terrible it was that people fled from it, #Zec 14:5. See the note there. Josephus maketh mention of it in the ninth book of his Antiquities, Am. xi., and telleth us, that half a great hill was removed by it out of its place, and carried four furlongs another way; so that the highway was obstructed, and the king’s gardens utterly marred. God, by such extraordinary works of his, showeth his justice and displeasure against sin, #Ps 18:8 Isa 13:13, as also his special mercy to his praying people, as at Antioch, in the year 529, and at Bern. A.D. 1584; near unto which city a certain hill, carried violently beyond and over other hills, is reported by Polanus (who lived in those parts) to have covered a whole village that had 90 families in it; one half house only excepted, wherein the master of the family with his wife and children were earnestly calling upon God. Oh the terror of the Lord! and oh the power of prayer!

Ver. 2. And he said, The Lord will roar] This is spoken for the terror of the wicked, as the like was, #Joe 3:16, for the comfort of the godly. {See Trapp on "Joe 3:16"} The word, as Moses, saves the Israelite, slays the Egyptian; and is as the fragrance of precious ointment, of which Oecumenius tells us that it refresheth the dove but killeth the beetle, Columbam vegetat, scarabaeum necat. See #2Co 2:16. {See Trapp on "2Co 2:16"} The prophet here tells idolatrous Israel to their teeth that God will no longer deal fairly with them, as a shepherd, but fiercely, as a lion; he will not only roar upon them, but rend the caul of their hearts; as the lion, together with his roar, lays his paws upon the prey; and that ye may know that these are not hobgolbin terms, devised on purpose to frighten silly people, and that I shoot not popguns at you.

The habitations of the shepherds shall mourn, &c.] That is, all your bravery shall down; all your wealth and worldly greatness shall wither; the top of your Carmel, the zenith of your prosperity, shall be blasted, and the scene soon altered. All this the prophet, used to shepherdy, expresseth accordingly, artis sum usus sermonibus (as it is natural for all artists to do), but with a great deal of life and boldness. Navita de ventis, de tauris narrat arator. Verbis vivis, animatis sententiis, et spiritus fervore flagrantissimus, as Bucholcer saith of Savonarola’s Meditations upon Psal. 51.

Ver. 3. For three transgressions of Damascus and for four] For their seven, that is, several sins, not a few; for their many and bony provocations, for their progress in sin, without mean or measure. The Jews here note, that for three faults God will pardon a man, but let him beware of the fourth: God will not always serve man for a sinning stock, but break off his abused patience, and proceed to punishment. Lo, all these things worketh God twice and thrice with man, #Job 33:29, but let him not thereupon grow overly bold, lest he pay for his presumption. Sin iterated is greatly aggravated; as ciphers added increase the sum; and though it may sleep a long time, yet it is but a sleeping debt, not called for of many years, required at length; as Saul’s sin in slaying the Gibeonites was not punished till forty years after; as Joab’s killing of Abner slept all David’s days. Now, lest Israel, looking upon Syria yet flourishing, should promise themselves like impunity, they are here thus threatened.

I will not turn away the punishment thereof] But pay them home for the new and the old; yea, for the old by occasion of the new; for their obstinate and incurable wickedness, I will punish them seven times more, and seven times more, and seven to that, #Le 26:24, and so hang them up, as it were, in gibbets, for a warning to Israel, that they may wash their feet in the blood of these heathens, and redeem their own sorrows.

Because they have threshed Gilead] i.e. the Gileadites whom they had taken captive, and thus cruelly intreated; see #2Ki 13:7 10:32, where it appeareth, that all this was done not without the Lord; which yet is no excuse to Hazael’s cruelty. That conquerors were wont to use this kind of torment and punishment, see #2Sa 12:31. But that David should do so, is some wonder: he was hardly recovered of his late foul fall; and thence, haply, so much harshness. Certain it is, that the merciful God abhorreth cruelty toward his creature, and severely punisheth it; such as was this of Hazael toward Israel, foretold by Elisha, #2Ki 8:12, and afterwards of Ptolemy Lathurus, king of Egypt, who slew 30,000 Jews at once; and forced the rest to eat up their dead carcases. (Joseph.) So that barbarous Duke of Alva roasted some of his prisoners to death, starved others, and that even after quarter, saying, though he promised to give them their lives, he did not promise to find them food. Dio telleth us of the Jews that dwelt about Cyrene in the days of Trajan; that they slaughtered a great sort of Romans and Greeks after a miserable manner; sawing them down the middle from the crown of the head, tearing their flesh with their teeth, smearing themselves with their blood, and wearing their skins for coverings, &c., so that 220,000 people perished there; and besides, in Egypt and Cyprus, 240,000, by the like abhorred cruelty, and about the same time, by the same hands. {Dio, In Vitae Trajan, l. 58. c. 75. 8:421,423} "Beware of men," #Mt 10:17.

Ver. 4. But I will send a fire into the house of Hazael] Sin doth as naturally draw judgments to it as the lodestone doth iron or turpentine fire; and heinous sins, heaviest judgments, devouring plagues. Such as are the fire of war, #Ps 78:62; pestilence, #Le 26:25; foreign enemies, #Nu 21:28 Jer 48:45; homebred conspiracies, #Jud 9:15,20; besides the fire of hell, whereof all miseries here are but typical. Let men kiss the Son therefore, lest God’s anger be kindled; and get the spirit of judgment, and of burning, that they may dwell with everlasting burnings. For even "our God is a consuming fire," #Heb 12:29.

Ver. 5. I will break also the bar of Damascus] i.e. their power and might, all strength defensive, or offensive, and so make way for the enemy into the city; give him a fair entrance without resistance. It is God that orders the battle, and renders men’s attempts vain or prosperous, #Isa 54:17 Jer 50:9; whereever the sword comes it is "bathed in heaven," #Isa 34:5.

And cut off the inhabitant from the plain of Aven] Campus idoli, the plain or valley of idols (so Mercer rendereth it), that is, of Syria given to idolatry; or Damascus, a very Poneropolis, and therefore ripe for ruin.

And him that holdeth the sceptre] & plain periphrasis of a king (called often by Homer, σκηπρουχος, sceptre bearer), or of him that was to succeed in the kingdom. The French call him Dauphin; the Spaniards, Infant, &c. Our Henry II crowned his eldest son Henry while he was yet alive, and put the sceptre into his hand; which made his ambition quite turn off his obedience.

From the house of Eden] Or of pleasure, the king’s palace, a very paradise. God denieth not great men their lawful pleasures for refreshment, amidst their weighty businesses, &c., but yet they must remember St James’s charge, #Jas 5:5, against the grandees of his time: "Ye have lived in pleasure on the earth, and been wanton; ye have nourished your hearts as in a day of slaughter," or of good cheer. And that of Abraham to Dives, "Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things," &c., #Lu 16:25, which text Gregory the Great could never read but his heart ached with fear, lest it should be his own case. It is well observed that (φιληδονοι) lovers of pleasure are set as last and worst of those wicked ones, #2Ti 3:4. Solomon is blamed for spending thirteen years in building his house, and planting those paradises about it, #Ec 2:5.

And the people of Syria shall go into captivity unto Kir] A place of Media, called by other authors Cyrrha, or (as others think) Cyrene, in Egypt or Africa. This was fulfilled fifty years after by Tiglathpileser.

Saith the Lord] Who spake the word and it was done, #Ps 33:9 148:5. And what wonder, when his fiat only made the world, and he can as easily unmake it if he please.

Ver. 6. For three transgressions] {See Trapp on "Am 1:3"}

Of Gaza] One of the five chief cities or satrapies of the Philistines; an ancient name, #Ge 10:19 De 2:23 1Sa 6:17, and not so first called by Cambyses, making it his magazine when he marched against Egypt, as Mela would persuade us.

I will not turn away] Or I will not convert them, as some render it, {so #Am 1:2,1,4,6} i.e. non reducam ad misericordiam suam, I will show them no mercy; but they shall have "an evil, an only evil," #Eze 7:5, without mixture of mercy. This is punishment enough.

Because they carried away captive the whole captivity] This cruelty God singleth out (as before) as a singular sin that shall be surely punished. Now that is called a whole or perfect deportation, when none escapeth; but all of all sorts, sexes, and sizes, are carried away, as by a sweeping rain, or universal deluge: #Jer 13:19, "Judah shall be carried away captive all of it, it shall be wholly carried away captive." Whether this were Judah or Israel that was so inhumanly dealt with by the Philistines we find not. Something like it we read, #2Ch 21:16,17 Joe 3:6. {See Trapp on "Joe 3:6"}

To deliver them up to Edom] Or to shut them up in Edom, their most inveterate deadly enemy; to whom the Philistines delivered or sold them on this condition or bargain, that they should hold them there in perpetual and irrevocable slavery.

Ver. 7. But I will send a fire] i.e. an enemy, saith Drusius, which, as a fire, shall consume all. This was fulfilled by Uzziah, #2Ch 26:6, whence it was afterward called "Gaza, which is desert," #Ac 8:26.

Which shall devour the palaces thereof] Built likely in the blood of the poor afflicted, and having sin at the bottom, which blew up all at length, as the voice from heaven said to Phocas, who likewise laid his foundation in blood. {See Trapp on "Am 1:4"}

Ver. 8. And I will cut off the inhabitant from Ashdod] These other four Satrapies of the Philistines (Gath is not mentioned, because happily time had now triumphed over it, so that it lived by fame only) were the worse likely, and fared the worse for Gaza’s ill neighbourhood; like as Hamath did for Damascus, #Zec 9:2.

And I will turn mine hand] Not in mercy, as #Zec 13:7, but for further mischief; I will have a double blow at Ekron, where Beelzebub the Grandiabolo is worshipped, Iterabo plagam: and when I have done with the rest I will begin again with Ekron; Acheronta movebo.

And the remnant of the Philistines] This is dreadful, but due to them, and just upon them for their savage dealing with Israel, #Am 1:6. This was fulfilled by Hezekiah conquering all that country, #2Ki 18:8. See Josephus, lib. ix. 13.

Ver. 9. For three transgressions of Tyrus] That crown of the sea, #Isa 23:8, media insuperabilis unda, island unconquorerable by sea, till Alexander’s time, who joined it to the continent, and afterwards ruined it. Charged it is here as those before, 1. With incurable obstinace; 2. With extreme cruelty.

Because they delivered up the whole captivity] Which either themselves had taken, or that had fled to them for refuge in some common calamity; but were betrayed by them into the hands of their bitterest enemies. See #Am 1:6, and acknowledge the truth of that Divine proverb, "The tender mercies of the wicked are cruel": they help their clients no otherwise than the wolf in the fable helped the sheep of his cough, by sucking his blood.

And have not remembered the brotherly covenant] That passed of old between David, Solomon, and Hiram their king. Or rather, that between Jacob and Esau and their respective posterity, which the Tyrians should have promoted by labouring a reconciliation between these dissenting brethren; but they contrariwise blew up the coals, and rather stirred up more strife then stinted it. They called not to mind what unity and amity ought to be between people so near allied; and what good offices they should therefore have done for them.

“ Protenus indigni fraternum rumpere foedus.” Horat.

"Thou shalt not abhor an Edomite, for he is thy brother." This is God’s argument to Israel, #De 23:7. Should not the Tyrians have said the like to the Edomites, and so sought to have pacified them, rather than gratified them in their hereditary hatred and deadly feud, &c.? They put themselves among those worst of men, which, given over of God, though they know the law, how that they which commit such things are worthy of death, yet not only do the same, but also take pleasure in those that do them, #Ro 1:32.

Ver. 10. Therefore I will send a fire upon the walls of Tyrus] This was fulfilled shortly after in the war that Shalmaneser waged against the Tyrians, whereof see Joseph. lib. ix. chap. 14. Or in Nebuchadnezzar’s war with them, whereof read #Eze 29:18 Jer 27:3 47:4. Joseph. cont. Apion, lib. 2. Or Alexander’s, Curt. lib. 4; Justin. lib. 11. It is good for men to tremble at God’s judgments while they hang in the threatenings, as Josiah did; and not to tempt the Spirit of the Lord, as Ananias and Sapphira did, #Ac 5:9, by putting it to the proof, whether he will be dicti sui Dominus, as good as his word.

Ver. 11. For three transgressions of Edom, &c.] i.e. of the Edomites, the Rabbis understand the Romans, those false brethren the Pope’s bloodhounds. See the parallel made by Dr Taylor, in his sermon called the Romish Edomite.

Because he did pursue his brother with the sword] First, when he drove him from house and home for fear of his life, which he threatened to take from him, #Ge 27:41-45; and afterwards came against him (returning homewards) with four hundred cut-throats at his heels, #Ge 32:6,8, "to smite the mother with the children," #Ge 32:11. Next, in his posterity, those sworn swordsmen of the devil; that denied God’s Israel passage in the wilderness, coming out against him with much people, and with a strong hand, #Nu 20:20, to his great discouragement, #Nu 21:4. And ever after bore him an aching tooth, and waited him a shrewd turn; joining with the enemy, and taking all advantages of mischief. See #2Ch 28:17 Ps 137:7 Ob 10,11. Malice is commonly hereditary, and runs in the blood; and (as we use to say of runner) the older it is, the stronger.

And did cast off all pity] Heb. corrupted his compassions, forgot his brotherhood, banished natural affection out of his bosom, and put off all humanity. The Rabbis tell us, that out of the profaneness of his spirit Esau put away his circumcision, by drawing up again the foreskin with a surgeon’s instrument. Whether this were so or not, I have not to say; but that he corrupted his compassions (if any ever he had), violated the law of nature, and abolished the love of a brother, the "brotherly covenant," this text assureth us; even all the affections, duties, and respects of blood and nature by which he was bound. His grandfather Abraham could say to his nephew Lot, "Let there be no difference between thee and me; for we are brethren," #Ge 13:8. This one consideration was retentive enough, cooler sufficient to his choler; it was even as the Angel that stayed his hand when the blow was coming, #Ge 22:12. It should have been so with Edom; good blood would not have belied itself; but he had lost his brotherly bowels, and even put off manhood; he had wiped out all stirrings of good nature, as a man wipeth a dish, "wiping it and turning it upside down," #2Ki 21:18, as the Scripture speaketh in another case: or as when a man emptieth wine out of a cup, the sides are yet moist; but when it is rinsed and wiped, there remains not the least taste or tincture.

And his anger did tear perpetually] i.e. He in his anger did tear, as a beast of prey, and rage without intermission. The enemies of the Church do so still: such is their implacable hatred against God and his truth; they "eat up God’s people as they eat bread," #Ps 14:4, yea, they tread down and tear in pieces, as if there were none to deliver. At the town of Barre, in France, when it was taken by the Papists, all kinds of cruelty was used, saith Mr Fox: children were cut up, and the guts of some of them and hearts pulled out, which in rage they tare and gnawed with their teeth. The Italians likewise which served the king there did, for hatred of religion, break forth into such fury, that they did rip up a living child, and took his liver being as yet red-hot, and eat it as meat. Erasmus tells of an Augustine friar, who openly in the pulpit at Antwerp, wished that Luther were there, that he might bite out his throat with his teeth. And Friar Brusierd, in a conference with Bilney, brake out into these angry words: But that I believe and know that God and all his saints will take revengement everlasting on thee, I would surely with these nails of mine be thy death. Pray therefore with David, "Deliver not the soul of thy turtle-dove" to these destroyers. "Cursed be their anger, for it is fierce; and their wrath, for it is cruel," #Ps 74:19 Ge 49:7.

And kept his wrath for ever] Though himself was mortal, yet his wrath might seem to be immortal; as was Hannibal’s against the Romans, and our Edward I’s against the Scots; against whom being about to march, he adjured his son and nobles, that, if he died in his journey into Scotland, they should carry his corpse with them about Scotland, and not allow it to be interred till they had absolutely subdued the country. Anger may rush into a wise man’s bosom, but should not rest there (Aug. Ep. 87. Eccl. vii. 9); for it corrupteth the heart, as vinegar doth the vessel wherein it long continueth. Of the Athenians it was said, that their anger was αειμνηστος, everlasting; but that was but small to their condemnation. Thou shalt neither revenge nor remember ill turns, #Le 19:18, where servare is put for servare iram; to keep, for to keep one’s anger; to show that there is nothing that a man is more ready to keep, as being a vindictive creature. Aristotle saith (but absurdly) that it is more manly to be revenged than to be reconciled; and this the world calleth manhood, but indeed it is doghood rather. The manlier any man is, the milder and more merciful, as David, #2Sa 1:12. And Julius Caesar, when he had Pompey’s head presented to him wept, and said, Non mihi placet vindicta sed victoria, I seek not revenge but victory. And the apostle purposely disgraceth revenge of injury by a word that signifieth disgrace, loss of victory, or impotence of mind. {ηττημα, #1Co 6:7} Thunder, hail, tempest, neither trouble nor hurt celestial bodies; no more doth anger great minds. Edom was short spirited, soon kindled and not easily appeased; his wrath kept no bounds, as the word here used importeth; his coals were coals of juniper, fierce and long lasting; his fire not elementary, but culinary; nourished by low and unworthy considerations; a fruit of the flesh, and such as excludes out of heaven, #Ga 5:20,21. It was not the passion but the habit of hatred which St James calleth the devil, #Jas 4:7, and St Paul counselleth men not to give place to that devil; and for that end, not to let the sun go down upon their wrath, #Eph 4:26. See #Eze 25:5, where Edom is charged with a perpetual hatred, and therefore threatened with blood and desolation, as here.

Ver. 12. But I will send a fire] A fierce enemy, ut supra. The inhabitants of Teman and Bozra, together with other the posterity of Esau, were famous for power and policy, #Ob 8,9 Jer 49:7 Isa 34:6. But there is no wisdom, might, nor counsel against the Lord, #Pr 21:30,31. He can make fools and babies of the Church’s enemies: he can fire out their malice.

Ver. 13. I will not turn away the punishment thereof] Or I will not turn and reduce him to myself by repentance, that I may show him mercy, as #La 5:22 Jer 31:18, but harden his heart, and hasten his destruction.

Because they have ripped up the women with child] Immane facinus, et vicinis indignum, saith Mercer, a cruel fact, and the worse because done by so near neighbours and allies; thus to kill two at one blow, and those also innocent and impotent, and such as they ought to have spared by the law of nature and of nations: and all this, merely out of covetousness and ambition.

That they might enlarge their border] But first root out the little ones, that else might hereafter claim and recover their fathers’ possessions. So at the Sicilian Vespers they ripped up their own women that were with child by the French; that no French blood might remain among them. {See Trapp on "Ho 13:16"} Learn to detest covetousness, that "root of all evil," #1Ti 6:10. Better converse with a cannibal than with a truly covetous caitiff; and more courtesy you may expect.

Ver. 14. But I will kindle a fire, &c.] With mine own hands (not only send a fire, as before, #Am 1:10,12); as Charles V Emperor of Germany (when it was told him how that Farnesius, the Pope’s general, had ravished certain ladies), brake out into these hot words: If I had the villain here I would kill him with mine own hands; neither was he ever heard to speak anything with so great anger in all his days.

With shooting in the day of battle] Cum clangore, vel ululatu, with noise of trumpets and soldiers, so terrible, haply, as that in the bloody fight beween the great Turk, Amurath III, and Lazarus, despot of Servia; where the noise was so great that the wild beasts in the mountains stood astonished, and the birds fell to the earth amazed thereat.

With a tempest] i.e. with incredible swiftness, and all on the sudden; and so the more terrible, because impetuous.

Ver. 15. And their king shall go into captivity] Where he may find as little favour as Zedekiah did with Nebuchadnezzar, Valerian with Sapores the Persian, Bajazet with Tamerlane the Scythian; and not so much as Gilimer, king of Vandals, with Belisarius, of whom he requested (and obtained) these three things, a loaf, a spunge, and a harp; a loaf to relieve him, a spunge to wipe his weeping eyes, and a harp to cheer him up in his captivity.

He and his princes together] Lords and lowlies shall fare alike; the sword spares neither. And in hell potentes potenter torquebuntur, mighty men shall be mightily tormented.

Chapter 2

Ver. 1. For three transgressions, &c.] Or malicious wickedness with a high hand committed, and heaped up to that height. See #Am 1:3.

Because he burnt the bones of the king of Edom] "A wicked man," but yet a man: and God (who is a lover of mankind, φιλανθρωπος) shows himself sensible of the injuries and indignities done but to his dead body; such an enemy he is to cruelty to his creatures. That Mesha, king of Moab, bore a special edge against the king of Edom, sought to break through the army to him, but could not, and afterwards sacrificed his son and heir, whom he had taken in that sally made upon the king of Edom’s quarters, we read, #2Ki 3:26,27. There are some that think that at another time, overcoming the Edomites, he dug up the bones of that king out of his sepulchre, he burnt them to lime, that is, prorsus, perfectissime et absolutissime, as some sense it (Targum), to ashes and cinders, as #Isa 33:12, or (for greater revenge and contempt) he white-limed the walls of his palace therewith, as #Ge 11:3 Ps 69:23 Isa 22:12. Thus, in that horrid massacre of Paris, they cut off the admiral’s head (whom before they had murdered) and presented it to the Queen’s mother; who, embalming it, sent it for a present to the Pope, who, thereupon, caused the massacre to be pictured in the Vatican hall; under one side is Colignii et sociorum caedes; Colignii and his allies slaugher, on the other, Rex Colignii caedem probat The King of the Coligni approves the slaughter. (II Mercurio Italico, 92). The king himself (viz. Charles IX) beholding the bloody bodies of those then massacred, and feeding his eye on so woeful a spectacle, breathed out this bloody speech, Quam bonus est odor hostis mortui: How sweet is the smell of a slain enemy. Another hell hag said upon a like occasion, that she never beheld so goodly a piece of tapestry as the faces of those butchered saints. This insulting over the dead is that piece of cruelty which the Church complaineth of, #Ps 79:2. Cornelius a Lapide, upon this text, cries out of it as an inhuman and shameful thing, both because the honour of sepulchre is the last dues of the dead (τα νομιζομενα, iusta defunctorum); and also because this is to fight with dead carcases. Yet this hath been practised by one Pope against another, and by many of the Pope’s champions here in England, who unburied and burnt the bodies of Paulus Phagius, Peter Martyr’s wife, and many others. Cardinal Wolsey had a purpose (had he not been prevented by death) to have taken up King Henry’s body at Windsor, and to have burnt it. How much better Charles V (yet no friend to the Reformation, but a prudent prince), who, entering Wittenberg as a conqueror, and being importuned to dig up the dead bodies of Luther and other reformers, refused to violate their graves, and sent away Melancthon, Pomeran, and some other eminent preachers, unhurt, not so much as once forbidding them to publish openly the doctrine that they professed! Cambyses heareth ill among all men for his digging up the dead body of Amasis, king of Egypt, and causing it to be whipped and bricked; and Sulla, for the like cruelty to Gaius Marius. Of all fowl we most hate and detest the crows; and of all beasts the jackals (a kind of foxes in Barbary), because the one digs up the graves and devours the flesh, and the other picks out the eyes of the dead. Hinc moraliter disce, saith a Lapide: learn hence also what a baseness it is to tear and deface the good names of those that are dead; to secretly corrrupt their names is worse than to burn their bones to lime. And yet among many other men of mark that might be instanced, Melancthon mortuus tantum non ut blasphemus in Deum cruci affigitur, saith Zanchius; not Papists, but Lutherans laid blasphemy to his charge after his death, whom all Christendom worthily honoured for his learning and piety.

Ver. 2. But I will send a fire] See #Am 1:4.

And it shall devour the palaces of Kerioth] A city so fair and large that it hath a plural name, which signifieth cities by way of excellence; as Athens was called the Greece of Greece; Rome, the epitome of the world. ‘Ελλας ελλαδος επιτομη της οικουμενης.

And Moab shall die with tumult] With all these together, on a huddle, as it were: they are here set down by an elegant asyndeton, to set forth the suddenness and terror of the judgment threatened. They shall be stormed, and have no quarter given them. Here Osiander noteth, that it is one of the many punishments of sin for a man not to die in his bed, but in battle. It was promised to Josiah "he should die in peace," #2Ch 34:28. True it is he died in battle; but he died before that general desolation that followed shortly after (for, indeed, with him died all the prosperity of that people). And beside, his weeping and humiliation had altered the very nature of the trouble, and made war to be peace to him.

Ver. 3. And I will cut off the judge] i.e. the king, who sometimes sits himself in judgment, as King Henry VIII did here, at the condemnation of Lambert, martyr; as the king of Persia doth often to this day. I have seen him (saith a traveller) many times to alight from his horse, only to do justice to a poor body. The Grand Seignior himself sits one day in the week to receive the poor’s petitions, and punish the faulty grandees about him. For as he styles himself, Awlem Penawh, that is, the world’s refuge; so he would have the world to take notice, that such as lament unto him shall be sure to have redress and succour from him, although his ministers fail them, or abuse them, through their injustice; hence few viziers die in their beds.

From the midst thereof] i.e. of Kerioth, the chief city where the court was kept, as Kimchi saith, with a great deal of pomp and pride. We have heard of the pride of Moab. See #Jer 48:7,11,14,18 Zep 2:8,10. It was their national sin, and forerunner of their fall.

Ver. 4. For three transgressions of Judah] Who were therefore worse than the above mentioned nations, because they ought to have been better Ideo deteriores quia meliores esse debebant. Beset they were with enemies round about, who dealt cruelly with them; and this should have made them to cleave more closely to God; these horns pushing and scattering them, should have pushed them home to him, #Zec 1:19: but it proved otherwise. For Judah also is found to be incorrigibly flagitious, guilty, as the former, "of three transgressions, and of four," &c., worse in them than in others, because "in Judah was God known," and to them were committed the oracles of God, whom they might hear again screeching out unto them, when they were putting forth their hands to wickedness, "Oh do not this abominable thing," #Jer 44:4. But they, tanquam monstra marina, as one saith, like so many sea monsters, passed by God’s words with a deaf ear.

They despised the law of the Lord] They would have none of his counsel; they liked well to live in God’s good land, but not to live by God’s good laws; like those in the Gospel, "they rejected the counsel of God within themselves," #Lu 7:30, and that with scorn and disdain, as the word here used signifieth. {See Trapp on "Ho 6:6"}

And have not kept his commandments] Though holy, just, and good, though such as, if a man keep them (be it but evangelically, si faciat, etiamsi non perficiat, Liv. xviii. 5), he shall live in them, by a life of grace, as the flame lives in the oil, or the creature by his food; though in "keeping thereof" (how much more for keeping thereof!) "there is great reward," #Ps 19:11.

And their lies caused them] That is, their idols (as the Vulgate well rendereth it), and their will worships, their new inventions, and good intentions thereby to serve and please God. These are properly called lies; because, contrary to the law of truth (whereto they are here opposed), and to David’s practice, who "did the truth," #1Jo 1:6; and could safely say, "I hate and abhor lying; but thy law do I love," #Ps 119:163,104, "through thy precepts I get understanding; therefore I hate every false way."

After the which their fathers have walked] So that they are a race of rebels, a seed of evildoers, and do fill up the measure of their fathers’ sins, till wrath come upon them to the utmost. This is no small aggravation: #Eze 20:30, "Are ye polluted after the manner of your fathers? and commit ye whoredom after their abominations." See #Ac 7:51. Must I be provoked by you from one generation to another.

Ver. 5. But I will send a fire upon Judah] They shall also bear the punishment of their iniquities; yet, is it not said, as #Am 2:2, that Judah shall "die with tumult?" &c. God will make a difference in his dealings with his own and others, his sons and his slaves; these shall totally and finally be consumed at once, #Na 1:9, not so the saints. The remnants of the Philistines shall perish, #Am 1:8. But of Judah a remnant shall be still reserved, for royal use, #Isa 11:11,16.

Ver. 6. For three transgressions of Israel, &c.] The ten tribes come in last, lest they (with whom his main business lay, and to whom he will henceforth apply himself) should conceit themselves privileged, because for the present prospered; lest they should read or hear the menaces of God’s mouth, as men do the old stories of foreign wars, that nothing concern them.

Because they sold the righteous for silver] Even God’s own pasture sheep, that had golden fleeces, precious souls; these they made sale of for a little money, which ever was and still is a common medler, and drives the bargain and business to an upshot. Money, saith one, is the world’s great monarch, and bears most mastery: whence it is that the Hebrew word, Adarcon, used for money, #1Ch 29:7 Ezr 8:27, comes of Adar, strong, or mighty, and Con, to prepare; to show that a moneyed man is a mighty man, as this world goes. Unless we may say of money, as one doth wittily of Sardanapalus, the last of the Assyrian monarchs: Sardanapalus, saith he, had a terrible name. Sar noteth a prince, Dan a judge, Niphal an overthrower, or conqueror; not otherwise applicable to him, but that his luxury was the overthrow of both sovereignty and judgment. So is money mighty and well prepared, but it is to blind the eyes of the wise, and to pervert the matters of the righteous, #De 16:10, who because not so well underlaid as his adversary, lies long languishing many times at Hope’s hospital; as that lame man did at the pool of Bethesda, but might not be sped, because (for want, belike, of stirring angels) he could get none to put him into the pool immediately after the angel had stirred it. That was a sad complaint made by the prophet Habakkuk, #Am 1:4, "Behold, the law is slacked, and judgment doth never go forth: for the wicked doth circumvent the righteous," viz. by his bribery and baseness, "therefore wrong judgment proceedeth." A judge is to retain the decency and gravity of the law; yea, of the law maker, with whom there is no iniquity, nor respect of persons, nor taking of gifts, #2Ch 19:7. Nec prece, nec pretio, should be the magistrate’s motto; he should be above all price or sale.

And the poor for a pair of shoes] For a cup of wine, #Joe 3:3; for handfulls of barley, or pieces of bread, #Eze 3:19; for a thing of nothing, so base they were grown at length; a very small deal of gain would win them over. See #Am 8:6. At first, a little matter would not hire them; it must be silver, and a considerable sum too; as a harlot, that requires at first no small reward, but afterwards prostituteth herself quite cheaply to all comers. Sin seemeth modest and maidenly at first; but meddle not, for it soon woadeth an impudence in men’s foreheads, and debaucheth them.

Ver. 7. That pant after the dust of the earth on the head of the poor] Covetousness is craving and cruel; it rides without reins, as Balaam did after the wages of wickedness; and cares not whose head it rides over, to compass commodity. Yea it "panteth after the dust of the earth, on the head of the poor," as desirous not only to lay them in the dust, but to lay them a bleeding and a dying there. They gape over the head (or life) of the poor, in the dust of the earth (so some read the words), as devising to destroy them. A poor man’s livelihood is his life, #Mr 12:44 Lu 8:43, for a poor man in his house is like a snail in a shell; crush that and you kill him. These cormorants earnestly desired, and endeavoured to bring dust upon poor men’s heads (the garb of those that were in heaviness, #Job 2:12 Eze 27:30 La 2:20), by their oppressions and injustice; yea, to bring them down to the dust of the earth, to set them as far underground as now they were above. Lo, this they do as greedily and as greatly desire, as serpents and other hot creatures covet the fresh air, to cool their scorched entrails. See #Jer 14:6 Job 5:5 7:2. It is said of Saul the persecutor, that he "breathed out threatenings against the Church," #Ac 9:1, as a tired wolf, that wearied with worrying the flock lieth panting for breath. So Bonner whipped the poor martyrs till he was breathless. Some interpreters note out of Joseph Ben Gorion, that there was an old custom that those that were accused before the judges, should be arrayed in black, and have their heads covered with dust. And hence they conceive the sense to be this: "That pant," i.e. that earnestly desire that such poor men may be accused by the rich, of whom they may receive gifts to pervert judgment. And this they think to be confirmed by the following words.

They turn aside (or pervert) the way of the meek] That is, the cause, business, judgment of the modest and self-denying poor, the subject of rich men’s injuries (for most part), the unreasonable oppressions, #Jas 2:6. A crow will stand upon a sheep’s back pulling off wool from her side; she dare not do so to a wolf or a mastiff. {a} Even reasonless creatures know whom they may be bold with; so do wicked oppressors. The meek by pocketing up one wrong, invite another. ( Veterem ferendo iniuriam invitas novam.) "Ye have condemned and killed the just: and be doth not resist you," #Jas 5:6. Ye not only rob, but ravish the poor, that are fallen into your nets, #Ps 10:9, ye do even whatsoever you please to them; as one martyr said of John Baptist, that he was put to death, as if God had been nothing aware of him.

And a man and his father will go in, &c.] By a horrible (if not incestuous) filthiness; such as heathens by the light of nature condemned and execrated, #1Co 5:1. The Indians abhor it; showing themselves in respect of the incestuous Spaniards among them, as the Scythians in respect of the Grecians, whom they so far excelled in life, as they were short of them in learning. Am I a dog, said Abner to Ishbosheth, #2Sa 3:8, that is, so impudently and excessively lustful as a dog is, so scalded in his own grease, #Ro 1:27. Some libidinous sensualists put off all manhood, become dogs, worse than dogs; following their harlots, styled in Scripture, salt-bitches, #De 23:18, such as having abandoned both the fear of God and shame of the world, care not whom they admit, father, son, any one, every one.

To profane my holy name] As if I were author or fautor {b} of such cruelties and villanies. This is to take God’s name in vain, #Pr 30:9, yea, this is to blaspheme, #1Ti 1:20, by breaking down the banks of blasphemy and causing the enemies of the truth to speak evil with open mouth, as they did in David’s days, #2Sa 12:14. And in Paul’s days, #Ro 2:24. And in Origen’s days, Nunc male audiunt castiganturque vulgo Christiani; quod vitia sub obtentu nominis Dei celent, Christians and their religion heareth ill among heathens, by reason of their impious and impure lives, and their conversation not becoming the gospel of Christ, #Php 1:27. Of such carnal gospellers it may be truly said, as Diogenes said to Antipater (who being vicious wore a white cloak, the ensign of innocence), that they do virtutis stragulam pudefacere, put honesty to an open shame, bring contempt upon God and his ways.

{a} A large, powerful dog with a large head, drooping ears and pendulous lips, valuable as a watch-dog. ŒD.

{b} An adherent, partisan, supporter, abettor. ŒD

Ver. 8. And they lay themselves down upon clothes] i.e. table carpets, or bed coverlets, laid under those that sit at a meal; whether on the ground, with their legs gathered under then, (as the Turkish basbaws do to this day, and the Trojans of old, stratoque super discumbitur ostro), or at beds or tables, leaning on the left elbow, #Es 1:6 Joh 13:23. Et cubito remanete presso.

Laid to pledge] These should have been restored, and not detained beyond the time prescribed, #De 24:12,13 Ex 22:26,27.

By every altar] It was their fashion to feast in their idol temples, #1Co 8:10 10:21. See Horat. Od. xxxvii, lib. 1. And this in imitation belike of God’s people, who were commanded to feast before the Lord, in the place that he should choose to place his name in. See #De 14:23,26 1Sa 1:3,4, &c. And here paucis verbis multiplex scelus arguit, saith Gualther, in few words he accuseth them of much wickedness.

And they drink the wine of the condemned in the house of their god] A god they have of their own devising, a wooden god, and such as, if he had but a pair of horns clapped on his head, might make an excellent devil, as the Mayor of Doncaster told the wise men of Cockram, in Queen Mary’s days, that came to complain of the carver for making them an ugly crucifix. Next, they "drink wine in the house" of their god, besides their drink offerings (which David’s soul hated, #Ps 16:4), they had their drunken compotations in their idol temples, as now they say in the Isle of Sardinia, after mass done they fall to drinking and dancing in the midst of the church; singing in the mean time songs too immodest for an alehouse. Lastly,

They drink the wine of the condemned] Or of such as they have fined or mulcted for not coming along with them to the idol temples. Diodati rendereth it, the wine of the amercements, that is bought with such money as they have unjustly fined and condemned the innocent in. There are those who here understood that wine that was wont to be given to malefactors led to execution, #Pr 31:6, to cheer them up; but these wretches drank it off from them. The former sense is the better.

Ver. 9. Yet destroyed I the Amorite before them] It is not usual with God to hit men in the teeth with what he hath done for them, #Jas 1:5, unless in case of unthankfulness, as here. Then, indeed, people shall hear of what they have had, and be taught the worth of good turns by the want of them. Good turns aggravate unkindnesses; and our offences are not a little increased by our obligations. Hence this approbation; and it is as if God should say, This people hath not only done the evils before mentioned, but also after the receipt of mercies without measure, and many miraculous deliverances; as if I had even hired them to be wicked; and as if that were to pass for truth which the snake in the fable said to the countryman that had showed it kindness, Summum praemium pro summo beneficio est ingratitudo. In the year 1245 the Pope was denied entrance into England; it being said that the Pope was but like a mouse in a satchel, or a snake in one’s bosom, who did but ill repay their hostess for their lodging. God had done exceeding much for this perverse people; and this they now hear of with stomach enough, as well they deserved. At Athens, if a servant proved ungrateful for his manumission, his master had an action, αποστασιου, against him; and might recover him again into bondage. Lycurgus, the Lacedemonian lawgiver, would not make a law against ingratitude; as holding it monstrous not to requite a kindness, not to acknowledge a good turn. The old Romans decreed that such as were found guilty of this fault should be cast alive to the cormorant, {a} to be pulled in pieces and devoured. Our Saviour fitly yokes together the evil and the unthankful, #Lu 6:35; and God here sums up all his people’s sins in this one, as the epitome of all the rest.

Yet I destroyed the Amorite] When once his iniquity was full, #Ge 15:16, when he had filled the land from corner to corner with his uncleanness, #Ezr 9:11, then sent I my hornets before them, which drove them out before them. But not with their sword nor with their bow, #Jos 24:12. See this thankfully acknowledged by this Church after she had prayed for her learning, #Ps 44:2,3,9,10.

Whose height was like the height of the cedars, &c.] For stature and strength they seemed insuperable, #Nu 13:28, &c. But God soon topt them and tamed them, he took them a link lower, and made them know themselves to be but men, #Ps 9:20; or if trees, cedars, oaks (as Plato saith of man, that he is but arbor inversa), yet,

I destroyed his fruit from above, and his roots from beneath] I left him little enough to be proud of; less than Nebuchadnezzar, who had a stump left, and was reserved for royal state again, #Da 4:15. God cut off these Amorites; that is, all the seven nations, head and tail, root and branch, old and young together, #De 7:2 Jos 6:21 (behold the severity of God), as if he had forgotten that forepart of his back parts, Jehovah, Jehovah, gracious, merciful, &c., and had taken up that emperor’s motto, Fiat iustitia, pereat mundus, Let justice be done, though never so many be undone.

{a} A large and voracious sea bird ( Phalacrocorax carbo), about 3 feet in length, and of a lustrous black colour, widely diffused over the northern hemisphere and both sides of the Atlantic. ŒD

Ver. 10. Also I brought you up from the land of Egypt] Which lies lower than Judea; as doth also mystical Egypt than Jerusalem, which is above, which is the mother of us all. To what great preferments and privileges God’s people are now brought up by Christ. See #Heb 12:22-24, and cry out, with that noble Athenian, εξ, οιων εις οια, from how great miseries to what great mercies are we advanced! Even from darkness to light, from the power of Satan to God: that we may receive forgiveness of sins and inheritance among the saints, #Ac 26:18. And shall we then again break God’s commandments? #Ezr 9:14, or say, "We are delivered to do all these abominations," #Jer 7:10. Would not the heaven sweat over us, and the earth cleave under us, yea, hell gape for us upon such an entertainment of Divine bounty?

And led you forty years through the wilderness] Led you all along in my hand "as a horse in the wilderness," that ye "should not stumble," #Isa 63:13. Led you, and fed you daily and daintily, sending you in angel’s food, and then setting the flint abroach that you might not pine and perish in that vast howling wilderness, #De 32:10. Besides that, I there bore with your evil manners (ετροποφορησεν), #Ac 13:18, as a mother bears with her child’s frowardness; or as a husband bears with his wife’s crossness, which he knows he must either tollere or tolerare, cure or cover.

To possess the land of the Amorite] To fit you for such a mercy, to humble you, to prove you, and to do you good at the latter end, #De 8:16. God knows the height of our spirits and the naughtiness of our natures, &c.; how ill able men’s brains are to bear a cup of prosperity; and how soon their hearts are lifted up with their estates, as a boat that riseth with the rising of the water. God, therefore, usually brings his people into the wilderness, and there "speaketh to their hearts," #Ho 2:14; he holds them first to hard meat, and then puts them into full possession.

Ver. 11. And I raised up your sons for prophets] The ministry is worthily instanced as a singular mercy, #Ps 147:19,20. Other nations had their prophets, such as they were, #Tit 1:12, προφητης. Tragedians and comedians were said, εις διδαχην εργαζεσθαι, to labour in teaching the people, and were highly esteemed of the Athenians; insomuch as that after their discomfit in Sicily they were relieved out of the public stock who could repeat somewhat of Euripides. But what were these to Israel’s prophets, those holy men of God, who spake as they were moved, acted, and, as it were, carried out of themselves by the Holy Ghost, to say and to do what God would have them? φερομενοι, #2Pe 1:21; yea, those holy children, such as Samuel and Jeremiah (for of them especially the Rabbins understand this text), who devoted themselves to the work betimes, being more forwardly than either Athanasius, the boy bishop, or Cornelius Mus, who (if we may believe Sixtus Senensis) was a preacher at twelve years old, and such a one as with whom all Italy was in admiration.

And of your young men for Nazarites] The Chaldee hath it doctors, or teachers; it being the office of these holy votaries to teach the people. Heathens also had a kind of Nazarites, as Lucian setteth forth in his Dea Syria (Habent et vespae favos, simiae imitantur homines), and the Turks at this day have their Dermislars, and their Imailers, whom they call the religious brothers of love. Epicurian hogs they might better term them, saith the historian. The Papists would prove their monks to be Christian Nazarites: but the abolishing of that order is declared, #Ac 21:25; and monks are so far from the abstinence of the Nazarites, that they eat of the best and drink of the sweetest that sea and land can afford. So far also from the singular sanctimony of the Nazarites, whereof see #La 4:7, that the poet sung truly of them,

“ Non audet Stygius Pluto tentare quod audet

Effraenis Monachus.—”

They may better profess themselves successors to the scribes and Pharisees, who may seem (saith one) to have fled and hid themselves in the monks and friars. Now, the Pharisees pretended to succeed the ancient Nazarites, as their very name imports, vitae sanctimonia et voto singulari ab aliis separati, but they were (as likewise the Popish monks) a generation never instituted by God, nor brought in by the prophets, but only a human invention, and through their own boldness; whence Chemnitius, upon the tenth of John, takes thieves there to be the Pharisees. An interpreter here showeth how God hath now made all his people Nazarites, i.e. separated and sanctified unto himself, by making them patterns of piety, as the Rechabites, holy, harmless, undefiled of dead works and evil works, from whom they are bid to stand off, #1Ti 6:5, as also not to "be drunk with wine, wherein is excess," but "to be filled with the Spirit"; abstaining from all appearance of evil, hating the garment spotted with the flesh, #Eph 5:18 1Th 5:22 Jude 23. {See Trapp on "Nu 6:1"} &c

Is it not even thus, O ye children of Israel?] If it be not testified against me, as #Mic 6:3, and if ye cannot then read the sentence against yourselves, as Judas did, #Mt 27:4, that ye may appear to be subverted and self-condemned, #Tit 3:11. God loveth to fetch witness from men’s own consciences for the justifying his proceedings; and to convince them clearly that he is no way wanting to them, but they to themselves. A cunning carver can carve the similitude of any creature, but not on a rotten stick. What could God do more to his vineyard than he had done? #Isa 5:4. "How oft would I have gathered thy children, as a hen her chickens," &c., #Mt 23:37. "How long shall, thy vain thoughts, lodge within, thee?" #Jer 4:14. God as so far from being guilty of Israel’s misery as that, besides other undeniable arguments of his love, as bringing them out of Egypt, destroying the Amorite, &c., he had raised them up prophets and Nazarites, given them his word, sacraments, all good helps to mollify their hearts; and then appealeth to their consciences by this rhetorical interrogation, "Is it not even thus?" so to wring from them a confession of the truth, in spite of their teeth.

Ver. 12. But ye gave the Nazarites wine to drink] Opponit iam Propheta pessimam gratiam, saith Gualther. Here was the ill requital they made the Lord for all his benefits; they corrupted his young Nazarites (as buzzards snatch up young lapwings) and silenced his prophets, or enjoined them at least to meddle with toothless truths only, to preach placentia; pleasing things, threatening them if they did otherwise (for so the original importeth) that so they might sin without control, and go to hell without hindrance. This God heavily here complains of, as a horrible ingratitude. To render good for evil is Divine, good for good is human, evil for evil is brutish, but evil for good is devilish.

Ver. 13. Behold I am pressed under you, &c.] A country comparison (such as this prophet is full of), plain, but pithy; to show how God is pressed and oppressed with people’s sins, wearied as it were, #Isa 43:24, and his patience even worn out; so that he can forbear them no longer, #Isa 42:14, but like a travailing woman, that bites in her pain as long as she is able, at length cries out: so here, God hath much ado to forbear killing men in their sins; as he was ready to have a blow at Moses, when he met him in the inn, and could hardly hold his hands; he even groans under the pressure as a cart seems to do under an extraordinary load laid on it, till it creak and crack again; he seems to screech out to sinners, as #Jer 44:4, "Oh, do not this abominable thing!" And (when he cannot be heard) to sigh out, "Ah, sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity," &c., #Isa 1:4, as Fasciculus temporum, A.D. 884, bitterly bewailing the iniquities of those times, cries out, Heu heu, Domino Deus, &c. That ninth age is much complained of by many writers. God hath as much, nay, more, cause to complain of ours, considering his pains with us, and patience towards us, to so little purpose and profit. {See Trapp on "Mal 1:1"} Many interpreters make these words not a complaint, but a communication; rendering it thus, I will press or straiten your place as a cart full of sheaves presseth, &c.; either the ground whereon it goeth, or the corn which it thresheth out of the husk, #Isa 28:27,28; or as the creature that lieth under the wheels of it is crushed in pieces. It was a memorable saying of Mr Bradford, martyr, He that will not tremble in threatening shall be crushed in pieces in feeling. These perverse Israelites would not be warned by any threatening, therefore they were pressed to some purpose in that sore famine and strait siege of Samaria. Obsidione vos premam, Press hard your seige, saith the Chaldee here; I will so beleaguer your city that there shall be no escaping. Look how a laden cart, onustum sibi, so laden that another sheaf can hardly be laid on, so gets stuck in narrow places, that it can neither go forward nor backward; so will I bring you into those distresses, that you shall not know how to avoid or abide them, στενοχωρουμενοι. {confer #Ps 4:2 Pr 4:12 2Co 4:8} I will distress my distressers, and press with such piercing afflictions as shall make you sigh and screech out another while, Oh it is an evil thing and a bitter to forsake the Lord, &c., #Jer 2:19. Oh, he is worse than mad that would buy the sweetest sin at so dear a rate.

Ver. 14. Therefore the flight shall perish from the swift] Men are apt to bless themselves when God curseth, #De 29:19, and to bind upon impurity in a common calamity, to make fair weather, when such a tempest is up as shall never be blown over. Or, if worse come, then, as all creatures run to their refuges, #Pr 30:25 Ps 104:18 Pr 18:11 Da 4:12,14 Jud 9:50,51 (the hunted hare runs to the form, to the bushes that she formerly haunted, but now these cannot save her), so men in misery bethink themselves of and betake themselves to creature comforts and refuges, either natural, or artificial, as here, but these all serve them as Absalom’s mule did her master, hanging between heaven and earth, but rejected of both. Let a man be as swift as Asahel, God can easily overtake him; his sin will find him out, and he shall but in running from his death run to it; as the historian speaketh of those Scots defeated by the English at Musselborough field, that they so strained themselves in running for their lives that they fell down breathless and dead. Surely as the coney that flees to the holes in the rocks doth easily avoid the dogs that pursue her, when the hare that trusts in the swiftness of her legs is at length overtaken and torn in pieces; so those that trust in God shall be secured, whereas those that confide in themselves or the creature shall be surprised, and come to an ill end. David ran to God in distress and was relieved; Saul goes to the witch, and from thence to the sword’s point; Judas to the Pharisees, and thence to the halter.

The strong shall not strengthen his force] But be made weak as water. "None of the men of might have found their hands," #Ps 76:5; their hands are palsied, their sinews cracked and crippled. It is God that both strengtheneth and weakeneth the arms in the day of battle, #Eze 30:24.

Ver. 15. Neither shall he stand that handleth the bow] Arcitenens, though he can do it never so dexterously, yet if he trust in his bow, #Ps 44:6, God will break it, #Jer 49:35, or otherwise render it unuseful; as it befell the army of Sennacherib in Egypt, of Maximus against Theodosius, and the French in the battle between our Edward III and their King Philip, who being enraged with a defeat, resolved presently to revenge it, being elevated with an assured hope of triumphant victory. But it happened otherwise; for there fell at the instant of the battle a piercing shower of rain which dissolved their strings, and made their bows useless.

Neither shall he that rideth the horse] Though it be as good a one as Cain is feigned by Dubertas to have managed, or as Alexander’s Bucephalus, or Julius Cesar’s great horse serviceable, and full of terror. A horse is so swift that Job saith he "eateth up the ground"; and the Persians dedicated him to their god the sun, as the swiftest creature to the swiftest power divine, ωσπερ το ταχιστον τω ταχυτατφ θεων (Pausan.). But as the sun in heaven can neither be outrun nor stopped in his race, so neither by men nor means can God be frustrated, or his anger avoided. The Canaanites had both horses and chariots, the Israelites had neither; and yet they found a horse a vain thing for victory, #Ps 33:17 147:10.

Ver. 16. And he that is courageous] Heb. strong of his heart, a Coeur de Lion, as one of our kings was called, Egregie cordatus homo, one of a Roman resolution to vanquish, or die; they were wont to say of cowards in Rome, that there was nothing Roman in them. But let man be as bold as Brutus, whom one pronounced Romanorum ultimum, the last of the Romans, as if after Rome had brought forth no courageous man and worthy of herself. Let him be "courageous among the mighty," such as were those lion-like chieftains among David’s worthies, Scanderbeg, Zisca, Huniades who was in that unhappy battle at Varna (by a just hand of God upon him for joining with that perjured Popish King Ladislaus) beaten out of the field.

And forced to flee away naked in that day] Escaped narrowly with his life; as he did also another time, when after a slaughter of 34,000 Turks, he was compelled to save himseff by flight; and all alone by uncouth ways to travel three days and nights, without meat or drink; and afterwards, being on foot and disarmed, which is here meant by naked, {confer #Isa 20:3 Mic 1:8 1Sa 19:24} he fell into the hands of two notable thieves, who despoiled him of his apparel, and on the next day he lit upon a shepherd of whom he for God’s sake craved something to eat, and obtained bread and water and a few onions, as the Turkish history hath it.

Chapter 3

Ver. 1. Hear this word that the Lord hath spoken, &c.] Here beginneth the second sermon, tending to confirm what had been affirmed in the former, and evincing the equity of the judgments there threatened for their hateful ingratitude and other horrible offences, condemned and cried out upon by the very heathens.

Hear this word] Verbum hoc decretorium, this notable word. There are three articles in the original; and there is not the least tittle in the text upon which there hangeth not a mountain of sense, said the Rabbis; this next verse ( הזח רברה תא; so #Mt 22:21; τα του Θεου τω Θεω).

That the Lord hath spoken] And shall he not do it? Who ever waxed fierce against God and prospered? #Job 9:4.

Against you, O children of Israel] By his word Christ many times secretly smites the earth, #Isa 11:4, that is, the consciences of carnal men, glued to the earth: He sets a continual edge upon the word, and consumes them by his rebukes, till he have wearied them with his secret buffets and terrors; and then in the end casts them into a reprobate sense, as he did the Pharisees, who were toties puncti et repuncti, minime tamen ad resipiscentiam compuncti.

Against the whole family] The Dodecaphylon, all the twelve tribes, the whole house of Jacob, which are called by the name of Israel, and are come forth out of the waters of Judah, #Isa 48:1; God stands not upon multitudes, #Ps 9:17, nor matters whether it be against a nation that he speaketh and acteth, or against a man only, #Job 34:29.

Which I brought up from the land of Egypt] This they often hear of by way of exprobation, as #Am 2:10. God seeming to repent him for their detestable unthankfulness, as David did of the kindness he had shown unworthy Nabal, in safe guarding his substance, #1Sa 25:7; and to complain, as Frederick III, Emperor of Germany did, that of those courtiers whom he had advanced he found scarcely any that proved faithful to him, but the worse for his courtesy; or as Queen Elizabeth, that in trust she had found treason.

Ver. 2. You only have I known] That is, owned and honoured, called and culled, chosen and accepted to be my people, when I had all the world before me to choose in, #De 10:14,15, and nothing to move me thereto but mine own mere grace, even the good pleasure of my will (ευδοκια).

Therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities] Not passing by the least without a sensible check: the least, I say, that is allowed and wallowed in; and that because of the disloyalty and treachery that is therein. Other mens’ sins are rebellions against God; but the saints’ sins are treacheries, because against the covenant. Let such, therefore, look to themselves, and walk accurately, or they shall be sure to rue it, ακριβως, #Eph 5:15. God will be sure to plough his own ground, whatsoever becomes of the waste; and to weed his own garden, though the rest of the world should be let alone to grow wild. His own he will not fail to punish. 1. In case of scandal, as David. 2. For sins unrepented of, though not scandalous. Oh the bloody welts that God hath left upon the backs of his own dear children for such sins! Bastards may escape scot-free, but sons shall pay for it. Ingentia beneficia, fiagitia, supplicia. The punishing angel is bidden begin at God’s sanctuary, #Eze 9:6. He will be sanctified in all that draw near unto him, #Le 10:3. Sanctified I say, either actively or passively; either in the sincerity of men’s conversation or in the severity of their visitation; at which time his articles of inquiry will be very strict and critical against his own professed people, who are therefore worse than others (and shall therefore speed worse), because they ought to be better.

Ver. 3. Can two walk together, except they be agreed] God permits his people to walk together with him in a humble familiarity; but then they must take care that familiarity breeds not contempt; and that they conceit not that he will connive at their iniquities, or that their holy services will bear them out in any known sin. He is just and jealous of his glory, wherein he should be no small loser, if he did wink at any besides involuntary failings and unavoidable infirmities; for which there is a pardon of course, if sued out. If I shall walk with you, saith God, as a father, friend, husband, you must agree with me, consent and conform to me, idem velle, et idem nolle, will and nill the same that I do; or else I shall walk with you no otherwise than as a severe judge or cruel enemy, #Le 26:24, as a lion with the prey that he hath taken, as the fowler with the bird he hath caught, or the hunter with the wild beast he hath gotten into his snare.

Ver. 4. Will a lion roar in the forest, when, &c.] It is said of the lion, that he sets up a double roar; first, when he spies his prey, next, when he seizeth it; then, saith Plutarch, he roareth, or rather belloweth like a bull, that other beasts may come to him, and take part with him. It is not for nothing that the lion uttereth his voice; much less that Almighty God thundereth and threateneth by his prophets, your sins without repentance will be your ruin, according to those threatenings; though you are so sturdy, or at least so stupid, as to fear them no more than Behemoth doth the iron weapons, which are esteemed by him as straws, or bullrushes, #Job 40:15. Shall the wrath of a king be as the roaring of a lion, #Pr 19:12, and as the messengers of death, #Pr 16:14, and shall God’s menaces be slighted? will vile men imagine him a God of clouts? One that howsoever he speaketh heavy words, will not do as he saith? intends them no otherwise than in terrorem, for spectres? Surely they will find it far otherwise; and it must be concluded, that being already sentenced, either their beds are very soft, or their hearts very hard, that can sleep securely in so deplorable a condition. Surely God’s predictions shall have their accomplishment, #1Sa 3:19 15:29. Believe them, therefore; stand in awe and sin not, since he that "despiseth the word shall be destroyed; but he that feareth the commandment shall be rewarded," #Pr 13:13. {See Trapp on "Pr 13:13"}

Will a young lion cry out of his den] q.d. Is it for nothing that God so terribly threateneth? "Is there not a cause?" as David said in another case, #1Sa 17:29. Surely, as in the Revelation we never read that heaven opened, but some great matter followed; so here: Hath the Lord spoken it, and shall he not do it? Never think it. Oh think of God as of one not to be thought of; as one whose wisdom is his justice, whose justice is his power, whose power is his truth, and all himself. He is the God of Amen, #Ps 31:6, faithful and true; he can as soon die as lie; neither can he be hindered or resisted, as angels, men, and devils may. In the creature there is an essence and a faculty whereby they work; as in fire is the substance and the quality of heat. Now between these God can separate, and so hinder their working, as in the Babylonish fire. In the angels there is an essence and an executive power: God comes between these often and hinders them from doing what they would. Not so in God, who is most simple and entire, armed with power irresistible to tame his rebels: "Every morning doth he bring his judgment to light, he faileth not; but the unjust knoweth no shame," #Zep 3:5; the fool passeth on and is punished, #Pr 22:3.

Ver. 5. Can a bird fall in a snare upon the earth? &c.] Think you that all things are carried here by blind fortune, and not by a particular providence, as if

“ mundo nullus inesset

Rector, et incerto fluerent mortalia casu?”

Will you say of the evils you have suffered, in the language of Ashdod, "It is a chance?" #1Sa 6:9. Is that heathen idol fortune anything in the world, #1Co 10:19, more than a blasphemy, spued out by the devil against the Divine providence? Can a sparrow fall to the ground, or any the least bird into a snare upon the earth, without your heavenly Father? #Mt 10:29. Birds flying seem to be at liberty, yet are guided by an overruling hand. They fall sometimes into a gin; and do not you thereupon conclude that some fowler’s hand is in it? Lo, you are ensnared and ensnarled by your enemies; and can you not discern that it is the Lord who hath done it? #La 3:37,38 Ac 17:25,28 Ec 9:12, "For man knoweth not his time" (nor his chance, #Am 3:11): "as the fishes that are taken in an evil net, and as the birds that are caught in the snare; so are the sons of men snared in an evil time, when it falleth suddenly" (but providentially) "upon them."

Or shall one take up a snare from the earth, &c.] No wise fowler will take up his nets till he have gotten his prey; no more will God withdraw his hand, or call off the enemy and the avenger, till he have his design; till he hath either reformed or ruined you.

Ver. 6. Shall a trumpet be blown] sc. out of a watch-tower in time of war, to sound an alarm, and to say, Hannibal ad portas, the enemy is at hand, the Philistines are upon you.

And the people not be afraid] Or run together to make resistance? Will ye not then tremble at my threats, saith the Lord? "Tremble, thou earth, at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the God of Jacob," #Jer 5:22 Ps 114:7. Fear is an affection of the soul, shrinking in itself from some eminent evil. God is the proper object of it, whence he is called fear in the abstract, #Ps 76:11, and those that come on his errand should be received with reverence, yea, "with fear and trembling," as was Titus, #2Co 7:15, and before him Samuel, by those elders of Bethlehem, #1Sa 16:4, as suspecting it was the purpose of some judgment that brought him thither. Comest thou peaceably? said they. It is a good thing to stand in awe of God’s messengers, and to tremble at his judgments, while they yet hang in the threatenings. It appeareth by this prophet that carnal security was grown epidemical, and had overspread the land, #Am 6:2,3. Some there were that said, God had not sent the prophets to denounce those evils, but that they had done it of their own volition, as we say. Others doubted the certainty of those evils denounced, #Am 6:3, against whom he here disputeth by these foregoing similitudes; and in the next words plainly asserteth the Divine providence, and the authority of the prophets, God’s privy councillors.

Shall there be evil in a city] Understand it of the evil of punishment. See #La 3:37 Isa 45:7 Mic 1:12 Ec 7:14 1Ki 9:9 21:29. See my treatise called God’s love-tokens.

And the Lord hath not done it?] Although God doth it not but only as it is bonum iustitim, good in order to his glory. That which we are here advertised is that it is not luck and fortune that doth toss and tumble things here below; but that God sits at the stern, and steers the affairs of the world. The Gentiles, indeed, held Fortune as a goddess; representing her by a woman sitting upon a ball, as if the whole world were at her command; having with her a razor, as if she could at her pleasure cut off and end man’s happiness; bearing in her right hand the stern of a ship, as if she could turn about all things at her pleasure, and in her left hand the horn of abundance, as though all plenty came from her. This was abominable idolatry, to be shunned by Christians; yea, the very name of luck or fortune is to be spit out of their mouths with utmost detestation. It repented Austin that ever he had used that wicked word, Fortuna , Chance (Aug. Retract.).

Ver. 7. Surely the Lord God will do nothing] i.e. hardly anything. He loveth to foresignify, to warn before he wound; and this merely out of his philanthropy. Howbeit sometimes, and in some cases, he is more sudden and still in his revenges; that he may thereby, first, maintain his honour and glory, the eyes whereof are by some sins extraordinarily provoked, as #Ac 12:23. And secondly, to teach men not to continue in sin, no, not for a moment; since they may be presently cut off from all further time of repentance, acceptation, and grace for ever; this made Austin say that he would not be an atheist, no, not one half hour, to gain all the world. See #Lu 17:32 12:20. Pharaoh had warning of the first and second plagues, not so of the third; and again of the fourth and fifth, but not of the sixth; and yet again of the seventh and eighth, but not of the ninth. And when neither warning nor no warning would do good, then came that sweeping plague;

“ Tandem prototocos ultima plaga necat.”

But he revealeth his secret to his servants the prophets] God’s prophets, then, are his menial servants; not his underlings, or inferior hinds but of noblest employment about him. Every faithful minister is servant to the King of heaven (#Ac 27:23, "whose I am, and whom I serve"; this the devil denied not, #Ac 16:16,17), yea, his steward, ambassador, herald (as here), by whom he proclaims war, but first proffers pardon and proposes conditions of peace: a practice usual not only among the people of God, by his appointment, #De 20:10, but also among the heathens, as histories inform us. The Romans had their Lex Faecialis; by their heralds they sent to such as had wronged them, Caduceum et Hastam, as ensigns of peace and war, that within thirty days they might take their choice; within which time, if they did them not right, the herald presently denounced war against them, casting forth a dart in token thereof. Alexander’s course was as follows, when he sat down before a city, to set up a torch; to show that if they would come in and submit before that torch were burnt out, they should have hearing; Tamerlane hanged out first a white flag, then a red, and lastly a black; and the Turks to this day first make to their enemies some offer of peace, how unreasonable soever it matters not. God’s offers in this kind are all of grace, and for our good. If it were otherwise, what need he give warning? and why doth he not as Absalom did, when, intending to murder Amnon, he spake neither good nor evil to him? Well might the Lord say, "Fury is not in me: O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself. As I live, I desire not the death of a sinner," &c. If he did, why might he not rush suddenly upon such and confound them at once, as he did the reprobate angels, even in the very act and first moment of their sin? Why comes he first in a soft still voice, when he might justly thunder strike us? and why sendeth he his heralds to proclaim war, but yet with articles of peace and reconciliation open in their hands? Why was he but six days in making tbe world, and yet seven days in unmaking and destroying one city, Jericho? (Chrysost.). Was it not to show that "the Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and of great kindness?" #Ps 103:8. And this he hath commanded his prophets to make known, that the goodness of God may lead men to repentance, #Ro 2:4. As, if they turn his grace into wantonness, and pervert his patience to presumption, their commission is to declaim against such practices with all authority, #Tit 2:15, and to proclaim hell fire, in case men amend not. Necessity is laid upon them so to do, and woe be to them if they preach not law as well as gospel; that when they return up their commission they may report the matter, saying, "Behold, we have done as thou hast commanded us," #Eze 9:11. True it is, that perverse people question the prophets, and quarrel them for this plain dealing; as Ahab did Elijah for a troubler of Israel, and Amaziah our prophet Amos for a trumpeter of rebellion. But this is as great folly as if some fond people should accuse the herald or the trumpet as the cause of their war; or as if some ignorant peasant, when he seeth his fowls bathing in his pond, should cry out of them as the causes of foul weather.

Ver. 8. The lion hath roared, who will not fear? the Lord God hath spoken, who can but prophesy?] Who that knoweth the terror of the Lord can dare to do otherwise, when he commandeth it? Shall men fear fire, water, bears, lions, &c., and not the great and terrible God? If he roar upon his servants and say, as to Jeremiah he once did, "Thou therefore, gird up the loins of thy mind, and arise, and speak unto them all that I command thee: be not dismayed at their faces, lest I confound thee before them," #Jer 1:17. We must roar against men’s sins, and be instant, though they roar against us for so doing, and threaten never so much. Micaiah will not budge for a king’s authority when once he had seen the Lord in his majesty; nor Paul for an angel’s, #Ga 1:8, the rest of the apostles for the Sanhedrim’s, #Ac 4:19 5:25. When the emperor threatened Basil with imprisonment, banishment, death, he answered: Let him threaten boys with such spectres; I am resolved: neither menaces nor flatteries shall silence me, or draw me to betray a good cause or conscience. If I deal not plainly and faithfully with your souls, said Bernard, vobis erit damnosum, mihi periculosum. Timeo itaque damnum vestrum, timeo damnationem meam si tacuero: i.e. it will be ill for you, and worse for me. The truth is, you would be betrayed, and I should be damned, if I should hold my peace. Let me be accounted proud, pragmatic, anything rather than found guilty of sinful silence when the Lord calleth me to speak, saith Luther. These were men whose hearts were fraught with the reverential fear of God; and therefore found themselves necessitated to be faithful; besides the love of Christ constraineth them, #2Co 5:14, so that they could do no less, they could not but speak, #Ac 4:19.

Ver. 9. Publish in the palaces at Ashdod, &c.] That is, in the courts of the Philistine princes, and of the Egyptian kings, who are here attested and invited, to judge between God and his vineyard, to pass an impartial sentence, and to say whether Israel’s sins deserved not all the judgments that God by his prophets had denounced, yea, and greater too. Holy Ezra acknowledgeth as much, #Ezr 9:13. But because that many were ready to say, as those in Jeremiah, "Because I am innocent, surely his anger shall turn from me. Behold, I will plead with thee (saith the Lord), because thou sayest, I have not sinned," #Jer 2:35. Yea, thy sworn enemies shall give true evidence against thee, and judge of the justice of my proceedings with thee, that I may be justified, and every mouth stopped.

Assemble yourselves upon the mountains of Samaria] That therehence ye may be eyewitnesses, and have a full prospect of their lewdness; which will be to you a pleasant spectacle; that out of their tragedies you may frame comedies. Samaria was a city set upon a hill; and as itself, so its wickedness, could not be hidden. Carnal people are very inquisitive into the miscarriages of professors; and ready to search more narrowly thereinto than Laban did into Jacob’s stuff. What a jeer made Ammianus Marcellinus of the pride and luxury of some of the primitive bishops! Averroes, of the Papists’ breaden god! the Turks, of the Papists’ Asinus palmaris! the Jews, of their clipping the crucifix, and weeping over it in the pulpit! as also the swearing that is so common among Protestants, together with that mad conceit of some, that he that cannot swear with a grace, wanteth his tropes and figures befitting a gentleman! This and such like unchristian practices made learned Lineker, when he read Christ’s Sermon in the Mount, cry out, Certainly, either this is not Gospel, or we are but bad gospellers ( Profecto aut hoc non est Evangelium; aut nos non sumus Evangelici). It is a lamentable thing, that it should be commonly reported that there be such abominations found in the Church as are hardly heard of among the heathens, #1Co 5:1.

“ pudet haec opprobria nobis,

Et dici potuisse, et non potuisse refelli.”

Why should it be told in Gath, or published in the palaces of Ashdod? #2Sa 1:20; why should Egyptians condemn Israelites, as the Scythians once did the Greeks, and the heathen Indians now do the beastly Spaniards that tyrannize over them? Why should there be any successors to those heretics mentioned by Bellarmine, and called Christianocategori, accusers of Christians; because by their unchristian conversation they delivered up Christ and his people to be buffeted and spat on by their enemies? {See Trapp on "Ho 7:16"} "This shall be their derision in the land of Egypt."

And behold the great tumults] Or the humming noises, the garboils, the violent irruptions upon the poor oppressed, causing them to cry out, as those that are crushed or broken in pieces.

And the oppressed in the midst thereof] Whether by force or fraud oppressed; whether it were επιβολη or επιβουλη, "The Lord is the avenger of all such," #1Th 4:6. This the heathen shall take special notice of, and say, with Calocerius the consul, Vere magnus est Deus Christianorum, The Christian’s God is a righteous God indeed.

Ver. 10. For they know not to do right] They have done wrong so long together, against knowledge and conscience, that now they are given up to a reprobate sense, to an injudicious mind, εις νουν αδοκιμον, #Ro 1:28, having sinned away the light they had, and lost that little knowledge they had learned out of the law of Moses concerning good works: this they had wickedly blotted out of their own minds; as also those common notions of good and evil, that glimmering of Divine light left in the natural man; this in a defiled conscience is wholly extinct. "Have the workers of iniquity no knowledge?" No, not they, as appears by what follows: "they eat up my people as they eat bread," #Ps 14:4. These cannibals, like pickerels in a pond, or sharks in the sea, devour the poorer as they the lesser fishes. And though they cannot but know this to be evil, condemned by the light of nature, and much more of Scripture, yet they do it, and will do it; their eyes being put out with the dust of covetousness, and their hearts so exercised therewith, #2Pe 2:14, that they can say, as that wretched fellow did, We are masters of our consciences, we can do what we will for all them; and as Balaam resolved at length, to curse, whatever came of it.

Who store up violence and robbery in their palaces] Till the screech owls of woe cry aloud from the walls, and the beams out of the timber make answer, #Hab 2:11,12; till their cursed hoards of evil gotten goods witness against them, and eat their flesh as it were fire, #Jas 5:3; till very Philistines and Egyptians cry shame on them, and say, as the Indians did of the cruel Spaniards, that they carried themselves neither like Christians nor men, but like devils; that it had been better the Indies had been given to the devils of hell than to them; and that if the Spaniards went to heaven when they were dead, they would never come there. Let no man think to thrive, violentia et vastitate, by rapine and robbery; to treasure up sin is to treasure up wrath, #Ro 2:5, which, as a fire, will devour their palaces, and it shall not be quenched, #Jer 17:27.

Ver. 11. Therefore thus saith the Lord] And he saith it in great haste and heat; as appeareth by that concise kind of expression that he here useth, after the manner of those that are thorough angry, and therefore say not much, but mean to do the more, Aposiopesis, ut Quos ego (Virg. Aen. i. 135).

An adversary round about the land] A distresser at every corner; that as all the borderers have beheld thy wickedness, so shall they thy wretchedness, by reason of the enemy and the avenger, who shall meet thee at every turn, and leave thee neither hope of better nor place of worse.

And he shall brinq down thy strength from thee] Thee in the feminine gender; haply because they should be so enfeebled and impoverished: or else, to express the heat of God’s anger against them, as #Nu 11:15, where meek Moses, being in a great passion of anger and grief together, saith to God, "If thou" (in the feminine) "deal thus with me, kill me, I pray thee, out of hand," &c.; he was so out of measure moved that he could not fill up his speech, nor utter the last syllable, At for Atta, ex magna perturbatione.

Thy strength] Thy strongholds, or thy riches, those treasures of wickedness wherein thou trustest, #Pr 10:2 Am 3:15, "The rich man’s wealth is his strong city." It is called his strength because he confideth in it, #1Ti 6:17, and because he is enabled, by it, to bring about his designs.

And thy palaces shall be spoiled] They shall be blown up, because their foundation was laid upon fireworks, their mortar mixed with blood, their materials raked together by rapine and robbery; their furniture, and those ill gotten goods therein hid and hoarded, shall be given, hosti non haeredi, not to thine heir, but to thine enemy for a booty. "An inheritance may be hastily gotten at the beginning; but the end thereof shall not be blessed," #Pr 20:21. "As the partridge sitteth on eggs, and hatcheth them not; so he that getteth riches, and not by right, shall leave them in the midst of his days, and at his end be a fool," #Jer 17:11. A poor fool God will make of him ere he hath done with him, as he did for Balaam, Achan, Ahab, Gehazi, the rich man, #Lu 12:16-21 16:19-31.

Ver. 12. As the shepherd taketh out of the mouth of the lion] By a country comparison (as before often) the prophet sets forth the fewness of such as shall escape the enemy’s hands. It is but a little that a shepherd dare pull out of the jaws of a lion. #1Sa 17:35. Few Davids or Lysimachuses, that dare look such fierce creatures in the face. Something a shepherd in this case may adventure to do, that he may not be made to stand to the loss, #Ex 22:13 Ge 31:39. But it is not much; neither are they many that shall make escape, and those few shall be of the poorer sort too, that have scarcely a corner of a bed to lie on ( quibus non est lectus integer, Tarnov.): or such as are sick in bed and not cared for by the enemy, not counted worth the killing. Or such as are in good health, but glad to hide themselves for fear of the enemy under any bed or bench hole, as is usual in the sack of a city.

And in Damascus in a couch] Or in the corner of a couch. Now Samaria and Damascus are joined together, because they were both desolated about the same time, by the same enemy, and for the same cause, viz. their invading Judaea in a hostile manner, #2Ki 16:7,9 Isa 7:4 8:4 17:3.

Ver. 13. Hear ye and testify, &c.] Ye my prophets and all true believers. The Septuagint add, O ye priests, whose lips were to preserve knowledge, and to present it to the people. All that were thereunto commissioned by the Lord God, the God of hosts, are here straitly charged to hear and to charge, testify, or contest, {#2Ti 4:1} and what they have received of the Lord to deliver the same to the whole house of Jacob: not stealing away the word from them, #Jer 23:30, or shunning to declare unto them his whole counsel, #Ac 20:27, but faithfully handling the law, #Jer 2:8.

Ver. 14. That in the day that I shall visit, &c.] Tell them so from me, saith God: say to these wicked, Woe be unto them, it shall be ill with them! #Isa 3:11. The jealous Lord of hosts will surely visit the iniquity of idolatrous fathers upon their children to the third and fourth generation, #Ex 20:5. See #Jer 3:21,22 Eze 16:21,36 Ho 2:4. As they have their day of defection, so hath he of visitation; his season, his harvest for judgment, #Mt 13:30. What then will they do when God riseth up: and when he visiteth, what will they answer him? #Job 31:14.

I will also visit the altars of Bethel] At first there was but one altar, #1Ki 12:32,33 13:2, but afterwards they multiplied, as in Peter’s at Rome there are said to be now over one hundred altars, #Ho 8:11 10:1: there is no end of will worship; but, like the Jerusalem artichoke, plant it where you will, it overruns the ground and chokes the heart. Now as God "loved the gates of Zion," where he was solemnly worshipped, "more than all the dwellings of Jacob," #Ps 87:2, and as the walls of good people (whose houses are little churches) are continually before him, #Isa 49:16, so he heartily hateth places and monuments of idolatry; and layeth them waste as he hath done our abbeys and monasteries. Zisca overthrew three hundred of them in Bohemia; and among the rest the famous monastery called the King’s Court, a mile from Prague; in the walls whereof the whole Bible was most exquisitely written in letters of gold; but little read or regarded by those filthy abbey lubbers, of whom Luther testifieth that they were tam desperatae malitiae, &c., so desperately debauched that they dared adventure upon any villany whatsoever.

And the horns of the altar, &c.] Which were held the holier parts thereof. This was fulfilled by good Josiah many years after, #2Ki 23:15 2Ch 34:4,6. Nullum tempus occurrit Regi. Time can be no prejudice to God’s proceedings; neither is his forbearance any quittance.

Ver. 15. And I will smite the winter house with the summer house] Heb. upon the summer house, I will lay them both on one heap; they shall one dash against the other. To have change of houses or of rooms in one house fit for the several seasons is not unlawful, so we set them not up by wrong dealing, nor set our hearts upon them ( Haec sunt quae nos invitos faciunt mori); for so we are apt to do (as Charles V, emperor, told the Duke of Venice, who had showed him his stately palace), and this brings a curse.

And the houses of ivory] i.e. decked and enamelled, checkered and entrailed with ivory ( eboratus), as some sense it. Ahab had made him an ivory house, Heb. a house of tooth, i.e. of elephant’s tooth: so did other kings (likely) after him. The Porphyrogeniti in Constantinople were born in a room made of porphyry, a precious stone, &c. All must down together.

Chapter 4

Ver. 1. Hear this word, ye kine of Bashan] Obesae et bene pastae, ye fat bawsons (as we use to call them), ye that are

“ Boeotum in patria, crassoque sub aere natae.”

Ye that have hearts as fat as grease, and delight not in God’s law, #Ps 119:70. Ye that cover your faces with fatness, #Job 15:27, till both your eyes stand out with it, #Ps 73:7,8 (as fulness breeds forgetfulness, #De 32:15, the fed hawk forsakes his master), as untamed heifers fully fed, ye have been unruly and refractory, means of much mischief to my poor afflicted, as was Jezebel to Elijah, Herodias to the Baptist, Eudoxia, the empress, to Chrysostom, Theodora to Belisarius, that brave and noble captain, and others. Poor Tegedine suffered many years’ captivity in misery and irons, by the Turk, for one word in a sermon, which distasted a proud and petulant woman without the least cause. What cruel persecutions raised the Queen Mother of Scotland, about the beginning of the Reformation there! the Queen Mother of France, Katherine de Medicis, for 30 years together! Queen Mary here, being wholly possessed by the bishops, as Alexandra was by the Pharisees, of whom Josephus testifieth that she had the name, but they had all the power of the kingdom! Oh these kine of Bashan, these wanton and wicked women (for so I understand the text after the Jewish doctors Vatablus, Lyra, Lively, &c.), when once they get the reins in their hands there is no hoe with them; when once the devil gets passage, per costam ad cot (as Gregory), by the rib to the heart, what may he not effect? when the hen is suffered to crow, what hope is there of good? David complains of strong bulls of Bashan, #Ps 22:12, but those he might better deal with than with these cursed cows of Bashan that thrust with side and shoulder, and pushed the diseased with their horns, till they had scattered them abroad, #Eze 34:21.

That are in the mountains of Samaria] Ladies of the court, accustomed to high titles, such as I, that am non aula sed caula natus et educatus, no courtier but carter rather, and used to call a spade a spade, care not to compliment.

Which oppress the poor, which crush the needy] As did, much about the same time, Jezebel in Israel, and Athaliah in Judah; and (besides the above mentioned) Dame Alice Piercy, King Edward III’s concubine, an impudent woman; who so far wrought upon the king’s impotencies, and presumed on his favour, that she imprisoned Sir Peter Lamar, speaker in parliament, and intermeddled in courts of justice and other offices; where she herself would sit to effect her desires; which, though in all who are so exalted are ever excessive, yet in a woman most immoderate, as having less of discretion and more of greediness. I have spoken before of Diana Valentina, King Henry II of France’s mistress, to whom he had given all the confiscations of goods made in the kingdom for cause of heresy, whereby many poor Protestants were oppressed, and needy crushed and quashed to pieces; for a poor man in his house is like a snail in his shell; crush that, and you kill his heart.

Which say to their masters] Or lords, that is, to their husbands; as Sarah called her husband lord, #Ge 18:12. She in obedience, but these in craft and counterfaisance; that they may the sooner subdue them, and have what they will of them.

Bring and let us drink] q.d. Fan nobis potestatem in hos aut illos, saith Mercer: that is, Give us authority over such and such, that we may pick their bones, drink their tears, enrich and feast ourselves with their spoils, make no more scruple to undo them by force or forgery, than to eat a meal’s meat when huntry; or than the luxurious Italians (who have twenty distinct species of liquor, to please the gusto) do, to take off a cup of the most delicious, which they profanely call Lachrymae Christi. the tears of Christ.

Ver. 2. The Lord God hath sworn by his holiness] He hath sworn for more assurance, #Heb 6:16-18, it being hard to persuade secure sinners of the certainty and infallibility of the threatenings; which yet will as surely befall them without repentance, as the coat is on their back, or the heart in their bodies. And, "by his holiness," he hath sworn; that is, by himself (as having none greater to swear by); confer #Ge 22:16 Jer 51:14 Isa 45:23 62:8, where God swears by his right hand, and by the arm of his strength. #Ex 17:16, he is brought in laying his hand upon his throne, and swearing to root out Amalek. And so some in this place think, that by God’s holiness is meant heaven, the habitation of his holiness, and of his glory, #Isa 63:15. But Drusius dislikes that, because swearing by heaven is condemned by Christ, #Mt 5:34. If God be holiness itself, let him be sanctified in righteousness, #Isa 5:16, and let men swear (when called to it, and not till then; the Hebrew word Neshbang here used is passive, and signifieth to be sworn, rather than to swear) "in truth, in judgment, and in righteousness," #Jer 4:2.

Behold, the days come] Certo et cito, surely and suddenly: even those dismal days of blackness and darkness, of greatest calamities; see #Am 5:18,20. And let this prediction be to you as the knuckles of a man’s hand, to write you your destiny; or as a prophet, to read it unto you.

That he will take you away] i.e. Ye shall be taken away, and hurried into another country; like as #Isa 8:4, He shall take away the spoil of Samaria, i.e. It shall be surely taken away; so #Lu 12:20, They do require thy soul (απαιτουσι), that is, it shall be required of thee.

With hooks] Heb. with thorns, which were wont to be used in fishing, till iron hooks were more frequent. See #Job 40:24 Eze 29:4 19:4, They brought him with hooks, that is, with chains, into the land of Egypt. Those that were overcome were wont to be linked and langold together; and so led captive by their conquerors.

And your posterity with fishhooks] Heb. that which is last of you; your children, and nephews, as #Da 11:4. It is foretold of Alexander the Great that none of his race shall succeed him, but strangers. See enemies compared to fishers, #Jer 16:16 Hab 1:16; and note, that hereby is intimated, that these insolent dames shall be no more like fat kine, that abide in their pastures; but as fishes hanging on the hook, that are easily pulled up, and quickly carried away with little labour, but much delight to the fisher. See a like comparison from swimming, #Isa 25:11, the motion wherein is easy and not strong; to show, that God can subdue his stoutest adversaries with greatest ease.

Ver. 3. And ye shall go out at the breaches, every cow] Qua data porta ruitis, ye shall be glad to get out at any breach to save your lives, which now hang in suspense, #De 28:66, yea, to ride one upon the back of another for haste, as kine do, in a narrow strait. Or, ye shall be led into captivity, after the taking and dismantling of your cities; see #Eze 12:5,12.

And ye shall cast them into the palace] Or, ye shall cast away the things of the palace. Ye shall cast them, that is, your children and nephews, {#Am 4:2} into the palace; either that ye may not see their destruction, as #Ge 21:16, or that they might with greater celerity provide for their own safety. That was a singular example of the Vindelici (now called Suevians) subdued by Drusius, the Roman general, under Augustus, but not without great resistance; the women throwing their young children at the Romans instead of darts. These were monstrous mothers, mad cows indeed.

Ver. 4. Come to Bethel and transgress] Do so, if you think it good; and since you are so set upon it, go on, despair, die and be damned: That which will perish, let it perish, quoniam vobis stat sententia, since you are resolved, and there is no removing of you, take your own course, at your own peril. Here then we have a most bitter sarcasm, wherein God, in seeming to command sin, showeth his utmost dislike of it; for he is not a God that loveth wickedness, neither shall evil dwell with him, #Ps 5:4. See the like ironic expressions, #Jer 7:21 Eze 20:39 Ec 11:9 Nu 22:20 Isa 29:1 8:9 47:12 Jud 10:14 1Ki 18:27. Bethel-Place of Transgression

At Gilgal multiply transgressions] That your madness may appear to all men, #1Ti 4:15. See #Ho 4:15. {See Trapp on "Ho 4:15"}

And bring your sacrifices every morning] Like apes, imitate the daily sacrifice; and do those self-same things to your idols which I have commanded to be done to myself alone; and in other places, that should be done at Jerusalem only. Do all this, and try what will come of it. Will you try a fall with God? will you despitefully spit in the face of Heaven? Do ye provoke me to anger, saith the Lord? do ye not provoke yourselves to the confusion of your own faces? #Jer 7:19.

And your tithes after three years] That so ye may seem to keep my law exactly, #De 14:28, and to be wanting in no duty, either of piety or charity. Wasps also have their honeycombs; idolaters a form of devotion.

Ver. 5. And offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving with leaven] Which I have flatly forbidden to be done, #Le 2:11. Neither leaven nor honey (which hath a leavening property in it) might be burnt in any offering made by fire; to show how God hateth hypocrisy; which, as leaven, soureth, swelleth, impureth, both us and our services. Out with it, therefore, #1Co 5:7. God indeed permitted his people to offer leavened bread with the peace offerings, #Le 7:13, ut ostenderetur, Deum ferre nostram infirmitatem, saith Alsted, to show that God beareth with our infirmities. But those leavened loaves were not to be burnt upon the altar; they were only for food to be eaten.

And proclaim and publish the free offerings] That you may not seem in anything to come short of my most forward worshippers; nor to be without your holy convocations solemnly proclaimed. Atque ita omnino in caepta idololatria strenue pergite, and so show yourselves thorough idolaters (Tarnov.); as the historian saith of our Richard III, that knowing it was no good policy to play the villain by half deal, he resolved to suffer never a rub to lie in his way that might hinder the true running of his heart.

For this liketh you] Heb. so ye love. Idolatry is marvellously pleasing to corrupt nature; as is to be seen in little ones delighting in babies. The whole world wondered after the beast, #Re 13:3. The papacy with its pomp and pleasure is an alluring, tempting, bewitching religion. The great whore with her cup of fornications may easily boast, as that harlot in Aelian did, that she could soon get scholars from Socrates; not he from her. But what an odd or rather sad thing is it, that men should so like that which will be their bane? and that God should be put to complain, as here, and #Jer 5:31, "My people love to have it so; and what will ye do in the end thereof?" Polybius saith, that whereas man is counted the wisest of all creatures here below, to him he seemeth to be the most foolish; for other things love and seek their own preservation, Solus homo ab aevo ad aevum peccat fere in iisdem et punitur. Man only persisteth in sin, and is punished, as if he were ambitious for destruction.

Ver. 6. And I have also given you cleanness of teeth] So that you need not spend time in picking them, as those that are fully fed; for I have cut you short enough, and held you to hard allowance; as those that would tame wild creatures keep them empty and waking; but you have been, and so continue, untamed and untractable, incorrigibly flagitious, uncapable of repentance. Your diseases are complicated, yea, they are so ingrained, that they are not easily stirred, much less destroyed by any potion I have yet given you. In vain have I smitten your children; they received no correction, #Jer 2:30.

In all your cities] One as well as other, lest you should say as those Philistines, It was a chance, #1Sa 6:9: and as the Rabbis tell us, that the idolatrous priests told Jeroboam that the drying up of his hand happened merely by accident.

And want of bread in all your places] Thus the Scripture often interpreteth itself, and is ever its own best gloss. Some think that by "want of bread" here, is meant dearth of grain; as by cleanness of teeth, scarcity of flesh; and that by "all your places" we are to understand all your houses. This occured in the times of Elias and Elisha, #1Ki 17:1 2Ki 6:25 8:1; and God would not have it to be forgotten, but is justly angry that they remained so irreformable. That dearth in Elias’ days lasted over three years; and might likely be as extreme as that here in England (about the year 700) of three years’ continuance; and so violent it was, that not only many died daily for hunger, but great numbers, joining hand in hand, 40 or 50 in a company, threw themselves headlong into the sea. A like three years’ famine also we read to have been in Bohemia and Polonia, A.D. 1312, so great, that children devoured their parents, and parents their children; some fed upon the dead carcases that hanged in gibbets. Wolves also were so famished, that they fell upon all they met, and fed upon them.

Yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the Lord] Ye have lost the fruit of your afflictions ( perdidistis fructum afflictionis. Aug.), and all mine hammers hitherto have but beatten cold iron. The bellows are burnt, the lead is consumed, the founder melteth it in vain, for the wicked are not plucked away, sc. from their wickedness; his dross is yet with him, his great scum still in him, #Eze 24:6,12,13, it is woven into the very texture of his heart, and cannot be separated. Reprobate silver shall men call him, because he returneth not to God that smiteth him, #Jer 6:29,30 Isa 9:12,13.

Ver. 7. And also I have withholden the rain from you, &c.] And so have punished you with thirst and drought, as well as with dearth and famine: and because I have found you wells without the water of piety, #2Pe 2:17, therefore I have refused to rain upon you, as I threatened, #De 28:23,24.

“ En quia iam vobis sunt ferrea pectora, reddit

Coelum etiam vobis durius aere, Deus.”

When there were yet three months, &c.] When you could worst of all want it {See Trapp on "Joe 2:23"} for the watering of the seed and opening of the earth.

And I caused it to rain upon one city] It rains not then by haphazard; neither are the seasons of the year (whether barren or fruitful) ruled by the course of nature or influence of the stars, but by God, #Ac 14:17. It is he that giveth rain from heaven, and fruitful seasons. He covereth the heaven with clouds, he prepareth rain for the earth, he maketh grass to grow upon the mountains, and standing corn in the fields, #Ps 147:8. He weighs these waters by measure; so that not a drop falls in vain, or in a wrong place, but by Divine decree, #Job 28:26, for the fattening of the earth, allaying the heat, nourishing the herb and tree, #De 32:2 Isa 63:14, producing unto us "the appointed weeks of harvest," #Jer 5:24, "that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater," #Isa 55:10. This the poor Pagans ascribed to their god Jupiter, whom they therefore styled Νεφεληγερετης. Him they confessed the greatest of all, calling him υπατος, the overseer of their trading; hence αγαραιος, the keeper of their houses, hence Jupiter Herceus, from ερκος, a wall, or hedge. This they did, to the great shame of many atheists among us, who hold that all things come either by benign nature or blind chance.

One piece] sc. Of the same field, was rained upon, and fructified (this was near to a miracle; as when Gideon’s fleece was wet and no place else; and again, every place else, and not Gideon’s fleece, #Jud 6:37).

And the piece whereupon it rained not] It, that is, the cloud, but by God’s appointment; for he it is that filleth those bottles of the sky, and emptieth them again, where and when he pleaseth, either in mercy, as #Joe 2:23 Zec 10:1 Le 26:4, or for a judgment, as #Joe 1:17 Ge 17:11,12 1Sa 12:18,19. In the year of grace 1551 a great multitude of men and cattle in Germany were drowned and destroyed; decidentibus subito nubibus, ac effusis certatim aquis, saith Bartholinus; by excessive showers and immoderate waters, pouring down upon people as by spouts. This was the very finger of God, who will one day rain upon the wicked snares, fire and brimstone, and a horrible tempest, #Ps 11:6, Heb. a burning tempest; like as now out of those very clouds where hence he raineth, he doth again scatter sudden fires unto all parts of the earth, astonishing the world with the fearful noise of that eruption.

Withered] It must needs do so; and so must God’s own vineyard, the Church, when he shall command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it, #Isa 5:6, that is, his ministers, that they drop no doctrine upon it, #De 32:2 Eze 21:2 Am 7:16, fitly resembled to rain in regard, 1. of cooling heat; 2. quenching thirst; 3. cleansing the air; 4. allaying the winds; 5. mollifying and mellowing the parched and heat hardened earth; 6. causing all things to grow and fructify. This rain of righteousness goes sometimes by coasts, as here: God tying up the tongues of his most faithful labourers, and withholding their showers, though they be clouds thick, and full, and likely enough to drop down in abundance; see #Eze 3:26,27 Ho 9:7 Pr 16:1. Pray, therefore, oh pray earnestly, both ministers, for ability and liberty to "drop their word toward the holy places, and prophesy," #Eze 21:2, and people, that he would fill their ministers as full of good matter as ever Elihu was, #Job 32:18, and then be with their mouths, #Ex 4:12, yea, stretch out his holy hand, and touch them, #Jer 1:9, performing that piece of midwifery, #Pr 16:1, that they may freely utter their conceptions, "and come to their hearers in the fulness of the blessing of the gospel of peace," #Ro 15:29. In the Island of St Thomas, on the back side of Africa, in the midst of it, is a hill; and over that a continual cloud, wherewith the whole island is watered. This is our happiness for present. Oh that we knew but this gift of God, #Joh 4:10, and were answerably thankful and fruitful! Oh, how cursed a generation are those that repine at it, saying, Never was merry world, since so much preaching, &c. How shall such miscreants one day wish to have but one drop fall from these full clouds to cool the heat and horrors of their consciences, but shall not obtain it.

Ver. 8. So two or three cities wandered] Necessity is a hard weapon: and want of water will make men wander far and part with anything for it; as Lysimachus did with his kingdom, sacrificing his estate to the service of his life. Oh that we were as solicitous for our souls! Those good souls, #Ps 84:7, went "from strength to strength," travelled many a mile to see God’s face, though but in that dark glass of the ceremonies. The good Shunammite went every sabbath and new moon to the prophet. Our forefathers were unweariable in making out after the means, which we vilipend, and make no reckoning of.

To drink water] Rain water; for in those countries (as Jerome testifieth, who lived there many years, and therefore knew the situation and nature thereof) they have but few springs, and no considerable rivers, but only Jordan; and are therefore glad to keep rain water in cisterns for all uses; being much afflicted with thirst and drought, if it rain not.

But they were not satisfied] Either because there was not enough to be had; or by a singular curse of unsatisfiableness, see #Hag 1:6. {See Trapp on "Hag 1:6"}

Yet have ye not returned unto me] Usque ad me, so far as me. You have made some faint overtures and essays of returning, but they have not reached out unto me; they have not amounted to the full measure of a sound conversion. Plectimur, may you well say, nec tamen flectimur: corripimur, sed non corrigimur (Salvian). God rained not upon us that we might return unto him, and learn righteousness, #Isa 26:10, that we might pour out a prayer when his chastening was upon us, #Isa 26:16,18. But we, alas, have done nothing less; "we have turned every one to his own way"; and done what in us lies to defeat God and undo ourselves by our incorrigibleness and uncurableness.

Ver. 9. I have smitten you with blasting and mildews] This by immoderate rain; that by drought caused by an east wind, that ventus urens et exsiccans. God cannot possibly want a weapon to tame a rebel.

When your gardens and your vineyards increased] Or were trimmed and tricked up. Taxat nimium eorum studium, saith Mercer. The prophet here taxeth their overmuch pains taken and cost cast away in multiplying and dressing their orchards and vineyards; when, in the mean while, they neglected the sincere service of God; and suffered their own hearts to lie like the sluggard’s field, that was all grown over with thorns and briars, #Pr 24:31, that is, with lusts and sins, under which lurketh that old serpent.

The palmerworm] Which is worse than the locust, as Jerome noteth; for the locust feeds only on the tops of the ears of grain as he flies (and thence hath his name in Greek, ακρις), but palmerworms stick close to the fruits or flowers they light on; and will not off till all be consumed. It is the last and worst of evils, saith he; and leaves nothing behind it: omnia corrodit et converrit, makes clean work. See #Joe 1:4,10-12. {See Trapp on "Joe 1:4"} {See Trapp on "Joe 1:10"} {See Trapp on "Joe 1:11"} {See Trapp on "Joe 1:12"}

Yet have ye not returned unto me] No, not yet; but have rejected the remedy of your recovery: see #Am 4:8.

Ver. 10. I have sent among you the pestilence] That evil angel, #Ps 78:49, that το θειον, eminent hand of God, as Hippocrates calleth it; that destruction that walketh in darkness and wasteth at noon day, as the Psalmist styleth it, #Ps 91:6. This God sent; for it is a messenger of his sending, an arrow of his shooting, #2Sa 24:15, and may better be called morbus sacer than the falling sickness; as being an extraordinary hand of God, such as was that Sudor Anglicus, in the days of Edward VI the sweating sickness that raged very violently for forty years together here in England (as Sennertus testifieth), and slew so many, that strangers wondered how this island could be so populous as to bear and bury such incredible multitudes. No stranger in England was touched with this disease; and yet the English were chased therewith not only here, but in other countries abroad; which made them, like tyrants, both feared and avoided wherever they came. So long as the ferventness of this plague lasted, there was crying, Peccavi, Peccavi; I have sinned, I have sinned, and some pretences of turning to the Lord. The ministers were sought for in every corner (saith Mr Bradford), Oh, you must come to my lord, you must come to my lady. Thus, "when he slew them, then they sought him: and they returned and inquired early after God. Nevertheless they did flatter him with their mouth, and lied unto him with their tongues," #Ps 78:34,36; as the fox, when taken in a snare, looks pitifully, but it is only that he may get out; as ice melts in the day and hardeneth again in the night; or as iron is very soft and malleable while in the fire, but soon after returneth to its former hardness.

After the manner of Egypt] In the way to Egypt (so some read it), as you were trudging down to Egypt for help against enemies, or for corn in time of famine (for Egypt was the world’s granary), I have stretched my net over you: Egypt hath gathered you up, Memphis hath buried you, #Ho 9:6. But taking the words as we translate them, "After the manner of Egypt," i.e. so as I plagued the Egyptians, when you were among them {see #Ex 12:29} with mortality of men and murrain of cattle, #Ex 9:15. The plague of Athens is graphically described by Thucydides; whence Ovid and Virgil are thought to have borrowed their descriptions of the pestilence. The plague of Italy is set forth in lively colours by Dionys. Halicarnass. lib. xi. Antiq. That of Constantinople by Nicephorus and Sigebertus.

Your young men have I slain with the sword] Iuvenes a iuvando, saith Varro: because they are able and apt by arms to defend the commonwealth, and to help it at a dead lift. In Hebrew they have their name a delectu; because they are chosen to fight and do business, as fittest for the purpose, #Ex 17:9 2Sa 6:1. These God had slain with the sword, which cutteth its way through a wood of men, and heweth down the youngest and strongest; spareth neither lord nor losel, as they say; is despatched with confused noise, and garments rolled in blood, #Isa 9:5.

And I have made the stink of your camps] By means of the slain, both men and horses, that lie unburied, and poison the air; see #Joe 2:20 Isa 34:3.

And yet have ye not returned] Nec sic tamen: Vide contumaciam, saith Mercer here. Obstinate men will sooner break than bend. Monoceros interimi potest, non capi. The unicorn is able to be kiiled but not captured.

Ver. 11. I have overthrown some of you] Some and not all: thus, in the midst of judgment he remembered mercy, he did not stir up all his wrath, #Ps 78:38, he let fall some drops, but would not shed the whole shower of it; for he remembered that they were but flesh. Some he hanged up in gibbets, as it were, for example to the rest: as St Jude saith he dealt by Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities about them, thrown forth for an instance of Divine vengeance to all succeeding ages, #Jude 7 (προκεινται); and as Herodotus telleth us, that the sparks and ashes of burnt Troy served for a lasting monument of God’s great displeaure against great sinners. See the like threatened to Babylon, #Isa 13:19,20.

As God overthrew Sodem] As Jehovah from Jehovah rained hell out of heaven upon them, #Ge 19:24, that is, God the Son from God the Father: and so Eusebius observeth that the Father here saith of the Son, that he overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah (De Praepar. Evang. 1. 5, c. 23. Vide Socrat. Hist. Eccles. l. 2. c. 30.): "he condemned them with an overthrow," #2Pe 2:6, he overthrew them and repented not, #Jer 20:16, he overthrew them in a moment, and no hand stayed on them, #La 4:6. And yet worse shall be the condition of those that despise the grace of the gospel, which is the great sin of these last times, #Mt 11:24; yea, the devils will keep holy-day, as it were, in hell, in respect of such sinners against their own souls.

And ye were as a firebrand] Ambustus et fumigans titio, smutchy and smoky, and scarcely escaping with the skin of your teeth, #Job 19:20, as Lot out of Sodom, as the man of Benjamin out of the army, #1Sa 2:12, as the young man that fled naked away at Christ’s attachment, #Mr 14:52, or as Hunniades narrowly escaping with his life from the battle of Varna; where he had like to have fallen with that perjured Popish king, as good Jehoshaphat had for joining with Ahab. It is as if God should say: There are not many of you that are left, and have your lives for a prey; howbeit they are ill bestowed upon you, for any good use you have made of my forbearance. "Let favour be shown to the wicked, yet will he not learn righteousness," #Isa 26:10; and if thou deliver him once, yet thou must do it again, and when all is done that can be done. "A man of great wrath shall suffer punishment," #Pr 19:19; and so (to be sure of it) shall a man of great stomach and stubbornness, that refuseth to return, as these of whom the fifth time it is here complained.

And yet ye have not returned, &c.] O prorsus obstinati! saith Tarnovius here: Prorsus indurati et contumaces, saith Mercer. "Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, do ye thus always resist the Holy Ghost?" #Ac 7:51: will ye needs be like horse and mule, uncounsellable, untractable? will ye, after conviction, needs run away with the bit in your mouths and take your swing in sin. If so resolved, yet stay, saith the Psalmist, and take this along with you, "Many sorrows shall be to the wicked," #Ps 32:10; your preservation from one evil shall be but a reservation to seven worse, #Le 26:21, as it fared with Pharaoh, Sennacherib, and others; God will surely subdue or subvert you.

Ver. 12. Therefore thus will I do unto thee, O Israel] Thus? how? Non nominat mala ut omnia timeant, saith Ribera. He tells them not how, that they may fear the worst; even all that is written and unwritten. It was the very policy of Julius Caesar never to extenuate or deny to his soldiers the danger of an enemy, but rather to raise up thoughts of valour by aggravating the contrary forces: and this way he did (not seldom) hyperbolically rhetoricate saith the story. Now the Lord need not do so; since his judgments are a great deep, neither can any man know the power of his anger, #Ps 90:11: let a man fear it never so much, he is sure to feel it a great deal more if he once fall into his fingers. Is it nothing to drink the dregs of God’s displeasure, when it is eternity unto the bottom? Is it nothing to launch into an infinite ocean of scalding lead, and to swim naked in it for ever? Oh, do anything rather than be damned; and as Lewis, King of France, cast the pope’s bulls into the fire, saying, he had rather they should burn than himself fry in hell for obeying them; or as Mary, Queen of England, restored again all the ecclesiastical livings assumed to the crown, saying that she set more by the salvation of her own soul than she did by ten kingdoms; so "let the wicked forsake his ways, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; and let him return to the Lord, that he may have mercy on him; and to our God, that he may multiply pardon," #Isa 55:7.

And because I will do this unto thee] Which (had I not wished thee well) I would never have told thee. But God loves to forewarn; and therefore threateneth evil that he may not inflict it ( Ideo minatur ut non puniat): he would gladly be prevented by our humble addresses unto him, and by our entreaties of peace. Hear him else.

Prepare to meet thy God, O Israel] Turn and try; thou canst not likely lose thy labour; or if thou shouldest, yet thou hast lost many a worse. Let Ephraim but bemoan himself, and God will soon melt over him, #Jer 31:20. Let God’s prodigals return to their merciful Father and he will meet them half-way, and receive them with all sweetness. Tantum velis, et Deus tibi praeoccurret. Do as those, #Jer 3:17. Alexander’s Macedonians, being sensible of his displeasure, laid by their arms, put on their mourning attire, came trooping to his tent, where, for almost three days, they remained with loud cries and abundance of tears, testifying their remorse for offending him, beseeching his pardon, which at last they gained. And Guicciardin tells us, that Lewis XII of France (when he entered Genoa in his triumphant chariot with his sword naked), resolved to make a prey of their riches, and an example of many of the chief among them, and to leave the rest to his soldiers’ mercies. But being met first by the chief, afterward by the multitude, making great lamentation for their folly, with abundance of tears and cries, his wrath was appeased toward them. The like we read of Henry VII, emperor, toward the citizens of Cremona; of our Edward III toward the inhabitants of Calais. And in Cade’s conspiracy here, after that twenty-six of the chief rebels were executed, the multitude, naked in their shirts, met the king on Blackheath, humbly praying mercy; which they obtained.

Ver. 13. For lo, he that formeth the mountains, &c.] q.d. If my mercy move thee not to a humble submission, let my majesty; and for that end consider and tremble at my Nomen Maiestativum, my transcendent excellencies as they are here displayed, descried, and described, for thy learning, with a great deal of solemnity and state; to the end that thou mayest not expect evils, but prevent them, as Demosthenes counselled his countrymen.

He that formeth the mountains] At first, doubtless, with the rest of the universe (though some held they were cast up by Noah’s flood); see #Ps 90:1,2; by his mere Fiat, without tool or toil, #Isa 40:28. This the blind heathens saw, and thus hieroglyphically set forth: in Thebes, a town of Egypt, they worshipped a God, whom they acknowledged to be immortal. And how painted they him? In the likeness of a man blowing an egg out of his mouth; to signify that he made the round world by his word.

And createth the wind] The world’s besom (as Rupertus calleth it) wherewith God sweepeth his great house, and whereby he setteth forth his inexpressible power. See for this #Ps 18:11 148:8 Job 28:25 Jer 10:12; Senec. lib. v. Nat. Quaest. cap. 18. And although we cannot tell whence it cometh or whither it goeth, #Joh 3:8, yet can we with Cruciger contemplate the footsteps of God in this and other creatures; saying with Paul, that God is so near unto us, that he may almost be felt with our hands, ψηλαφησειαν, #Ac 17:29.

And declareth unto man what is his thought] What language he hath in his heart, what he talketh within himself ( quid sermocinetur, quidve cogitet, Drus.), as the rich fool did, #Lu 12:17. Jesus knew the Pharisee’s thoughts; yea, "thou understandest my thought afar off," saith David, #Ps 139:2, even before I conceive them. Jerome and Theodotion refer the affix to God, and renders it thus, Who declareth unto man his word and will therein revealed, Eloquium suum, τον λογον αυτου. The Seventy read thus, Who declareth unto man his Christ τον χριστον αυτου, sensu pio et egregio, saith Mercer, sed alieno; for Ma-sicho they read Meshicho; perperam. wrongly.

That maketh the morning darkness] As he did at Sodom, whereon the sun shone bright in the morning, but ere night there was a dismal change. So in Egypt, #Ex 10:22; so in Jewry at Christ’s death, #Mt 27:45. Let this teach us to bless God for the light both natural, #Ge 1:4, and supernatural, #2Co 4:4,5, and to pray, that our gospel sun may not set at noon tide, nor our light be put out in obscure darkness; but rather that he would make our darkness morning (for so the words may be read here), by clearing up those truths to us that yet lie in part undiscovered. Oh, cry after Christ, as the poor man in the Gospel, "Lord, that mine eyes might be opened!" Oh that thou wouldest give me sight and light! Sun of righteousness, shine upon my dark soul.

And treadeth upon the high places of the earth] As being "higher than the highest," excelsus super excelsos, #Ec 5:8, "terrible to all the kings of the earth" (those dread sovereigns), #Ps 76:12, "the most high God," #Ge 14:18,22, that hath heaven for his throne and earth for his footstool; yea, those highest places of the earth, the tops of mountains, and rocks inaccessible. "But who is this King of glory?"

The Lord, the God of hosts is his name] "Give therefore unto the Lord, O ye mighty, give unto the Lord glory and strength. Give unto the Lord the glory due to his name; worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness," &c.: "Exalt ye the Lord our God, and worship at his footstool; for he is holy," #Ps 29:1,2 99:5.

Chapter 5

Ver. 1. Hear ye this word] A new sermon, as appeareth by this new O yes; not unlike that of St Paul, #Ac 13:16, "Men of Israel, and ye that fear God, give audience": or rather, that of Diogenes, who cried out at Athens, Ακουσατε ανδρες, Hear, O ye men. And when as (thereupon) a great sort of people resorted to him, expecting some great matter, he looked about him, and said, ανδρας εκαλεσα, ου καθαρματα, I called men, and not slaves. They were no better surely that our prophet had to deal with; "Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers," #Isa 1:4, children that were corrupters; they had forsaken the Lord, provoked the Holy One of Israel, they had increased revolt. Hence this onerosa prophetia, this word, this weighty word, this burdensome prophecy.

Which I take up against you] Heb. lift up, being scarce able to stand under the burden of it, אשׁג, from this אשׁמ, onus. burden. {See Trapp on "Mal 1:1"} And it is against you, not for you; but that is your own fault; for "do not my words do good to him that walketh uprightly?" #Mic 2:7. Excellently Austin, Adversarius est nobis quandiu sumus et ipsi nobis. The word of God is adversary to none but such as are adversaries to themselves; neither doth it condemn any but those that shall be assuredly condemned by the Lord except they repent. But we have in a readiness to revenge all disobedience, saith the apostle, #2Co 10:6, and if any man will hurt God’s faithful witnesses, for discharging their duties, fire proceedeth out of their mouth, and devoureth their enemies; and if any man will hurt them, he must in this manner be killed, #Re 11:5, for Elisha had his sword as well as Jehu and Hazael, #1Ki 19:17. And when Elisha unsheatheth and brandisheth his sword, it is a fair warning that the sword of Jehu and Hazael are at hand, See #Ho 6:5 Jer 1:18.

Even a lamentation] Heb. a very bitter lamentation, #Eze 19:14, like those of Jeremiah for Judah, or of the mourners in Jerusalem, #Eze 9:4, or of Christ weeping over that city, #Lu 19:41,42. Or of Paul bewailing his wretched countrymen, #Ro 9:3 10:1: or of the two witnesses clothed in sackcloth, #Re 11:3, the habit of mourners: or of Athanasius, who by his tears (as by the bleeding of a chaste vine) sought to cure the leprosy, and prevent the misery of that tainted age. Heu, heu, Domine Deus, Alas alas, Oh God, God, was the cry of the ancient Christians. Flete nefas magnum, nam toto flebitis orbe (Cardan.). Their books are like that in Ezekiel, written on both sides, and there was written therein, "lamentations, and mourning, and woe," #Eze 2:10. This of Amos was a sad song, a doleful ditty, a lamentable prophecy of Israel’s utter destruction, as it followeth in the second verse, where (prophet-like) he speaketh of it as already done, notwithstanding their present prosperity and tranquillity. And have not England’s turtledoves groaned out for a great while the sad and lamentable tunes of woe and misery to this sinful nation; and plainly foretold what we have felt already, and have yet cause enough to fear. Ah! great be the plagues that hang over England (said Mr Philpot, martyr, long since). Happy shall that person be whom the Lord shall take out of this world, not to see them, &c. And the like said Rogers, our proto-martyr, Bradford, Ridley, Lever, &c., besides the concurrent predictions of God’s faithful servants lately, whose hearts and tongues he hath so guided, as that they all, as one man, have denounced heavy judgments, and taken up loud lamentations against us. Now, as before great storms cocks crow loud and thick: so is it here; and so it should be, #Ex 32:31,32 Jer 18:20 Joe 2:17; else God will be displeased, #Eze 13:5 22:30,31.

Ver. 2. The virgin of Israel is fallen] i.e. Though of the spouse of God she be become the devil’s adulteress, #Jer 3:1 Ho 1:2, yet she will needs be counted and called a virgin still; as Sardis, she hath a name to live, but is dead, #Re 3:1; as the Romish crew cry themselves up the only Church Catholic, and therein (like oyster wives) do much outcry us. But what saith the Lord by his prophet Jeremiah, #Jer 18:13? "Ask ve now among the heathen; who hath heard such things?" And "the virgin of Israel hath done a very horrible thing." And the virgin of Rome may well say, as Quartilla the strumpet in Petronius doth, Iunonem meam iratam habeam, si unquam me meminerim virginem fuisse: I can hardly remember myself a maid. Israel may also be called a virgin, because she yet subsisted and flourished in her first liberty and splendour, till taken and defloured, as it were, by the Assyrian. And in this sense we read of the virgin of Babylon, #Isa 47:1; of Egypt, #Jer 46:12; of Zidon, #Isa 23:12; and now of Venice, whose motto is, Intacta maneo, I am still a maid; as having never yet fallen into the enemies’ power. Tournay, a town in France, was ever counted so invincible, that this sentence was engraven over one of the gates, Iannes ton me perdu ton pucellage, Thou hast never lost thy maidenhead. Yet was it yielded up to our King Henry VIII, with 10,000 pounds sterling, for the the citizens’ redemption. The virgin of Israel sped not so well.

She is fallen] That is, she shall fall, surely, suddenly, utterly.

She shall no more rise] i.e. Return out of captivity, and be restored to her pristine splendour; yet some think otherwise.

She is forsaken upon her land] Proiecta est, prostrata iacet, she is thrown hard upon her ground, and as it were dashed against it, like an earthen pot against a rock; and all this, because she had left off righteousness in the earth, #Am 5:7. Those that forsake God shall be forsaken of him, #2Ch 15:2.

There is none to raise her up] God will not; and then, man cannot. "Behold," saith Bildad, "God will not cast away a perfect man, neither will he take the ungodly by the hand," #Job 8:20, and he will bring them into trouble, and there leave them, #Eze 22:20 29:5. His own he will not leave; or if he do, yet forsake them he will not, #Heb 13:5; and if men do, he will relieve them the rather. "Because they called thee an outcast, saying, This is Zion, whom no man seeketh after; therefore I will restore health unto thee, and I will heal thee of thy wounds, saith the Lord," #Jer 30:17.

Ver. 3. The city that went out by a thousand] i.e. That had a thousand inhabitants passing to and fro through the gates, {see #Ge 34:24 23:10, for men love not to be cooped up, or confined to a place, as the Duke of Venice is, but to be travelling and trading} or that can send out a thousand fit to bear arms.

Shall leave an hundred] Here is a woeful decimation, purporting a very great paucity of people; such as was threatened, #De 28:62, a tenth man only shall be left, if that. Behold the severity of God, and betray not the lives of others by an impenitent continuance in sin. Turn to God, if but for your poor brethren’s sake, that are in danger, or in durance. Hezekiah’s reason to repent is very remarkable, #2Ch 30:9: "For if ye turn again to the Lord, your brethren and your children shall find compassion before them that lead them captive, so that they shall come again into this land; for the Lord your God is gracious and merciful, and will not turn his face from you, if ye return unto him."

Shall leave ten] Not take ten in a hundred and leave the rest, as the Roman generals used to do in the army, in case of a mutiny. This was fulfilled in that three years’ siege of Samaria, #2Ki 18:10, as afterwards the like occured at Jerusalem, which could hardly be repeopled in Nehemiah’s time, and at this day is but thinly inhabited; there being not a hundred households of Jews to be found there. In our countries, of the abundance of people cometh dearth, which maketh many malcontents to mutter; but in many parts of Turkey, for want of men to till the ground; most of the poor being enforced with victuals and other necessaries to follow their great armies, in their long expeditions; of whom scarce one of ten (saith mine author) ever return home again, there by the way perishing, if not by the enemies’ sword, yet by the wants, intemperateness of the air, or immoderate painstaking.

Ver. 4. For thus saith the Lord] Or, truly thus saith the Lord; notwithstanding the former terrible sentence, which the prophet could not denounce with dry eyes; but takes up a lamentation, though less concerned in it, and might well say, as one did in another case,

“ Tu quibus ista legis, incertum est, lector ocellis,

Ipse quidem siccis dicere non potui.”

All God’s threatenings (for the most part) are conditional, #Jer 18:7 26:2, sc. if men repent not. As if they do, they may live in his sight, and be accounted worthy (such is God’s great goodness) to escape all those things that shall befall the impenitent, #Lu 21:36. The gospel is post naufragium tabula, writing tablet after the ship wreck, sand hath its reward too, #Heb 11:6, sc. of grace and mercy. Do this and live, saith the law. Seek the Lord, and live, saith the gospel. "He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him," and that is the force of the Hebrew word here used, which signifieth to inquire, to make serious search and scrutiny, to seek him out (εκζητησατε με, as the Seventy have it), when he is withdrawn; to seek him as a student doth sciences, a worldling gold, a hungry man meat, &c., as a man studiously turns over a commentary to find out the sense of a text, #Isa 34:16. Do this, saith God, and ye shall live; not only have your lives for a prey, but live merrily, happily. "Now we live," saith the apostle; that is, we rejoice, #1Th 3:8: and "Thus shall ye say to him that liveth"; that is, hath a comfortable life, and a confluence of blessings, #1Sa 25:6. But besides all this, ye shall live for ever; and aeterna vita, vera vita, eternal life is the only life properly so called. Life (in what sense soever taken) is a sweet mercy: "A living dog is better than a dead lion," saith Solomon, #Ec 9:4; and "Joseph is yet alive," saith Jacob (he doth not say, Joseph is lord of Egypt), "I will get down, and see him before I die," #Ge 45:28. "But eternal life is" (by a speciality and with an accent) "the gift of God through Jesus Christ our Lord," #Ro 6:23; and this gift he will freely bestow on all that so seek him as not to be satisfied without him, as Moses, who would not be put off with an angel, but said, "If thy presence go not with me, carry us not up hence," #Ex 33:15; and as Luther, who when great gifts were sent him, refused them and said, Valde protestatus sum, me nolle sic satiari a Deo: I deeply protested that I would not be satisfied with these low things, but that I would have God or nothing. This was one of those brave apophthegms {a} of his, concerning which Melchior Adam well saith, A man would fetch them upon his knees from Rome, or Jerusalem, rather than be without them.

{a} A terse, pointed saying, embodying an important truth in few words; a pithy or sententious maxim. ŒD

Ver. 5. But seek not Bethel, &c.] Make not lies your refuge, idols your oracles; "they that observe lying vanities do" (by their own election) "forsake their own mercies." {#Jon 2:8} But I (saith the prophet, who had now paid for his learning, and was yet under the lash) will sacrifice to thee alone, will seek thy face and favour, not at Bethel, or Gilgal, but in the place where thine honour dwelleth; not at Hull, Sichem, or Loretto, but in the true reformed Churches, in the beauties of holiness, in the midst of those seven golden candlesticks, in the hearts and houses of his faithful people, concerning whom he hath said, "I will dwell in them, and walk in them," #2Co 6:16, and when they walk within their houses with a perfect heart, I will come unto them, #Ps 101:2. I will there command my blessing, "even life for evermore," #Ps 133:3: see #Am 4:4 Ho 4:15. {See Trapp on "Am 4:4"} {See Trapp on "Hos 4:15"}

For Gilgal shall surely go into captivity] An elegant alliteration in the original, such as the prophets are full of, and this plain prophet among the rest ( הלגי הלג לגלגה): see #Am 8:2. Ministers may sometimes rhetoricate; and it had need to be an elaborate speech that shall work upon the conscience.

And Bethel shall come to nought] Heb. shall be Aven, as elsewhere it is called Betharch, #Ho 4:11 10:5. Against Beersheba he saith nothing; because that name afforded him not the like elegance, as Mercer thinketh; or because that city belonged to Judah, and so was not destroyed with the ten tribes, as Jerome holdeth, #1Ki 19:3. Seek not these places, saith the prophet, for help and succour in distress; but say, as #Jer 3:23, "Truly in vain is salvation hoped for from these hills: truly in the Lord our God is the salvation of Israel."

Ver. 6. Seek ye the Lord, and ye shall live] See #Am 5:4. Sic eadem saepe surdis et obstinatis inculcantur (Mercer). The continual pressing of a duty imports: 1. The excellency; 2. The necessity; 3. The difficulty of doing it: else what need so many words? Perquam durum est, sed ita lex scripts est, saith Ulpian. Hard or not hard, it must be done, or men are undone.

Lest he break out like fire] Lest he go through you and burn you together, #Isa 27:4, lest ye be "utterly burnt with fire in the same place," #2Sa 23:7, that is, in hell (as some expound it), which the prophet called tormenting Tophet, #Isa 30:33, and Plato calleth πυριφλεγεθων, a fiery lake; so terrible, saith Bellarmine, that one glimpse of it were enough to make a man not only turn Christian and sober, but anchorite {a} and monk; to live after the strictest rule that may be.

{a} A person who has withdrawn or secluded himself from the world; usually one who has done so for religious reasons, a recluse, a hermit. ŒD

Ver. 7. Ye who turn judgment to wormwood] Ye grandees and governors of the people, that turn the sweetest thing into the sourest (as corruptio optimi pessima), right into wrong dealing; that follow the administration of justice as a trade only, with an unquenchable and unconscionable desire of gain; not caring what becomes of righteousness, but leaving it off in the earth, or rather not leaving it at all upon earth ( terras Astraea reliquit), but chasing it out of the world as much as in you lieth; while you cast it down to the ground, and tread it underfoot, #Da 8:12, while you oppress the just, crush the needy, &c., #Am 4:1: see the note there. Some read the text, by way of exclamation, thus: O ye that turn judgment, &c.; q.d. What strange creatures are you! what monsters of men! what public scourges! what scabs! #Isa 5:7, God "looked for judgment, but behold oppression" (in the original it is, behold a scab); "for righteousness, but behold a cry": such a cry as entereth into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth, Iudices instar scabiei molesti sunt oppressis (Piscator in loc.).

Ver. 8. Seek him that maketh the seven stars] Once again, "Seek him"; that is, Return to him by true repentance; and by faith take hold of his strength, that ye may make peace, and ye shall make peace with him, #Isa 27:5. To stand out it boots not; since it is he that made Bootes and Orion, &c., that is, of infinite power; and doeth whatsoever he will in heaven and earth, "who only doeth wondrous things," #Ps 72:18. See #Am 4:12,13. Chimah and Chesil, that is, Pleiades and Orion, are twice mentioned together in Job. Noted stars they are, and known to shepherds and such like. Amos, likely, was but such an astronomer as herdsmen use to be. Those who write of these stars tell us, that Chimah comes of Chamah, to love ardently; because of the fellowship and working together that appears in them. They be seven stars that have all one name; because they all help one another in their work, which is to bring the spring; and like seven sisters or lovers, so are they joined together in one constellation, and in one company. We see (saith one) that God will have the sweetest works in nature to be performed by mutual help. The best time of the year cometh with these seven stars (hence we read of their sweet influence, #Job 38:31), and the best time of our life cometh when we enter into true love and fellowship. As for Orion, it is the star (saith the same author) that brings winter; and his bonds cannot be loosed. It binds the earth with frost and cold, that the fruits thereof might be seasoned and made kindly against the spring: neither can the spring come till Orion have prepared the way. God will have us suffer before we reign. The word Chesil here used signifies, in the Chaldee, to perfect; because by suffering and offering violence to ourselves we enter into perfection, #Lu 13:32. If we would have a pleasant spring of graces in our hearts, we must first have a nipping winter: the spirit of mortification must be like the cold star Orion, to nip our quick motions in the head, and to bind all our unclean desires and burning lusts, that they stir not in us; and unless we do thus, the seven stars of comfort shall never appear to us.

And turneth the shadow of death,] that is, the thickest darkness ( tenebras ferales et letales, #Ps 23:4),

into the morning] Into "the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day," #Pr 4:18. This severing of night from day and day from night, this mutual and orderly succession and course of the night after the day, and the day after the night, the lengthening and shortening of the days in summer and winter, the wonderful eclipses, and other occurrents of that nature, are works of God’s power and providence, not to be slighted, but improved to true repentance. We are to mark the countenance of the sky, and to discern the face of heaven; that every day and night winketh at us, and beckoneth to us, to remember the wisdom, power, justice, and mercy of God lined out unto us in the brows of the firmament. "The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament showeth his handiwork," #Ps 19:1. The creatures are Regii professores, ministers of the King, saith one; Catholic preachers, saith another; Real apostles of the divinity, saith a third. Clemens Alexandrinus saith, that the world is Dei scriptura, word of God, the first Bible that God made for the instruction of man. Antonius Eremita told a philosopher, who objected to him his want of books, that the universe was to him instead of a well furnished library, everywhere ready at hand. Hugo affirmeth, that everything uttereth these three words, Accipe, Redde, Fuge, Receive mercy, Return duty, Shun sin, together with that hell that it hales at the heels of it. Much a man may learn out of the book of nature, with its three leaves, Heaven, Earth, and Sea; but there he must not rest. For, as where the naturalist ends the physician begins; so, where nature fails and can go no farther, there Scripture succeeds and gives more grace, #Jas 4:6 Ps 19:1,2,7,8. The Chaldee paraphrast takes this text allegorically, as if the sense were; God changeth his hand towards the sons of men at his pleasure, prospering them one while, crossing them another; so that they walk in darkness and have no light, #Isa 50:10, yea, they walk through the vale of the shadow of death, #Ps 23:4. Not through a dark entry or churchyard in the night time, but a valley, a large, long, vast place; not of darkness only, but of death; and not bare death, but the shadow of death, that is, the darkest and most dismal side of death, in its most hideous and horrid representations. And yet if God be with his Davids in this sad condition, no hurt shall befall them, but much good.

“ Flebile principium melior fortuna sequetur.”

That calleth for the waters of the sea] That is, for great armies, saith the Chaldee. But better take it literally, of the generation of rain, the chief author whereof is God: the material cause is the sea sending up vapours; the instrumental cause is the sun, by the beams whereof God draws the vapour upwards; sends for them, as it were, into the middle region of the air, there thickeneth them into clouds, and then resolveth them into rain. This Kimchi illustrateth by the simile of a boiling pot, whereout vapours and fumes, ascending to the colder pot lid, are turned into drops of water, see #Ge 2:6.

The waters of the sea] #1Ki 18:44, a little cloud arose out of the sea like a man’s hand. And presently the prophet said to Ahab, "Prepare thy chariot, and get thee down, that the rain stop thee not. And it came to pass in the mean while, that the heaven was black with clouds," &c.

“ Humorem magno tollunt ex aequore ponti

Nubes, qui in tote terrarum spargitur orbe,

Cum pluit in terris” (Lucret. lib. 6).

The naturalists observe that it snows not in the sea, because it sends up hot vapours, which presently dissolve the snow.

The Lord is his name] His memorial, #Ho 12:5. {See Trapp on "Ho 12:5"} He is not an idol, to be dallied with and deluded.

Ver. 9. That strengtheneth the spoiled against the strong] Victorem a victo superari saepe videmus. God can quickly change the scene, turn the scales, #Jer 37:10, though ye had smitten the whole army of the Chaldeans, and there remained but wounded men among them, yet should they rise up every man in his tent, and burn this city with fire. In a bloody fight between Amurath III, king of Turks, and Lazarus, despot of Servia, many thousands fell on both sides. In conclusion the Turks had the victory, and Lazarus was slain. Amurath, after that great victory, with some few of his chief captains, taking view of the dead bodies, which without number lay on heaps in the field like mountains, a Christian soldier, sore wounded and all blood, seeing him, in staggering manner arose (as if it had been from death) out of a heap of slain men, and making toward him, for want of strength fell down various times by the way as he came, as if he had been a drunken man. At length, drawing nigh unto him, when they which guarded the king’s person would have stayed him, he was by Amurath himself commanded to come nearer, supposing that he would have craved his life of him. Thus this half-dead Christian, pressing nearer unto him, as if he would, for honour’s sake, have kissed his feet, suddenly stabbed him in the bottom of his belly with a short dagger which he had under his coat; of which wound that great king and conqueror presently died. The name of this man was Miles Cobelite, who, before sore wounded, was shortly after in the presence of Bajazet (Amurath’s son), cut into small pieces. So in that memorable fight between the Swissers and the Dolphin, near to Basil, when Burcardus, monk, a nobleman and a great soldier, grew proud of the victory, and put up his helmet that he might behold what a slaughter they had made, one of the half-dead Swissers, rising up upon his knees, threw a stone at him, which, hitting right, gave him his death’s wound. At the battle of Agincourt, where our Henry V won the day, the French were so confident of a victory, that they sent to King Henry, to know what ransom he would give. Henry, comforting his army with a speech, resolved to open his way over the enemy’s bosom, or else to die. After which, such was the courage of the English, notwithstanding their great wants, as he that ere while could scarcely bend his bow is able now to draw his yard long arrow to the very head.

So that the spoiled (or spoil) shall come against the fortress] And take it by assault. Deus loca, quantumvis valida, vasta facit. There is no strength against the Lord, #Pr 21:30.

Ver. 10. They hate him that rebuketh in the gate] In dome iudicii, saith the Chaldee: for the gate was the place of judgment, #Am 5:12,15 De 17:5,12,15. Those, then, that did not approve and applaud the oppressions and wrongdealings of the judges, and rich bribers, but cried out against such, and took the same liberty to rebuke them that they did to commit them, these were hated, cane peius et angue, worse than any toad. Thus Ahab hated Micaiah, the Sodomites Lot, the Jews Jeremiah, their successors Christ, the Baptist, Stephen, Paul. Thus those of Geneva hated Farellus, their faithful minister, tried him for his life, banished him out of their territories. Thus afterwards some of them hated Calvin, calling him Cain; yea, calling their dogs Calvin, in derision and detestation of him. And thus Bishop Ridley, lamenting the state of England, even of thy greatest magistrates, saith he, some (the king’s Highness excepted) evermore unkindly and ungently against those that went about most busily and wholesomely to cure their sore backs, spurned privily, and would not spare to speak evil of them, even to the prince himself; and yet would they toward the same preachers outwardly bear a jolly countenance and fair face. As for Latimer, Lever, Bradford, Knox, their tongues were so sharp, they ripped in so deep in their galled backs, to have purged them, no doubt, of their filthy matter that was festered in their hearts, of insatiable covetousness, of filthy carnality and voluptuousness, of intolerable ambition and pride, of ungodly loathsomeness to hear poor men’s cases, and to hear God’s word. And these men, of all others, these magistrates then could never abide, &c. Thus he, and much more to the same purpose. They were then sick of a Noli me tangere, do not be touched by me, and so, alas, they are still. How few Vespasians to be found, of whom Quintilian testifieth, that he was patientissimus veri, one that would patiently hear the naked truth of things; not toothless truths only, but such as touched to the quick! How few Davids, that loved Nathan the better ever after, for dealing so plainly and faithfully with him, and made him of his cabinet council! How few Queen Elizabeths, who called often for her Deering by whom she was barely told of her faults; though the bishops, those court parasites, would never suffer him to preach more before her! The Queen of Navarre would not hearken to such ministers as disliked that fatal French match (that gave opportunity afterwards to the Parisian Massacre) in regard of the diversity of religions; but inclined rather to those that smoothed her up, and told her that it would lay the foundation of a lasting and most happy peace. And generally of those French Reformed churches it was observed, that for some years before that bloody massacre they affected a frothy, flashy kind of preaching; and cared not for that which came home to the conscience. See my Common Place of Admonition.

And they abhor him that speaketh uprightly] Auget orationem, saith Drusius. The prophet groweth in his expression of their wickedness: for to abhor is more than to hate; see #Pr 6:16. Hatred (as they say of the crocodile) groweth as long as it liveth. Sin is of an encroaching nature. If a serpent devour a serpent (saith the proverb) he becometh a dragon, Serpens si serpentem comederit fit draco. Hatred of the truth, as runner, the older it is the stronger; the Pharisees for instance, who did not only inwardly swell and boil with hellish hatred of Christ, his works, and doctrine, but also outwardly belched out against him the basest blasphemies; and in their pertinacious working, constantly persecuted him, even to the most reproachful death of the cross. This is merces mundi, the world’s wages to God’s faithful witnesses. They "make a man an offender for a word" (yea, for speaking uprightly), "and lay a snare for him that reproveth in the gate, and turn aside the just for a thing of nought," #Isa 29:21. An expectas ut Quintilianus ametur? said he: Dost thou think that plain dealing Quintilian should be loved? it is not likely. To preach, saith Luther, the truth which is according to godliness, is nothing else but to derive the rage of the whole world upon a man’s self.

And ye take from him burdens of wheat] Heb. the finest wheat, and best winnowed; these ye force him to make money of, for your use; glad to feed upon the rotted wheat himself.

Ye have built houses of hewn stone] Squared and polished, thinking to flourish, and frolic (οικους ξεστους. Domos rasiles et politas. Sept.): but the screech owls of woe crying aloud from the stones out of those walls, shall mar your mirth, #Hab 2:11.

But ye shall not dwell in them] For either ye shall be prevented by death, and sent to dwell with devils; or be carried away captive, and a stranger possess your new buildings, #De 28:30.

Ye have planted pleasant vineyards] As he in the history, that, having a cup of new wine in his hand, expressed out of the grapes of his newly planted vineyard, was set upon and slain by a wild boar, before he could drink it, and gave occasion to that proverb, Multa cadunt inter calicem supremaque labra; Many things fall between the cup and the lip, between the chin and the chalice (Erasm. Adag.). Hereunto agreeth that story in Mr Burroughs upon Hosea (Burr. on Hos. i. p. 379). I had, saith he, certain information, from a reverend minister, that in his own town there was a wretched worldling, who had a great crop of grain. A good honest neighbour of his walking by his field, saith, Neighbour, you have a very fine crop of grain if God bless it. Yea, saith he, I will have a good crop, speaking contemptuously; and before he could come to get it into the barn, it was so blasted, that the grain of the whole crop was not worth sixpence. God hath many ways to defeat the wicked man’s expectation, and the hope of unjust men perisheth, #Pr 11:7. Etiam spes valentissima perit, so some render that text, he shall die or miscarry, in the very height of his hopes and expectations.

Ver. 12. For I know your manifold transgressions, and your mighty sins] I know them, and can easily set them in an order before your eyes, #Ps 50:21, bring them out (as they did the vessels of the sanctuary) by number and by weight, #Ezr 8:34: make you answer for all with flames about your ears, lay open your many transgressions, and mighty sins, fortia peccata. The Hebrew hath it, your bony, or big boned sins; huge, heinous, and monstrous, capable of all manner of aggravations. All these I know, saith God, they are all in print in heaven, and I will one day read them aloud in the ears of all the world. Fac ergo confitendo propitium, quem tacendo non facis nescium, saith Austin. Make, therefore, God thy friend, by confessing thy sins to him, which thou canst not by any means conceal from him.

They afflict the just] They pinch and distress him by their oppressions, which are often here laid in their dish, as an abomination to the Lord; for he is merciful, see #Am 2:6.

They take a bribe] A ransom to blind their eyes (Copher), as #1Sa 12:3, or a pacification of their pretended displeasure against heinous crimes brought before them. Olim didiei quid sint munera, said a worthy man: Once I have learned long since, how dangerous a thing it is for men in place to meddle with gifts. A public person, as he should have nothing to lose, so nothing to get; he should be above all price or sale.

They turn aside the poor in the gate] That is, in the place of judicature. This makes many that go to law, to be at length of Themistocles’ mind; who professed that if two ways were shown him, one to hell, and the other to the bar, he would choose that which went to hell, and forsake the other. Another said, that he wondered much at two sorts of men; viz. those that go to sea, and those that go to law: not so much that they did so at first, but that, after trial, they would ever go a second time.

Ver. 13. Therefore the prudent shall keep silence] According to that old and good rule, Either keep silence, or speak that which is better than silence, η σιγαν, η κρεισσονα οιγης λεγειν. There is "a time to keep silence, and a time to speak," #Ec 3:7, and it is a singular skill to time a word, #Isa 50:4, to set it upon its circumferences, #Pr 25:11, so to speak, and so to do, as those that shall be judged by the law of liberty, #Jas 2:12. He that would be able to speak right and forcible words, must first learn how and when to keep silence. It is not good casting pearls before swine; nor pulling a bear or mad dog by the ear. It is the true ambition of a Christian, to study to he quiet, to meddle with his own business, #1Th 4:11, ιδιοπραγμονειν, to affect rather quietness from the wicked world than acquaintance with it, and to pass through it with as little noise and notice as he can. Not but that God’s faithful servants must cry aloud, and not spare, lifting up their voices like a trumpet, &c., #Isa 58:1, and casting away the inverse trumpets of Furius Fulvus, which sounded a retreat, when they should have sounded an alarm. But this must be done with godly discretion. Zeal should eat us up, but not eat up our wisdom (saith one), nor should policy eat up our zeal. The apostles professed that they could not but speak the things that they had heard and seen; they must either vent or burst. And yet holy Paul (who was full of the spirit of judgment and of burning, #Isa 4:4), though he preached at Ephesus (where he lived two years and more together) that they be no gods that are made with hands; yet he made no particular invective against their great goddess Diana, whereon they so impotently doted, #Ac 19:26,37, He that hath a good mixture of zeal and prudence is like a ship well ballasted, that sails with a prosperous gale; but zeal without discretion is like fire on the chimney top; or like mettle in a blind horse; or the devil in the demoniac, that cast him sometimes into the fire, and sometimes into the water. What a storm of persecution raised Bishop Abdias in Persepolis by his intemperate zeal, not bridled with discretion; as the poets fable that Minerva put a golden bridle upon Pegasus, lest he should fly too fast? And it was some disadvantage to Paul, when in the council (though provoked and unjustly smitten) he called the high priest whited wall; he was glad to excuse it by his ignorance. We may not he too bold or too forward to speak in a good matter, to such as hate him that rebuketh in the gate, and abhor him that speaketh uprightly, #Am 5:10.

For it is an evil time] By reason of an evil and adulterous generation, that make it so. It is a day of evil, as #Ps 41:1, that is, of difficulty and danger, to those that dare speak out: such as were Tiberius’s times. That tiger laid hold with his teeth on all the brave spirits that could speak their minds fitly, and dared to do it freely. He put to death a certain poet, which in a tragedy had inveighed against Agamemnon; suspecting himself to be intended. Freedom of speech used by the Waldenses in blaming and reproving the vices, dissolute manners, life, and actions of great ones, made them looked upon and persecuted as heretics and enemies to the see apostolic, as Manichees, Catharists, what not? (Girardus).

Ver. 14. Seek good, and not evil, that ye may live] See #Am 5:4,6. Oh seek, seek, seek, saith our prophet; as some of the martyrs cried out, Pray, pray, pray: Mr Sanders and Mrs Askew repeated those words two different times together, Mr Marsh once, adding, Never more need. To seek God is to seek good, and to find life; for with him is the fountain of life, #Ps 36:9. To seek evil is to seek the devil, who is that evil one (ο πονηρος): it is, as Solomon saith in a like case, "a vanity tossed to and fro of them that seek death," #Pr 21:6.

And so the Lord, the God of hosts, shall be with you] To assist and accept you in seeking good; to protect and provide for you in shunning evil. Deal courageously, therefore, and God shall be with the good, #2Ch 19:11, as your seven-fold shield (επραβοειος), and exceeding great reward, #Ge 15:1. {See Trapp on "Ge 15:1"}

As ye have spoken] Ut praedicatis et iactitatis, as ye boast and bear yourselves bold upon; saying, as #Mic 2:11, "Is not the Lord among us? none evil can come upon us." But that is as you make it; for ye are upon your behaviour. The fault is not in God, but wholly in yourselves, if ye live not happily, reign not everlastingly,— at Paris ut vivat regnetque beatus Cogi posse negat (Horat. ep. 2). God is far from men’s hearts; and therefore far from their help: for "can two walk together, except they be agreed?" #Am 3:3.

Ver. 15. Hate the evil, and love the good] God doth so; you must also, or else never look for his gracious presence with you: for idem velle, atque idem nolle, ea demure vera est Amicitia; True friends do both will and nill the same things. Minutius Felix saith, that he and his friend Octavius did so. The like did Basil and Nazianzen, Jonathan and David:

“ Corporibus geminis spiritus unus erat.”

All God’s people, as they partake of the Divine nature, so they live the life of God, #Eph 4:18, and have the same both sympathies and antipathies (as I may so speak), abhorring that which is evil, cleaving to that which is good, #Ro 12:9. God, they know, hateth evil worse than he hateth the devil; for he hateth the devil for sin’s sake, and not sin for the devil’s sake: so do they, looking upon sin as the most loathsome thing in the world, the very vomit of the devil, which (so far as they are regenerate) they do infinitely loathe to lick up. And for that which is good, whether things or persons, these they heartily love; not only with a love of desire, as #Ps 42:1,2, but also of complacency, as #Ps 73:25,26, herein resembling Almighty God; not as an image doth a man, in outward lineaments only, but as a son doth his father, in nature and disposition; being daily more and more conformed to the heavenly pattern, and transformeed into the same image from glory to glory, by his Spirit.

And establish judgment in the gate] Which hitherto ye have not done, #Am 5:10,12. Perform the duties of your own particular places; be good justicers as well as good men. It is said of Galba and of our Richard III, that they were bad men but good princes; but I hardly think it. Some good parts they might have, and some good acts they might do; but good princes they could not be, unless they did "hate the evil and love the good": but so doth not any bad man, for want of better principles. Make the tree good and the fruits will be good: and the contrary. Evil men may be some way useful to the public, and do good offices for the Church, and yet perish, because not in a good manner, upon a good motive, and for a good end. #Re 12:16, the earth helped the woman; and yet, #Re 16:1, the vials of God’s wrath were poured out upon the earth. A good magistrate, as he sits in God’s place (the judgment seat is called the holy place, #Ec 8:10), so he, loving what God loveth, and hating where God hateth, can boldly write over it that distich, that is said to be written over the tribunal in Zant, in letters of gold;

“ Hic locus odit, amat, punit, conservat, honorat,

Nequitiam, pacem, crimina, iura, bones.”

It may be that the Lord] Or, out of doubt, the Lord God of hosts will be gracious, &c. He is surely ready, were men but ripe and right for mercy; it sticks only on their part, and not on his; he waiteth to be gracious, #Isa 30:18. Oh unworthy we that cause him so to do. Currat poenitentia, ne praecurrat sententia (Chrysologus). They are but a remnant that shall have mercy; a few that shall find favour. Oh, labour to be of those few that shall enter into life, #Lu 13:24.

Ver. 16. Therefore the Lord God of hosts, the Lord, saith thus] Therefore? wherefore? because neither promises of mercy nor menaces of misery will work upon you, stand forth, and hear your doom, your sentence of condemnation; and it beginneth, as is usual, In nomine Dei: In the name of God, neither can you say, as that martyr did, when wrongfully sentenced, ye begin in a wrong name. To assure the matter, the prophet here heapeth up three majestic names of God; that they might tremble and turn, considering the greatness of him with whom they here have to do, being "glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders," #Ex 15:11.

Wailing shall be in all streets, &c.] A general outcry, as once in Egypt, when in every house there was a dead corpse; or, as at the taking and sacking of Troy there was

“ Luctus ubique, pavor, et plurima morris imago” (Virg.).

And they shall say in all the highways, Alas, alas] Man is a creature apt to overly grieve for crosses, and to fill the air with moans and complaints of his misery. The Latin word Aeger, for a sick person, is judged to come from Αι, αι, the doleful expression of his grief. The Greek word ουαι is as much as ουκ αει, Not ever. We are soon weary of suffering, and would fain see an end of it; and therefore cry out for help. The Hebrew word here used, He, He, is the same with our Oh, Oh; it is dolentis particula, it is eiulantis, the broken speech of one in great dolour and durance. Nature need not to be taught to tell her own tale when in distress, then men are apt to be eloquent even beyond truth; they add, they multiply, they rise in their discourse, like him in the poet, I am thrice miserable, nay, ten times, nay, a hundred, ten hundred times: τρις κακοδαιμων, και τετρακις και μυριακις (Aristoph.): whereas they should correct their excessive complaints with that other, οιμοι τι δ οιμοιο, Alas, alas. But why alas? Nothing hath befallen us but what is human, common to men and our betters, #1Co 10:13.

And they shall call the husbandman to mourning] For the marring of his grain by the enemy, or by the vermin. Others read it thus, The husbandman shall send for those that are skilful in lamentation to mourning and wailing.

And such as are skilful of lamentation] An ordinary practice in those eastern parts (as now also in Ireland) to hire artificial mourners at funerals to sing doleful ditties. Ut qui conducti plorant in funere. See #Jer 9:17 Mt 9:23. {See Trapp on "Jer 9:17"} {See Trapp on "Mt 9:23"} Of the lawfulness of this custom the prophet speaketh not. Many things are mentioned in Scripture and made use of but not approved, as usury, #Mt 25:27; dancing, #Mt 11:17; theft, #1Th 5:2; injustice, #Lu 16:1; the Isthmian games, #1Co 9:24.

Ver. 17. And in all vineyards shall be wailing] Where used to be great jollity and revelry riot in time of vintage, #Ps 4:7. The calamity shall be common, the scourge overflowing; and all sorts shall have their share. See #Joe 1:5,11,13.

For I will pass through thee, saith the Lord] As a fire in a thick wood, #Jas 3:5, or dry stubble, #Joe 2:5 Na 1:10. I will go through them, I will burn them together, #Isa 27:4, make a short work with them, #Ro 9:28. So fearful a thing it is to fall into the punishing hands of the living God, #Heb 10:31, to stand in his way, when his sword is in commission, and he saith to it, "Sword, go through the land; cut off man and beast from it," #Eze 14:17. Let this be thought on by those secure ones that live as if they were out of the reach of God’s rod; for "what if the sword contemn even the rod?" #Eze 21:13, and be drenched in the gall of these sturdy rebels? what then?

Ver. 18. Woe unto you that desire the day of the Lord] The day of his visitation when he will go through us, as you prophets would make believe. Where is the promise of his coming? Let him make speed and hasten his work, that we may see it, #Isa 5:19 Jer 17:15. Let him increase his army and come down, #Jud 9:29. Such jeering and daring spirits there are still abroad. But do they provoke the Lord to anger? are they stronger than he? The great and terrible day of the Lord will come time enough to their cost; they need not accelerate it. Can they stand to his trial? or abide the thunder of his power? #Job 26:14.

To what end is it for you] When God shall answer you, as he did a far better man, out of the whirlwind, and say, "Who is this that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge? Gird up now thy loins like a man," #Job 38:2,3. Where, then, shall the ungodly and the wicked appear? #1Pe 4:18; what hills will they call upon to fall on them, when the elements shall fall upon them like scalding lead or burning bell metal; and yet all this be but the beginning of their sorrows! "Now therefore be not ye mockers, lest your bands be made strong," #Isa 28:22. God can easily hamper you if he once take you in hand.

The day of the Lord is darkness, and not light] No interchange of light; "an evil, an only evil," without mixture of mercy, #Eze 7:5, a black and dismal day of one mischief upon another, in a continued series. "Affliction shall not rise up the second time," #Na 1:9, but ye shall totally and finally be destroyed; wrath shall come upon you to the utmost, #1Th 2:16. This is illustrated in the next verse by an apt similitude.

Ver. 19. As if a man did fly from a lion] And so by running from his death should run to it; by seeking to shun the shelves should split against a rock, Incidit in Scyllam, &c., as Nicodemus Frischline (that famous poet, orator, and philosopher), endeavouring to escape out of close prison, by casting himself out at a window, the rope broke, and he perished by falling headlong upon a rock: so fareth it with those that fear not God. Aliud ex alio malum, one mischief treadeth on the heels of another, as Job’s messengers. The clouds return after the rain, #Ec 12:2, as in April weather one shower is unburdened, another is brewed: "and deep calleth upon deep at the noise of the waterspouts," #Ps 42:7. "Evil shall hunt the violent man to destroy him," #Ps 140:11, your sins shall find you out as a bloodhound, #Nu 32:23, as it did that Popish priest in London, who, having escaped the fall of Blackfriars, A.D. 1623 (where Drury had his brains knocked out of his head, together with his sermon), and taking water, with a purpose to sail into Flanders, was cast away (together with some others) under London bridge; the boat being overturned. And as Philip II, King of Spain, who, going from the Low Countries into Spain by sea, fell into a storm in which almost all the fleet was wrecked, his household stuff of very great value lost, and himself hardly escaped. He said he was delivered by the singular providence of God to root out Lutheranism, which he presently began to do. But the hand of God was upon him in an extraordinary manner; for beside the invincible Armada here defeated, to his great heartbreak (for his pretended patience was but as the fever called Epialis, wherein men are cold without but as hot as fire within), he fell into that most loathsome lousy disease, called Phthiriasis, whereof at length he died.

And a bear met him] A bear robbed of her whelps (which she licketh into form, and loveth above measure) is a very fierce and fell creature. To meet her in such a rage is to meet death in the very face; and yet that danger may be sooner shifted and shunned than the heavy wrath of God avoided or averted without true and timely repentance: there is no way to run from him but by running penitently to him; as in a tempest at sea it is very dangerous to strike to the shore; the safest way is to have sea room, and to keep in to keep in the open main still.

Or went into the house] To shelter himself from the bear; as every creature in danger runneth to its harbour, #Pr 30:26 Ps 104:18.

And leaned his hand on the walls] As being breathless in running, and glad to stay himself on what he can next lay hold on. Man, like the vine, must have somewhat to lean on, if it be but a broken reed or bulging wall, #Ps 62:3; he shifts and shirks in every bycorner for comfort, as the Papists (stung by the friars’ sermons) do by pardons and penances, which are but palliate cures.

For a serpent bites them] The guilt of sin abiding, "biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder," #Pr 23:32.

Ver. 20. Shall not the day of the Lord be darkness, &c.] q.d. How say ye now; when thus beset with mischief on all hands, such as ye can neither avoid nor abide, must ye not needs subscribe to the truth of what I said, #Am 5:18, and do here again repeat (that you may the better observe it) with greater emphasis and earnestness? you shall not have the least glimmering of comfort, ease, direction, or good counsel. To what end, then, should you desire this dreadful day of the Lord? Are you in haste to be undone?

Ver. 21. I hate, I despise your feast days] Wherewith ye think to stop my mouth and to make me your debtor; saying, as that Roman emperor, when his enemy came against him, Non sic Deos coluimus ut ille nos vinceret, We have not so served the gods that they should serve us no better than to give the enemy the better of us. The feast days and solemn assemblies you so much build upon are yours, and not mine; "I never commanded them" (viz. as you may use them), "neither came they ever into my mind," #Jer 32:35. So far am I, therefore, from accepting your sacrifices, as that I hate, I despise, I will not smell: an elegant asyndeton, importing God’s utter distaste of what they did ("The sacrifice of the wicked is abomination: how much more, when he bringeth it with a wicked mind!" #Pr 21:27), and assuring a sudden vengeance, as in that quick and smart passage, Go, preach, baptize, "he that believeth not shall be damned," #Mr 16:16. Will-worship and outsideness in religion is very odious to the Almighty; and stinks worse in his nostrils than any ill vapour from the vilest dunghill doth in ours: or as those poisonous smells that ascended up once from the five cities of the plain, and brought down from him a counter poison of fire and brimstone. Rome also (that spiritual Sodom) shall be destroyed in like sort, with a terrible fire, #Re 17:16 18:8,9, for her detestable will-worships, superstitions, and idolatries, which no other nitre can possibly purge. #Re 13:18, the whole "number of the beast," whatsoever is numbered to belong unto him, is but the "number of a man," human inventions and will wisdom; men will have it so; and this is the sum of all Popish religion. When the wit of man will be overpleasing God, with better devices than his own, will needs despite him with seeming honours; it turns to madness, and ends in mischief.

Ver. 22. Though ye offer me burnt offerings, &c.] So long as ye stick in the bark, please yourselves in the external performance, rest in the work done, think to expiate your sins by your duties, and to set off with God for your bad deeds by your good, and to get a licence thereby to live as you list: "though ye offer me burnt offerings," which were wholly burnt in sacrifice to God, and so were ordinarily most acceptable.

I will not accept them] Nor shall you be a button the better for them, but the worse. #Isa 63:8, yea, though ye added wine, oil, and incense, that there might be a savour of rest in it. The very heathens could say, that God’s favour is not to be gained by multitude of sacrifices, but by the integrity of those that offer them.

Neither will I regard (or look at) the peace offerings of your fat beasts] Whether sheep or oxen, or another distinct creature bigger than an ox, called in the Arabic dialect gamus, as Aben Ezra affirmeth, the French call it buffie, and we the buffe, or wild ox: all would not do; God would neither see nor hear, as it followeth.

Ver. 23. Take thou away from me the noise of thy songs] No more pleasing to me than the grunting of a hog or the braying of an ass, because hateless, heartless; for as every sound is not music, so neither is every musical sound melodious to God. The voice which is made in the mouth is nothing so sweet to our ears as that which comes from the depth of the breast. "Sing with grace in your hearts," is the best tune to all the psalms; which are therefore called "spiritual songs," #Col 3:16, both because they are indited by the Spirit, and are to be sung with the spirit, #1Co 14:15, and because they being so sung, do make us more spiritual in the use of them; while we sing David’s Psalms with David’s heart.

For I will not hear the melody of thy viols] Or of thine organ, harp, cittern, lute, bag pipe, for so some render it, with respect to the etymology of the word Nebel. The Greek rendereth it, Of the psalteries. What need we trouble ourselves much about those things whereof we can neither have proof nor profit, at least not profit enough to pay for the pains? God will not hear either their voice or instrument music, because the heart was wanting.

“ Non vex sed votum, non musica chordula, sed cor.”

The deeper and hollower the belly of the lute or viol is the pleasanter is the sound; the fleeter, the more grating and harsh in our ears. Think the same of God, and see how exceeding offensive to all his senses, yea, to his very soul, hypocrisy is, #Isa 1:11-13.

Ver. 24. But let judgment run down] Heb. roll down freely, plentifully, and plainly, ut devolutus monte praecipiti torrens, as the great billows of the sea, or as waves rolling over rocks, so let judgment and equity be constantly and vigorously administered and executed.

And righteousness as a mighty stream] That comes with a force, and bears down all before it. Fiat iustitia, runt orbis, Let justice be done whatever come of it. The sun might as soon be turned out of his course as Fabricius out of the track of truth and justice, saith the historian. How much better might this have been said of Job, Moses, Phineas, Nehemiah, &c., famous in their generations for brandishing the sword of justice against the friends of Baal, Balaam, and Bacchus, for turning the wheel over all such roaring monsters, such lewd and lawless Belialists, as, hardened with impunity, dare oppose with crest and breast whosoever or whatsoever standeth in the way of their wicked lusts and practices. Oh this was better than burnt offerings without this; this was that actual, magisterial, and majestic kind of devotion, that pleased God far better than an "ox that hath horns and hoofs."

Ver. 25. Have ye offered unto me sacrifices, &c.] i.e. To me only, and not to other gods also? did ye not begin betime to play the idolaters? and do ye not "fill up the measure of your fathers?" #Mt 23:32. They sojourned in Egypt, and brought thence a golden calf: Jeroboam sojourned there, and brought home two; which were no sooner up than you were down upon your knees, where still you continue at your mawmet worship. Is it not even so, O house of Israel? And was it not even so in the wilderness, where and when I bore with your "evil manners" (ετροποφορησα) "about the time of forty years," #Ac 13:18 (for full forty it was not, but thirty-eight only and some few months), and was provoked by you ten times, #Nu 14:22, when I had but newly brought you out of Egypt, #Am 3:1,2. So that your idolatry is hereditary; and therefore the more ingrained and to be abhorred. God alone is to be worshipped, #Ex 20:2,3 1Ki 18:21; truly that there be no halting, and totally that there be no halving. Be the gods of the heathen good fellows, saith one: the true God is a jealous God, and will not share his glory with another. For indeed he is the one, #De 6:4, and only God, #Ps 86:10, besides whom, #Ps 18:32, without whom, #1Sa 2:2, and beyond whom, #1Ki 8:6, there is none other, #De 4:39, nor any like him, #2Sa 7:22, nor any with him, #Isa 44:24; he is the only Lord, and besides him there is none other, #Joe 2:27.

Ver. 26. But ye have borne the tabernacle of your Moloch] That idols were wont to be carried upon men’s shoulders we may see, #Isa 56:7 /RAPC Bar 6:3 2:5. That Moloch or Milcom was the abomination of the Ammonites (who called their king as the Israelites called the true God, #Isa 44:6 33:22), see #1Ki 11:5; that the Israelites should do thus in the wilderness (where they had God’s tabernacle erected), carrying about them privily some portable chapels or pictures of these idols (as some hold they did, and Josephus seems to say as much), was monstrous wickedness, and the guise of men given up to a reprobate sense, #Ro 1:23 2Th 2:10,11.

And Chiun your images] That is, your notable image, the plural for the singular, as often; especially in names of dignity. Jerome here for Chiun hath Remphan; confer #Ac 7:43, and the commentators thereon. Aben Ezra thinks that by Chiun is meant the planet Saturn, called Chivan in the Arabic. And other Hebrews by the star of your god (that is, the star which is your god), understand Mercury.

Ver. 27. Therefore will cause you] Idolatry is a land desolating sin.

Beyond Damascus] And not only so, but also beyond Babylon, #Ac 7:43, by the way of Damascus, by Tiglathpileser, sent for by Ahaz for that purpose, #Isa 8:4 2Ki 15:29.

Chapter 6

Ver. 1. Woe to them that are at ease in Zion] That lie sleeping on both sides ( In utramvis aurora dormiunt), and slighting the former menaces, as Leviathan doth the iron weapons, #Job 41:27, that live as if ye were out of the reach of God’s rod; and as for all your enemies, ye puff at them, saying, We shall not be moved, we shall never be in adversity, #Ps 10:5,6. To these sleepers in Zion God here sends forth his summons (the word Hoi signifieth as well Heus as Vae, ho as wo, #Isa 55:1 Zec 2:6. Ho, ho, come forth), that were quiet and still, #Zec 1:11, lulled asleep by Satan, or rather. cast into a dead lethargy: Samson-like their enemies are upon them, and they fast asleep the while; Ishbosheth-like they stretch themselves upon their beds of ivory, till they lose, not their precious lives only, but their immortal souls. Security ushereth in destruction; those that are at ease in Zion shall be raised by a dreadful woe rung in their ears, that shall make their hearts fall down, and their hairs stand upright. In the froth of carnal security and sensual delights is bred that worm of conscience that never dieth, #Mr 9:44, and here begins to grub and gnaw; like as while the crocodile sleepeth with open mouth, the Ichneumon, or Indian rat, shoots himself into his bowels; after which he never is at ease, as having his entrails daily devoured; so that one while he will be in the water, and anon after on the land, till life fails him.

And trust in the mountain of Samaria] Are carnally confident and secure (πεποιθοσιν. Septuag.), as when good David also gotten upon his strong mountain, #Ps 30:6,7, but was soon confuted: "Thou didst hide thy face, and I was troubled." The best are apt by rest to contract rust; and being fully fed, to wax wanton, #De 32:15. To affect more mundi delicias quam Christi divitias, as one saith, the world’s dainties than Christ’s comforts: to trust in uncertain riches than to rely upon the living God, who giveth them all things richly to enjoy, #1Ti 6:17. This must be looked to; for it hath a woe hanging at the heels of it, #Jer 17:5,6 Ps 52:7,9.

Which are named chief of the nations] Heb. expressly named, declared, notified, celebrated,

chief] the head, or first-fruits, the head and height, principium, id est, praecipuum gentium. So Amalek is called the first of the nations, #Nu 24:20; haply they held themselves so: as the Egyptians afterwards boasted much of their antiquity, and the Chinese at this day do of their excellence and perspicuity above other nations. Many wicked ones are of great renown in this world, #Ps 73:4,6, and stand much upon their titles and terms of honour; who yet in the next generation shall be utterly forgotten, #Ps 109:13, for that their names are not written in heaven, #Re 17:8; and look how much they have glorified themselves, and lived deliciously, so much torment and ignominy shall be given them, #Re 18:7.

To whom the house of Israel came] The whole house of Israel, viz. the two tribes to Zion, the ten to Samaria, vel sacrorum causa, vel iudiciorum, saith Drusius, as to places of worship, and besides, courts of justice. Others sense it thus, The house of Israel came unto them, that is, the Israelites invaded those nations that once held Zion and Samaria, and succeeded them therein; not by any strength of their own, but by God’s mighty hand and outstretched arm, which they, ungrateful wretches, acknowledge not: but come in for themselves ( םהל), so Ribera rendereth it, quasi sibi tantum nati, se solos esse aliquid, as if they were the only proprietaries, the sole owners of all; and owned no service to any chief lord. Such insolence grows from security. See #Job 21:23.

Ver. 2. Pass ye unto Calneh and see] Take a voyage to and a view of those most famous bordering cities, Calneh, or Seleucia, in Mesopotamia on the east (whereof see #Ge 10:10, the beginning of Nimrod’s kingdom), Hamath the great, or Antiochia (now Aleppo, a famous market town), on the north. Then go down southward to Gath of the Philistines, which was of all the five satrapies potissima et potentissima, most strong and powerful, and is therefore called Methegammah, #2Sa 8:1 cf. 1Ch 18:1, because, being a town of great strength, it was, as it were, the bridle, whereby the whole country about was kept in awe: it was afterwards known by the name of Diocaesarea. Away to these neighbouring cities, and see in them, as in so many telescopes, how much more God hath done for you than for them in every respect; the greater is your guilt, and the deeper will be your judgment in the end, for abuse of these rich mercies, of a fertile soil, a large empire, to security, oppression, and other detestable vices and villanies.

Be they better than these kingdoms] sc. of Judah and Israel? which were certainly multis nominibus laudatissima, very fruitful and pleasant countries, #De 8:7-9 Nu 14:7,8, whatsoever Strabo spitefully reporteth to the contrary, being therein worse than Rabshakeh, #Isa 36:17.

Or their border grearer than your border] sc. Till the Babylonians, Syrians, and Assyrians took part of your country from you, and cooped you up, cut you short. And now that you are so straitened for room, doth not the Lord recompense you in multitudes of people? Judea was not over two hundred miles long and fifty miles broad, say geographers; and yet what large armies brought they into the field! Observe, then, saith the prophet, the great things that God hath done for you above other nations, and walk accordingly; or else take lessons out of their losses and damages, and know that the case will be your own: Aliorum perclitio vestra sitcantio: Learn by other men’s harms to beware.

Ver. 3. Ye that put far away the evil day] Woe to you that would do so if you could; that fondly persuade yourselves there is no such danger in evil doing as the prophets pretend: but that all shall be hail and well with you, though ye walk in the imagination of your hearts, to add drunkenness to thirst, #De 29:19, and to heap up sin as high as heaven, #Re 18:5. This cursed security and hope of impunity is the source of much wickedness in the world. See #Pr 7:19,20 Mt 24:48. {See Trapp on "Pr 7:19"} {See Trapp on "Pr 7:20"} {See Trapp on "Mt 24:48"} Quae longinqua sunt, non metuuntur (Arist. Rhet. l. 2, c. 5). It is a sad thing when men shall say, as #Eze 12:27, "The vision that he seeth is for many day to come, and he prophesieth of the times that are far off." This atheistic conceit accelerates the judgment: #Eze 12:28, "Therefore say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God; There shall none of my words be prolonged any more, but the word which I have spoken shall be done, saith the Lord God." Tarditatemque supplicii, gravitate compensabo (Val. Max.).

And cause the seat of violence to come near] Amota Iustitiae sella: setting aside the care of justice together with the fear of God, for whom ye ought to have reserved the chief room in all your public meetings, as the Ethiopian judges are said to do. Atque vi angeritur res, might overcomes right; and robberies are daily done by authority. See #Ps 94:20. The throne of iniquity shall not have fellowship with God; neither will he take the wicked by the hand, whatever those corrupt vice gods do (as we may in the worst sense best term them), "whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not," #2Pe 2:3. The evil day that they put far away will suddenly surprise them, and then what will they do when God riseth up? and when he visiteth, what will they answer him? #Job 31:14 (Clandian, l. 2, in Eutrop.).

“ Sed quam caecus inest vitiis amor? omne futurum,

Despicitur, suadentque brevem praesentia fructum.”

Ver. 4. That lie upon beds of ivory] Which was a commodity far fetched (even out of India), and dearly bought; precious and sumptuous, #Eze 27:15. The wealthier sort used to deck their houses with such kind of beds decked with ivory ( lectis eburatis, as Plautus phraseth it), as #Es 1:6, with gold and silver; hence their houses are called houses of ivory, #Am 3:15 1Ki 22:39. See Plin. lib. 33. cap. 11; Horat. l. 2. Sat. 6. Here, then, is condemned their luxury, and abuse of God’s good gifts, with neglect of the public welfare, and contempt of judgments threatened.

And stretch themselves upon their couches] Pandiculantur in suis cubilibus, so Rabbi Solomon. Others render it, redundantibus ac diffluentibus. Woe to them that delight in overlong and large coverlets, curtains, &c., superfluously hanging down on all sides upon the very ground: so Kimchi. The Seventy and Vulgate render it, Woe to those that wantonize upon their couches, melting in sensual pleasures. Κατασπαταλωντες. Lascivientes. Deliciantes. Compare #1Ti 5:6 Jas 5:5. God grudgeth not his people an honest affluence, #Ps 23:4, but granteth them all things richly to enjoy, #1Ti 6:17. Howbeit he requireth them to be sober and watch; not making provision for the flesh, to live after the lusts thereof, but walking decently as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, #Ro 13:13,14.

And eat the lambs out of the flock] E grege, id est, egregios ac optimos, the very best and fattest morsels, pampering their paunches; swinish belly gods.

And the calves out of the midst of the stall] The French call them high-grass-veals, Veaux de haute graisse. Nothing would down with them but tid bits, λιπαρα και λαμπρα, dainty and goodly, #Re 18:9. Those abbey lubbers of the Romish synagogue are compared to fed horses, pampered in their cloisters (as war horses in their stalls or stables), and prepared unto battle, #Re 9:7. Lawful it is, I grant, at some times to eat of the fat and drink of the sweet, #Ne 8:10, and to please the appetite, #De 4:26, to gratify it with what it liketh and lusteth after. But yet it must still be remembered, that it is a sin to feed without fear; and a shame for a servant of God to be a slave to his palate. "Eat such things as are set before you," παρατιθεμενα, saith Christ to his disciples, be it never so homely or wholesome, #Lu 10:8. And #Ge 9:3, after, "Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you," it is added, "even as the green herb have I given you all things," that is, soberly and without curiosity, to take and make use of such meats as are at hand, as Dr Willet interprets it. And this Nature seems to teach man, in giving him so narrow a mouth, throat, and belly; whereas to swine she hath given a wide mouth, a very thick neck, a large belly, and but a very little brains; that they might the sooner grow fat, and take no other thought but for the belly, saith Bodine.

Ver. 5. That chant (or quaver) to the sound of the viol] That sing division with much variation of their voices, and many distinctions of diverse tones, modulations fractions. Particularizant, they sing their parts in concert. The Hebrew root word signifieth the single grains of grapes that remain after the vintage; or the particular berries, #Le 19:10. Our word parting, answereth to the Hebrew peret. It is their wanton and unseasonable music (emasculating, dissolving, and drawing out their spirits) that they are here threatened for. This abuse of music (given to men for better purposes) is elsewhere condemned, #Am 5:23 Isa 5:12 Ex 32:18 Ec 2:8. God made not man more avium minurire, to be chirping of birds to sport on earth as leviathan doth in the sea; to spend his whole time (as the people of Tombutum, in Africa, are said to do) in singing and dancing; and, when he is cast out of one paradise, to make himself another. It is charged as a foul fault upon those sensualists in St James, that they had "lived in pleasure on the earth, and been wanton," #Jas 5:5.

And invent to themselves instruments of music, like David] Whose example likely they pleaded to patronize their fiddlings and chanting of menial songs. But his music and theirs agreed like harp and harrow, as the proverb is. Two may do the same thing and yet it not be the same; because not from the same principles and for the same purposes: as we see in Cain and Abel, the Pharisee and the publican, David and these singsters, who did nothing less than help forward their devotion by music, as did David; and as did our late holy Esty, who, when he sat and heard a sweet concert of music, seemed upon this occasion carried up for the time beforehand to the place of his rest, saying very passionately, What music may we think there is in heaven? (Dr Hall’s Art of Div. Medit.)

Ver. 6. That drink wine in bowls] Non in scyphis, cyathis, aut calicibus, not in cups, pots, or chalices, but in vessels of price, and of largest receipt, that they may be counted and called (as young Cicero was) Tricongii, such as can drink whole ones, and no small ones either. (The Seventy and the Chaldee render it, In phials; others, in goblets.) Diotimus, of Athens, for his excessive drinking, was termed χωνη, Tun-dish. Alexander the Great gloried that he could drink down any man; and one time, inviting many to supper, he provided a crown of one hundred and eighty pounds to be given to those that drank most; and forty-one of the company killed themselves with drinking to get that crown. Darius, King of Persia, caused this to be engraven upon his tomb; I was able to drink much wine, and to bear it bravely. Was not this to glory in his shame? had he no way else to show his valour? Did he never take notice of that Persian law, that it should not be lawful for their king to be drunk but only once a year, when they sacrificed to the sun, whom they took to be the greatest of the gods? How much better Bathsheba, in her Lemuel’s lesson, "It is not for kings, Lemuel, it is not for kings to drink wine, nor for princes strong drink: lest they drink and forget the law," #Pr 31:4,5. And if not for kings, much less is it for others to be "drunk with wine, wherein is excess," #Eph 5:18, lest with Nabal, and the rich glutton, they drink deep of the wine of God’s wrath, and have the full vials of his vengeance poured upon them for ever.

And anoint themselves with the chief ointments] After the manner of the Jewish nation, whereof see #2Sa 12:20 Ec 9:8 Lu 7:38,46 Ps 23:5 104:15 Mt 6:17. They spare for no cost or pains to please all their senses. And such a prodigal pleasure monger was that rich citizen’s son, mentioned in the second part of the Theatre of God’s Judgments; who, to please all his five senses at once, allowed to the delight of every sense a several hundred pounds. For which end, 1. He bespake a curious fair room richly hanged, and furnished with the most exquisite pictures, to please the eye. 2. He had all the choicest music that could be heard of, to give content to the ear. 3. He had all the aromatics and odoriferous perfumes, to delight his scent in smelling. 4. All the candies, preserves, junkets, even to the stretching of the apothecary’s or confectionery’s art, to please his taste. 5. And, lastly, a beautiful and fair strumpet lodged with him in a soft bed, and the daintiest linen that could be compassed to accommodate his touch: and all these this epicure (more than ever Sardanapalus did) enjoyed at one instant. He spent 30,000 pounds in three years, and swore after all, that if he had ten times more than ever he had, he would spend it all to live one week like a god, though he were sure to be damned in hell the next day after.

They are not grieved for the affliction of Joseph] i.e. Of the Israelites, #Ps 80:2 77:16 Am 5:6. Joseph is mentioned and put for all the rest, because he was famous among his brethren, vel ob mala quae pendit, vel ob bona quae rependit, both for the evils that he suffered and for the good turns that he returned (Aug. de Doct. Christian. lib. 4, cap. 6). When poor Joseph was badly handled by his merciless brethren; he could not be heard, though he used many entreaties, #Ge 37:23 42:21. They, when they had cast him into the pit, there to pine and perish with hunger, sat down to eat, and so to ease themselves of any remorse of conscience that might be wrought in them. They should have been sick at heart (as the word here signifieth) for the affliction, the confraction, the breaking to shivers, of Joseph ( םירכשׁ): poor Reuben was so as far as he dared to show it; and Joseph did not forget his kindness when he came to his greatness. God, who is all heart, will never forget those that forget not his afflicted, but commiserate and relieve them as they have opportunity and ability.

Ver. 7. Therefore now shall they go captive with the first] Heb. in the head of those that go captive: as they have been first in the degrees of honour and of sin, so shall they be now of punishment, according to that saying of the Centurists, Ingentia beneficia, ingentia flagitia, ingentia supplicia vast blessings, immoderate disgraces, enormous punishments (Magdeburg). This they shall have of God’s hand, they shall lie down in sorrow, #Isa 50:11; yea, many sorrows shall be to those wicked ones, #Ps 32:10, these merciless men shall not have the least mercy shown to them, #Jas 2:13. God will surely set off all hearts from such, as he did from Haman, for whom in his misery not one man openeth his mouth once to intercede, and he will punish, magnum luxum magno luctu, as one saith, great luxury with great necessity.

And the banquet of them that stretched themselves] They shall neither have mind nor money to make feasts, that were wont to lay on in all sorts of superfluities. That prodigal abovementioned was by a just hand of God reduced to extreme penury, and cast off by all his former acquaintance. That luxurious Roman, Apicius (the expenses of whose kitchen amounted to more than two millions of gold), having eaten up his estate, and fearing poverty, poisoned himself; leaving behind him ten books of direction how to furnish and set forth a feast with all manner of varieties, which now he could sooner talk of than take of. The word here rendered banquet is taken for a funeral feast, #Jer 16:5, and so some think the sense here is; they shall be carried captive into a far country, and there be deprived of the honour of burials; which is a judgment elsewhere threatened, #Jer 22:18,19. Aben Ezra rendereth it, facesset canticum, the song of the wanton shall be set packing; and for this he allegeth, that in the Arabic dialect the root word here used signifieth to lift up the voice, either for joy or grief. The Seventy render it the neighing of horses; as noting their immoderate lust, according to #Jer 5:8. And this sense Ribera commendeth.

Ver. 8. The Lord God hath sworn by himself] Heb. by his soul, which is himself; since whatsoever is in God is God. So #Am 5:2 Ge 22:16 Heb 6:16,17. Or, He hath sworn by his soul, that is, Serie et ex animo, Seriously and heartily. Among the heathens ex animi sui sententia was instead of an oath.

Saith the Lord God of hosts] Who hath power enough in his hand to perform what he hath so solemnly assured.

I abhor the excellency (or, the pomp and pride) of Jacob] So Basil, speaking of the Western Church, Odi fastum istius Ecclesiae, saith he, I hate their pride. This he elsewhere calleth οφρυν δυτικην, the Western brow, from the forehead, that seat of pride and arrogance, which at length occasioned that lamentable separation of the Eastern or Greek Church from communion with the Latin; the other four patriarchs dividing themselves from the bishop of Rome. Pride is an odious evil; fitly compared by one to a great swelling in the body, which unfits it for any good service; and is apt to putrify, and break, and run with loathsome and foul matter; so doth pride disable the soul from doing duty, and at last breaks forth into odious deeds, abominable to God and man. There are those who by excellence or glory here understand their glorious temple and other privileges, wherein they so much gloried, see #Ps 47:5; but Mercer thinks it rather meant of the ten tribes than of the two, whose crown of pride is elsewhere taxed, #Isa 28:1 Ho 7:10. "The pride of Israel testifieth to his face," it breaketh out in his forehead, as a great master pock.

Therefore will I deliver up the city with all that is therein] Heb. with the fulness thereof; both persons and things are all forfeited, and shall be seized by the enemy; be the city of Samaria never so rich a Cargazon, so full a magazine of men and means, I will shut them up (so the word signifieth), after a strait siege, into the enemies’ hand, who shall make a spoil of them.

Ver. 9. And it shall come to pass, if there remain ten men, &c.] That is, many, as #Zec 8:23 Le 26:26, because ten is the utmost of single number: q.d. though a considerable company escape the enemy, yet pestilence or some other destruction shall put an end to them.

They shall die] See this fulfilled #2Ki 17:5. In which common calamity what a happiness had they, that belonging to the election of grace, could confidently say, as #Hab 1:12, "Art thou not from everlasting, O Lord my God, mine Holy One? We shall not die" (or if we do, death may kill us, but cannot hurt us, Occidere potest, non laedere). "O Lord, thou hast ordained them for judgment; and, O mighty God, thou hast established them for correction." The wicked are killed with death, #Re 2:23, undone by it; to them it is no other but a trap door to hell, as to the saints it is as the valley of Achor, a door of hope, the very daybreak of eternal brightness, #Ho 2:15.

Ver. 10. And a man’s uncle shall take him up] Him, that is, every one of the ten before mentioned, being now dead of the plague, shall his uncle or dearest friend take up on his own shoulders, for want of the ordinary mercenary officers (called by the Latins Vespillones, Libitinarii, Pollinctores), their best friends shall be forced to bury or burn their dead corpses. So Seneca in Oedipo.

“ portat hunc aeger parens

Supremum ad ignem, mater hunc amens gerit,

Properatque ut alium regerat in eundem rogum.”

To bring out the bones out of the house] For burial, as #1Sa 31:13, the flesh being first burnt. Bones are a part of a man’s body; and therefore to be committed to the earth, or laid up in a safe place, as Joseph’s were, #Ex 13:19 Jos 24:32, and with his, the rest of the patriarchs doubtless, #Ac 7:16. This is one of the dues of the dead, τα νομιζομενα: 1. In honour of God, who made man’s body with admirable art, #Ps 139:5, and as it were by the book, #Ps 139:14-16. 2. Next because the dead body was sometime a temple of the Holy Ghost, and an instrument of many holy actions, #1Co 3:16,17 2Co 6:16. 3. Because it shall be raised one day and conformed to Christ’s glorious body, the standard, #Php 2:21. "We know," saith the same apostle, "that when Christ, our life, shall appear, we shall appear with him in glory"; like as in the transfiguration, that body of Moses which was hidden in the valley of Moab appeared with Christ in the hill of Tabor.

And shall say unto him that is by the sides of the house] To him that burneth the dead, as before, that assisteth a man’s uncle to inter him. The Jews did not usually burn, but bury; yet sometimes they did, #Jer 34:5 1Ki 13:2; and at this time they were forced by the raging pestilence to do it (as Jerome here noteth), for the preventing of stench and further infection.

Is there yet any with thee] sc. left alive; or hath death made a clean riddance? Or thus: Are there yet any more dead corpses which I may carry forth for the burial?

And he shall say, No] Or, And he shall say an end, a total consumption; they are all dead and gone. A sad verdict.

Then shall he say, Hold thy tongue] sc. bear it patiently, fret not, murmur not, it is God’s doing, #Ps 39:9. Hold thy peace at the presence of the Lord God, #Zep 1:7.

For we may not make mention of the name of the Lord] This is vox desperantis, the voice of despair and despondency; and it is as if he had said, it is bootless to pray; for God is set to plague us, and will not be pacified: Surely there is no hope; but we are all "free among the dead, like the slain that lie in the grave, whom God remembereth no more," #Ps 88:5, neither helpeth it us to remember or mention him any more. Men under sharp afflictions are apt to think that there is left them neither hope of better nor place of worse, as the Church in the Lamentations. Others sense it otherwise; but to me this seemeth the likeliest.

Ver. 11. For, behold, the Lord commandeth] Calamities, and they come; the Chaldeans, and they are at hand with their battle axes, but it is he that gives them their commission, and biddeth them fall on.

And he will smite the great house with breaches, &c.] i.e. He will destroy rich and poor together; pale death will knock at both their houses with an even foot ( aequo pulsat pede), as in time of plague, earthquake, or the like epidemic evil. The grave is the congregation house of all living, #Job 30:23, whereinto men chop often before they think; as a man that walks in the snow may fall into a clay pit. The mortal scythe is master of the royal sceptre; and it mows down the lilies of the crown as well as the grass of the field. Death is the only king "against whom there is no rising up," as Agur phraseth the most absolute predominance, #Pr 30:31; it levelleth lords and lowlies, and lays all waste; breaking down the greater houses and cleaving the lesser, with an utter extermination of all. Search you therefore, search you, O nation not desired; before the decree come forth, &c., #Zep 2:1,2. Being wise after the fact helps not; repentance, though true, may come too late in respect of temporal judgments, as in Moses, #De 1:37, and David, #2Sa 12:10.

Ver. 12. Shall horses run upon the rock] Is it possible they should do so and not first break their hoofs, and then their necks? will the rider therefore venture there? were it not matchless madness in him?

Will one plough there with oxen] Sure he will conceive it too hard a tug, and too vain a labour. Jerome rendereth it Bubalis, with wild oxen; which, not accustomed to the yoke, are like to make but wild work wherever they are ploughed with. Now as there is no good horse racing upon a rock, nor fit ploughing there; so neither must you ever hope to escape unpunished, or to keep up your commonwealth unshattered, so long as ye deal thus preposterously, perversely, and absurdly, #Pr 14:14. That of Virgil is not much unlike:

“ Atque idem iungat vulpes, et mulgeat hircos.”

For ye have turned judgment into gall, &c.] Or into poison; the Chaldee rendereth it, into the head of hurtful serpents. The word seemeth to signify the poison of serpents, which is in the head. See #Ho 10:4. {See Trapp on "Ho 10:4"}

And the fruit of righteousness into hemlock] Or wormwood, as if ye were akin to that star in the Revelation that is styled Wormwood, #Re 8:11, that great Antichrist, who would make the world believe that he hath power, de iniustitia facere iustitiam, ex nihilo aliquid, ex virtute vitium, that is, of injustice to make justice, of nothing to make something, of virtue vice, to dispense with any of the Ten Commandments, to make new articles of the Creed, to dispose of all kingdoms at his pleasure, and what not (Bellarm. lib. 4, de Pontif. Roman.)? Pope John XXIII saith, that he may grant a dispensation against the law of nature and of nations, against St. Paul and St Peter, against the four Gospels. The Council of Constance comes in with a Non obstante against Christ’s own institution, withholding the cup from the sacrament; and the like for priests’ marriages, prayers in a known tongue, singing of Psalms. When the cardinals meet to choose a Pope they make a vow, whosoever is chosen he shall swear to such articles as they make. And Sleidan telleth us, that the Pope is no sooner chosen but he breaks them all, and checks their insolencies, as if they went about to limit his power, to whom all power is given both in heaven and earth, both in spirituals and temporals. And, indeed, he is called the beast, in respect of his civil power, and the false prophet, in respect of his spiritual; and the star Wormwood, because being himself in the gall of bitterness and bond of perdition, he turneth all judgment into gall, and the fruit of righteousess into wormwood: see #Am 5:7.

Ver. 13. Ye which rejoice in a thing of nought] In the creature, saith a Lapide, which is a mere nothing: in your wealth and strength (called horns in the next clause), which are an uncertainty, an obscurity (αδηλοτης), as the apostle deemed them, #1Ti 6:17, and have no solid subsistence, said Solomon, #Pr 23:5, though the foolish world call them substance and goods. Indeed, it is only opinion that sets the price upon them, as when gold is raised from twenty shillings to twenty-two, the gold is the same; estimation only raiseth it. It is said of the people of the East Indies, in the Isle Ceylon, that having an ape’s tooth gotten from them, which was a consecrated thing by them, they offered an incredible mass of treasure to recover it. Such things of nought are highly prized and pursued by the world’s ουτιδανοι, by worthless persons, such as Antiochus was in all his state, #Da 11:21, and Agrippa in all his pomp (or as the Greek hath it, in all his phantasy or vain show, μετα παλλης φαντασιας, #Ac 25:23), and as these voluptuaries in the text, who had their wine and their music, fat calves and choicest ointments, wherein they held themselves happy, #Am 6:4-6, but the prophet telleth them that in rejoicing in these low things they rejoiced in a thing of nought; they fed altogether upon ashes, a deceived heart had turned them aside, so that they could not deliver themselves from these empty vanities, nor say (as wise men would have done), "Is there not a lie in my right hand?" #Isa 44:20.

Which say, Have we not taken to us horns] Yet, no doubt, but such as God, by his carpenters, can soon cut off, #Zec 1:20,21, or without them, by his own bare hand, #Ps 75:10. But what an arrogant brag is here! Have we not taken? and to us? and horns? and by our own strength? Hic Deus nihil fecit, Here God did nothing; they were all the doers; so small a wind blows up a bubble,

“ Sic leve sic parvum est, animum quod laudis avarum

Subruit, aut reficit.—”

It is a notable witty expression of Luther; By men’s boasting of what they have done, saith he, Haec ego feci, haec ego feci, This and that I have done, they become nothing else but faeces, that is, dregs: if themselves were anything they would not thus rejoice in a thing of nothing; they would not crack in this sort.

Ver. 14. But, behold, I will raise up against you a nation, &c.] Which shall be a cooler to your courage, a rebater to your swelth, a means to take you a link lower, and to stain the glory of your pride. I tell you not what a nation it is, that you may imagine the worst; but you will find their quiver is an open sepulchre, they are all mighty men, and no less merciless, #Jer 5:16,17.

And they shall afflict you (or crush you) from the entering in of Hamath unto the river of the wilderness] From one end of your land to the other; that as ye have filled it from corner to corner with your uncleannesses, #Ezr 9:11, so there may pass over it an overflowing scourge to wash the foul face of it, as once the old world. Hamath was before noted to be Antiochia, which was one of the bounds of the land of Israel to the north-east.

The river of the wilderness] Is elsewhere called the river of Egypt, as some will have it: see #Nu 34:5,8 De 3:17 Jos 13:3 15:47, where the wilderness was, #Joe 1:20. I cannot but concur with Kimchi, who by the river of the valleys here understandeth the Dead Sea, comparing this text with #2Ki 14:25 De 3:17, it being common in Scripture to call lakes and great rivers by the name of seas, #Lu 5:1 cf. Nu 34:11. The Dead Sea also is in human authors called the lake Asphaltites, the lake of Palestina, of Sodom, &c. It lieth to the south-west; and is elsewhere made the bound of the promised land, #Nu 34:3 Jos 15:2.

Chapter 7

Ver. 1. Thus hath the Lord God showed unto me] sc. In a prophetic vision: this being the first of those five that follow to the end of the prophecy; all foretelling the evils that should befall this people, to whom Amos is again sent, as Ahijah was to Jeroboam’s wife, with heavy tidings, and as Ezekiel was afterwards to his rebellious countrymen, with a roll written full of lamentations, and mourning, and woe, #Eze 2:10.

And, behold, he formed grasshoppers] Or, locusts, forerunners of famine, #Joe 1:4, {See Trapp on "Joe 1:4"} or (as some will), of the Assyrians, whom the Divine justice made a scorpion to Israel, as Israel had been a scourge to Judah. When the Israelites were in their flourish, as the grass or wheat is in the beginning of the shooting up of the latter growth, they had been first mowed by Benhadad, King of Syria; but, growing up again under Jeroboam, their king, they were devoured by Pul and his army, as by so many greedy locusts.

In the beginning of the shooting up of the latter growth] For in those fat and fertile countries they use

“ Luxuriem segetum tenera depascere in herba.”

Now if the latter growth were eaten up too, what else could follow but extreme famine?

It was the latter growth after the king’s mowings] Or sheep shearings, as some read it; but the former is better: and Diodati here noteth that it is thought that the kings did take the first crop, in esum et usum iumentorum, to keep their wax horses and for other services; leaving the latter mowings for other cattle, who were taught to say, After your majesty, is good manners.

Ver. 2. When they had made an end of eating] Not the grain only, but the grass, to the very roots; besides a pestilent stench left behind them; when, I say, they had done their worst. Prayer is the best lever at a dead lift; as is to be seen, #Jas 5:18; upon the prayer of Elias the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit, after three years and a half’s drought; when it might well have been thought that root, and fruits, and all had been dried up, and that prayer had come too late. But that is seldom seen; as all God’s people can say experimentally. But whatshall we think of Jamblicus, a heathen author, who hath such a commendation of prayer, which might well beseem an experienced Christian? He calleth it Rerum divinarum ducem et lucem, copulam qua homines cum Deo coniunguntur, the guide and light of Divine duties, the band whereby men are united to God (Lib. 5, cap. 27). Nay, he proceedeth and saith, that prayer is clavis instar, qua Dei penetralia aperiuntur, instead of a key, wherewith God’s cabinet is opened; and much more to the same purpose. All this the prophet knew full well, and therefore sets to work in good earnest; and, as when a cart is in a quagmire, if the horses feel it coming they will pull the harder till they have it out, So he.

Then I said, O Lord God, forgive, I beseech thee] Sin, he knew, was their greatest enemy; the mother of all their misery. Of that therefore he prays for pardon, and then he knew all should be well; as when the sore is healed, the plaster falleth off. Of Christ it is said, that "He shall save his people from their sins," #Mt 1:21, as the greatest of evils; and the Church in #Ho 14:2, cries, "Take away all iniquity." Feri Domine, feri, saith Luther, nam a peccatis absolutus sum. Smite me as much as thou pleasest, now that thou hast forgiven my sins.

By whom shall Jacob arise? for he is small] Here is much in few. It is Jacob, thy confederate; and he is down upon all four: and he is but small, low, and little, and (as some render it) Quis stabit Iacobo? "Behold, he whom thou lovest is sick," #Joh 11:3. They that are thine by covenant are at a very great under; trodden on by the bulls of Bashan, as a poor shrub of the wilderness; so the Psalmist’s word imports, #Ps 102:17. "Why shouldest thou be as a man astonished" (that knows not whether he had best help or not), or "as a mighty man that cannot save? yet thou, O Lord, art in the midst of us, and we are called by thy name; leave us not," #Jer 14:9. Thus the prophets indeed prayed for their unkind countrymen; so did Paul, Athanasius, Luther. I have obtained of God, said he, that never while I live shall the Pope prevail against my country: when I am gone let those pray that can pray. And, indeed, he was no sooner gone but all Germany was on a flame: as when Austin’s head was laid, Hippo was soon surprised by the enemy; and when Pareus’s, Heidelberg.

Ver. 3. The Lord repented for this: It shall not be, saith the Lord] Here was mutatio rei, non Dei; facti, non consilii: a change, not of God’s will, but of his work; therefore (by way of explication) it followeth, "It shall not be, saith the Lord." To speak properly, there can be no repentance in God, #1Sa 15:20, but this is spoken after the manner of men; and it notably setteth forth the power of faithful prayer, able, after a sort, to alter God’s mind, and to transfuse a dead palsy into the hands of omnipotence, #Ex 32:10, where God is fain to bespeak his own freedom; and Moses is represented as the great chancellor of heaven.

Ver. 4. And, behold, the Lord God] Whose asterisk, or starry note, this "behold" is, saith Tarnovius, stirring up to attention. Another compareth it to a hand in the margin of a book, pointing to some notable thing. Another, to the sounding of a trumpet before some proclamation; or to the ringing of a bell before the sermon of some famous preacher.

The Lord God called to contend by fire] That is, by parching heat and drought, causing dearth, as #Joe 1:19. For which purpose God called his angels, those ministering spirits, that execute his judgments upon the wicked (as they did once upon Sodom), to contend for him (a metaphor from civil courts), to plead for him by fire, to destroy the perverse Israelites by fire and brimstone, #Isa 66:16 Eze 38:22, as they had done Sodom and Gomorrah (so some interpret it according to the letter); or by the woe of war, compared to fire, #Isa 26:11, as being a misery which all words (however wide) want compass to express; or, by immoderate heat and drought, as before; so great, that

it devoured the great deep] as that fire of the Lord in Elijah’s time licked up the water that was in the trench, #1Ki 18:38. See #Isa 51:10.

And did eat up a part] Or, it devoured also the field: not only the waters in and under the earth, that serve to make it fruitful, but a part of the earth itself; which was altogether above and against the common course of nature. Some render it, and did eat up that part, or that field, sc. that mentioned #Am 7:1, the king’s field; that as the king had chiefly offended, so he should be principally punished. Others interpret it by #Am 4:7, "One piece was rained upon, and the piece whereon it rained not withered."

Ver. 5. Then said I, O Lord God, cease, I beseech thee] See #Am 7:2; and persevering in prayer for the public remember to plead, not merit, but misery, #Ps 79:8,9, and with all humility to acknowledge that "it is of the Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not," #La 3:22.

Ver. 6. The Lord repented for this] As he is gracious, #Ex 22:27, and quickly repenteth him of the evil, #Joe 2:13. Redire nos, non perire desiderat (Chrysologus). "I said, I would scatter them into corners," &c., #De 32:26,27. Mercy could not behold such strange wrath and cruelty and not weep herself even sick, as it were.

This also shall not be, saith the Lord] So ready is he to yield himself overcome by the suits of his servants, Flectitur iratus voce rogante Deus. See #Am 7:3.

Ver. 7. This he showed me, and behold] See #Am 7:4.

The Lord stood upon a wall made by a plumbline, &c.] Here he was set, or stood firm (as the word signifieth), as not to be removed from his purpose by any entreaties: he was fully resolved upon their ruin, and it should be done exactly, ad amussim, by line and by rule, as it were, and with so much justice, and most exquisite diligence, that against it should lie no manner of exception. It is said of the Areopagites, in Athens, that their sentence was so upright that none could ever say he was unjustly condemned of them. How much more true is this of the righteous judgment of God, who must needs therefore be justified, and every mouth stopped? #Mt 22:12. And he was speechless, because self-condemned, #Tit 3:11, and had not what to request.

With a plumbline in his hand] To show that he would accurately examine their actions and punish their depravities, {#La 2:8 2Ki 21:13} not sparing them as heretofore. A heavy sentence surely, #Ps 130:8.

Ver. 8. Behold, I will set a plumbline] I will call them to a strict account, and show them no favour, #Jer 16:3, I will now actually execute my justice which I have hitherto suspended; and pay them home for the new and the old; bringing upon them an evil, an only evil, without mixture of mercy, #Eze 7:5.

I will not again pass by them any more] A metaphor from men that pass by such things as they slight and count inconsiderable; winking at small faults as not worthy to be reckoned upon. Hence, #Mic 7:18, God is said to pardon iniquity and pass by transgression; as elsewhere he is said to bind them up in a bundle, to seal them up in a bag, to cast them behind his back, to remove them "as far as the east is from the west," #Ps 103:12, so that he beholdeth no sin in Jacob nor perverseness in Israel, #Nu 22:21. The Church, privy to her own infirmities, calleth herself black, #So 1:5, but Christ calleth her fair all over, #So 4:7. She saith, God hath punished us less than our sins, #Ezr 9:13. He saith, She hath received double for her sins, #Isa 40:2. Too much, saith God; too little, saith she. O beautiful contention! But this is a privilege proper to the communion of saints, with whom God will not deal according to the rigour of his law (as he doth with the wicked), but according to his prerogative.

Ver. 9. And the high places of Isaac shall be desolate] The Edomites also came of Isaac; but by a synecdoche {a} the Israelites only are here, and #Am 7:16, to be understood. Like as elsewhere Heber is put for the Israelites only, #Nu 24:24, and Joseph for Ephraim, #Re 7:8. Some think that the high places of Isaac are here mentioned to show that they were erected by the people in an apish imitation, either of Beersheba, where Isaac worshipped, or of Mount Moriah, where Isaac should have been offered: and that Isaac is here written with sin, and not tsadi, to show that God held himself not adored, but derided by those high places of derision, or those ridiculous altars, which therefore he threateneth to desolate and lay waste.

And I will rise against the house of Jeroboam with the sword] As a prelude to the utter extermination of all by the Assyrians. See this fulfilled, #2Ki 15:10 17:5,6; Jeroboam was very prosperous and victorious; yet designed to destruction. It is said of wicked men, that foenea quadam felicitate temporaliter floreant, they flourish today as grass, and tomorrow are cast into the oven, #Mt 6:30: and as the metal whereof men make glass is nearest melting when it shineth brightest, so are graceless persons nearest destruction when at greatest lustre. The Turks, observing that few of their viziers die in their beds, have this proverb among them, that the greatest man is but as a statue of glass.

{a} A figure by which a more comprehensive term is used for a less comprehensive or vica versa; as whole for part or part for whole, genus for species or species for genus, etc. ŒD

Ver. 10. Then Amaziah the priest of Bethel] Observing that the prophet had foretold a desolation, and not prayed as before that it might be averted; because he saw God was fully resolved, and their destruction determined.

Amos hath conspired against thee in the land] Thus Elijah was the troubler of Israel, Jeremiah a seedsman of sedition, Christ an enemy to Caesar, Luther a trumpet of rebellion; all contra-remonstrants, anti-magistratical. As Athaliah cried, Treason, treason, when herself was the greatest traitor; and as in Nero’s days sedition was unicum crimen eorum qui crimine vacabunt (Lipsius), laid ordinarily to the charge of those that were most free from it, so was it here. "Amos hath conspired," &c., whereas Amos might well have said, as Latimer did, As for sedition, for aught that I know, methinks I should not need Christ, if I might so say. Religion is an utter enemy to rebellion; and as there are few conscionable Christians (prophets especially) that have not passed under this calumniation, so he cannot be rightly esteemed such a one that deserveth it. But Amaziah’s honour and incomes were now at stake; as he well perceived when he heard Amos say, Go not up to Bethel, &c., the high places of Isaac shall be destroyed; and hence his zeal against the prophet; like as Erasmus told the Elector of Saxony, that the Pope and his shavelings were therefore so sharp set against Luther because he lifted at the triple crown, and sought to bring down the monks’ fat paunches.

The land is not able to bear all his words] His burdensome prophecies, {#Mal 1:1} {See Trapp on "Mal 1:1"} much less can I endure them, or any faithful servant of thine, true to his trust. Such a lying accusation we read of, #Es 3:8, made by haughty Haman against the innocent Jews, that they kept not the king’s laws, and that therefore it were good policy to weed them out, as not to be longer endured. So Francis, King of France, desiring to excuse to the Protestant princes of Germany his cruel persecution of the Lutherans in his kingdom, wrote to them that he looked upon them all as Anabaptists, and as enemies to civil government; and therefore used such severity against them. This gave occasion to Calvin to write his admirable Institutions, to vindicate our religion from that foul aspersion (Saultet. Annal. 454). The like devilish policy was afterwards used to blanch over that horrid French massacre. For it was given out, that the Protestants had conspired against the king, the queen mother, the king’s brethren, the King of Navarre, and the princes of the blood. There was also coin stamped in memory of the matter, in the forepart whereof with the king’s picture, was this inscription, Virtus in rebelles; power on rebels, and on the other side, Pietas excitavit iustitiam: Piety hath stirred up justice. Here was a fair glove drawn upon a foul hand; and this they learned from the devil, who was first a slanderer and then a murderer; as those that have a mind to kill another man’s dog make the world believe he was mad first, that they may do it with the better pretext.

Ver. 11. For thus Amos saith, Jeroboam shall die by the sword, &c.] When did Amos say so? He said indeed that the house of Jeroboam should be smitten with the sword, #Am 7:9, and this Amaziah maliciously transferreth to the person of Jeroboam, the more to enrage him against the prophet; whom therefore he nameth once and again, to create him the more displeasure. That Jeroboam died by the sword we read not, but that his son Zachariah was slain, and his house destroyed in the next generation, we find #2Ki 15:10, according to Amos’s prophecy. But to colour this calumny, some truth shall be admingled.

And Israel shall surely be led away captive] This indeed the prophet had often affirmed (though not in any of those three last visions), and it proved too true: but because Amos saith so he must pass for a traitor against the majesty both of the king and of the people. What an impudent informer was this! The king and people are pretended; and what good subject can endure it? but that which irked him was, that his own authority was by this plain dealing prophet impaired, and his gain like to be lessened, if the superstition of Bethel were thus decried. It is said of Phlugius and Sidonius (authors of the Interim in Germany) that, among other points of Popery therein defended, they spake much for chrism and extreme unction, ut ipsi discederent unctores, that thereby they might hold fat bishoprics. Such arguments prevail much with all self-seekers, whose covetousness and ambition usually ride without reins, and over whose neck it mattereth not.

Ver. 12. Also Amaziah said unto Amos] After he had maliciously misinformed the king, but prevailed not; so God would have it, in whose heart is the king’s hand, and who rebuketh even kings for their sakes, saying, Do my prophets no harm.

O thou seer] Fair words; the better to insinuate.

“ Mel in ore, verba lactis:

Fel in corde, fraus in factis.”

Some think he calleth the prophet thus by way of jeer, quasi fatidicum aut fanaticum, as a fortune teller or distracted. Others, that he giveth the prophet good words, and seemeth to give him good counsel, as fearing the people, with whom Amos was in some credit; and therefore the king was told of a conspiracy against him "in the midst of the house of Israel," #Am 7:10.

Flee thee away into the land of Judah] Age, fuge: as a friend wrote to Brentius, when he was in danger to be surprised by the emperor’s agent, Fuge, fuge, Brenti cito, citius, citissime, Fly for thy life, haste, haste, haste. So the Pharisees (for no great love, be sure, but only to be fairly rid of him) came and said to Christ, "Get thee out and depart hence; for Herod will kill thee," #Lu 13:31.

Into the land of Judah] This he speaketh scornfully, q.d. we are not good enough for you; you are so strict, &c.

And there eat bread, and prophesy there] Invidiose omnia et contemptim dicit: If you stay here you may hap to starve for it. Away, therefore, into your own country; and there make thee a living by prophesying. He seems to measure Amos by himself; as if he were of those that prophesied for a handful of barley and a morsel of bread, #Eze 13:19 Mic 3:11; and as a certain Popish priest confessed concerning himself and his symmists, We preach the gospel, said he, tantum ut nos pascat et vestiat, only to pick a living out of it.

Ver. 13. But prophesy not any more at Bethel] Take heed of that; lest, by diffusing too much light among us, thou mar our markets, and hinder the sale of our false wares. This was the naked truth of the business; though something else was pretended, and the king’s interest pleaded.

For it is the king’s chapel, and the king’s court] Touch these mountains and they wiil smoke. Truth is a good mistress, but such of her servants as follow her too close at heels may hap to have their teeth struck out. Ahab hateth Micaiah, and Herod John Baptist, and the Pope Savonarola, for their plain dealing, laying them fast enough for it. Great ones love it, ηδιστα η ηκιστα, they must hear pleasing things; or if told of their faults, it must be done with silken words, as she said, λογοις βυδινοις. They are usually beset with their Aiones and Negones, as one hath it, that will say as they say: et mirifica est sympathia inter magnates et parasites, and there is a wonderful sympathy between kings and court parasites, as was between Ahab and the false prophets. Few Vespasians are to be found, of whom as it was said, that he was the only one who was made the better man by being made emperor, so Quintilian commendeth him for this, that he was patientissimus veri, most patient of truth, though never so sharp. Jeroboam was none such; or at least Amaziah, the priest of Bethel, would make the prophet so believe, when he tells him it is the king’s court, an ill air for truth to breathe in. Nihil veritate gravius, nihil assentatione suavius.

Ver. 14. Then answered Amos and said to Amaziah] With no less courage, I suppose, than Paul and Barnabas used to the stubborn Jews, #Ac 13:46; see #Joh 1:19,21; or Basil to Valent, the emperor, or Johannes Sarisburieusis to the Pope, A.D. 1540; or Bishop Ridley, when offering to preach before the Lady Mary, and receiving a repulse, he was brought by Sir Thomas Wharton, her servant, to the dining place, and desired to drink, which after he had done, he paused a while, looking very sadly; and suddenly broke out into these words: Surely I have done amiss. Why so? quoth the knight. For I have drunk, said he, in that place where God’s word offered hath been refused; whereas, if I had remembered my duty, I had departed immediately and shaken off the dust of my shoes for a testimony against this house. These words were by the said bishop spoken with such a vehemence, that some of the hearers afterwards confessed the hairs to stand upright on their heads.

I was no prophet, neither was I a prophet’s son] Neither born nor bred a prophet; neither have I rashly or ambitiously put myself upon this tremend employment; my call thereto was extraordinary. The prophet’s scholars were called their sons, #2Ki 2:8,5,7,15 Isa 8:18 Mr 10:24 1Co 4:14,17.

But I was a herdman, and a gatherer of sycamore fruit] Of low condition, and hardly bred; so that I could live with a little, and needed not to turn prophet, ventris causa, for food sake. When one said to the philosopher, If you will but please Dionysius you need not feed upon green herbs, he presently replied. And if you can feed upon green herbs you need not please Dionysius. Nature is content with a little, grace with less. It is not for a servant of God to be a slave to his palate: Luther made many a meal of a herring.

Ver. 15. And the Lord took me, as I followed the flock] As he took Elisha from the plough tail, the apostles from casting and mending their nets, &c. Asinos elegit Christus et idiotas, sed oculavit in prudentes: simulque dona dedit, et ministeria, he called them to the office, and withal he gifted them. He called also learned Nathanael, and Nicodemus, a master in Israel; lest, if he had called none but such as were simple (saith John de Turrecremata), it should have been thought they had been deceived through their simplicity. But it is God’s way to choose the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and things that are not, to bring to nought things that are, that no flesh should glory in his presence, #1Co 1:27-29.

And the Lord said unto me] He often inculcates the name of the Lord, to show that there was a necessity of his prophesying; for who can safely disobey such a commander? see #Am 3:8. Aut faciendum, aut patiendum. The philosopher could tell the emperor, who challenged him to dispute, that there was no contesting with him that had twenty legions at his command.

Go, prophesy unto my people Israel] Keep within my precincts, and thou shalt be sure of my protection; be true to thy trust, and I will see to thy safety. If thou have not fine manchet (as Bucer said to Bradford, encouraging him to bestow his talent in preaching), yet give the poor people barley bread, or whatever else the Lord hath committed unto thee. Having therefore such a call from heaven to this work, with what face canst thou hinder me therein? With what countenance will ye appear before the judgment seat of Christ (said Dr Taylor, martyr, to Stephen Gardiner, Lord Chancellor, who had thus saluted him, Art thou come, thou villain? how darest thou look me in the face for shame? knowest thou not who I am, &c.?) How dare ye for shame look any Christian man in the face, seeing you have forsaken the truth, denied our Saviour Christ and his word, and done contrary to your own oath and writing? And, if I should be afraid of your lordly looks, why fear you not God, the Lord of us all? who hath sent us on his errand, which we must deliver, and truth be spoken, however it be taken, #1Co 9:16.

Ver. 16. Now therefore hear thou the word of the Lord] Hear, thou despiser, and wonder, and perish; for I work a work in thy days, a work which thou wilt in nowise believe, though a man declare it unto thee, #Ac 13:41. But whether thou wilt hear or forbear, believe or otherwise, thy doom is determined, and shall be pronounced, #Eze 3:27: "Hear, therefore, and give ear; be not proud: for the Lord hath spoken it." Oh that thou wouldst give glory to the Lord, and confess thy sin! #Jer 13:15,16. Oh that thou wouldst submit to Divine justice, implore his mercy, and putting thy mouth in the dust, say, as once that good man did, Veniat, veniat, verbum Domini, et submittemus, ei sexcenta si nobis essent colla. Let the Lord speak, for his servant heareth! But because there is little hopes of that, stand forth and hear thy sentence, and the evil that shall befall thee, as sure as the coat is on thy back, or the heart in thy body. For hath the Lord spoken, and shall he not do it?

Thou sayest, Prophesy not] By a bold countermand to that of God in the former verse, "Go, prophesy," &c. "But woe to him that striveth with his Maker I Let the potsherds strive with the potsherds of the earth," #Isa 45:9; let men meddle with their matches, and not "with him that is mightier than they," #Ec 6:10.

And drop not thy word] Which is as sharp as vinegar and nitre. Or, though it were as sweet as honey, yet it would cause pain to exulcerate parts when dropped upon them.

Against the house of Isaac] Though commanded so to do, #Am 7:9. Toothless truths would be better digested.

Ver. 17. Therefore thus saith the Lord: Thy wife, &c.] Thou shalt be sure of thy share in the common calamity, which thou wilt not hear of; but thou shalt hear and be ashamed, &c., #Isa 26:11. So little is gotten by thwarting with God, and seeking to frustrate his counsel. With these froward pieces God will show himself froward, #Ps 16:4; and if they walk contrary to him, he will also walk as cross to them, #Le 26:21; he will tame such sturdy rebels as he did Pharaoh, and that way raise him a name; all they shall get by him is but more weight of punishment: as when Jehoiakim had burnt Jeremiah’s roll of curses, all that he gained was that the roll was renewed, "and there were added besides thereunto many like words," #Jer 36:32. See the like, #Jer 20:2 1Ki 13:4 22:25 Ac 5:38,39. The counsel of God (saith Gregory) while shunned is executed; the wisdom of man may wriggle, but cannot escape.

Thy wife shall be an harlot in the city]. A common strumpet, for a punishment of thy spiritual harlotry; together with thy "seducing my servants to commit fornication, and to eat things sacrificed unto idols," #Re 2:20.

Or, thy wife shall be an harlot] That is, she shall be ravished by the enemy before thy face ( Per vim stuprabitur); so Theodoret, Calvin, Mercer, &c. See #Isa 13:16 La 5:11. The Irish rebels bound the husband to the bedpost, while they abused his wife before his face.

And thy sons and thy daughters shall fall by the sword] Because thou hast taken my sons and my daughters, and these hast thou sacrificed unto devils to be devoured. "Is this of thy whoredoms a small matter, that thou hast slain my children," and brought them forth to the murderer? #Eze 16:20,21; that thou hast sent so many souls to hell, and nuzled up thine own sons and daughters in ignorance and superstition, being therein rather a parricide than a parent, peremptores potius quam parentes (Bern.)?

Thy land shall be divided by line] Thy purchases shall be parted among the enemies; thine ill gotten riches shall be made a spoil to the soldier.

And thou shalt die in a polluted land] i.e. In Assyria, filled with the uncleanness of the inhabitants from corner to corner, as Canaan was, #Ezr 9:11 Le 26:38. Here thou shalt die for thine abominable idolatries, to thy great regret. Seldom do such escape the visible vengeance of God, as by virulent tongues or violent hands persecute his true prophets. Whether Amos for his boldness was first scourged by Amaziah, and then wounded to death by his son Uzziah (as some will), is uncertain.

And Israel shall surely] Though thou wouldst not believe it, #Am 7:11.

Chapter 8

Ver. 1. Thus hath the Lord God showed unto me] viz. in this fourth vision, whereby (for better assurance, and to shake them out of their desperate security) Israel’s utter ruin is again foretold by a lively type, which is here, 1. propounded; 2. expounded, #Am 8:3,5, that he may run that readeth it, and none may fall, but with open eyes, #Hab 2:2.

And behold a basket] Made up haply in the form of a dog, as the word Calub seemeth to import.

Of summer fruit] Heb. of summer; that is, of that which the summer affordeth; toward the end of it especially, when fruits ripen, and even fall into the hand of the gatherer. The summer itself hath its denomination from a root that signifieth to awaken; because then the fruits and flowers, that seemed to be asleep all winter long, do awake, as it were, and show themselves.

Ver. 2. Amos, what seest thou?] This the Lord asketh, to stir up attention and affection in the prophet; who might haply need as much to be aroused, as Zechariah in like case did, #Am 4:1, with whom it fared as with a drowsy person, who though awaked and set to work, is ready to sleep at it.

And I said, A basket of summer fruit] Apples, saith Jerome; figs, say others; and why not as well grapes ripened in the summer sunshine? Whereby the Holy Ghost in the Revelation, #Re 14:20 19:15, describeth such as are ready ripe for the wine-press of God’s wrath? Nahum compareth them to stubble, laid out in the sun drying, that it may burn the better, #Na 1:10.

The end is come upon my people] An elegance in the original beyond translation into English: ץיק ץק, the Latin interpreters have (some of them) assayed the like, but they fall far short of it. The Old Testament is full of such surnames; and God seemeth delighted with them. See #Jer 1:11,12 48:2 49:23,24 La 3:47 Am 5:5 Mic 1:10,14 Zep 2:5 Ex 2:10 Ge 3:20 4:1,25 5:29 17:5 21:5,6, &c. There is a pedantic style and a majestic; an effeminate eloquence and a manly. This latter is lawful, and may very well become the man of God; who yet must not wit-wanton it in weightiest matters; but shun those more gay and lighter flashes and flourishes, wherewith the emptiest cells affect to be most fraught; as they, who for want of wares in their shops, set up painted blocks to fill up vacant shelves, as one well expresseth it.

The end is come upon my people] Exitus et exitium. As the summer is the end of the year and the time of ripening fruits; so, now that this people are ripe for ruin, "An end is come, is come, is come: it watcheth for them; behold, it is come," #Eze 7:6,7, even the precise time and term of their final overthrow.

I will not again pass by them any more] See #Am 7 Am 8. God can pass by, that is, pardon, his people better than any other, #Mic 7:18 (like as they that are born of God, and partake of the Divine nature, can bear wrongs best of any; compel them to go a mile they will be content, if it may do good, to go two; yea, as far as the shoes of the preparation of the gospel of peace will carry them). But as the saints of God may not be therefore injured (which was Julian’s jeering cruelty) because they are meek: so must not God be presumed upon and provoked because he is merciful. "There is mercy with him, that he may be feared," saith the Psalmist; for abused mercy turneth into fury, and opportunities of grace are often so headlong, that if once past they are irrecoverable. Woe be to that people or person to whom God shall say, "I will not again pass by you any more."

Ver. 3. And the songs of the temple shall be howlings] Heb. shall howl, shall be turned into the black santis, as they call it ( cantus in planctum laetitia in lachrymas), such as I hate, #Am 5:23, and feel it grating mine ears, as an harmonia discors.

There shall be many dead bodies in every place] Either through pestilence or sword. Others read it thus, In every place it shall be said, Proiece, sile, Out with them, make no words; an earnest aposiopesis {a} {#Am 6:10} {See Trapp on "Am 6:10"} q.d. Patiently acquiesce in the just judgment of so mighty a God. Or, throw these dead bodies into pits, and say nothing; lest we be sequestered as unclean by the law. It is no small misery to be under hard and heavy crosses, and yet to be forced to dissemble and suppress them; to bite in pain, and to digest grief, as horses do their choler by biting on the bridle. "I was dumb with silence," saith David, "I held my peace, even from good"; that is, from just defense; "but my sorrow was stirred thereby"; my sore was exulcerate, renewed (as the Greek there saith) and increased, #Ps 39:2. Give sorrow a vent, and it will wear away.

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

Ver. 4. Hear this, ye that swallow up the needy] That seep them up as drink (our word seep seems to come of the Hebrew Shaaph), that would make but a breakfast, nay, but a bit of them; that would swallow them at once down their wide gullets, and do, for that purpose, pant and even faint, as well nigh windless, after them, to devour them. Hence they are called man eaters, cannibals, #Ps 14:4. See #Am 2:7. {See Trapp on "Am 2:7"}

Even to make the poor of the land to fail] Heb. the meek of the, land. Poverty should meeken and tame men’s spirits; howbeit, some are humbled but not humble, low but not lowly. Those that are both are often oppressed by the great ones of the earth; and even devoured, as the lesser fish are by the bigger. "Ye have condemned and killed the just," saith St James to the wicked rich men of his time, "and he doth not resist you," #Jas 5:6. He only committeth his cause to him that judgeth righteously, #1Pe 2:23, and indeed he need do no more than so; for God is the poor man’s king, as James V of Scotland was termed for his charity; yea, he is the world’s refuge, Awlen Penaugh, as the Great Turk vain gloriously styleth himself, and would have the world to take notice, that such poor people as lament to him shall be relieved by him, although his ministers fail them or abuse them, through their injustice, to make the poor of the land fail. "For the oppression of the poor, for the sighing of the needy, now will I arise, saith the Lord; I will set him in safety from him that puffeth at him," #Ps 12:5. Neither doth God say it only (though that were sufficient), but swear it too in this chapter, yea, in this text (the two next following verses are put in as by a parenthesis), and these cormorants are called upon to hear it, and not to pass it by with a deaf ear, tanquam monstra marina, as such kind of creatures used to do.

Ver. 5. Saying, When will the new moon be gone, &c.] "O, what a weariness it is! and ye have snuffed at it," #Mal 1:13. See the note there. This ye have said, or thought at least; and God knoweth the language of your hearts. He presseth upon no man; neither will he accept that service that is pressed out of people, as verjuice out of a crab. All his saints are free hearted, #Ps 110:3, all his soldiers volunteers; they welcome the sabbath, as that holy man did, who went forth to meet and salute it with Veni sponsa mea, Come, my sweet spouse, I have dearly longed for thee. The sabbath they call Desiderium dierum a day of delight. They also pass it over with singular delight, #Isa 58:13, walking into Christ’s garden of spiritual duties, whereof there is so great variety for the good soul to breathe itself in and not be sated; and then are taken into Christ’s wine cellar, and (after a holy manner) inebriated with Divine consolations, #So 2:4,5 2Co 1:5, such as the cock on the dunghill knows not, such as pass all carnal men’s understanding. They find no more relish in holy days and duties than they do in the white of an egg or in a dry chip; the work they do at such times, for fashion-sake or fear of law, &c., is dead work, as the apostle calleth it; they sit in the stocks when they are at prayers, and come out of the church when the tedious sermon runs somewhat beyond the hour, as prisoners do out of a jail, &c.; they cannot tell how to wear out the sabbath, which therefore they wish over, and constantly violate, either by corporal labour or else (which is as bad, or worse) by spiritual idleness. Full ill would these men, addere de profano ad sacrum (as the Jews say we should do), pronouncing those happy that begin the sabbath with those of Tiberias, and end it with those of Tsepphore; the former began it sooner than others, the latter continued it longer (Buxtorf. Synag. Jud.). Full ill would they have liked our King Edgar’s law, that Sunday should be solemnized from Saturday, nine o’clock, till Monday morning. Full loth would these men be to beg David’s office out of his hand, of being a doorkeeper in God’s house; that is, to be first in and last out. And what would they do to keep an everlasting sabbath in heaven that are so troubled and even tired out with so short an attendance on the Lord’s day; not without a world of wilful distractions, such as spoil and corrupt their performances, so that they stink in the nostrils of the Almighty?

And the sabbath] Not the sabbath of the seventh year (called Shemittah, Remission, #Le 25:3-7), as some would have it meant; but the weekly sabbath, which the unrighteous Mammonists here cry out of, as if on that day the sun proceeded a slower pace than on others; and they greatly grudged, lucellum suum Dei cultui cedere, that God should be served to their disadvantage. Their fingers therefore itch to be setting out corn; and they as dearly desire it as David did once to come and appear before the Lord. As he had his "When shall I come?" by way of wish, #Ps 42:2, so they had their When shall we sell corn? when shall we set forth wheat? Surely as David’s soul longed sore to go forth unto Absalom, #2Sa 13:39, so that he could have found in his heart, but for stark shame, to have gone himself and fetched him home; so was it with these gripple grain masters, these frumenti corrasores et veluti corrosores, #Pr 11:26. They had a good mind to have been doing on the new moons and sabbaths, but that they were flatly forbidden by the law, made on purpose for "these lawless and disobedient," #1Ti 1:9, these masterless monsters, these yokeless Belialists, to be to them as chains and shackles, to confine them, {#Ex 20:8 34:21 Le 23:3 Ne 10:32 13:15} as Solomon’s command did Shimei, that they may not leap over the pale after profit and pleasure, or if they do they may die for it. #Isa 66:23, it is prophesied that, in the restitution of the Church from one new moon to another, and from one sabbath to another (as often as they come), without tiresomeness, all flesh shall come to worship before the Lord, they shall "call the sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honourable," #Isa 58:13, be rapt and ravished in spirit, #Re 1:10, be in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Ghost all the day long: Πνευματικως σαββατιζειν, μελετη νομου χαιροντας, as Ignatius hath it: Sabbatize spiritually, rejoicing in Divine meditations (Epist. 3. ad Magnes.). This well practised would take men off from the world’s tasteless fooleries, as his mouth will not water after homely provisions, that hath lately tasted of delicate sustenance. It would also blessedly free them from those many foolish and hurtful lusts, #1Ti 6:9, those heavy sorrows and self-created miseries, wherewith covetous caitiffs pierce themselves through, gall and gore their own hearts, and trouble their own houses, #Am 8:10, taking no more rest than if upon a rack or bed of thorns.

Making the Ephah small, and the shekel great] Selling by small measures but for great rates; which was directly against the law, #De 25:13,14, and that golden rule of right, the standard of equity, the royal law of liberty, #Mt 7:12, "Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets." This is the sum of what they have said, for duties of the second table.

And falsifying the balances by deceit?] Heb. perverting the balances of deceit, that is (by a metonymy, as #Job 22:6), making those that were right deceitful. See #Pr 20:10,23. {See Trapp on "Pr 20:10"} {See Trapp on "Pr 20:23"} Such falsifiers are counted no better than Canaanites, #Ho 12:7, and shall have small joy of their cursed hoards of evil gotten goods.

Ver. 6. That we may buy the poor for silver, &c.] Thus the poor always pay for it; the modest and mild poor especially, as #Am 8:4. Hence poor and afflicted are put for one and the same, #Zep 3:12, and to want and to be abased, #Php 4:12; they that want shall be sure to be abased and abused by the wretched rich, who will ever go over the hedge where it is lowest, and catch the poor by drawing him into the nets, #Ps 10:9, that is, into their debts, bonds, and mortgages, and at length making such their bondmen by abuse of that permission, #Le 25:39. See #Am 2:3.

Yea, and sell the refuse of the wheat?] Quisqnilias, the husks, more fit for pigs or poultry; hardly man’s meat, and yet held good enough for the poor ( deciduum, purgamenta, the offal); although their flesh was as the flesh of their brethren, and their children as their children, #Ne 5:5, however they used them. How far were these rich wretches from considering the poor, as David’s blessed man, #Ps 41:1, and as Dr Taylor the martyr did, whose custom was once in a fortnight at least to go to poor men’s houses, look into their cupboards, see how they fared, and what they lacked, that he might either make or procure them a supply from such as were better able.

Ver. 7. The Lord hath sworn by the excellency of Jacob] i.e. by himself, the matter of Jacob’s chief boasting, there being no God like unto their God (their enemies themselves being judges, #De 32:31), neither any nation so great as to have God so nigh unto them as Israel had, in all things that they called upon him for, #De 4:7. So that this oath of God grates upon their ingratitude for such imparallel privileges, and it is uttered in great wrath, as appeareth by the following angry aposiopesis, {a} wherein the apodosis {b} is not set down but understood.

lf I ever forget any of their works] Forget to punish them. These oaths, cum reticentia, are very dreadful. Take heed lest by stubbornness we provoke God to swear in his wrath that we shall not enter into his rest, #Ps 95:11. Take heed lest a promise of entering being left us, and a proffer made us, we should seem to come short of it, to come lag or late, #Heb 4:1, υστερηκεναι, a day after the fair, an hour after the feast. God is now more quick and peremptory than ever in rejecting men that neglect so great salvation, #Heb 2:3; the time is shorter, he will not wait so long as he was wont to do. "He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; he that believeth not shall be damned," #Mr 16:16. Surely God "will finish the work, and cut it short in righteousness: because a short work will he make in the earth," #Ro 9:28. "The time is short," saith the apostle, #1Co 7:29, a metaphor, say some, from a piece of cloth rolled up (συνεσταλμενος), only a little left at the end. "Let us therefore fear" (as the same apostle inferreth upon the consideration of God’s oath, #Heb 3:18 4:1, and let our fear not weaken but waken our diligence in well doing, lest he swear and repent not, lest he come to a resolution and decree (God’s oath is nothing else but his inviolable and invariable decree) to cast us off as he did Saul, for his wilful disobedience, #1Sa 15:20-23. Saul lived long after his utter rejection, and men could see no alteration in his outward condition; but God had sworn, as here, never to forget any of his works. Now, saith Samuel to him (and it is fearful), the eternity of Israel (the excellency of Jacob) "will not lie nor repent: for he is not a man, that he should repent," #1Sa 15:29. Do not think this a case that seldom comes; it is done every day upon some or other, saith a great Divine; but woe be to that man upon whom it is done! it had been much better for him that he had not been born, #Mt 26:24. Oh consider this all ye that forget God, lest he swear by his excellency, "Surely I will never forget any of your works."

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

{b} The concluding clause of a sentence, as contrasted with the introductory clause or protasis; now usually restricted to the consequent clause in a conditional sentence, as ‘If thine enemy hunger, feed him.’ ŒD

Ver. 8. Shall not the land tremble for this] q.d. So great are the oppressions here exercised, that the very axle of the earth is even ready to crack under them. Amaziah, that hedge priest of Bethel, had said of our prophet, that the land was not able to bear all his words, #Am 7:10, but Amos more truly affirmeth, that the land trembled under their many and mighty sins, and could bear them no longer; the earthquake happened about this time, #Am 1:1, and it was a just wonder, that the earth had not opened her wide mouth, and swallowed them all up quickly into hell, as #Nu 16:31,32, and as it did a great part of the city of Antioch, A. D. 527, for their horrible heresies and blasphemies there held and broached by her bishops.

And every one mourn] i.e. smart, till they mourn. National sins bring national plagues. The Hebrews hold that there is not a worse sin than oppression. St James saith, that it cries to heaven, and entereth into the ears of the Lord of sabaoth, #Jas 5:4, who will not fail to hear, for he is gracious, #Ex 22:27.

And it shall rise up wholly as a flood] i.e. the land shall rise up, shall seem to do so, when it is floated and flooded with water; as the sluggard’s field is said to rise up or ascend with thorns, that is, to be overgrown therewith. Here then is threatened an overflowing scourge, a universal destruction covering the face of the country, as Nile doth a great part of the land of Egypt every year, leaving much mud behind it; whereof see Pliny and other authors. Mercer thinks the words would be best read by interrogation, as the former, thus, And shall it not rise up wholly as a flood? q.d. shall it not be turned into a large lake, as once Sodom and her sisters were for like cruelties to the poor? #Eze 16:46.

Ver. 9. And it shall come to pass in that day, &c.] Here the Lord threateneth (saith Mr Diodati) to encumber the land with horrible and mournful calamities, when it shall be least thought of. Earthquakes, inundations, sudden and dreadful darkness, are sure effects and signs of God’s heavy displeasure against men’s sins, #Ps 18:8,12 Mt 24:6,7 Lu 21:10,11 Joe 2:10 Jer 15:8,9, and promise contrary to this threat, #Job 18:5,6.

I will cause the sun to go down at noon] A sudden change, as was at Sodom; the sun was fair risen upon it that very day that it was destroyed in, #Ge 19:23,24; as at Babylon, when surprised by Cyrus, they could not at first believe their own calamity; as it was with Jerusalem often, and shall be with Rome: #Re 18:7,8, "She saith in her heart, I shall see no sorrow. Therefore shall her plagues come in one day, death, and mourning, and famine," &c., to confute their fond conceit of an eternal empire. "For when they shall say, Peace and safety, then shall sudden destruction come upon them, as travail upon a woman with child, and they shall not escape," #1Th 5:3. Philosophers say, that before a snow the weather will be warmish; when the wind lies the great rain falls; and the air is most quiet when suddenly there will be an earthquake. Pharaoh had all fair weather made before him till the instant that he was drowned in the sea. Nebuchadnezzar, Herod, and other tyrants were smitten in the height of their pride and ruff of their jollity. Jerusalem had three years’ great plenty before her last destruction, of which some interpret this text. Those seven once flourishing Churches of Asia, how glorious and resplendent were they till they had sinned away their light! The same might be said of many others; and who knows how soon it may be said also of us? who knows whether we be not, even now, upon the very tropics and turning points of time? Surely God’s patience towards us, quo diuturnior eo minacior, the longer it lasteth the more evil is toward us, if we abuse it. If in a land of light we love darkness better than light, we may soon have enough of it. Solem in Britannia non occidere nec resurgero retulit Tacitus. Tacitus telleth us that at some time of the year the sun seemeth neither to rise nor fall in this country; but so lightly to pass from us in the night that you can scarce discern day from night. Of England for this many years it may be said, as Solinus doth of the Rhodes, that it is semper in sole sita, ever in the sun. How long it shall be so, he alone knows that knows all. Walk while ye have the light; and pray that God would discloud these gloomy days with the beams of his mercy, and not cause our sun to go down at noon, nor our land to be darkened in the clear day. Oh stop this Sun of righteousness posting as it may seem from us (when the blind man cried lustily, Jesus, though journeying, stood still), stay him by your importunities, as those two did at Emmaus, and say,

“ Vespers iam venit; nobiscum, Christe maneto,

Extingui lucem nec patiare tuam.”

Ver. 10. And I will turn your feasts into mourning] Whether your idolatrous feasts and templemusic, whereby you vainly conceit to be secured from danger, saying, "Is not the Lord among us? what evil can come unto us?" or your common feasts, whereat you have songs to cheer you up, and so to put sorrow from your hearts and evil from your flesh, nourishing yourselves as in a day of slaughter or good cheer, #Jas 5:5; all shall be turned into mourning, funeral mourning, see #Am 8:3.

And I will bring up sackcloth upon all loins] For a token of your great grief, as the custom then was, and is still for mourning weeds. The Hebrew word sack is the same in almost all languages; which showeth that the Hebrew is the mother of all the rest, saith Mercer.

And baldness upon every head] You shall pull off your hair for grief; or, because they had learned of the heathens, their neighbours, in token of lamentation, to shave their heads, #Eze 7:18 Jer 48:37, and beards too, #Isa 15:2, which yet was forbidden them to do, #Le 19:27 21:9, unless it were to show their sorrow for sin, #Isa 22:12.

And I will make it as the mourning of an only son] Which was very bitter, #Jer 6:26 Zec 12:10. The loss of a loving yoke fellow is more grievous than that of a son; but to father and mother together nothing more bitter than luctuosa faecunditas (Laeta’s case in Jerome), to bury many children, and especially to bury all in one.

And the end thereof as a bitter day] Thereof, that is, either of that land or of that lamentation there shall be bitterness in the end. So the poet (Tibul. lib. 2),

“ Nunc et amara dies, et noctis amarior umbra est;

Omnia iam tristi tempera felle madent.”

How could it be otherwise than extreme bitter with this people, when heaven and earth conspired to punish them? neither had they the good word of God (called the word of his patience, #Re 3:10, written on purpose that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope, #Ro 15:4, that out of those breasts of consolation we might suck and be satisfied, #Isa 66:11), to help them and keep from swooning, #Ps 119:92. And this was the greatest plague of all the rest; and is therefore reserved to the last place, deterrima tanquam colophon, as a most sad catastrophe.

Ver. 11. Behold, the days come] Behold it; for it is a just wonder. The Lord created a new thing in the earth when Israel should want the word; Israel, to whom were committed the oracles of God; Israel, to whom God had spoken "by the mouth of his holy prophets, which had been since the world begun," in a sweet succession, #Lu 1:70. See my True Treasure. "He made known his ways to Moses, his acts and monuments to the children of Israel," #Ps 103:7. Yet even these, who had the cornucopia of God’s word, shall now suffer a famine of it; they shall have cause to cry out, "We see not our signs: there is no more any prophet; neither is there among us any that knoweth how long," #Ps 74:9. The word of God shall be precious, #1Sa 3:1, and they shall be hard put to it to come by it. Amaziah and his complices shall not need to pack away the prophets, as #Am 7:12, and to bid them go preach elsewhere; for God will, for a singular plague to an unworthy people, withdraw them; the law shall be no more, the prophets also shall find no vision from the Lord, #La 2:9.

That I will send a famine in the land] Heb. I will let it out (sc. out of my treasury of plagues, where I have it ready and desirous to be abroad), and turn it loose (εξαποστελω, Septung.), which before I kept up, as a wild beast, that it might not hurt nor destroy in all mine holy mountain; now it shall out among you, and the devil with it, #Re 12:12, with hell at the heels of it.

Not a famine of bread] Though that is very grievous, #La 1:11,19 2:12,20 4:4,9 5:9; and puts people to many hard straits and extremities (as were easier to instance), even to the eating of one another.

Nor a thirst for water] A torment more intolerable than the former. Lysimachus to save his life parted with his kingdom for a draught of water.

But of hearing the word of the Lord] Which is pabulum animae, the soul’s proper food, such as she cannot live without; but when God sooth his oracles vilipended and lying under the table, it is just with him to call to the enemy to take away. It was so with those seven Churches of Asia among many others; as also with those of Africa, that vast continent (thrice as large as Europe), in all which there is not any region entirely possessed by Christians but the kingdom of Habassia: for as for the large region of Nubia, which had from the apostles’ time (as it is thought) professed the Christian faith, it hath again over a hundred years since forsaken it, and embraced, instead of it, partly Mahometanism, and partly idolatry; and that by the most miserable occasion that might be, viz. famine of the word of God, for lack of ministers. For, as Alvarez hath recorded, at his being at the king of Habassia’s court, there were ambassadors out of Nubia to entreat him for a supply of ministers to instruct their nation and to repair Christianity, gone to ruin among them; but they were rejected.

Ver. 12. And they shall wander from sea to sea] Trouble themselves to no purpose, take pains (as Esau did for venison, but lost his labour), run to all coasts and quarters to seek the word of the Lord.

And shall not find it] And why? they despised it when it was in their power; they rejected the counsel of God against themselves, with those lawyers, #Lu 7:30. He would have gathered them, but they would not be gathered; he would have purged them, but they would not be purged, #Eze 24:13,14, they are therefore miserable by their own election; as Saul was, who slighted Samuel while he was alive, and would have been fully glad of his counsel when he was dead. He that would not once worship God in Samuel worships at length Samuel in Satan; and no marvel. Satan was now become his refuge, and preacheth his funeral; his Urim now was darkness, his prophet a ghost: O woeful condition! But what should a parent do when the child loathes and spills his victuals? snatch it from him, and lay it out of his reach. Samaria felt this more severe famine, when carried captive especially; so did Jerusalem, after Malachi, whose prophecy the Jews fitly call Chathimath Chazon, the sealing up of vision. Bath Chol, or the echo from heaven, they had now and then after this time, #Mt 3:17 Joh 12:28; they had also the writings of Moses and the prophets interpreted after a sort by the Scribes and Pharisees, whom (while they sat close in Moses’ chair, and kept it warm) men were bound to hear, #Mt 23:2,3, which because Dives did not, he suffered hunger and thirst in hell for ever, #Lu 16:24. And had he been granted the liberty of hearing again upon earth but one more sermon, how far would not he gladly have gone for it! and how, as for life, would he have listened to it! But this could not possibly be, for out of hell there is no redemption, #Ps 49:8,9, and when the night of death once comes men can work no more. Night is a time not of doing work, but of receiving wages; up therefore and be doing, while it is yet day, #Joh 12:35,36. "Seek ye the Lord while he may be found," #Isa 55:6, seek him seasonably, seek him seriously: "Then shall ye seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart," #Jer 29:13. That was a dismal doom that our Saviour passed upon those stiffnecked Jews and uncircumcised in hearts and ears (as St Stephen rightly styles them, #Ac 7:51), that were as good at resisting the Holy Ghost as ever their fathers had been before them. "Ye shall seek me, and yet shall die in your sins: whither I go ye cannot come," #Joh 8:21. Ye shall wander up and down for meat, making a noise like a hungry dog, and grudge that ye be not satisfied, #Ps 59:14,15. Do not the miserable Jews do so all the world over to this day, expecting their Messiah? quem tantis ululatibus exposcunt, throwing open their windows to behold him, and praying for the rebuilding of their temple, thus (Buxtorf. Synag. Jud. cap. 13), Templum tuum brevi, valde cito, valde cito, in diebus nostris citissime, nunc aedifica templum tuum brevi: Merciful God, great God, bountiful God, beautiful God, sweet God, mighty God, thou God of the Jews, now build thy temple, do it shortly, suddenly, quickly, very quickly, very quickly, very quickly, even in our days now, this day before the next, &c. Ah, poor creatures! they would not, when time was, know in that their day the things which belonged to their peace; therefore to this day they are hid from their eyes, and wrath is come upon them to the utmost, #Lu 19:42. Alterius perditio tun sit caudio, Let their harms be our warning, not to stand out the day of grace, not to surfeit of the word, lest we suffer a famine of it; not to retain the snuffs of our sins, lest they dim our candlestick; a removal whereof, except we repent, may be as certainly foreseen and foretold as if visions and letters were sent us from heaven, as once to Ephesus telling them so, #Re 2:5. And indeed it hath been the opinion, and is still the fear of some not unconsiderable divines, that Antichrist, before his abolition, shall once again overflow the whole face of the West, and suppress the whole Protestant Churches. Now if ever this come to pass (as justly we may fear it will), what may we thank but our detestable lukewarmness and loathing of the heavenly manna, our not receiving the love of the truth, that we might be saved? for which cause, if God shall send us strong delusions, even the efficacy of error, that we should believe a lie, #2Th 2:10,11, that being infatuated we should be seduced, and being seduced be damned, as Austin glosseth that text, whom can we blame for it?

Ver. 13. In that day shall the fair virgins and young men faint for thirst] When God depriveth a People of his ordinances, and so withdraweth his gracious presence from them, what wonder though temporal judgments come rushing in as by a sluice? "Persecute and take him" (said David’s enemies), "for God hath forsaken him, and there is none to deliver him," #Ps 71:11. "The Philistines are upon me," saith Saul, "for God hath forsaken me." "Behold, I am cast out from thy presence," said Cain (that is, from my father’s house where thine ordinances are administered), "and therefore every one that findeth me shall slay me," #Ge 4:14. In that day of the want of the word, in the day of spiritual famine and thirst, behold, aliud ex alio malum, another thirst shall seize upon the choicest and fairest; as flies settle upon the sweetest perfumes, when they are cold, and corrupt them.

Shall the fair virgins] Whom all men favour for their comeliness, οτι καλον φιλον εστι. Beauty is of itself lovely and attractive, it needeth no letters of commendations: but God is no respecter of persons, and beauty abused is like a fair house with an ill inhabitant, said Diogenes; like a jewel of gold in a swine’s snout, said Solomon, #Pr 11:22. Some are Helenas without, but Hecubas within, painted sepulchres, Egyptian temples; like Aurelia Orestilla, of whom Sallust saith, that she had nothing in her praise worthy but her beauty: fair she was and foolish, not καλη και σοφη, beautiful and wise, as it is reported of Aspasia, Cyrus’s concubine (Athenaeus). Now these fair maids, together with the choice young men, best able to endure thirst a long season,

Shall faint for thirst] Heb. shall be overcovered with grief, shall be troubled and perplexed, shall faint and swoon, shall find by experience that all flesh is grass, and the glory thereof as the flower of the field, that "even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall. But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run and not be weary; and they shall walk and not faint," #Isa 40:30,31.

Ver. 14. They that swear by the sin of Samaria] i.e. By the calf set up at Bethel, not far from Samaria. This calf is called the sin, or guilt, of Samaria, to show the abomination of it; for which cause also Paul calls it sinful sin, #Ro 7:13, as not finding for it a worse epithet; and antichrist for like cause he calleth "that man of sin," #2Th 2:3, to note him merum scelus, pure wickedness, saith Beza, merely made up of sin. Now, to swear by this of Samaria was to deify it; to swear by anything besides the true God is to forsake him, #Jer 5:7, which is a hateful wickedness, #Jer 2:12,13; as in Papists who familiarly swear by their he-saints and she-saints, and so sacrilegiously transfer upon the creature that which pertaineth to God alone.

And say, Thy god, O Dan, liveth] God only liveth, to speak properly, #1Ti 6:17, but to say that Dan’s Deunculus lived (being no better than a dumb and dead idol), and to swear by the life of it (as the Spaniards do now in the pride of their monarchy, by the life of their king), this is horrible impiety. As for that of Abigail to David, #1Sa 25:26, "Now therefore, my lord, as the Lord liveth, and as thy soul liveth," the former was an oath, the latter was not an oath, but an asseveration or obtestation only, conjoined with an oath.

And, The manner of Beersheba liveth] That is, the forms and rites of worshipping in Beersheba (another nest of idolatry, #Am 5:5 Ho 10:13), as the Chaldee paraphraseth it. Durandus hath written, the Romish ritual, the way of worship used in that synagogue of Satan: Mercer rendereth it, Vivit peregrinatio Beersheba, the way or passage of Beersheba liveth. Beersheba had an idol, and was the way to Dan and Bethel; hence this superstitious oath drawn out to the full length, By the sin of Samaria, by the god of Dan, and by the manner of Beersheba: like as the Great Turk, Mahomet, promising his soldiers the spoil of Constantinople for three days together, if they could win it, for confirmation of his oath solemnly swore by the immortal God, and by the four hundred prophets, by Mahomet, by his father’s soul, by his own children, and by the sword wherewith he was girt, faithfully to perform whatsoever he had to them in his proclamation promised.

Even they shall fall, and never rise up again] Fall fatally, ferally, irrecoverably, as old Eli did when his neck was broken, but first his heart. The ten tribes, for their idolatry and contempt of the word, never returned out of captivity. From the famine foretold what could follow but irreparable ruin, though for a time they might flourish? see #Pr 29:1. {See Trapp on "Pr 29:1"} Of that spiritual famine let us be most impatient, and say as Luther did, I would not live in paradise without the word; but with it I could make a shift to live in hell itself.

Chapter 9

Ver. 1. I saw the Lord] This seer, #Am 7:12, saw the Lord in a vision; for otherwise God is too subtile for sinew or sight to seize upon him. We cannot look upon the body of the sun, neither can we see at all without the beams of it; so here.

Standing upon the altar] Or, firmly set, sc. to do execution upon that altar, sc. that idolatrous altar at Bethel mentioned before, and formerly threatened by another prophet, #1Ki 13:1,2. The Rabbis say, God was seen standing upon that altar, as ready to sacrifice and slay the men of that age, whose idolatries and other impieties he could no longer bear with. And hence it is haply, that he is brought in standing; like as #Ac 7:55, Jesus, at Stephen’s death, was seen standing at the right hand of God, where he is usually said to sit. Stat ut vindex, sedet ut iudex. He stood as his defender and sat as his judge.

And he said] sc. to the angel that stood by, #Zec 3:7, or to the enemy commissioned by him, or to some other creature, for they are all his servants, #Ps 119:91, neither can he want a weapon to tame his rebels with.

Smite the lintel of the door, that the posts may shake] Smite with a courage, as #Eze 9:5. Angels give no light blows. "Behold, the Lord, the Lord of hosts, shall lop the bough with terror: and the high ones of stature shall be hewn down, and the haughty shall be humbled. And he shall cut down the thickets of the forests with iron, and Lebanon shall fall by a mighty one," #Isa 10:33,34; that is, by an angel shall he smite to the ground that mighty army which was like a thick wood. See #Isa 37:36 Ps 78:25 89:6. So at our Saviour’s resurrection, an angel, in despite of the soldiers set to watch, rolled away the grave stone, and sat upon it. And as a mighty man, when he sitteth down, shaketh the bench under him, so did he shake the earth; "and for fear of him the keepers did shake, and became as dead men," #Mt 28:2,4. Down with this idol temple, down with it, saith God here, even to the ground.

And cut them in the head, all of them] Cleave them down the middle, so that every post may be sure to fall, being divided from the top to the bottom; and let this act be a sign to them all of what I intend to do to their persons, as many of them as by this gate have entered into this idol temple and altar. A deep cut in the head is dangerous and deadly, #Ge 3:15 Ps 68:21.

And I will slay the last of them] I, by mine agents and instruments, as before: for it is but one hand and many executioners that God slays men with. Job could discern God’s arrows in Satan’s hand, and God’s hand on the arms of the Sabean robbers. The sword is bathed in heaven before it is imbrued in men’s blood, #Isa 34:5. "The Lord killeth and maketh alive," saith holy Hannah, #1Sa 2:6.

He that fleeth of them shall not flee away] See #Am 2:14. {See Trapp on "Am 2:14"} and say, Behold the severity of God, #Ro 11:12.

Ver. 2. Though they dig into hell, &c.] No starting hole shall secure them from the wrath of God and rage of the creature, set at work by him. "Hell and destruction are before the Lord," #Pr 15:11, yea, hell is naked before him, and destruction hath no covering, #Job 26:6. He hath a sharp eye, and a long hand, to pull men out of their lurking holes; as he did Adam out of the thicket, Manasseh from among the thorns, #2Ch 33:11, Jonah from the sides of the ship, the Duke of Buckingham in Richard III’s time, &c. "Be sure," saith Moses, "your sin will find you out," #Nu 32:23, and God’s hand will hale you to punishment.

Though they climb up to heaven] That is (by a hyperbole), to high and strong places; as the Babel builders, the Benjamites that fled to the rock Rimmon, and there abode four months, #Jud 20:47, the gibing Jebusites, that were so confident of their stronghold of Zion that they flouted David and his forces, #2Sa 5:8, the proud prince of Tyre, and others.

Thence will I bring them down] From their loftiest tops of pride and creature confidence, which God loves to confute and defeat: as I might instance in Nebuchadnezzar, Xerxes, Haman, Sejanus, Bajazet, that terror of the world, and (as he thought) superior to fortune, yet in an instant, with his state, in one battle overthrown into the bottom of misery and despair; and that in the midst of his great strength. The same end awaits the Pope and his hierarchyruet alto a culmine Roma, that Jupiter Capitolinus shall be one day unroosted by him, who casteth the wicked down to the ground, #Ps 147:6.

Ver. 3. And though they hide themselves in the top of Carmel] In densis silvis, inter spelaea ferarum. In the thick woods among the dens of the wild beasts. Lawful enough it is in some cases to hide, as David did often and Elias, and Christ, and Paul, #2Co 11:32,33, and Athanasius, and various other saints. Tertullian was too rigid in condemning all kind of hiding in evil times. But to hide from God, who searcheth Jerusalem with lights, and to whom the darkness and the light are both alike, #Ps 139:12, to whom obscura clarent, muta respondent, silentium confitetur, this is base and bootless. Carmel shall not cover them, nor any other startinghole secure them from Divine justice. The poor Jews were pulled by the Romans out of privies and other underground places, where they had hid themselves, as Josephus writeth; and so were those Samaritans served by the Assyrians, who ferreted them out, and slaughtered them.

And though they be hid from my sight] As they think, but that cannot be; for he (like the optic virtue in the eye) sees all and is seen of none.

In the bottom of the sea] Which, how deep and troublesome soever, is to God a sea of glass like unto crystal, #Re 4:6: corpus diaphanum, a pervious, clear, transparent body such as he sees through, and hath the sole command of.

Thence will I command the serpent] For therre is that crooked serpent leviathan, #Isa 27:1, there are also creeping things innumerable #Ps 104:26, to arrest wicked men as rebels and traitors to the highest majesty, and to drag them down to the bottom of bell. All elements and creatures shall draw upon them, as servants will do upon such as assault their lord Rebellisque facta est, quia homo numini, creatura homini, as Austin truly and trimly avoucheth.

Ver. 4. And though they go into captivity, &c.] And so may hope the worst is over ("Surely the bitterness of death is past," #1Sa 15:32) yet it shall prove otherwise: the hypocrite’s hope is as the giving up the ghost, saith Job and that is but cold comfort; or, as the spider’s web, spun out of her own bowels; and, when the besom comes, swept to the muckhill.

Before their enemies] Whose custom was to drive their captives before them, #La 1:5 young and o1d, naked and barefoot, even with their buttocks uncovered, #Isa 20:4. Or, "before their enemies," that is, before they are taken captive by the enemies, by voluntary yielding, in hope of quarter for their lives. The Jews indeed had a promise from the prophet Jeremiah, #Jer 21:9, that if they went out and fell to the Chaldeans that besieged them they should have their lives for a prey but the ten tribes had no such promise made them; they were strangers from the covenants #Eph 2:12, and therefore could look for no mercy. Loammi, and therefore Loruhamah #Ho 1:8, the ark and the mercy seat were never sundered.

Thence will I command the sword] See #Isa 13:15,16 Jer 9:10 43:11 Eze 14:17.

And I will set mine eyes upon them] Heb. eye (Emphaticoteron est quam si dixisset Oculo pluraliter. Mercer), viz. the eye of my providence, that oculus irretortus, whereby I will look them to death, and take course that nothing shall go well with them; see a little below, #Am 9:8 Jer 21:10 Ps 34:10. In Tamerlane’s eyes sat such a majesty as man could hardly endure to behold; and man in talking with him became dumb. He held the East in such awe, as that he was commonly called, The wrath of God and terror of the world. Augustus Caesar frowned to death Cornelius Gallus; and so did Queen Elizabeth Sir Christopher Hatton, lord chancellor God’s enemies are sure to perish at the rebuke of his countenance, #Ps 80:16, and if he but set his eyes upon them for evil, and not for good, all occurrences shall certainly work together for the worst unto them.

Ver. 5. And the Lord God of hosts is he, &c] Here the prophet proveth what he had said in the foregoing verses, by an argument drawn from the wonderful power of God, which profane persons are apt to question, that they may harden their hearts against his fear. Consider, saith he, first, that he is the Lord God of hosts, and (as the Rabbis well observe) he hath the upper and lower troops ready pressed, as his horse and foot, to march against his enemies. Next, that he toucheth the land, as it were, with his little finger, and it shall melt, like the fat of lambs before the fire; it shall crumble to crattle, moulder away, and be moved, because he is wroth, #Ps 18:7: and shall men be unmoved? shall they be more insensible than the senseless earth? The people of Antioch, though many of them gave their hands for Chrysostom’s banishment, yet, terrified by an earthquake (which wrought in them a heartquake, as it had done in the jailer, #Ac 16:25-30), they immediately sent for him again. But, thirdly, the tremendous power of God appears in this, that

The land shall rise up wholly like a flood; and it shall be drowned, as by the flood of Egypt] God can float it and flood it at his pleasure, see #Am 8:8. Water is naturally above the earth as the garment above the body, saith David; and would (but for the power and providence of God) prove as the shirt made for the murdering of Agamemnon, where the head had no issue out. Let God be seen herein, and men’s hearts possessed with his holy fear; who can so easily pull up the sluices, let in the sea upon them, and bury them all in one universal grave of waters. "Fear ye not me? saith the Lord: will ye not tremble at my presence, which have placed the sand for the bound of the sea by a perpetual decree, that it cannot pass it; and though the waves thereof toss themselves, yet can they not prevail; though they roar, yet can they not pass over it?" #Jer 5:22. This Aristotle admires, and David celebrates in his physics (as one calleth that 104th Psalm), #Ps 104:6,9, and all men should improve, to frighten their consciences from provoking to anger so great a God.

Ver. 6. It is he that buildeth his stories (or spheres) in the heaven] Surgit hic oratio. The prophet here riseth in his discourse; and as Chrysostom said of St Paul, Tricubitalis est, et coelos transcendit; Low though he were, and little, yet he got up into the third heaven; so may we of Amos, though but a plain spoken and illiterate herdsman, yet, in setting forth the power of God, he mounts from earth to heaven, and shows himself to be Virum bonum, dicendi peritum, an exquisite orator, according to Quintilian’s character. God, this great architect and public workman, δημιουργος (as the apostle after Plato, whom he seemeth to have read, calleth him, #Heb 11:10), hath, without tool or toil, #Isa 40:28, builded his stories in the heaven, which is three stories high, #2Co 12:2, wherein, as in a theatre, or molten looking glass, #Job 37:18, his majesty most clearly shineth, #Am 4:13 5:8 Ps 104:3; every sphere and star twinkling at us, and as it were, beckoning to us, to remember his omnipotence (whereof that rare fabric is a notable work and witness), and not to think to escape his judgments if we go on in sin. For although he be higher than the heavens, #Job 35:5, yet "his eyes behold, his eyelids try, the children of men," #Ps 11:4,6, "Upon the wicked he shall rain down snares, fire and brimstone," &c.

And hath founded his troop (or bundle) in the earth] That is, the other three elements, say some: the sea, which, together with the earth, maketh one globe, say others: the universe (saith Mr Diodati), which is like the fabric of a building; of which the earth, being the lower part, and only unmoveable, hath some resemblance of a foundation.

He that calleth for the waters of the sea, and poureth them out, &c.] {See Trapp on "Am 5:8"}

Ver. 7. Are ye not as children of the Ethiopians unto me] The emphasis lieth in this last word, "unto me," who am no respecter of persons, "but in every nation he that feareth God, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with him," #Ac 10:35. Unto yourselves indeed you seem some great business, because Israelites; "to whom pertaineth the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants," #Ro 9:4. To others also you seem a great nation, yea, a wise and understanding people, as having God so nigh unto you and so set for you, #De 4:6,7 33:29. But tell me, Quis te discrevit? Who made you to differ? and what have ye more than others that ye have not me to thank for? You look upon the Ethiopians with scorn, as an ignoble and servile people; as likewise upon the uncircumcised Philistines and unhallowed Syrians. But wherein are you beyond them, if you look back to your original, and consider my dealings with them and you? It is nothing else but self-love that maketh you thus insolent; and teacheth you to turn the glass to see yourselves bigger, others lesser than they are. You foolishly set up your counter for a thousand pound; and are in some sense like those Ethiopians, or Negroes, so much slighted by you; of whom it is said they paint the devil white, as being a colour contrary to their own. But much more to blame are you, that being God’s peculiar people, and partakers of such great privileges, you do no more change your evil manners than the Ethiopians do their black hue, #Jer 13:23, you are nowhere white but in your teeth, as they; good a little from the teeth outward. I am near in your mouths, but far from your reins, #Jer 12:2. Such a one was that stigmatic Cush the Benjamite, mentioned in the title of the seventh Psalm (perhaps Saul, the son of Kish the Benjamite, is intended), non tam cute quam corde Aethiopicus, of black and ill conditions; and therefore to God no better than an Ethiopian, or any other Pagan people.

Have not I brought up Israel out of the land of Egypt] q.d. I grant I have; and you glory very much in it; whereas you should rather glorify me much for it, and walk worthy of such a deliverance; for every blessing is a binder, and every new deliverance a new tie to obedience. But what singular thing have I herein done for you more than for Philistines and Syrians, whom yet you look upon as dogs and outcasts!

Have not I also brought up the Philistines from Caphtor] i.e. from Cappadocia (called an island, #Jer 47:4, because it bordered upon the sea), or, as some will have it, from Cyrus, a rich island, called therefore Macariah, that is, blessed.

And the Syrians from Kir] Syros e Ciro, from Cyrene, a country of Asia, as Beroaldus thinketh. It is mentioned, #Isa 22:6, as subject to the king of Assyria; and thither the Syrians were resettled by Tiglathpileser, #2Ki 16:9, but when either these or the Philistines were brought back again to their own countries, we read not in Scripture or elsewhere at this day. "These are ancient things" (as it is said in another case, #1Ch 4:22), and are here alleged as well known to the Israelites, who are nipped on the crown, as they say, and pulled from that perilous pinnacle of self-exaltation, whereupon they had unhappily perked themselves.

Ver. 8. Behold, the eyes of the Lord God are upon the sinful kingdom] Be it Ethiopia, Palestina, Syria, or Israel, but especially Israel, #Am 3:2, not his eye only, his εκδικον ομμα, his jealous eye, as #Am 9:4, for evil, and not for good; but both his eyes, yea, his seven eyes, for he is ολοφθαλμος, all eye, to look through and through the sinful kingdom, to judge and punish, to inflict "tribulation and anguish, upon every soul of man that doeth evil, of the Jew first," because of his privileges, "and also of the Gentile," #Ro 2:9. "The sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron, with the point of a diamond," #Jer 17:1, and Israel is therefore worse than others, because he ought to have been better. His whole kingdom is a kingdom of sin, a merum seclus, from pure wickedness, a very Poneropolis, as that place in Thraeia was called whither Philip had assembled all the infamous persons and men of evil demeanour. "What is the transgression of Jacob? is it not Samaria?" #Mic 1:5; their capital sins were most in their capital cities; and thence overflowed the whole kingdom; called therefore here a sinful kingdom, wholly given to idolatry (as Athens was, #Ac 17:16, κατειδωλος), which is that sin with an accent, that wickedness with a witness, #Ex 32:21 1Ki 12:30 15:3,30, that land desolating sin, #Jer 22:7-9 Ps 78:58-62.

And I will destroy it] See here the venomous nature of sin, and shun it, else we shall prove traitors to the state, and have our hands, if not upon the great cart ropes, yet upon the lesser cords, that draw down vengeance upon the land. And here some one sinner may destroy much good, #Ec 9:18, how much more a rabble of rebels, conspiring to provoke the eyes of God’s glory!

Saying that I will not utterly destroy the house of Jacob] A remnant shall be left for royal use, reliquas faciam reliquias, and so make a manifest difference, see #Jer 30:11, remembering my promise, #Le 26:40, which is a special text touching the rejecting and conversion of the Jews, as is also this in some men’s judgments. For here (say they) is a threatening of extreme desolation with some comfort interlaced of a remnant to be reserved; among whom it is further promised, 1. That the kingdom of David through Christ shall be set up as glorious as ever it was before, in the most flourishing times of David or Solomon, #Am 9:11 2. Next, other nations shall join with them and be made partakers of one common inheritance, #Am 9:12. So doth James, #Ac 15:16,17, expound it. 3. Thirdly, there is promised the fruitfulness of their land, #Am 9:13, the inhabiting in their own country, #Am 9:14, and the perpetuity of their abode there, #Am 9:15. But all this others think to be, optabile magis quam opinabile, little better than a golden dream.

Ver. 9. For lo, I will command, and I will sift the house of Israel] It is not without God’s command and good leave that evil spirits and men can sift the saints, as Satan desired to have done Peter. He desired it, as a challenger desireth one of the other side to combat with; so he begged leave to sift Job, and so he tempted David to number the people, but it was by God’s permission. Up therefore and pray, that ye enter not into temptation, #Lu 22:31,46, or, that ye may come clear out of it, and more than conquerors, even triumphers. The enemy is stinted; yea, Christ will tread him under your feet shortly, #Ro 16:20.

And I will sift the house of Israel among all nations] The ten tribes among the Assyrians (who were emperors of the whole East), and whither since are they scattered, whether into China, Tartary, West Indies, or other countries, is not known. The whole twelve tribes (those also that once "instantly served God day and night," #Ac 26:7), are now woefully dejected and dissipated; being cast out of the world, as it were, by a common consent of nations, and generally slighted and hated. The Romans permitted other nations to call themselves Romans after they had conquered them; but so they would not suffer the Jews upon any terms to do; lest there should be some blot stick to the glory of the Romans by that odious and sordid people. The Pope useth them as spunges, the Turk as slaves.

Like as corn is sifted in a sieve] Or, by a fan, to the same sense as that, #Zec 13:9, for as here a sieve, so there fire serveth to denote affliction with the use of it; sc. to purge God’s people, specially of those two troublesome choke weeds, high-mindedness and earthly mindedness: cribratione Dei non perditur sed purgatur frumentum, saith Zanchy, God’s good grain is not lost, but made clean by the sifting they suffer.

Yet shall not the least grain (Heb. stone) fall upon the earth] As the chaff and dust shall; for "what is the chaff to the wheat?" saith the Lord, #Jer 23:28. Improbi nobiscum esse possunt in horreo, sed non in area The wicked are able to be with us in the storehouse but not on the theshingfloor. (Augustine). Christ hath his fan in his hand, and will surely discriminate, #Mt 3:12; he will take out the precious from the vile, he will drive the chaff one way and the wheat another; and take care that not the least grain of weighty wheat, that had good tack in it (as a stone hath, though but a little stone), shall be lost. He will turn his hand upon the little ones, and secure them, #Zec 13:7.

Ver. 10. All the sinners of my people shall die by the sword] The flagitious, presumptuous persons, that bless themselves when I curse them, saying, We shall have peace, though we walk every man in the imagination of his heart, and take his full swing in sin, #De 29:19. Such sinners in Zion, #Isa 33:14, such sacrificing Sodomites, #Isa 1:10, such profligate professors shall die by the sword; either by the hand of the enemy, or, which is worse, gladio spiritali, saith Mercer, by the spiritual sword, being blinded and rejected by God; so that their preservation is but a reservation to a greater mischief. Whereas, on the other side, some of God’s elect might in a common calamity perish by the sword, but then (Josiah-like) they died in peace, though they fell in battle; their death was right precious in the sight of the Lord, and a plentiful amends made them in heaven.

Which say, The evil shall not overtake nor prevent us] Or, for our sakes, by our default, Begnadenu propter nos. If affliction do find us out, yet we have not deserved it; common occurrences we cannot be against. Thus the wicked man "flattereth himself in his own eyes, until his iniquity be found to be hateful," #Ps 36:2. "In all my labours they shall find none iniquity in me that were sin," #Ho 12:8. "Yet thou sayest, Because I am innocent, surely his anger shall turn from me. Behold, I will plead with thee, because thou sayest, I have not sinned," #Jer 2:35.

Ver. 11. In that day will I raise up the tabernacle of David] A most sweet conclusion of the prophecy by sundry evangelical promises, after so many very severe and sharp menaces: the Sun of righteousness liketh not to set in a cloud. In that day, that happy day, whensoever it shall dawn, that Christ shall come; for the prophets knew not the certain time when, but made diligent inquiry as far as they might with sobriety, #1Pe 1:11, and well knew that the law, which they preached and explained, was an introduction to a better hope, #Heb 7:19, which they saw afar off and saluted, #Heb 11:13.

Will I raise up the tabernacle of David] That is, the kingdom of the house of David, saith the Chaldee paraphrast; meaning, of the Messiah, whom the sounder sort of Rabbis from this text call Ben Niphlei, the repairer of the breach, the restorer of paths to dwell in. Now the Church is here called the tabernacle of David, because that once stately palace of David was by many desolations reduced to a tent, as it were, and that ready to drop too. The Branch grew out of the root of Jesse, when that goodly family was sunk so low as from David the king to Joseph the carpenter. Besides, all was out of order both in Church and State when Christ came.

And close up the breaches thereof] Heb. wall up; by unwalling (as the Hebrew hath it, #Nu 24:17) all the children of Seth; by subduing the sons of men, the godly seed, to the obedience of faith; by bringing into captivity every haughty thought, #2Co 10:4,5 (that at the name of Jesus every knee may bow, #Php 2:10), and getting a full conquest by the preaching of the gospel, which shall quickly close up all ruptures, and raise up all ruins, by chasing away terrors and false worships, doctrines of devils, and traditions of men, whereby the scribes and Pharisees had made the commandment of God of none effect.

And I will build it as in the days of old] In those purer times of David and the other holy patriarchs, who made up but one and the same Church with us, and were saved by the same faith in Christ Jesus, that Lamb of God slain from the foundation of the world, #Re 13:8. Mine antiquity is Jesus Christ, said Ignatius, the martyr. As we prefer the newest philosophy, so the most ancient divinity, saith another.

Ver. 12. That they may possess the remnant of Edom] "That they" which are called by my name, which are called Christians, viz. the apostles and their successors to the end of the world, "may possess," together with Christ (to whom the Father hath given the heathen for his inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for his possession), "the remnant of Edom"; those few of them that receive the faith, who are but as a remnant to the whole piece, a handful to a houseful. And not of the Edomites only, those inveterate and hereditary enemies to the Israel of God, but of all the heathen which are called by name, #Ps 2:8, who beseech and are baptized into Christ’s name, being content to receive his mark and to profess his religion, which formerly they were perfect strangers to. These and those first preachers of the gospel, and planters of Churches (being Israelites by birth), are said to possess by inheritance, because Christ was pleased to make use of their ministry; and upon these his white horses to ride abroad the world, "conquering, and to conquer," #Re 6:1,2. In a like sense it is promised, #Isa 14:2, that the house of Israel shall possess their proselytes in the land of the Lord for servants and for handmaids, and take them captives whose captives they were, and rule over their oppressors. Such a change shall the gospel make.

Saith the Lord that doeth this] For indeed none else could have done it. Effectual conversion is his work alone. God persuaded Japhet. Noah may speak persuasively, but God only can persuade. Rebecca may cook the venison, but Isaac only can give the blessing. "Paul may plant," &c. Deus potest facere, nec solet fallere.

Ver. 13. Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that the plowman] The gospel of peace brings with it the peace of the gospel, and with peace plenty, with the horn of salvation the horn of plenty, a confluence of outward comforts and contentments, as in Solomon’s days and Constantine’s (whom God prospered and blessed beyond all that he could have wished, saith Austin, Bonus Deus Constant tantis terrenis implevit muneribus quanta optare nullus auderet. De C. D. l. 5, 25), and Queen Elizabeth’s whom, for her care to propagate the gospel, he made to be the happiest woman that ever swayed sceptre, as her very enemies were forced to acknowledge: so liberal a paymaster is the Lord, that all his retributions are more than bountiful; and this his servants have not ex largitate, sed ex promisso, out of his general providences, but by virtue of a promise, which is far sweeter. The Masorites have observed, that in this verse are found all the letters of the Hebrew alphabet (as also in 26 more verses of the Old Testament), {Hebrew Text Note} to note, say the Calvinists, that in the kingdom of the Messiah ( In instauratione casulae Davidicae collapsae) there shall be great abundance of all things, et plenum copiae cornu: or, if that should fail, yet plenty of all spiritual benedictions in heavenly things, #Eph 1:3, and contented godliness, #1Ti 6:6, which hath an autarkeia, a self-sufficiency; so that having nothing, a man possesseth all things, #2Co 6:10. This the prophet expresseth in the following words, by many excellent hyperboles, though (to say sooth) Christus et regnum eius non patiuntur hyperbolen. All words are too weak to set forth the worth of Christ and his kingdom.

The plowman shall overtake the reaper] In signis hyperbole, saith Mercer: no sooner shall harvest be ended but seeding shall succeed and that promise be fulfilled, #Le 26:5: all businesses belonging to the tillage of the ground and the inning of the fruit shall have their fit and suitable seasons; where, under the name of corporal blessings, spiritual are to be understood; and indeed those blessings out of Zion are far beyond any other that come out of heaven and earth, #Ps 134:3.

And the treader of grapes, him that soweth seed] "Precious seed," #Ps 126:5, sowingseed (as one translates it), drawn out of the seed basket, and cast all along upon the land: the meaning is, that the vintage shall last so long, that the seedsman shall scarcely have time to do his business, for waiting upon the winepress.

And the mountains shall drop sweet wine] Or juice of pomegranates, more delicious liquor than that which the Italians profanely call Lachryma Christi, or that which at Paris and Louvaine is called Vinum Theologicum, or Vinum Cos, that is, coloris, odoris, saporis ortirol, the best in the country for colour, savour, and taste, to please the palate.

And all the hills shall melt] sc. With milk, honey, oil, #Joe 3:18, the same almost with this. And the heathen poet (Claudian) hath the like,

—“ Subitis messor gaudebit aristis:

Rorabunt querceta favis stagnantia passim

Vina fluent oleique lacus.”—

Ver. 14. And I will bring again the captivity of my people] There is an elegance in the original that cannot be translated into English, and God seems delighted with such alliteration, as hath been before observed; to show the lawful use of rhetoric in divine discourses, so it be not affected, abused, idolized. This promise is fulfilled when believers are by the gospel brought "from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins," #Ac 26:18, and be set free from the tyranny of corruption and terror of death, #Heb 2:14,15 Col 1:13 Lu 1:74 Zec 9:11 Ps 68:19.

And they shall build the waste cities] Restore the sincere service of God, as those noble reformers did in all ages; fetching the Church, as it were, out of the wilderness, where she had long lain hidden, #Re 12:6, and whence she is said at length to come "leaning upon her beloved," #So 8:5.

And they shall plant vineyards] That is, particular Churches.

And drink the wine thereof] Have the fruit and comfort of their labours in the Lord, which they shall see not to be in vain, #1Co 15:58.

They shall also make gardens, and eat of the fruit] While they shall see their people to be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of Jesus Christ, #2Pe 1:8, but far off flourishing, #Ps 92:13, actuosi et fructuosi, #Isa 51:3. The Popish commentators (as it is the manner of many of them to mar and bemire the text with their absurd glosses) by cities here would have men to understand the state of married people, by vineyards their prelates, and by gardens monks. Is not this to wrest the Scriptures, and so to set them on the rack, as to make them speak more than ever they intended? Is it not to compel them to go two miles when they are willing to go but one? Is it not to taw them, and gnaw them, as Tertullian saith that Marcion, the heretic (that Mus Ponticus, as he therefore calls him), did, to make them serviceable to his vile purposes?

Ver. 15. And I will plant them upon their land] As "trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he might be glorified," #Isa 61:3,11, being well-rooted and no worse fruited, #Php 1:6.

And they shall no more be pulled up] None shall pull them out of Christ’s hand; for he and the Father are one, #Joh 10:29,30. None shall separate them from the love of God in Christ Jesus, #Ro 8:39, they shall be sure of continual supplies of sap and safety, being kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation, #2Pe 1:3. The paradise of God was so planted, that it was watered on all sides with most noble rivers, to keep it flourishing; how much more will the Lord do this in his heavenly garden, the Church! see #Ps 92:13,14, when it comes to be transplanted especially.

Saith the Lord thy God] "Thy God," O prophet, who will ratify and verify what promises soever thou hast uttered in his name. Or "thy God," O people, now reconciled unto thee in Christ, #Joh 20:17, and therefore ready to heap upon thee all things needful for life and godliness.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9