Micah

Chapter 1

Ver. 1. The word of the Lord, &c.] {See Trapp on "Ho 1:1"}

To Micah the Morasthite] To distinguish him from Micaiah, the son of Imlah, who prophesied in Ahab’s days, over a hundred years before this. Micah the Morasthite, so called from the place of his birth or abode, which is made famous by him (as Abder was by Democritus, Hippo by Austin), and not he by it. Ambrose saith his name signifieth Quis iste? Who is this? Who (saith that father in answer)? not one of the common sort, but an elect vessel to carry God’s name to his people. Jerome, from his title, Morasthite, interpreted, calleth him cohaeredem Christi, co-heir with Christ, of whom and his kingdom he sweetly prophesieth; and may, therefore, be called the evangelical prophet; as was Isaiah, his contemporary, with whom he hath many things common; and this one thing above him, that he nameth Bethlehem, Christ’s birthplace, #Mic 5:2, for the which (as well as for his boldness, #Jer 26:18) he was famous in the Church, #Mt 2:6 Joh 7:42.

In the days of Jotham, Ahaz, Hezekiah] Ahaz standeth between Jotham and Hezekiah, as a thistle or thorn between two lilies, or roses. Manasseh comes after, and degenerates into his grandfather Ahaz. To his time Micah attained not, much less to Josiah’s, as Isidore hath it; for between Jotham and Josiah were a hundred and twenty years at least. It is probable that Micah prophesied forty years, if not more; wherein he saw many changes and met with many molestations; had cause enough to cry out with his colleague, "Who hath believed our report?" "My leanness, my leanness," &c. Yet held he on his course; as being of Latimer’s mind, who, speaking in one of his sermons of a minister that gave this answer why he left off preaching? viz. because he saw he did no good. This, saith Latimer, is a naughty, a very naughty answer.

Which he saw] sc. with the eyes of his mind for the use of the Church; whereto this prophecy comes commended, first, as "the word of the Lord," and, secondly, as extraordinarily revealed to this prophet.

Concerning Samaria and Jerusalem] Samaria seemeth to be first named because most guilty before God. They are yoked together, because there was scarcely ever a better (Aholah and Aholibah, sisters in sin), and one the much worse for the other’s neighbourhood. Jerusalem would take it in high scorn, likely, to be matched with Samaria, so much slighted and shunned by her, #Joh 4:9, as Papists now do to be set by Protestants, Turks by Christians (the word of a Mussulman bears down all other testimony among them). But this prophet is very bold (as it is said of Isaiah’s contemporaries, #Ro 10:20), binds them both up in one bundle, and spareth not to show Judah their transgressions, and the house of Jacob their sins.

Ver. 2. Hear, all ye people] He beginneth as Isaiah, in a lofty and stately style, pouring himself out in a golden flood of words (as Cicero speaketh of Aristotle’s Politics), and calling for utmost attention and affection; as knowing that he had to do with men more deaf than sea monsters, and more dull than the very earth they trod on; which is therefore here commanded to hearken, since men (that habitable part of God’s earth, #Pr 8:31) will not hear and give ear; wherein they are worse than the insensible creatures, #Ps 119:91.

And let the Lord God be witness against you] Here he turneth his speech to the refractory Jews; speaking to God as a righteous judge and swift witness, Iudex, Iudex, vindex, against them if they hearkened not to his message: nisi pareant, ideoque pereant.

The Lord from his holy temple] That is, let him testify from heaven, #Ps 11:4, that he is displeased with you, and that I have carefully sought your soul’s health. Or, from his temple at Jerusalem, wherein ye glory, and where ye think ye have him as fast bound to you as the Tyrians had their idol Apollo, whom they chained and nailed to a post, that he might not forsake them, when Alexauder besieged their town, and took it (Macrob. lib. 8, cap. 9). The heathens had a trick, when they besieged a city, to call the tutelar gods out of it by a certain charm, as believing that it could not otherwise be taken (Virg. Aen. 2). In a like sense whereunto some have interpreted the following verses here.

Ver. 3. For, behold, the Lord cometh out of his place] That is, say they, out of Judea and his temple there, leaving it to the Chaldeans and Assyrians. See #Eze 3:12, and chapters 9-11, where God makes various withdrawals from the cherubins to the threshold, from thence to the east gate, from thence to mount Olivet, quite out of the city, #Eze 11:23, and when God was gone, then followed the fatal calamity, in the ruin of the city. But by God’s coming forth out of his place here I conceive is meant his descending from heaven to do justice on this hypocritical nation, #Isa 26:21, and because hypocritis nihil stupidius; hypocrites, resting on their external performances and privileges, will hardly be persuaded of any evil toward them. #Mic 3:11, "Is not the Lord," say they, "among us? none evil can come upon us"; therefore we have here an emphatic Ecce, "Behold, the Lord cometh"; he is even upon the way already, and will be here with the first. He will come down as once at Sodom, when their sin was very grievous, #Ge 18:20, when they were overcharged with the superfluity of naughtiness; God came from heaven to give their land a vomit; and so he would do here; for unregenerate Israel was to God as Ethiopia, #Am 9:7, as the rulers of Sodom and people of Gomorrah, #Isa 1:10.

And tread upon the high places of the earth] The high and mighty ones, that, having gotten on the top of their hillocks as so many ants, think themselves so much the better and safer, repose confidence in their high places and strongholds, as Nebuchadnezzar did in his Babel, Edom in his clefts of the rocks, munitions of rocks, #Ob 3, the rich fool in his heaps and hoards, #Lu 12:19; these, with their false confidences, God will tread down in his anger, and trample them in his fury, as the mire of the streets; he will bring down their strength to the earth, and lay their honour in the dust, #Isa 63:3,6.

Ver. 4. And the mountains shall be molten under him] This is to the self same sense; though men swell, in their own eyes, to the size of so many mountains; and though, gotten upon their hill of ice, they think they shall never be moved, #Ps 30:6,7; yet, when God, with his devouring fire and everlasting burnings, comes in presence, these craggy mountains shall soon dissolve and melt as wax, they shall be as waters poured down a descent, they shall flow as a land flood. By which similitudes, and familiar comparisons, is notably set forth the irresistible wrath of God for the frightening of hard hearted sinners, that they may take hold of his strength, and make peace with him, #Isa 27:5.

The valleys also shall be deft] The poorer sort also shall have their share in the common calamity. God will neither spare the high for their might, nor the base for their meanness, but lords and lowies together, shall be

as wax before the fire, &c.] Wax is a poor fence against fire, sticks and stubble against a strong torrent; so human force against Divine judgments.

Ver. 5. For the transgression of Jacob is all this] Lest they should think, either that these things were threatened in terrorem in fear only, and would never be inflicted; or else that they had not deserved such severity, but that God should pour out his wrath rather upon the heathen, that knew him not, and upon the families that called not on his name. The prophet here showeth that Jacob was become a just object of God’s indignation, by his transgressions or rebellions, and the whole house of Israel by their sins; there was a general defection, and therefore they must expect a general destruction. For what reason? the just Lord is in the midst thereof: he will not do iniquity, he will not acquit the guilty: morning by morning doth he bring his judgments to light, he faileth not: but the unjust knoweth no shame, will take no warning, which is a just both presage and desert of his ruin.

What is the transgression of Jacob?] Say they in a chatting way; like those miscreants in Malachi, that so worded it with God, #Mal 1:1-14 3:1-15.

Is it not Samaria?] Saith the prophet, in answer to that daring demand of theirs. So,

what are the high places of Judah?] viz. the superstitious and carnal confidences thereof? Is it not Jerusalem? saith the prophet. Are not their capital cities become their capital sins? Read we not of the calf of Samaria, #Ho 8:5, and did not her kings set up idols at Dan and Bethel, and Gilgal and Beersheba? As for Jerusalem, had she not turned the very temple into a high place, by resting in her ceremonial services and sacrifices? Did not some of her best kings wink at the high places? And Ahaz, that stigmatic Belialist, shut up God’s temple and set up strange worships? How then could these frontless fellows ask "What is the transgression?" and "What are the high places?" The prophet goes not behind the door to tell them that the best of them were no better than a rabble of rebels against heaven; and their chieftains were most in fault, though they least liked to hear of it. Samaria is a very Poneropolis, and Jerusalem is little better; they both are even transformed into sin’s image; the prophet here speaks of them as if they were not only sinful, but sin itself; as Cicero saith of one Tubulus, a Roman praetor, that he was so desperately wicked, ut eius nomen non hominis sed vitii esse videretur; that he passed not for a man, but for a vice, so flagitious were his practices; or, as Austin saith of this present evil world, that it is nothing else but a sty of filthy hogs, or a kennel of mad dogs, Hara porcorum, vel colluvies rabidorum canum (Aug.).

Ver. 6. Therefore I will make Samaria as an heap of the field] i.e. When stones are gathered out of a field they are laid together on heaps, so I will take course that where Samaria now is, there shall be nothing to be seen but heaps of stones and rubbish. God is the true προλιπορθος: "for thou hast made of a city a heap; of a defenced city a ruin: a palace of strangers to be no city; it shall never be built," #Isa 25:2. Of Rome it was long since prophesied:

“ Tota eris in cineres, quasi nunquam Roma fuisses.”

“The entire city will be in ashes, just as Rome never existed.”

Oh that God would hasten that day! Scipio foresaw it, and wept, sc. when he saw Carthage set all on fire by himself. In the greatness of the Turkish empire are swallowed up many kingdoms and countries; besides all those churches and places so much spoken of in Scripture, the Romans only excepted; yet, no doubt, for their many and mighty sins, time shall triumph over this so great a monarchy, when it shall but then live by fame, as others now do. Iam seges est ubi Troia fuit. Though thou build thy walls as high as heaven (said the oracle to wicked Phocas), yet sin, that lieth at the foundation, will one day overturn them.

And as plantings of a vineyard] That is, it shall be made a place fit for the planting of vines; it shall be utterly rased and harassed. A Lapide observeth the fitness of the expression here used, in that Samaria was situated on a hill that bore vines; and before it was a city it had been a vineyard: God threateneth to make it so again, and so to stain the pride of all its glory. See what a trouble town sin is. Surely did people but know what it will once cost them and cause to them, they dared not but be innocent.

And I will pour down the stones thereof into the valley] That is, into a bycorner. Clearing of stones is necessary to a vineyard, #Isa 5:2, there being no possession that requireth more pains and care, as Cato hath observed.

And I will discover the foundation thereof] I will not leave a stone upon a stone, nor any footstep of so stately a city, that hath so long time been a cage of unclean birds, an Augean stable of abominable idolaters. God, as he hath loving respects to the places of his servants’ birth and abode, #Ps 87:6 Isa 49:16, so he sets the marks of his wrath upon those places where foul sins have been perpetrated, as upon our abbeys and monasteries, whose very foundations are laid naked.

Ver. 7. And all the graven images thereof] Upon these the jealous God will execute vengeance: so to show his hatred of idolatry. "The stones of the altars he will make as chalk stones that are beaten in sunder, the groves and the images shall not stand up," #Isa 27:9. As for those that "worship them, and repent not of the works of their hands," #Re 9:20, they shall smart surely for their idolatries, as did those of old in the wilderness; and the more ingenuous of their posterity acknowledge at this day, that there is no punishment befalleth them in which there is not still an ounce of that golden calf. True it is, that the Samaritan superstition which was grosser at first (and for which they were carried captive by the Assyrian), was afterwards refined by Manasseh, a Jewish priest, that in Alexander’s time made a defection to him, and brought many Jews with him, but that saved them not from utter destruction.

And all the hires thereof shall be burnt with fire] Her rewards given her by her sweet hearts, #Ho 2:5,12 9:1; her vowed presents and memories (as Papists now call them), her monies and donaries, shall be set on a light fire. God will confute their vain confidences, as he did those Popish rebels of Norfolk, in Edward VI’s time, who brought into the battle the Pix under his canopy, and with all his trinkets, crosses, banners, candlesticks, memories, &c., which in the end could neither help themselves nor save their friends from the hands of their enemies (Acts and Mon. fol. 1190).

For she gathered it of the hire of an harlot, &c.] Ill-gotten goods thrive not. Few harlots are found to be rich. Indeed we read of Phryne, a notable strumpet, that she offered to rebuild the walls of Thebes, on the condition that this might be engraved on them, ´ Ο μεν Αλεξανδρος κατεσκαψεν, &c. Alexander pulled them down, and Phryne set them up again, but it would not be accepted. Flora also, the Roman harlot, was very rich; and so is the whore of Babylon to this day, by her trading with the merchants of the earth; but this will not hold long, #Re 18:10. In one hour shall her judgment come, and in one hour so great riches shall come to nothing, #Re 18:17. England was wont to be counted and called the Pope’s ass, for bearing his burdens, and his puteus inexhaustus, his infinite pit of treasure, whence he drew at pleasure. Polydore Virgil was sometime collector of his Peter Pence here, &c.; but Henry VIII cashiered and cast him out hence, depriving him of his harlot hire. And well he had done, had he not given occasion to those that came after to complain, Possidebant Papistae, possident iam Rapistae.

Ver. 8. Therefore I will wail and howl] Good men are usually more deeply affected with the wretched estate of wicked persons than they themselves are. Thus Samuel mourned for Saul’s rejection; Daniel was astonished and troubled at the import of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream, #Da 4:19; Habakkuk’s belly trembled, and his lips quivered, at the consideration of the judgments that were to come upon the Chaldeans, #Hab 3:16. Do we so (saith Mr Perkins) at other men’s smartings?

I will go stripped] Tam mente quam veste, rending off my garments, and casting them from me, as if bereft of my wits: Pro demente vel insane quidam accipiunt, saith Calvin here. See #Isa 59:15, with the margin, and #Isa 20:2.

I will make a wailing like the dragons] Which, sucking the elephant’s blood till he fall down dead upon them and oppress them with his huge bulk, make a horrible howling; so horrible (saith Palacius out of Pliny and Solinus) that they amaze, yea, kill those that hear it. Fides sit penes autores.

And mourning as the owls] Heb. as the daughters of the owl, or of the ostrich. Young ostriches cast off by their dams, #Job 39:14 La 4:3, and hunger bitten, howl pitifully, as do also the young ravens for like cause, #Ps 147:9. Of the ravens of Arabia it is recorded, that, full gorged, they have a tuneable sweet song; but empty, screech horribly. By these similitudes here used the prophet would express his grief to be unexpressible.

Ver. 9. For her wound is incurable] Or, she is grievously sick of her wounds; or, her wounds are full of anguish, neither is there any to pour in balm of Gilead, to allay it; any to lick it whole, as the Lady Elinor did her husband Prince Edward’s wound, traitorously given him in the Holy Land, by an assassin, with a poisoned knife.

For it is come unto Judah] viz. Samaria’s wound and plague is come, i.e. shall shortly come, though now they live as if out of the reach of God’s rod, or as if they had a protection.

He is come unto the gate of my people] Sennacherib (flushed with former successes at Samaria, which had been carried captive by his father) came up to the very gate of Jerusalem as an overflowing scourge; and thought to have cut off all the Jews at once, as if they had had all but one neck. He came up over all his channels, and went over all his banks. He passed through Judah, and overflowed, reaching even to the neck; and the stretching out of his wings filled the breadth of thy land, O Immanuel, #Isa 8:8. But Immanuel soon took a course with him, #Isa 37:33, so that though he came to the gates, yet he entered not into the city, nor shot an arrow there, nor cast a bank against it. "Look upon Zion," saith that prophet, "the city of our solemnities," and see if Jerusalem be not still "a quiet habitation," #Isa 33:20. "Walk about Zion," saith the psalmist, "and go round about her: tell the towers thereof." See if any be missing since Sennacherib came up against them. "Mark ye well her bulwarks": are they diminished? "consider her palaces": are they at all defaced? #Ps 48:12,13. What if Jerusalem be wicked? yet Sennacherib is insolent. If therefore Jerusalem shall be smitten with the rod of Sennacherib’s fear, Sennacherib shall be smitten with the sword of God’s revenges, who of all things cannot endure a presumptuous and self-confident vaunter; but will deal with his people not according to his ordinary rule, but according to his prerogative. Surely "Israel hath not been forsaken, nor Judah of his God, of the Lord of hosts; though their land was filled with sin against the Holy One of Israel," #Jer 51:5.

Ver. 10. Declare ye it not at Gath, weep ye not at all] sc. in their sight and hearing (though at home weep your fill, #Mic 1:8), lest the daughters of those uncircumcised triumph, #2Sa 1:20; lest out of your tragedies they compose comedies, and ye become their music, while they revel in your ruins and make themselves merry in your misery.

In the house of Aphrah roll thyself in the dust] An elegant word play in the original; q.d. dust thyself in the house of dust. Aphrah had its name from its dustiness; as Paris is called Lutetia a lute, from its dustiness, and as Hiram called the twenty cities of Galilee given him by Solomon, Cabul, that is, dirty, or displeasing, #1Ki 9:13. Fitly was this city called Aphrah, or dusty, saith the prophet; for it shall be reduced to dust, and the inhabitants occasioned to roll themselves in the dust, in token of extreme sorrow. See #La 2:10. Some think Apbrah is put for Ephraim; others better understand it for a particular city; either that in the tribe of Manasseh, Gideon’s city, #Jud 6:11, or that other in the tribe of Benjamin, #Jos 18:23, not far from Jerusalem.

Ver. 11. Pass ye away, thou inhabitant of Saphir] Or, thou that dwellest fairly, as it were in a city set with sapphires, see #Isa 54:11, such as was Susa in Persia, and Antioch in Syria, a city so sweet and specious that Mahomet never dared come into it, lest he should be there detained by the pleasure of the place. Saphir here (say some) may allude to Samaria, that instead of her fairness shall be exposed to ignominy and nakedness: they shall be carried away, "young and old, naked and barefoot, even with their buttocks uncovered, to the shame of Samaria," #Isa 20:4. So the Pope’s champions dealt by the Waldenses in France, those ancient Protestants. One great city of theirs they took, and put to the sword sixty thousand. To another they gave quarter for life; but so as that both the men and the women should depart stark naked, and show all, partibus illis quae honeste nominari non possunt, sanctorum illorum cruciatorum oculis expositis.

The inhabitant of Zaanan] Loci pecorosi, saith Junius, the country of flocks. Some make it to allude to Zion. Others say it signifieth an outlet; and make it to be as a gate to the kingdom of Judah. These came not forth of their gate in the mourning of Bethezel, or of the place together, to condole with them, as having their hands full at home, and matter enough of mourning for their own misery.

He shall receive of you his standing] The enemy shall stand and stay among you till he hath subdued you, and made a clear conquest; he shall not give you over till he have done the deed.

Ver. 12. For the inhabitant of Maroth waited carefully for good] Or, shall grieve for the good, viz. that he hath lost in the common calamity; grieve till he be heart sick, as #Am 6:6, or wait till he faint, for "hope deferred maketh the heart sick," #Pr 13:12. The name of this city is Maroth, that is, bitternesses; and bitter things shall befall her, see #Ru 1:20, because together with the good of piety, which she ought to have waited upon, she hath lost the good of prosperity, which in vain she hath waited for. "The expectation of the wicked is wrath," #Pr 11:23.

But evil came down from the Lord] It is he that sends and sets the enemy to work; as Titus acknowledged, at the last destruction of Jerusalem, that he only lent his hands to the Divine justice. It was God that stirred up enemies to revolted Solomon. And Job descried God’s hand on the arms of the Sabean robbers.

Ver. 13. O thou inhabitant of Lachish, bind the chariot to the swift beast] To the camel or dromedary, saith Calvin, which is a very swift beast (we call a slow body dromedary, per antiphrasin), or to the post horses Aniariis, as Junius; he means, Make haste away. Salmaneser is already at Samaria, and Sennacherib will be ere long at Lachish, #Isa 36:2. Hannibal ad portas, Hannbal at the gates, begone with all possible speed; haste, haste, haste.

She is the beginning of sin to the daughter of Zion] Not partner only, but author and ringleader. Such are all leaders of heresy and inventors of evil things, #Ro 1:30. These shall drink deep of God’s wrath here, and be cast alive into the burning lake, #Re 19:20. Some apply the words to the confederacy of Lachish with Jerusalem against King Amaziah, #2Ki 14:19, slain at this city.

For the transgressions of Israel were found in thee] The often change of person in this verse is remarkable. The chief sin that Lachish stands charged with is that, being near to Beersheba, she had learned her manner, #Am 8:14, that is, her rites and religions, instituted by Jeroboam, and transmitted them to Jerusalem. Superstition soon spreads, and is catching; like the Jerusalem artichoke, it quickly overruns the ground, and chokes the heart.

Ver. 14. Therefore shalt thou give presents, &c.] And so seek to make thee friends among the Philistines; but such carnal confederacies never prosper. The Greek Churches, A. D. 1438, afraid of the Turks, sent and subjected themselves to the Bishop of Rome, that they might have the help of the Latin Churches; but shortly after they were destroyed, their empire subdued, and swallowed up by the Ottoman greatness, &c. How much better were it to send a lamb to the ruler of the earth! #Isa 16:1, to bring presents unto him that ought to be feared! #Ps 76:11, even to God, who cutteth off the spirits of princes, and is terrible to the kings of the earth! #Mic 1:12. Was he not so to Sennacherib, whom Lachish here feared, and fled from? to Nebuchadnezzar, Belshazzar, Xerxes, who, after he had wasted over two million men into Greece, and whipped the Hellespont (for battering his bridge of boats over it) with three hundred stripes, was defeated, routed, and forced to flee back in a poor fisher’s boat, to save his own life? (Herod.)

The houses of Achzib (that is, of a lie) shall be a lie to the kings of Israel] Or have been a lie to the kings of Israel; never true to those that trusted them: and wilt thou confederate with them, and confide in them?

Ver. 15. Yet will I bring an heir unto thee] Or, a possessor, who shall lay claim to thee, as by right of inheritance. This heir was the Assyrian, and those colonies brought by him into the cities of Israel, #2Ki 17:34. These took upon them as heirs and owners of the country, till turned out afterwards by Josiah, King of Judah, #2Ki 23:4,8. Here is another elegant allusion, as this chapter is full of them, for Mareshah signifieth an inheritance or possession. And if it were Micah’s own country, as many think, we may see the prophet’s integrity in not bearing with his best friends; but taking the same liberty to tell them of their sins and dangers that they did to commit the one and to incur the other. "Physician, heal thyself," said they to our Saviour, #Lu 4:23, that is, thine own country, as it is there explained.

He shall come unto Adullam, the glory of Israel] Haply so called, because David was once there hidden and housed, and the place thereby renowned. Or, because it was a stronghold, wherein Israel gloried and trusted, but in vain, since the enemies should come to it, and surprise it. Some think poor Adullam is called "the glory of Israel" ironically, and by way of scorn. Some read it thus, O glory of Israel (to wit, then lost and overthrown); and they make it to be a deep sigh of the prophet, sent from the bottom of his heart; whereby he witnesseth that he is greatly sorry for the ruin of the Israelites; that he might move them also to mourn in like manner. This he further presseth them to in the next words.

Ver. 16. Make thee bald and poll thee] i.e. Make most bitter lamentation. He alludes to a custom among the Easterlings, of tearing off the hair of their heads and beards in times of great heaviness. See #Job 1:20 Isa 15:2 Jer 7:29 Ezr 9:3. In other cases baldness was forbidden Israel (lest they should symbolize with heathens), but in case of sorrow for sin they were called to it, #Isa 22:12.

For thy delicate children] To whom thou hast been rather a parricide than a parent; dealing by them, as that false schoolmaster in Italy, that brought forth his scholars to Hannibal.

As the eagle] When he is old, and loseth his feathers; and with them not only his beauty, but also his swiftness and courage.

Chapter 2

Ver. 1. Woe to them that devise iniquity] Or, labour, affliction, vanity, a lie. The Hebrew word Aven is of large use; applied to all kinds of sin which causeth pain, sorrow, and misery; and here in particular to covetousness, that root of all evil to a man’s self and others, #1Ti 6:9,10. Our prophet flings a woe at it, as doth likewise Habakkuk, #Hab 2:9, calling it an evil covetousness, as the prophet Isaiah tells us, that for the iniquity of his covetousness God was wroth with Israel and smote him, #Isa 57:17. The world counts it a light offence; and casts a cloak of good husbandry over it, #1Th 2:5. But this disguise will serve such no better than that which Ahab once put on and perished. "Let no man deceive you with vain words" (those plastered words, πλαστοις λογοις, #2Pe 2:3, used by bell’s proctors): "for because of these things" (sc. fornication, covetousness, &c., those peccadillos as they are counted) "cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience," #Eph 5:6. For what reason? They devise iniquity, cogitant quasi coagitant, they plot and plough mischief, being men of wicked devices, #Pr 14:2, talking again to themselves, as that covetous wretch did, #Lu 12:17, beating their brains about their worldly projects, and resting no more, no, not upon their beds by night (a time and place appointed for rest, when men should together with their clothes put off their cares, and compose themselves to sleep, that nurse of nature, and sweet parenthesis), than one doth upon a rack or bed of thorns.

Thus they work evil upon their beds] They work hard at it, having the devil for their taskmaster, who shall therefore also be their paymaster. He hath their souls here as in a sling, #1Sa 25:29, violently tossed about and restless; they are his drudges and dromedaries, driven about by him at his pleasure, #2Ti 2:26, wholly acted and agitated by him, #Eph 2:2, having as many lords as lusts, wherewith their hearts are night and day exercised, #2Pe 2:14, without intermission. See this in Felix, who at the same instant trembled and coveted a bribe; in Ahab, who, sick of Naboth’s vineyard, laid him down upon his bed, but rested not, #1Ki 21:4. His heart did more afflict and vex itself with greedy longing for that bit of earth than the vast and spacious compass of a kingdom could counter comfort.

When the morning is light they practise it] And so they lose no time, being up and at it by peep of day; when others are fast asleep, and so more easily surprised and circumvented by them. The morning is the most precious part of the day; and should be employed to better purpose. But "wickedness proceedeth from the wicked, as saith the proverb of the ancients," #1Sa 24:13, and as they like not to have God in their heads, #Ps 10:4, nor hearts, #Ps 14:1, so neither in their words, #Ps 12:4, nor ways, #Tit 1:16, but the contrary; surely Satan is rightly called the god of this world; because as God at first did but speak the word and it was done, so, if the devil do but hold up his finger, give the least hint, they are ready pressed to practise.

Because it is in the power of their hand] The Vulgate hath it, Because their hand is against God; and, indeed, the same word El signifieth God and power. The Seventy render it, Because they have not lifted up their hands to God (an exercise proper and fit for the morning, #Ps 5:4). The Tigurine, Quia viribus pollent, They have strength enough to do it. Their hand is to power (so the original hath it), that is, saith Calvin, quantum possunt, tantum audent, they dare do their utmost, they will try what they can do; their hand is ever ready to rake and scrape together commodity; neither can they be hindered either by the fear of God or any respect to righteousness. Nihil cogitant quod non idem patrare ausint. (De Monachis, Lutherus).

Ver. 2. And they covet fields, and take them by violence] See here the several degrees of sin, and what descents covetous men dig to hell, and beware betimes. Surely as the plot of all diseases lies in the humours of the body, so of all sin in the lust of the soul. The heathen could say (Laertins),

Παντων μεν πρωτιστα κακων επιθυμια εστιν.

Covetousness is called the lust of the eyes, #1Jo 2:16, because from looking comes lusting, from lusting acting (hence lusts of the soul are called deeds of the body, #Ro 8:13), yea, acting with violence, they covet and take, they rob and ravish, #Ps 10:9, there is neither equity nor honesty to be had at their hands; but as they take away fields, houses, heritages shamelessly; so they bear them away boldly, and think to escape scot free; because it is facinus maioris abollae (Juvenal), the fact of a great one, whose hand is to power, as #Mic 2:1.

And houses, and take them away] Though a man’s house be his castle, as we say, yet it cannot secure him from these cormorants. Scribes and Pharisees devoured widows’ houses, #Mt 23:14, where was a concurrence of covetousness and cruelty, for these seldom go sundered, besides the putrid hypocrisy of doing this under a pretence of long prayers. A poor man in his house is like a snail in his shell; crush that and you kill him.

So they oppress (or defraud) a man and his house] Either by fraud or force, by craft or cruelty, they ruin a man (a well-set man, virum validum, רבג) and his family, his whole progeny; which might not be done to the unreasonable creatures, #De 22:6. This is to be like Uladus, that cruel prince of Valachia; whose manner was, together with the offender, to execute the whole family; yea, sometimes the whole kindred.

Ver. 3. Behold, against this family do I devise an evil] They had devised iniquity, #Mic 2:1, and now he deviseth their misery. God usually retaliates, and proportions provocation to provocation, #De 32:21, frowardness to frowardness, #Ps 18:26, contrariety to contrariety, #Le 26:18,21, and device to device, as here. He loves to pay sinners home in their own coin; and to make them know, by sad experience, and see, that it is an evil thing and bitter to forsake the Lord and his fear, #Jer 2:19. Woe be to that man against whom the Almighty sets himself to devise an evil; such a one shall find, that thought is not free (as that pestilent proverb would make it), either from the notice of God’s holy eye, the censure of his mouth, or the stroke of his hand, see #Jer 4:14 6:19 Re 2:23 De 29:19. And this nature itself had some notion of, as appeareth by his censure who judged that Antiochus did therefore die loathsomely, because he had but an intent to burn Diana’s temple (Polybius). Fecit quisque quantum voluit, saith Seneca; and Incesta est, et sine stupro, quae stuprum cupit, saith the same author. Vain thoughts are very sins, and expose men to punishment; these shall either excuse or accuse at the last day, #Ro 2:15. Meanwhile, God is devising what to do to them; he is preparing his bow and making ready his arrows upon the string, even a Tophet of the most tormenting temper will shortly swallow them up, without true and timely repentance.

From which ye shall not remove your necks] It shall so halter and hamper you, that, like "fishes taken in an evil net, and as birds caught in a snare, so shall ye be snared in an evil time, when it falleth suddenly upon you," #Ec 9:12, ye shall never be able either to avoid it or to abide it. But as the bird in a gin, the fish on the hook, the more it strives the more it sticks ( Sic laqueos fera, dum iactat, astringit. Sen.); and as the bullock under the yoke, the more he wriggles the more he galls; so shall it be here. Your fair necks, that would not bear the easy yoke of God’s obedience, shall be ridden on by the enemy and bound to your two furrows, #Ho 10:10,11; yea, a yoke of iron shall be put upon thee, until thou be destroyed, #De 28:48.

Neither shall ye go haughtily] Heb. Romah; and hence haply Roma had its surname, from its height and haughtiness; according to that of the poet (Virg. Aeneid. I),

“ atque altae moenia Romae.”

The meaning here is, God would deject and darken them, so as that they shall utterly lose their former renown and splendour. He will thrust them down, as it were, with a thump on the back, and there hold them. See #Eze 21:26,27; the scene shall be changed, and the haughty abased.

For this time is evil] Both sinfully and penally evil. The apostle seemeth to allude to this text when he saith, "Redeem the time, because the days are evil"; and "Sufficient to the day is the evil thereof" (κακια, i.e. κακωσις), that is, the misery of it, saith Christ, #Mt 6:34. And again, Those very days shall be affliction, θλιψις (so the Greek text hath it), #Mr 13:19, as if the time were turned into affliction; because of that evil, that only evil, without mixture of mercy, #Eze 7:5, here foretold, and therefore foretold that it might have been prevented, ideo minatur Deus ut non puniat.

Ver. 4. In that day shall one take up a parable, &c.] In that day, that doleful and dismal day of their calamity.

Shall one] Any one that is moved at your misery, and would work you to a sense of your sin, the mother of your misery.

Shall take up a parable] Tristem et querulam, sad and sorrowful.

And lament with a doleful lamentation] Heb. with a lamentation of lamentations, or with heigh-ho upon heigh-ho, as the word seems to signify.

We be utterly spoiled] Plundered to the life, laid naked to the very foundation, #Mic 1:6, put into such a condition as that there is neither hope of better nor place of worse.

He hath changed the portion of my people] That is, God, or the Assyrian, by God’s appointment, hath taken away our country, and given it to strangers. The Pope took upon him, in Henry VIII’s days, to give England, Primo occupaturo, to him that could first win it. This brutum fulmen briding of lighning came to nothing; but when God’s people changed their glory for that which profited not, #Jer 2:11, he soon changed their portion; he caused that good land to spew them out, he turned their weal into woe, and brought wrath upon them to the utmost. Neither profited it them any more to have been called God’s people than it did Dives in flames, that Abraham called him son; or Judas, that Christ called him friend.

How hath he removed it from me!] This is lamentation-like indeed, see #La 1:1 2:1 4:1, all beginning with the same word, How. The speech is concise and abrupt, meet for mourners. There is an elegance in the original not to be translated. How uncertain are all things here! God sits upon the circle of the earth, and shakes out the inhabitants at pleasure, as by a canvas, #Isa 40:22. Persons and things are said to be in heaven, but on earth; on the outside of it only, where they have no firm footing. Dionysius was driven out of his kingdom; which yet he thought was tied to him with chains of adamant, saith the historian (Aelian. lib. 2).

Turning away (from us as a loathsome object, being so incorrigibly flagitioas) he hath divided our fields] sc. to the enemy for a reward, as he gave Egypt to Nebuchadnezzar for his pains at Tyre. Or thus. Instead of restoring (which now we are hopeless of) he hath divided our fields, our fertile and fat country, to those that will be sure to hold their own in it, as the Gauls and Goths did in Italy, after they had once tasted the sweetness of it. Vatablus rendereth the text thus: How hath he taken from me those fields of ours, which he seemed ready to restore! He hath even divided them, sc. to others.

Ver. 5. Therefore thou shalt have none that shall cast a cord by lot] Fields were divided with cords of old, and inheritances also. See #Ps 16:5 105:11 78:55 2Sa 8:2. This hope is henceforth cut off from revolted Israel; the ten tribes never returned, the other two did, and some few of the ten among them. Whether upon their conversion to Christ they shall be restored to the promised land, Time, the mother of Truth, will make manifest.

In the congregation of the Lord] So you were once, but now nothing less. A congregation ye are still, but of malignants; a rabble of rebels conspiring against heaven. A name ye have to live, but ye are dead; ye cry out Templum Domini, The temple of the Lord are we; but in truth ye are no better than those Egyptian temples, beautiful without, but within nothing to be seen but a cat, rat, or some such despicable creature. Here they are called the congregation of the Lord by an irony, as the Cardinal of Ravenna is so called by way of derision.

Ver. 6. Prophesy ye not, say they to them that prophesy] Prodigious impudence thus to silence the prophets, or else to prescribe to them, according to the other reading of the text. Prophesy not, as they prophesy, for they are too tart; therefore drop not ye, who thus drop vinegar and nitre, who vex our galled consciences no less then the cruel Spaniards do the poor Indians’ naked bodies, which, for a sport, they do day by day drop with burning bacon. But let these drop that can smooth us up, that can utter toothless truths, that will drop oil into our ears, and give us silken words ( byssina verba), these be prophets for our turns, &c. God cannot please some hearers unless he speak tinkling and tickling words. Now, these must get their ears healed (as Demosthenes advised his countrymen of Greece) ere they can be in case to hear with profit. They must learn of bees, to pass by roses and violets and sit upon thyme; to heed, I mean, sound rebukes rather than smooth supparasitations. There are those who note a jeer in the term drop. It is well known that the word preached is often compared to rain, #De 32:2 Isa 55:10,11. The prophets therefore are here in derision called droppers or distillers, and forbidden to do their office, or at least, to drop in that sort. Thus their successors in evil, the Pharisees, who were likewise covetous, derided Christ, #Lu 16:14. And thus their predecessors also, in Isaiah’s time, put a scoff upon him and his preaching, #Isa 28:10, where the sound of the words in the original carries a taunt, as scornful people, by the tone of their voice and rhyming words, gibe and jeer at those whom they vilify.

They shall not prophesy to them] q.d. You shall have your wish; my droppers shall give over dropping, and be no further troublesome, nor take shame any more by prophesying to such a perverse people, so shamefully, so lawlessly wicked.

That they shall not take shame] Or, shall they not take shame? q.d. though they will not hear of it, that shame shall be their promotion and confusion their portion; yea, they shall surely feel and find it so.

Ver. 7. O thou that art named the house of Jacob] That hast a name to live but art dead, #Re 3:1; that art called a Jew, and makest thy boast of God, #Ro 2:17; thou hast a form of knowledge, #Ro 2:20, and a form of godliness, #2Ti 3:3; a semblance of sanctimony, #Lu 8:18; acting religion, playing devotion, as if it were a name only, or as if it were enough to be named the house of Jacob, or to have his voice, though the hands are the hands of Esau, the practice nothing suitable to the profession. Thus many among us content themselves with the bare name of Christians, as if many a ship hath not been called safeguard or good speed which yet hath fallen into the hands of pirates. The devil will surely sweep and hell swallow all such Nominalists; such shall find that an empty title yields but an empty comfort at the last. What was Dives the better for this, that Abraham called him son, or Judas, that Christ called him friend, or the rebellious Jews,. that God styleth them his people? Doth he not elsewhere disclaim them, and call them a sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity; the people of his wrath and of his curse? May not all formalists fear Jacob’s fear, #Ge 27:12, "My father peradventure will feel me, and I shall seem to him as a deceiver, and I shall bring a curse upon me, and not a blessing." Our heavenly Father will surely feel us in our addresses, and if he find us but complimenting and contenting ourselves to be called the house of Jacob, he will confute our vain confidences, and cut us out of the roll, as he did Dan and Ephraim, who were named the house of Jacob, and yet, for their wickedness, are passed by in the reckoning up of the twelve tribes, #Re 7:4-8, as if they were soldiers put out of pay and cashiered.

Is the spirit of the Lord straitened?] Or shortened? Is he a penny father? Hath he but one blessing? Is there not with him "the residue of the spirit," #Mal 2:15; plenteous redemption, an exceeding abundant goodness, even to a super redundancy? υπερεπλεονασε, #1Ti 1:14. Where, then, is the fault that you are no more Jacob-like, plain hearted and persuasible; that ye refuse to be reformed, hate to be healed, saying to me, Depart, and to my prophets, Drop not, &c. Neither curse ye nor bless ye, as he said to Balaam. Wherein if they should hearken to you, and be ruled by you, yea, should you straitly threaten them with bonds to speak henceforth to no man in my name, as #Ac 4:17; yet my word is not bound, #2Ti 2:9, but runs and is glorified, #2Th 3:1; my Spirit is not straitened, but is free and not fettered. I tell you that if these (prophets) should hold their peace, and not drop, the stones would immediately cry out, #Lu 19:40; which against change of weather do stand with great drops of water to confute your unyieldingness. "Turn ye therefore now at my reproof: behold, I will pour out my spirit unto you, I will make known my words unto you," #Pr 1:23. I will do it howsoever; yea, in despite of you I will do it, as some sense the foregoing verse, reading it thus, and the original will bear it, Drop ye not, but they shall drop.

Are these his doings?] i.e. Such as God doth approve of, or rather, are these Jacob’s doings? Tread you in the steps of your father Jacob? Did he ever silence the prophets and withstand those that were sent unto him? Did he not rather lie low, put his mouth in the dust, and cry out, "Speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth?" Good is the word of the Lord which ye have spoken. And whereas ye will be apt enough to reply that Jacob had no other cause, for the prophets never spake but good and comfortable things to him, it is answered in the next words:

Do not my words do good to him that walketh uprightly?] Heb. upright; that pondereth his paths by the weights of my word, and turneth not to the right hand nor to the left, #Pr 4:26,27, but walketh exactly, accurately, and precisely, #Eph 5:15, keeping within my precincts. Do not my words do good to such, and speak they not peace to him? David felt it as sweet as honey, #Ps 119:103. But as honey causeth pain to exulcerate parts, though of itself it be sweet and medicinal, so doth the word of God to exulcerate consciences. Children, though they love to lick in honey, yet they will not endure to have it come near their lips when they have sore mouths: so is it here, δριμυ το μελι τοις ελκεσι. Excellently saith St Austin, Adversarius est nobis, quamdiu sumus et ipsi nobis. The word of God is adversary to none but such as are their own greatest adversaries. It may well be compared to Moses’s rod, which, while he held it in his hand, it flourished and brought forth almonds, but being cast on the ground it turned into a serpent. Did it not take hold of those refractories, #Zec 1:6, that would not take hold of God’s covenant, and choose the things that pleased him? #Isa 56:4. Does it not still sting wicked people with unquestionable conviction and horror, when as "great peace have they which love God’s law, and nothing shall offend them?" #Ps 119:165.

Ver. 8. Even of late my people is risen up as an enemy] Heb. yesterday, no longer ago; to all their former flagitious practices they have now newly added this of execrable rapine and robbery, which is still fresh, and as it were flagrant in mine eyes. Although the truth is, that God looketh upon former sins as presently committed, for as there is no beginning of eternity, so neither is there any succession. But let men take heed how they heap up sin, lest they heap up wrath, for although God may bear with people for one or two backslidings, yet when once it comes to three transgressions and to four, he will not turn away the punishment, #Am 1:2; and one new sin may set many old to work in the conscience, making it like Ezekiel’s scroll, wherein was written "lamentations, and mourning, and woe," #Eze 2:10. "Surely I have seen yesterday the blood of Naboth, and the blood of his sons, saith the Lord," #2Ki 9:26. The word signifieth last night, though it were done some while before. See the word yesterday so used by the apostle Hebraizing with his Hebrews, #Heb 13:8. Some read the text thus, He that was yesterday my people is risen up on the other side as against an enemy, viz. raging against God and ranging against all men, biting all they came near, as mad dogs. See #Isa 9:21 1Th 2:12; they please not God, but rise up in rebellion against him, and are contrary to all men, being rather Ishmaelites than Israelites, #Ge 16:12; and therefore not rightly named the house of Jacob (that plain man, #Ge 25:27, without welt or guard, guile or gall), nor could the word of the Lord do good unto them so long as their deeds were evil, and they "loved darkness rather than light," #Joh 3:19.

To pull off the robe with the garment] Robbing and pillaging passengers with greatest inhumanity; not leaving them a rag to cover them or a cross to bless them with, as the proverb is. This was common in Scotland and Africa, saith Dameus here. It was in England also, till the days of King Alfred, who first divided the land into shires, and then the subjects into tenths or tithings; every one of which severally should give bond for the good bearing of each other. By this course men were not careful only of their own actions, but had an eye to all the nine, for which they stood bound, as the nine had over each. Insomuch that a poor girl might travel safely with a bag of gold in her hand, and none dared meddle with her.

From men that pass by securely, as men averse from war] There are a sort of such as delight in war, #Ps 68:30, that make a sport of it, as Abner, #2Sa 2:14; that take more pleasure in it than in an empire, as Justin saith of Pyrrhus, King of Epirots, Nulli maior ex imperio, quam illi ex belle fur voluptas. David was none such; and yet he wanted not for courage. His motto was, I am for peace, or (as the Hebrew hath it) I am peace. He had seen the woe of war, and knew well the lawlessness of it. The law is no more, saith the Church in the Lamentations, #La 2:9. Inter arma silent leges, saith the heathen, The noise of wars drowns the voice of laws. A reverend man hath well observed, that as those three commandments, "Thou shalt not kill; thou shalt not commit adultery; thou shalt not steal," are ranked together in the law; so they are commonly violated, together, by unruly soldiers. #Isa 13:16, "Their children also shall be dashed in pieces before their eyes; their houses shall be spoiled, and their waves ravished." These are the miseries of war. But what meant these miscreants to shed the blood of war in peace, #1Ki 2:5, to strip the innocent and therefore fearless passenger of his raiment, as those thieves did him that went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, dreading no such danger, #Lu 10:30; neither to rob him only, but to ravish him too, #Ps 10:8-10, that they might "find all precious substance, and fill their houses with spoil," #Pr 1:13. And what meant the corrupt rulers to suffer it so to be, and not to brandish the sword of justice against such stigmatical Belialists?

Ver. 9. The women of my people] Or, the wives; once wives, but now widows, and therefore calamitous, friendless, comfortless, as a vine whose root is uncovered, as a wandering bird, or a nest forsaken, #Isa 16:2.

Have ye cast out from their pleasant houses] Where they had long lived with their husbands in love, peace, and much sweetness, as good Naboth’s wife had. This was barbarous cruelty. God had taken order in the law, that none should harm a bird sitting upon her own nest, how much less a daughter of Abraham! Widows and orphans are his clients, #Ps 146:9.

From their children have ye taken away my glory] i.e. My maintenance and that livelihood that I had allowed them for their better education, which might have redounded to my great glory. Whereas now, being by you bereft both of friends and means, gemunt, fremunt, vobis maledicunt, clamantque vindictam in coelum, saith Montanus, they groan, they moan, they curse you, they cry to me for vengeance.

Ver. 10. Arise ye and depart] Veteres migrate coloni, make up your fardels and prepare for a deportation. Here is no longer being for you unless ye were better. Behold, "the land is defiled: therefore I do visit the iniquity thereof upon it, and the land itself vomiteth out her inhabitants," #Le 18:25.

This is not your rest] As you falsely, fancy and vainly vaunt, binding upon the promise, but not performing the condition. It is the guile of graceless men to stuff themselves with promises, till they have made them a pillow for sin. Et sic praesumendo sperant, et sperando pereunt, they presume till they perish, as he did who died with this desperate saying in his mouth, Spes et fortuna valete, Farewell life and hope together.

Because it is polluted] sc. by your sin, which is of so sullying a nature that it defileth also the very visible heavens, which are therefore to be purged by the fire of the last day, like as those vessels that held the sin offering were either to be broken, if earthen, or to pass the fire if of better metal; they must not think to rest that let sin lie unrepented of in the conscience. But as a man that hath used himself to drink poison, at the first and second time he may do well, but the last it overcomes and destroys himself; so the next sin, though less, may set all the former to work. And as two poisons met in the stomach make a man restless, so sin and wrath, met in the conscience, raise a great garboil there. Neither must they think to dwell in God’s good land that will not live by God’s good laws, #Isa 1:19 Ps 107:39,40; they walk upon fireworks every moment ready to be blown up, "brimstone also is scattered upon their habitations," that is, the fire of God’s wrath do but lightly touch it, they are suddenly consumed. Eusebius telleth us of Dioclesian, that bloody persecutor of the Church, that giving over the empire, he decreed to lead the rest of his life quietly; but he escaped not so. For after that his house was wholly consumed with lightning and a flame of fire that fell from heaven, he hiding himself for fear of the lightning, died within a little after.

It shall destroy you even with a sore destruction] Dissipatione roborata saith Calvin. Perditione praecisa, saith Tremellius. The land longs for a vomit to spue you out, and it shall do it effectually. Poison given in wine works more furiously than in water. Woe be to that people or person whom God will "destroy with a violent destruction!" This he doth not willingly, or from his heart, #La 3:35, but men’s sins compel him to it. Surely as many a fowl is shot with an arrow feathered from her own body, and as of the blackbird’s slime is made the lime whereby he is taken; so out of the dung of men’s sins doth God make his lime twigs (his judgments I mean) to take them also. Long they might rest would they but let him rest; but pollution is the forerunner of perdition.

Ver. 11. If a man, walking in the spirit, &c.] Si vir ventosus, so Junius rendereth it, if a windy and false man lie, saying, &c. Let a man but feed them with vain hopes and frothy fancies; let him but make fair weather before them when the storm of God’s wrath is ready to break out upon them; let him promise them plenty of all things, and prophesy to them of wine and strong drink, as the Popish priests in Gerson’s time publicly preached to the people, that if any one would hear a mass he should not on that day be struck blind, nor die suddenly, nor want sufficient sustenance, &c. These call themselves the spirituality, or men of the Spirit (as Hosea hath it), as if all others to them were carnal, and destitute of the Spirit. They also, after the manner of those false prophets of old, take to themselves big swollen titles, and as they increase in their pretended holiness, so they proceed in their titles from Padre benedicto to Padre Angels, then Archangels, Cherubino, and lastly Serephino, which is the top of perfection. But what is all this more than a light flask, or a pillar of smoke, which the higher it mounteth the sooner it vanisheth? And what are all such vain boasters but gloriae animalia, popularis aurae mancipia vilia, animals of reknown, cheap slaves of the breeze of popularity, as Jerome calls Crates the philosopher? may it not fitly be said of them, as #Ho 9:7, "The prophet is a fool, the spiritual man is mad," and as #Eze 13:3. Surely these are "foolish prophets, that follow their own spirit, and have seen nothing. O Israel, thy prophets are like the foxes in the deserts," &c. "A wonderful and horrible thing is committed in the land. The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests bear rule by their means, and my people love to have it so: and what will ye do in the end thereof?" #Jer 5:31. All will be naught, no doubt. There is not a more dangerous creature than a parasitical prophet. Ezekiel calleth them the devil’s dirt daubers, #Eze 13:10, his upholsterers, for they sew pillows, &c. And these are prophets for this people, fit lettuce for such lips, dignum patella operculum, a singular plague of God upon the men of this world, who deserve to be deceived; for what reason? they have desired it, and it best pleaseth their vitiated palates. Most people, having first flattered themselves, are well content to be soothed up by others; and I cannot but accord him that saith, If there were judges ordained for flattery they would have no doings, there being so very few that will complain that they are flattered.

Ver. 12. I will surely assemble, O Jacob, all of thee] An evangelical promise (saith Diodati, after others) of gathering together the universal Church, under the kingdom of Christ, contrary to the precedent dispersion, #Mic 2:10. Assembling, I will assemble, and gathering, gather them, sc. into the bosom of the Church, called therefore ecclesia (as culled and collected out of the world), and Church, or Kirk, of Κυριακη; because it belongs to the Lord Christ, who gathereth his together as the hen doth her chickens, "and died not for that nation of Jews only, but that also he might gather together into one the children of God that were scattered abroad," #Joh 11:51,52. Here he is called the breaker up, and his apostles likewise those that have broken up, and have passed through the gate, doing great exploits, and subduing souls to the obedience of the faith, as here in Britain, where Caesar himself could not break through, but

“ Territa quaesitis ostendit terga Britannis,”

as Pompey in Lucan upbraids him. Hence Tertullian saith, Christ brake into those places of Brittany that the Romans could never come at, Britannorum inaccessa Romanis loca Christo patueruut. He is that "king against whom there is no rising up," #Pr 30:31. He is Jehovah on the head of his people, or in the forefront of them, as their captain general, to lead them on, Quasi antesignanus et ductor (Lapid.), and bring them off safely in all encounters. Habent ista amplissimam promissionem, saith Gualther here; this is an excellent promise, and carrieth in it a most sweet consolation. But I rather think it to be a continuation of the former threatening: "I will surely assemble them," sc. to the slaughter. I will gather them together, sc. that they may be broken in pieces, #Isa 8:9. I will put them (or pen them up) together as the sheep of Bozrah, that are fat and fit, and appointed for the slaughter. See #Isa 34:6. Bozrah was a rich pasture country in Edom, from whence most fat sheep and meet for meat were sent to the shambles.

As the flock in the midst of their fold] So will God first shut you up by strait sieges, and then number you out to the sword, and ye shall "all bow down to the slaughter," #Isa 65:12. There is a memorable story of the suffering of certain good people in Calabria, A.D. 1560, by the hands of the bloody Papists there. A great sort of them being thrust up in one house together, as in a sheepfold, the executioner comes in, and among them takes one, and blindfoldeth him with a muffler about his eyes, and so leadeth him forth to a larger place, where he commandeth him to kneel down, which being done, he cutteth his throat, and so, leaving him half-dead, and taking his butcher’s knife and muffler, all of gore blood, cometh again to the rest; and so leading them one after another, he dispatched them all, to the number of eighty-eight. In Ireland many like barbarous butcheries have been committed by those breathing devils, the Romish rebels, those fat wolves, worrying Christ’s flock in the midst of the land, λυκοι βαρεις, #Ac 20:29. But "shall they thus escape by iniquity?" No verily, "in thine anger cast down that people, O God," #Ps 56:7. Give them blood again to drink, for they are worthy. A Lapide saith, that Bozrah signifieth Rome, and that Micah here, after a sort, foretelleth that the Church of Rome should be the common sheepfold of the sheep of Christ, under one chief shepherd, the Pope. But this conceit is far fetched; and Rome (the slaughter house of the saints) is no otherwise Bozrah than that she is of Edom (the Rabbis for Dumah, #Isa 21:11, read Roma, and call the court of Rome the wicked kingdom of Edom), and that her brats, as the vulture’s young ones, do glut glut blood (so the Hebrew soundeth, #Job 39:30, םד־ועלעי), and where the slain are there is she.

They shall make a great noise] Heb. a humming noise. By reason of the multitude of men, or rather wolves, Lycanthropi, wherewith they are environed, to their no small heartbreak.

Ver. 13. The breaker is come up before them] The πτολιπορθος, τειχεσιπλητης, breach maker shall handle them hardly and cruelly, as galley slaves, or men condemned to the mine pits.

“ Una salus victis nullam sperare salutem.”

They have broken up] Made havoc, and laid heaps upon heaps.

And their king shall pass before them] Not only fex populi, the dregs of the people, but Rex ipse, the king himself shall be carried captive, as were Hoshea and Zedekiah, the city being broken up, #Jer 52:7.

And the Lord on the head of them] Jehovah, that man of war, #Ex 15:3, going before them, as captain of the enemies’ forces, to avenge the quarrel of his covenant, #Le 26:25.

Chapter 3

Ver. 1. And I said] viz. At another time, and in a new discourse; the heads whereof we have here recorded. A stinging sermon it is, preached to the princes and prophets, those great heteroclites {a} in the house of Israel. For as in a fish, so in a Church and state, corruption begins at the head; and as rheum {b} falling from the head upon the lights, breeds a consumption of the whole body, so is it here. To the chieftains therefore, and capitanei, capital, our prophet applieth himself. And as it is said of Suetonius, that ea libertate, scripsit Imperatorum vitas qua ipsi vixerunt, that he wrote the emperors’ lives with as much liberty as they lived them; so did Micah as boldly reprove the princes’ sins as they committed them. Such another preacher among us was Latimer, and after him Deering; who in his sermon before Queen Elizabeth, speaking of the disorders of the times; These things are so, saith he, and you sit still and do nothing. And again, May we not well say with the prophet, saith he, It is the Lord’s mercy that we are not consumed, seeing there is so much disobedience both in subjects and prince. Once it was Tanquam ovis, as a sheep, before the shearer: but now it is Tanquam iuvenca petulca, as an untamed heifer. In our days Reverend Mr Stock had this commendation given him by a faithful witness; that he could speak his mind fitly, and that he dared speak it freely. I will go to the Bishop (Stephen Gardiner, then lord chancellor), and tell him to his beard that he doth naught, said Dr Taylor, martyr; and he did so, though his friends dissuaded him. Truth must be spoken, however it be taken. And if God’s messengers must be mannerly in the form, yet in the matter of their message they must be resolute and plain dealing. It is probable that Joseph used some kind of preface to Pharaoh’s baker in reading him that hard destiny, #Ge 40:19, such haply as was that of Daniel to Nebuchadnezzar, #Da 4:19, or as Philo brings him in with a Utinam tale somnium non vidisses. But for the matter he gives him a sound, though a sharp, interpretation. So dealeth Micah by these corrupt princes, to whom nevertheless he giveth their due titles; and of whom he fairly begs audience. "Hear, I pray you, ye heads of Jacob," &c. Or, hear ye now, who formerly have refused to hearken. It was in Hezekiah’s days that this sermon was preached, as appeareth #Jer 26:18, not long before Sennacherib invaded the land, #Mic 5:5. And although the king himself were religious and righteous, yet many of his princes and courtiers, who in the reign of his father Ahaz had been habituated in rapine and wrong-dealing, still played their pranks, and are here as barely told their own.

Is it not for you to know judgment?] To know it and do it? as it is said of our Saviour, that he knew no sin, that is, he did none. And have the workers of iniquity no knowledge? "they eat up my people as they eat bread, and call not upon God," #Ps 14:4. Of all men magistrates should be knowing men, fearing God, hating covetousness and cruelty, #Ex 18:21. They are the eyes of their country, and if they be dark, how great is that darkness! They are the common lookingglasses by which other men use to dress themselves. Judges they are, to discern and decide controversies; fit it is, therefore, and necessary that they know judgment, how else shall they execute it? Cicero complaineth of the Roman priests in his days, that there were many things in their own laws that themselves understood not. "I will get me to the great men," saith Jeremiah (when he found things far amiss among the Vulgate), "and will speak unto them; for they have known the way of the Lord, and the judgment of their God: but these have altogether broken the yoke, and burst the bonds," #Jer 5:5.

{a} Deviating from the ordinary rule or standard; irregular, exceptional, abnormal, anomalous, eccentric. Said of persons and things. ŒD

{b} Watery matter secreted by the mucous glands or membranes, such as collects in or drops from the nose, eyes, and mouth, etc., and which, when abnormal, was supposed to cause disease; hence, an excessive or morbid ‘defluxion’ of any kind. ŒD

Ver. 2. Who hate the good, and love the evil] q.d. That you know not judgment, but are men ignorant of the truth which is according to godliness, appeareth by your wicked practices. For you stand across to what God requireth, hating what you should love, and loving where you should hate, Homo est inversus decalogus. Goodness is in itself amiable and attractive but you are perfect strangers to it, and therefore hate it and those that profess it. Evil is of the devil, and must therefore needs be loathsome; and yet you love it, allow it, and wallow in it; whereas you should "abhor that which is evil," hate it as hell, αποστυγουντες, "and cleave," or be fast glued, κολλωμενοι, "to that which is good," #Ro 12:9. You are direct antipodes to the godly, #Ps 15:4, and have nothing in you of the Divine nature, #2Pe 1:4, or of the spot of God’s children, but are a "perverse and crooked generation," #De 32:3.

Who pluck off their skin from off them, and their flesh from off their bones] Like so many carnivorous cannibals or truculent wild beasts. As the ossifrage, or breakbone, pursueth the prey, tears off the flesh, breaks the bones, and sucks out the marrow: such were these griping tyrants, their furious rapacity surmounted all bounds of humanity. Such a one was Verres among the Romans, as Cicero describeth him; that tiger, Tiberius, those Romish usurers in King John’s time here, called Caursini, quasi capientes ursi (quoth Paris), devouring bears, who left not so much money in the whole kingdom as they either carried with them or sent to Rome before them. Money and lands are here called men’s skin, flesh, and bones; and a poor man’s substance is his life. See #Mr 12:44 Lu 8:48. Hence oppression is called a bony sin, #Am 5:12,18, and oppressors, men eaters, #Ps 14:4, and murderers, #Hab 2:12. Cyprian cries out, Ferae parcunt Danieli, Ayes pascunt Eliam, homines saeviunt; Lions spare Daniel, ravens feed Elias, but men rage and are worse than both. Melancthon makes mention of a certain prince, some few years before his time, who, to get money out of his subjects, would send for them, and by knocking out first one tooth, and then another (threatening to leave them toothless else), would extort from them what sums soever he pleased. Our King John’s exactors received from his subjects no less sums of curses than of coin, saith the chronicler; and so did Cardinal Woisey, under Henry VIII, by his importable subsidies, which caused Suffolk to rise up in arms, making poverty their captain.

Ver. 3. Who also eat the flesh of my people, and flay their skins, &c.] He still proceeds in the allegory, the better to argue and aggravate their extreme cruelty. Money, saith the heathen, is a man’s flesh, blood, life, all. Of this, when the people were pilled and polled by their cruel princes, who are here compared to butchers and cooks, they are looked upon as not only excoriated, but excarnified, and even exossated, and laid for dead; for mortis habet vices quae trahitur vita genitibus. It is a lifeless life that many poor people live for want of necessaries. Such savage shepherds Ezekiel inveighs against, that not only shear their sheep, but hold them and suck their blood, #Eze 34:1-10. Atqui pastoris est pecus tondere, non deglubere, non carnem et ossa concidere. (Tiber. ap. Sueton.).

Chop them in pieces, as for the pot, &c.] Making no more bones of undoing them and their families than to eat a meal’s meat when hungry; yea, nourishing their hearts therewith, "as in a day of slaughter," or good cheer, #Jas 5:5.

Ver. 4. Then shall they cry unto the Lord, but he will not hear them] Then, sc. when God shall have changed their cheer, pulled the fat morsel from between their teeth, and fed them with the bread of affliction and water of affliction, #1Ki 22:27, with prisoners’ pittance, as they call it, which will neither keep them alive nor suffer them to die; then shall they cry and whine as hogs when hungry, as dogs when tied up from their meat; but God will not hear them. He will even cast out their prayers with contempt, as being the prayers of the flesh for ease, and not of the spirit for grace. They cry unto the Lord aloud, but it is only to be rid of his rod; they roar when upon the rack, but it is only to get off; they look ruefully, as the fox doth when taken in a gin, but it is only to be set at liberty; they chatter out a charm when God’s chastening is upon them, yea, they may be with child (as it were) of a prayer, and yet bring forth nothing but wind, #Isa 26:16-18. For either God answereth them not at all, which was Saul’s case and curse, #1Sa 28:15, and Moab’s, #Isa 16:12, and David’s enemies’, #Ps 18:41; or else he give them bitter answers, #Eze 14:4 Jud 10:13,14. Or if better; it is but for a further mischief, that he may curse their blessings, and consume them after that he had done them good, #Jos 24:20. Their preservation from one evil is but a reservation to seven worse; as we see in Pharaoh, Sennacherib, Ahab, and others. "Lo, this is the portion of a wicked man with God, and the heritage of oppressors which they shall receive of the Almighty," #Job 27:13-15, &c. See the place. Remediless misery shall befall them, calamities that shall wring from them clamours, but to no purpose or profit. See #Pr 1:28.

He will even hide his face from them] That is, withdraw his favour, care, providence, help, presence, and benefits, of all which the face is the symbol: that like as they have turned upon God the back and not the face, and have been merciless to men, hiding their eyes from their own flesh, #Isa 58:7; so shall it be done to them in the day of their distress. God will award them judgment without mercy who showed no mercy, #Jas 2:18. He will set off all hearts from them, as he did from wicked Haman, when the king frowned upon him. Lastly, he will turn their own consciences loose upon them (as once he did upon Joseph’s brethren, #Ge 42:21), to ring that doleful knell in their ears, #Isa 33:1, "Woe to thee that spoileth," &c. "when thou shalt cease to spoil, thou shalt be spoiled," &c. Talionis lege mulctabere, as Adonibezek, Phocas, Charles IX. See #Pr 21:18. {See Trapp on "Pr 21:18"}

Ver. 5. Thus saith the Lord concerning the prophets] False prophets, who pretended Divine authority, when as God never sent them, but expressly declareth here against them, and threateneth them. Those profane princes had their fleshflies, those court parasites, to soothe and smooth them up in their sins; to promise them peace, albeit they walked in the imagination of their own hearts, "to add drunkenness to thirst," and to live as they wanted, #De 29:19. Mirifica est sympathia inter Magnates et parasites, saith Bucholcer. There is a strange sympathy between great men and clawbacks: nothing so troublesome to such as truth, nothing so toothsome as flattery: this is the fruit of sinful selflove; and the end thereof are the ways of death #Pr 16:25.

That make my people to err] That seduce them and carry them out of the right way into bypaths and blind thickets of error, where they are lost for ever, #De 13:18. Seducers are said to draw men violently, αποσταν, #Ac 20:30, or to thrust them onward. Jeroboam is said to have "driven Israel from following the Lord"; and the false apostles to drag disciples after them, #Ac 20:29,30, compelling them, by their persuasions, to embrace those distorted doctrines that cause convulsions of conscience.

That bite with their teeth] The dogs of Congo bite though they bark not, saith Mr Purchas (Pilgr. of Religion): there are a sort of cur dogs, saith another, that suck a man’s blood only with licking (Christ’s Politician, by The. Scot). Seducers are such: "Beware of false prophets for they come to you in sheep’s clothing; but inwardly they are ravening wolves." And in this sense Jerome and Theodoret take this text: they devour those they make prize of, as the apostle’s word signifieth, συλαγωγειν, #Col 2:8. Others think their covetousness and gormandise is noted.

“ O Monachi, vestri stomachi sunt amphora Bacchi:

Vos estis, Deus est testis, certissima pestis.”

As hungry dogs they snap at a crust, and make clean work, such is their voracity and unsatisfiableness.

“ Ingluvies, et tempestas, barathrumque macelli.”

And cry, Peace] Παντα καλως εσται. All shall be as well as heart can wish or need require. Let these Cerberuses {a} but be morselled and you shall hear no worse of them. Like they are to the ravens of Arabia, that, full gorged, have a tuneably sweet record, but empty, screech horribly. Si veatri bene si lateri, as Epicurus saith in Horace; Let their bellies be filled and their backs fitted, and they will prophesy all good to you: as those false prophets, nourished by Jezebel, did to Ahab; as the Pharisees cried up to the centurion, who had built them a synagogue, #Lu 7:5; as the Popish clergy canonize their benefactors, and extol them to the skies. Wulfin, Bishop of Sherborn, displaced secular priests and put in monks. Hence the monkish writers make him a very holy man, and report of him, that when he lay dying he cried out suddenly, "I see the heavens open and Jesus Christ standing at the right hand of God," and so died. Yea, they had a trick to make their images speak their minds this way. As the cross of grace here in England had a man within it enclosed with a hundred wires to make the image goggle with the eyes, nod with the head, hang the lip, move and shake his jaws, according as the value was of the gift that was offered. If it were a small piece of silver, he would hang a frowning lip; if a piece of gold, then should his jaws go merrily. This idolatrous forgery was at last, by Cromwell’s means, disclosed, and the image, with all his engines, showed openly at Paul’s Cross, and there torn in pieces by the people who had been so seduced (Acts and Mon. fol. 1084).

And he that putteth not into their mouths, they even prepare war against him] Heb. sanctify a war, id est, excommunicatis aqua et igni interdicunt, crucem adversus eos praedicant, they thunder against them, and throw them out of the Church: publish their crusades, as they did against the Waldenses in France, the Hussites in Bohemia, and Luther in Germany, whom the Pope excommunicated, the emperor proscribed, various divines wrote against: the reason whereof, when Erasmus was asked by the Elector of Saxony, he rightly answered, Because he meddleth with the Pope’s triple crown and with the friar’s fat paunches.

{a} In Greek and Latin mythology the proper name of the watch dog which guarded the entrance of the infernal regions, represented as having three heads. ŒD

Ver. 6. Therefore night shall be unto you] Ye shall be benighted, your gifts blasted, and your persons baffled: your lamp shall be put out in obscure darkness; the sword shall be upon your arms, and upon your right eyes; your arms shall be clean dried up, and your right eyes utterly darkened, #Zec 11:17. Those illuminations and inspirations that ye seemed to have shall be taken from you, and God shall pass that dreadful sentence, Take the talent from him, even here in this life; let him not have the least dram or drop of a prophetic spirit, of ministerial abilities; and then, in the next world, cast "ye the unprofitable servant into outer darkness," &c., #Mt 25:28,30.

And it shall be dark unto you, that ye shall not divine] Tenebrae vobis a divinatione, vel propter divinationem, so Calvin. All the reward ye shall have for your divination shall be disgrace and confusion: your folly shall be manifest unto all men, as was that of Jannes and Jambres, #2Ti 3:9.

And the sun shall go down over the prophets] The same thing is set forth by sundry metaphors, for more assurance: for Hypocritis nihil stupidius, it is hard to persuade a hypocrite that evil is towards him. See #Mic 3:11.

Ver. 7. Then shall the seers be ashamed, and the diviners confounded] They shall be hissed and hooted at for impostors and falsaries; shame shall be the promotion of these fools, as it is at this day of the heathen philosophers, of the Jewish Rabbis, of the Popish doctors and schoolmen, who once carried the hell for most acute and accurate divines, but now appear to be great triflers; a rotten generation of dunghilldivines, as one styleth them: in detestation of whose vain jangling and noting about questions, #1Ti 6:4, Luther saith, Prope est ut iurem, &c., I could swear almost that there was not a schoolman that understood one chapter of the Gospel (Luth. tom. 1, oper. lat. ep. 47). Latimer professed that by hearing Bilney’s confession he learned more than before in many years. So from that time forward, saith he, I began to smell the word of God, and forsake the school doctors and such fooleries.

Yea, they shall all cover their lips] And stand aloof, as lepers. See #Le 13:45 Eze 24:17,22. Or they shall leave off their lying; for I will stop their mouths, that they shall not hereafter so much as mute any more, Ego illis os claudam (Calv.). The Septuagint render it, All men shall abhor them, shall open their lips against them. Montanus, involvent mystacem suam, they shall wrap up their moustaches, which (saith a Lapide) the false prophets wore upon their upper lip, et incedebant comptuli, and went neatly trimmed, as do now the Calvinistic ministers. But if some do so, yet this is better than the Popish priests shaving, which is a ceremony so bald, that some priests in France are ashamed of the mark; and few of them have it that can handsomely avoid it.

For there is no answer of God] He comes not at them, as sometimes he did to Abimelech, Laban, Balaam; neither speak they according to his word, for what reaons? "there is no light in them," #Isa 8:20. The philosophers "professing themselves to be wise" (but wanting the wisdom from above) "became fools," #Ro 1:22. The Pharisees, had they known anything aright and as they ought, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory, #1Co 2:8. Oracles they had, and miracles enough; but they "rejected the counsel of God against themselves, being not baptized," #Lu 7:30; or if they were, yet remained they a viperous brood, #Mt 3:7, and never attained to that answer of a good conscience toward God, #1Pe 3:21. The schoolmen often cite the philosophers, seldom the apostles; they count the authority of Fathers as good as that of Scriptures: neither doubt they to call the writings of the Fathers by the name of Scripture ( Lombard passim). Was not this to set "men’s threshold by God’s threshold; and their posts by his posts," #Eze 43:8. What marvel therefore though they became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened, while they taught for doctrines men’s traditions? What marvel though Popish fopperies, once so admired, be now so much slighted, since the world seeth further into them than formerly? Notable is that passage in King Henry VIII’s protestation against the Pope: England is no more a babe; there is no man here but now he knows that they do foolishly that part with gold for lead. Surely, except God take away our right wits, not only the Pope’s authority shall be driven out for ever, but his name also shortly shall be forgotten in England. We will from henceforth ask counsel of him and his, when we list to be deceived, when we covet to be in error, when we desire to offend God, truth, and honesty.

Ver. 8. But truly I am full of power] But doth it become the prophet thus to praise himself? Laus proprio sordescit in ore: and those who vaunt most have often the least courage; as those creatures who have the greatest hearts of flesh are the most timorous; as the stag, panther, hare. For answer, it must be considered that the prophet speaketh not here of his own good parts, out of a vain glorious humour (it was enough for him that he was "all glorious within," #Ps 45:13, virtusque sue contenta theatre est), but to separate himself from those false prophets aforementioned, and to assert his calling by his qualifications, as doth likewise St Paul, #2Co 12:1-13, to those who sought a proof of Christ speaking in him. The word rendered But, truly signifies, All which notwithstanding: q.d. Albeit there is such a general defection from God, and such unfaithfulness in the prophets of these times, yet I am full of power, lively and lusty, vigorous and vivacious.

By the spirit of the Lord] That noble spirit, as David calleth him, #Ps 51:12, that spirit "of power, of love, and of a sound mind" (as Paul, #2Ti 1:7), that putteth spiritual mettle into the soul, and steeleth it against all opposition. And truly if the Spirit put not vigour into us how dead and fiat are our duties and all ordinances, like liquor that hath lost its spirits! there is as much difference many times as between cold water and aqua vitae, water of life.

And of judgment] To discern things that differ, to time a word, as the prophet Isaiah hath it, #Isa 50:4, and to teach things profitable and proper to my auditors (not as he in the emblem, that gave straw to the dog and a bone to the ass; or as those false prophets, who spake good of evil and evil of good), and wisely to distinguish between law and gospel in praxi; which whoso can do let him thank God, saith Luther, and let him know that he is a divine indeed; gratias agat Deo, et sciat se esse Theologum (Luth.).

And of might] Or, of manhood, virtue, prevalence against an adversary, patience under whatsoever cross occurrences for the truth’s sake, and for my plain dealing. A minister had need be a man every inch of him; and to play the man ανδριζεσθε, #1Co 16:13, yea, as the good soldier of Jesus Christ, to suffer hardship; being "strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might." He must be like the diamond in the high priest’s breastplate for hardness and hardiness, as of Athanasius Nazianzen testifieth that he was Magnes et Adamas, both a lodestone, for his loveliness and humility, and an adamant, for his resolute stoutness and magnanimity against those that were evil.

To declare unto Jacob his transgression, and to Israel his sin] To tell them of their wickedness with the same liberty that they commit it. See here the true picture of a preacher, both how he must be gifted, and how deeded. A thankless office it is with the world to be thus bold and busy; and very many ministers affect to be counted no meddlers: they think it enough to preach toothless truths, and not to incur the displeasure of people by telling them of their transgressions and God’s judgments. But this is not the garb and guise of those that are sent and gifted by God. See #Eze 3 Eze 33

Ver. 9. Hear this, I pray you, ye heads, &c.] He had had a bout with them before; but because little good was thereby done, he is at them again; according to that counsel of the wise man, #Ec 11:6, "In the morning sow thy seed, in the evening withhold not thy hand: for thou knowest not," &c. "Preach the word," saith the apostle, "be instant" (or stand over the work, επιστηθι) "in season, out of season," #2Ti 4:2. Chrysostom told his Antiochians, that he would never give over preaching against that sin of swearing till they gave over their swearing; which, because he could not get them to do, he breaks out into these words, It will be a hard speech unto you, but I will speak it: though there be so many thousands of you, yet there cannot be found a hundred that shall be saved; and I tell you true, I doubt of them too.

Ye heads of the house of Jacob, and princes of the house of Israel] As bad as they were he gives them their titles. The devil also is to have his due; he is called by the Holy Ghost "Prince of the air," and his angels are styled "principalities, powers, rulers of the darkness of this world," #Eph 6:12. {See Trapp on "Mic 3:1"}

That abhor judgment] They were not only ignorant of it, #Mic 3:1, but abhorred it; and therefore abhorred it because they knew it not. Plato could say, that if moral virtue could be beheld with mortal eyes it would attract all hearts to itself. "But these, as natural brute beasts, made to be taken and destroyed, spake evil of those things that they understood not," #2Pe 2:12, and "what they knew naturally, as brute beasts, in those things they corrupted themselves," #Jude 10; being carried away by their impetuous and imperious lusts, they not only did that which was evil, but also hated the light of the law that reproved and sentenced them; licensing others by their practice, at least, to do the like. Such Centaurs and Cyclopes were these princes of Israel grown; such Heteroclites these heads of the house of Jacob. "The whole head was sick," #Isa 1:5, the rulers were a scab, #Isa 5:7. The Lord "looked for judgment, but behold oppression; for righteousness, but behold a cry." They had made the age not unlike that under Nero, wherein nothing almost was unlawful; but villany was acted by authority (Dio Cassius).

And pervert all equity] Heb. they pervert, &c. It is spoken to others, in token of abomination; see the like, #Ge 49:4, with the note. Now equity or rectitude is perverted, when the guilty are acquitted and the innocent condemned, see #Isa 5:20,23, when there is accepting of persons. and receiving of gifts,

Ver. 10. They build up Zion with blood] Heb. bloods, that is, with goods gotten by rapine and robbery, to the utter undoing of many poor oppressed, whose livelihood is their life, #Mr 12:44 Lu 8:43. How much better Selimus, the Great Turk, who, being upon his death bed moved by Pyrrhus, the basha, to bestow the great wealth taken by him from the Persian merchants upon some notable hospital for relief of the poor, took order that those evil gotten goods should be forthwith restored again to the right owners, to the shame of many Christians who will not be drawn to do so. Our Henry VII, indeed, in his last will and testament, devised and willed restitution should be made of all such moneys as had unjustly been levied by his officers. But how few such princes are to be found! It is held a goodly thing to build Zion, though it be with blood, and Jerusalem with iniquity. But God, as he will not have ex rapina holocaustum, so he infinitely abhorreth all those who, under pretext of religion in building some poor hospital with the fragments of their accursed wealth, seek to make him a party, a partaker of their cruelty, as those did, #Isa 66:8,4 Mr 7:11 Mt 23:14. Our Henry III, when he had, after his many great exactions, sent the friar minors a load of frieze {a} to clothe them, had the same sent back again with this message, That he ought not to give alms of what he had rent from the poor, neither would they accept of that abominable gift. Zion is not to be builded or beautified with bloods.

{a} A kind of coarse woollen cloth, with a nap, usually on one side only ŒD

Ver. 11. The heads thereof judge for reward] Being so many locusts, et latrones cum privilegio, both robbers with immunity, as one saith. Well might St Paul say that covetousness is the root of all evil, #1Ti 6:10. It is here assigned as one cause, and carnal security as another, of that regiment without righteousness, here justly complained of. And it was the worse, because it had overrun all sorts of such as were in place of power, whether civil or ecclesiastical. The princes and judges took gifts, which they should not only not have taken, but have hated, #Pr 15:27, they should have shaken their hands from holding of bribes, #Isa 33:15, since there is a curse to such magistrates with an Amen to it, #De 27:25 Ps 25:5, exclusion out of heaven: Olim didici quid sint munera, said one once. Rain is good (said another), and ground is good, sed ex eorum coniunctione fit lutum, of the mixture of these two is dirt: so, giving is kind and taking is courteous; yet the mixing of them maketh the smooth paths of justice foul and uneven. Nec prece nec pretio, neither by request or reward, should be the magistrate’s motto. And Justice justice (as Moses phraseth it, #De 16:20 margin), that is, clear sheer justice without mud should run down as waters, and righteousness as a mighty torrent, #Am 5:24.

And the priests thereof teach for hire, and the prophets thereof divine for money] They were merely mercenary; and as Apollo’s oracles, corrupted by Philip’s gold, were said φιλιππαζειν, to speak as he would have them, so was it here. Both priests and prophets were ignava ventris mancipia #Mic 3:5, {See Trapp on "Mic 3:5"} greedy dogs, slow bellies, they all looked to their own way, every one for his gain from his quarter, #Isa 56:11. Albertus Magnus complained of the covetousness of pastors in his time. Bernard for this cause calleth them impostors and byseers. Hugo Cardinalis said that the devil had two daughters, Avarice and Luxury; the former whereof he had married to the Jews, the latter to the Gentiles; but now, saith he, the priests have taken away both of them from their right husbands, and make use of them for their own. Si posui aurum in coniugium meum, so the Septuagint read that text, #Job 31:24, signifying the covetous man’s great love to money; whence St James calleth such adulterers and adulteresses, #Jas 4:4. St Paul saith they mind only earthly things (sc. their purses and paunches), #Php 3:19, and incessantly woe this Mundus immundus, this vile strumpet, the world; having eyes full of the adulteress, and that cannot cease to sin, #2Pe 2:14. But their money shall perish with them that teach for hire, that follow the ministry only as a trade to pick a living out of, qui plus fisco quam Christo vacant, plus attonsioni quam attentioni gregis, et ubi non vident quaestum, rident Christum. All seek their own, not the things which are Jesus Christ’s, #Php 2:21.

Yet will they lean upon the Lord] Or, lay their weight upon him, as upon a staff or crutch, velut sirmissimo seipione. Thus their forefathers, #Ps 78:32,35, though they sinned still, and believed not for his wondrous works, yet they would needs believe that God was their Rock, and the high God their Redeemer. So their successors, #Jer 3:3-5, when they had spoken and done evil as they could, yet, having a whore’s forehead, they could give goodly words, "Wilt thou not from this time cry unto me, My father, thou art the guide of my youth? Will he reserve his anger for ever? will he keep it to the end?" Here were good words (for they are good cheap, as we say), but nothing more. The Lord was much in their mouths, but far from their reins, #Jer 12:2. Self-deceivers think they lean upon the Lord when it is no such matter; their faith is a mock faith, a strong fancy, a blind presumption, which will prove but a broken reed, and was never true to those that trusted it. Surely, as he that maketh a bridge of his own shadow cannot but fall into the brook, so neither can he escape the burning lake, that had rather be carnally secured than soundly comforted. Good gold is a cordial; so is not alchemy gold; neither will it pass the seventh fire, as the other will. Security is the forerunner of calamity; neither miscarry any so sure or so soon as the overly confident.

And say, Is not the Lord among us?] And hath he not promised so to be for ever? True, but upon condition that you be with him, and no otherwise, #2Ch 15:2. He is not so tied to you, but that he can go away from you. See his many removes #Eze 9:3 10:4,18 11:23, and observe, that still as he goes out, some judgment comes in. They call themselves of the holy city, and stay themselves upon the God of Israel, the Lord of hosts is his name, #Jer 48:2, but all this was but court holy water, as they call it, empty words, such as our profligate professors are full of. But wilt thou know, O vain man (or, O empty man, κενε), that words without works are bootless? #Jas 2:20, that external privileges alone profit not, #Jer 7:4 Ac 6:14, that formal profession and performances are disaccepted, and those that please themselves therewith are but as women travailing with a false birth, #Isa 26:18. Men are wont to do with these as those conjurers did with the name of Jesus; they thought if they used that name it was enough. They hear, therefore, "Jesus I know, and Paul I know; but who are ye?" #Ac 19:15. So shall it fare with such as glory in this, that they were born in the bosom of the Church, live under the means of grace. Gehazi took the prophet’s staff; but there was something more, else the child had not been raised. Those tell but an ill tale for themselves that have no more to say but this, "Is not the Lord among us?" Men are the worse for his presence with them if they walk not worthy of the Lord in all well pleasing, #Col 1:10, if they have not grace to serve him with reverence and godly fear: for even our God is a consuming fire, #Heb 12:28,29.

None evil can come upon us] Let prophets say what they please, we shall have peace, #De 29:19, all shall be well with us while God is with us, and for us. But God will not take the wicked by the hand, saith Job, #Job 8:20; neither will he at all acquit the guilty, saith Moses, #Ex 34:7. "The foolish shall not stand in his sight," saith David: "for he hateth all the workers of iniquity," #Ps 5:5. "Beware of him, and obey his voice, provoke him not; for he will not pardon your transgressions," #Ex 23:21; or if he do, yet it is two to one that he will take vengeance of your inventions, #Ps 99:8. Shake off, therefore, carnal security; fear the Lord, and depart from evil.

Ver. 12. Therefore shall Zion for your sake be plowed as a field] Even for your sakes, O wicked princes, priests, and prophets; you are the traitors that have betrayed us all into the hands of Divine justice. To be angry with us for saying so, and telling you what to trust to, is as if some fond people should be angry with the herald, or the trumpet, as the cause of their wars.

Zion shall be plowed as a field] Shall be utterly laid waste and levelled. Conquerors used to plough up those places that they would not have rebuilt; and to sow them with salt, #Jud 9:45. It must needs be a dismal destruction that is described in such exquisite terms. Alterius perditio tua sit cautio. This threatening of the prophet took so well that the judgment was respited for over a hundred years, #Jer 26:19. But now men’s hearts are more hardened, and therefore their destruction more hastened.

And Jerusalem shall become heaps] Rupes ruderum. This they once thought as possible as to overthrow God’s own throne; the very disciples had a conceit that the world could not outlast the temple, as may be gathered from #Mt 24:3. But they (some of them) lived to see themselves confuted, and our Saviour’s words verified, "There shall not be left here one stone upon another that shall not be thrown down," #Mt 24:2.

And the mountain of the house] That famous house, that was worthily reckoned one of the seven wonders of the world, and stood upon Mount Moriah.

As the high places of the forest] As woody and desert places, fit only for wild beasts. Lege et Luge, Read and weep, saith one, speaking of Jerusalem’s desolation.

Chapter 4

Ver. 1. But in the last days it shall come to pass] God reserveth his best comforts till the last, as that ruler of the feast did his best wine, #Joh 2:10, and as the sweetest of the honey lieth at the bottom. These last days are the Gospel days, #Heb 1:2, times of reformation, #Heb 9:10, of restitution, #Ac 3:21, called the world to come, #Heb 2:5, that "new heaven and earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness," #2Pe 3:13, that new Jerusalem, that is all of gold, #Re 21:18, Ezekiel’s new temple, larger than all the old Jerusalem, and his new Jerusalem, larger than all the land of Canaan, #Eze 40:41-49. Let Popish buzzards blaspheme that description of the temple and city; calling it (as Sanctius doth once and again) insulsam descriptionem, a senseless description; so speaking evil of the things that they know not, #Jude 10. We believe and are sure, #Joh 6:69, that God hath provided some better thing for us than for those under the law, #Heb 11:40, viz. that great mystery of godliness, God manifested in the flesh, #1Ti 3:16, who should again restore the kingdom to Israel, the spiritual kingdom to the Israel of God; as is here foretold in the self same words with those of Isaiah, #Isa 2:1,2, whence he is not ashamed to take it.

That the mountain of the house of the Lord] The Church, #1Ti 3:15, called elsewhere the mountain of the Lord, and his holy hill, #Ps 15:1 24:3 48:2 Isa 30:17, both for its sublimity, #Ga 4:26, and firmness, #Ps 46:3 125:1: winds and storms move it not; no more can all the power and policy of hell combined prevail against the Church, #Mt 16:18. She is ανικητος και ακινητος, a kingdom that cannot be shaken; and may, better than the city of Venice, take for her posy Immota manet. May she stand immovable.

Shall be established in the top of the mountains] Constituetur firmiter, She shall be established more securely, shall be strongly set upon a sure bottom, upon munitions of rocks; yea, upon the Rock of Ages, #Mt 15:18 Jer 31:35 Isa 33:16. Some by "the house of the Lord" here understand the Church; and by the mountain of this house, Christ, whereon it is built, and whom Daniel describeth by that great mountain that filled the whole earth, that stone cut out without hands that smote in pieces the four monarchies, #Da 2:35. And hence it is that this mountain of the Lord’s house is exalted above the hills: the Church must needs be above all earthly eminences whatsoever, because founded upon Christ; who therefore cannot be exalted, but she must be lifted up aloft together with him. God, who is rich in mercy, saith that great apostle, "hath quickened us together with Christ, and hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus," #Eph 2:5,6. The Church is mystical Christ, #1Co 12:12, she is his wife, and wherever he is Caius she is Caia; she shineth with his beams and partaketh of his honours; union being the ground of communion.

And people shall flow unto it] As waters roll and run toward the sea; but that these waters shall flow upward, flow to the mountain, as here, is as wonderful as that the sun should send his beams downward to the earth, when as it is the property of all fire to aspire and fly upwards. This is the Lord’s own work, and it is marvellous in our eyes. The metaphor of flowing importeth the coming of people to Christ by the preaching of the Gospel. 1. Freely, #Ps 110:3 2. Swiftly, as the waters of the river Tigris, swift as an arrow out of a bow. See #Isa 60:8 3. Plentifully, by whole nations turned to the faith, and giving up their names to Christ. 4. Jointly, as #Mic 4:2 Zec 8:21 5. Zealously, bearing down all obstacles that would dam up their way. 6. Constantly and continually, as rivers run perpetually, by reason of the perennity of their fountains; and are never dried up, though sometimes fuller than some: quin ut fluvii repentinis imbribus augentur, saith Gualther; as rivers swell often with sudden showers, and overflow the banks, so, beyond all expectation, many times doth God take away tyrants, and propagates his truth, enlarging the bounds of his Church with new confluxes of converts.

Ver. 2. And many nations shall come and say] The conversion of the Gentiles is here foretold, a piece of that mystery of godliness, #1Ti 3:16. The Jews usually call Christians in contempt Gozin (the word here used), and Mamzer Goi, bastard Gentiles. But, either they must come under this name themselves or deny that they are the posterity of Abraham, #Ge 12:2, where God saith, "I will make of thee a great nation."

Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord] The wicked have their Come, #Pr 1:11, and would not go to hell alone. Should not the saints have theirs? should they not get what company they can toward heaven? The Greeks call goodness Καλον, from καλειν; and Αγαθον, from Αγαν θεειν, because it doth, as it were, invite and call others to it; and every man is willingly to run after it.

And to the house of the God of Jacob] To the public ordinances, where we may hear and believe, and be sealed with that holy Spirit of promise, as those Ephesians were, #Eph 1:13. We read that Marcellinus, Secundanus, and some others were converted to Christianity by reading Sibylla’s oracles of Christ’s birth; and that by Chaucer’s book some were brought to the knowledge of the truth. But either this was not so, or not ordinary; for faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word preached, which therefore the people of God do so prize as Luther did, who said, He would not take all the world for one leaf of the Bible; and that without the preaching of the word he could not live comfortably in paradise; as with it, he could live and enjoy himself, though it were in hell.

And he will teach us of his ways] Cathedram in coelis habet qui corda docet, saith Austin. All true converts are taught of God, #Joh 6:45, and then quam cito discitur quod docetur? saith the same Father: how soon are men discipled! how soon learn they the ways of God, whereby to serve him here, and be saved by him hereafter! For it is false that some contend for; sc. that every man may be saved in his own faith, be it right or wrong. For none can come to the Father but by the Son, #Joh 14:6. Neither is there any other name but his under heaven, whereby men must be saved, #Ac 4:12. See #Joh 17:3 6:40 Heb 11:6, whatsoever the Huberians affirm of universal election, or the Puccians of a natural faith.

And we will walk in his paths] Which are all paved with mercy and love; so that the saints run therein and faint not; walk, and are not weary, #Isa 40:31. They are all peripatetics, ever in action, #Ge 17:1; they are currists caretakers, not quaerists, seekers, saith Luther elegantly; they do not reason, but run the paths of God’s precepts. Nescit tarda molimina Spiritus Sancti gratis (Ambrose).

For the law shall go forth of Zion] The law, or doctrine, as #Pr 13:14. Understand here the gospel, that law of God, #Ps 19:7, that law of Christ, #Ga 6:2, that perfect law of liberty, #Jas 1:25, a counterpane whereof God putteth into the hearts of his people, #Jer 31:33, whereby they become (as it was once said of the Thracians) αυτονομοι, a law to themselves; as being transformed into the same image with the gospel, like as the pearl, by the often beating of the sunbeams upon it, becometh radiant as the sun (Herod.).

And the word of the Lord from Jerusalem] Not from Africa at first (as the brethren of the Rosycross would have it), though it is thought the gospel was received and the Christian faith professed even from the apostles’ time, in that large region of Nubia, in Africa. But repentance and remission of sins was preached "among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem," #Lu 24:47. The Jews were God’s library keepers, and the apostles sent and went from Jerusalem to plant Churches abroad the world, and to gather into one the children of God that were dispersed, #Joh 11:52.

Ver. 3. And he shall judge among many people] We had before Christ’s prophetic office; here we have his princely, and elsewhere his priestly (wherein both the former are founded), for he is the true Trismegist, {a} and Melchisedec was a right type of him. He is the only judge, and needs no vicar upon earth, such as the Pope claims to be, #Isa 37:20, no such officers to see his laws executed as the ephori were among the Greeks, and the censors among the Romans. This seems to have been the effect of that old prophecy among the Easterlings, that Iudaea profecti rerum potirentur, some that came out of Jewry should conquer all. Vide Sueton. in Vespas., et Tacit. lib. 21. The Lord that "sent the rod of his strength out of Zion," as #Mic 4:2, doth also give him to "rule in the midst of his enemies, while his people are willing in the day of his power, in the beauties of holiness," #Ps 110:3, willing that Christ should send forth judgment to victory, #Mt 12:20, that is, perfect his own work of grace begun in their hearts. To which end, as it here followeth,

He shall rebuke (or convince) strong nations] Convince them, I say (by his Spirit), "of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment," #Joh 16:8: of the loathsomeness of sin, of the necessity of getting righteousness by Christ, and repentance from dead works; that men may serve the living God, and as much as in them is live peaceably with all, #Ac 17:30.

And they shall beat their swords into plowshares] i.e. Their fierce and fallen natures shall be mansuefied, as #Isa 11:6-9, and if they wage war it shall be non nisi coacti, not unless required, either for the just punishment of delinquents, whom they cannot otherwise come at, or for their own necessary defence, and that they may establish peace with truth. But if men would live by the laws of the gospel, they need not wage war or lack peace, either of country or of conscience: but they might take for their motto that of David, Ani shallom, I am peace; and have for their portion that peace, peace, #Isa 27:3, even a perfect, sheer, pure peace, a multiplied peace with God, with themselves, and with others: this is a main piece of Christ’s kingdom upon earth, who is the Prince of peace, and came in a time of peace: viz. in the reign of Augustus, when as there was Totius orbis aut pax aut pactio, saith Florus, a general peace or truce throughout the whole world.

Neither shall they learn war any more] To make a trade or a gain of it, and so to earn a curse, #De 27:25, to delight in it, #Ps 68:30, and make a sport of it (as Abner did, #2Sa 2:14, and Pyrrhus, King of Epirots), to wage it without weighty reason rashly. If we princes (said our Henry VII) should take every occasion that is offered, the world should never be quiet, but wearied by continual wars. We may also here take warring (as St James doth, #Jas 4:1) for jarring, and jangling, for private discords and dissensions. Now, these the people of God are so far from learning that they utterly lay them aside, and are kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake forgave them, #Eph 4:32.

{a} Belonging or ascribed to, following, or having the character of Hermes Trismegistus. ŒD

Ver. 4. But they shall sit every man under his vine] Feeding upon the fruit that shall even fall into his mouth, saith a Lapide. Sit they shall under Christ, the true vine, saith Hugo, and under the Holy Ghost, as a fig tree, whose fruit is far sweeter than any honey. But these are coined interpretations, saith Gualther. I should rather expound this text by that 91st Psalm; wherein the safe and happy condition of the godly is at large described. Vine yards and fig yards were ordinary in those countries; and hence this proverbial expression, to set forth, doubtless, the spiritual security, and that peace of conscience chiefly, that is granted to Christ’s subjects: a peace far beyond that under Solomon, which is here pointed at; or that under our Queen Elizabeth, not to be passed over without one touch at least upon that string which so many years together sounded so sweetly in the ears of our fathers. Then it was, if ever, that the mountains brought forth peace, and the little hills righteousness, #Ps 72:3. The great ones defended their inferiors, and the inferiors blessed their superiors; the magistrate righted the subject, and the subject reverenced the magistrate.

And none shall make them afraid] God, they know, will not hurt them, man cannot: he may take away their heads, but not their crowns; their lives, but not their hopes; for the righteous hath hope in his death; his posy. is not only, Dum spiro spero, while I live, I have hope, but Dum expiro, While I die, also. Let the wicked have a trembling heart and failing eyes while he lives, #De 28:65, and when he dies cry out, as a great man was heard to do, Spes et fortuna valete, Farewell life and hope together. The servant of Christ, as he sits mediis tranquillus in undis calm in the midst of the waves, all his life long, so when he dies, he can call his soul to rest; and sing old Simeon’s Nuno dimittis, "Lord, now let thy servant depart in peace," &c.

For the mouth of the Lord of hosts] And what better assurance can we desire, since God can neither die, lie, nor deny himself; since, secondly, he is the "Lord of hosts," and so armed with power to make good what he hath spoken. Peter had a will to deliver Christ from the Jews, but lacked power. Pilate had power to have done it, but lacked will. God lacked neither of these to do for his people, and to deliver them out of danger. Courage, therefore.

Ver. 5. For all people will walk every one in the name of his god] They will do so, they are resolved not to alter their religion; as Cicero said, Me ex ea opinione quam a maioribus accepi de cultu deorum, nullius unquam movebit oratio; I will never be dissuaded by any one from that way of Divine worship, which I have received from my forefathers. How wilful at this day are Jews, Papists, Pagans, heretics! And how much easier a matter do we find it to deal with twenty men’s reasons than with one’s man will! A wilful man stands as a stake in the midst of a stream, lets all pass by him, but he stands where he was. Nay, but we will have a king, say they, when they had nothing else to say. Nay, but I will curse howsoever, though against my conscience, said Balaam; and do not the Popish Balaamites as much as this, many of them? As for the vulgar sort of them, they are headlong and headstrong, resolved to retain contra gentes against the people, the senseless superstitions transmitted unto them by their progenitors. But what saith the oracle, #Re 14:7? "Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come: and" (whatever your ancestors did) "worship you him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters."

And we will walk in the name of the Lord our God] This was well resolved, and is as well practised by all Christ’s faithful people, who dare not follow a multitude to do evil, #Ex 23:2; dare not walk by their fathers’ practice, #Jos 24:2,14,15, for they consider that no commandment doth so expressly threaten God’s judgments upon posterity as the second. They therefore resolve to walk in the name, that is, by the laws, and under the view of the Lord their God, who is "God of gods, and Lord of lords, a great God, a mighty, and a terrible," as Moses describeth him, in opposition to all other deities, whether so reputed or deputed, #De 10:17.

For ever and ever] We will not only take a turn or two in his ways, as temporaries, who are hot at hand but soon tire; and give in but we will hold on a constant course of holiness, and not fail to follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth, #Ps 1:2 Joh 8:12 10:4,14 Re 7:17. As for those apostates that change their God, that change their glory for that which doth not profit, as they therein commit a horrible wickedness, such as the heavens have cause to be astonished at, #Jer 2:11-13; so they could not choose out for themselves a worse condition, #Heb 10:37,38: for what reaon? they put the Son of God to an open shame, #Heb 6:6, (like as those that are carted among us are held out as a scorn) and do in effect say, that they have not found him such as they took him for.

Ver. 6. In that day] sc. of grace and of the gospel. It is called a day, and that day, by an excellence, in regard of revelation, adornation, consolation, distinction, speedy preterition.

Saith the Lord] Whose word cannot be broken, #Joh 10:25, and is therefore the best security, #2Co 1:20.

Will I assemble her that halteth] Heb. that goeth sideling, that is maimed, disjointed, lamed, #Isa 35:3, torn, #Ps 35:15, and tired out with long journeys into captivity, as the Jews were by the Babylonians, Greeks, and Romans before Christ’s coming: that they might breathe after those days of refreshing from the presence of the Lord, #Mal 3:1.

And I will gather her that is driven out] Or, rejected, thrust away with a force, that is, the Gentiles suffered to walk in their own ways, #Ac 14:16, and carried away unto dumb idols, even as they were led, #1Co 12:2.

And her that I have afflicted] Both Jews and Gentiles, the whole community of people: for God shook all nations then, when the Desire of all nations {Christ, #Heb 12:26} was to come, #Hag 2:7,22,23. Junius, after the Septuagint, rendereth it, ut veniant desiderati omnium gentium, So may they come, the desire of all nations, that the saints, those desirable ones, out of all nations may come: for unto Shiloh in a most afflicted time (when the sceptre was departed from Judah, &c.) was the gathering of all people to be, #Ge 49:10 Isa 26:8,9, See #Isa 66:20: rather in litters (as lame people are carried) should they come, than not at all: rather on one leg, with Jacob, should they wrestle, than not prevail.

Ver. 7. And I will make her that halted a remnant] Yea, a renowned remnant, #Zep 3:19. Not many Jews were converted in comparison to the Gentiles; hence they are called a remnant. They both killed the Lord Jesus and their own prophets; they have also persecuted us, saith the apostle, or cast us out, as by an ostracism; and they "please not God, and are contrary to all men, forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles," #1Th 2:15,16. Thus the generality of them then: and so to this day they continue cross, and cursing Christ and his followers thrice a day in their synagogues (Jerome in Isaiah. Buxtorf. Synag.). Howbeit at this present time, also, there is a "remnant according to the election of grace," #Ro 11:5, and that remnant became the seminary of the Christian Church.

And her that was cast far off a strong nation] Numerous and valorous. Vide fidem et passionero martyrum, et de genre robusta non ambiges, saith Jerome here: Consider the faith and patience of the martyrs, and you will easily yield them to be a strong nation indeed. Christians have showed as glorious power in the faith of martyrdom as in the faith of miracles. They can do that which others cannot turn their hands to; they can suffer wrongs best of any; compel them to go a mile, they will be content to go two, yea, as far as the shoes of the preparation of the gospel of peace will carry them. There is nothing that they dare not undertake and undergo for the glory of their God. This courage in Christians heathens counted obstinace (Tertull. in Apolog.), but they knew not the power of the Spirit nor the privy armour of proof that the saints have about their hearts, which maketh them insuperable, more than conquerors.

And the Lord shall reign over them in mount Zion] i.e. In the Christian Church, out of which went the law, that is, the gospel, #Mic 4:2. See #Isa 40:9 52:7 Heb 12:22. There shall Christ reign, and so he did ever: but now he shall declare himself to be "Messiah the Prince," #Da 9:25, Lord and Christ, #Ac 2:36, Saviour and Sovereign. As King he, 1. Of rebels makes them subjects, willing to be ruled by him; 2. He preserves them in that privilege by his Spirit; 3. He gives them laws far better than those of the twelve tables in Rome, which yet far exceeded (saith Cicero) all the learned libraries of the philosophers in worth and weight; 4. He sweetly inclineth their wills to yield universal obedience thereunto, and to cross themselves so they may please him; 5. He rewards them with comfort and peace here, and with life eternal hereafter; 6. He destroys all the enemies of his Church, and then at last delivers up the kingdom to his Father, #1Co 15:24, not his essential kingdom as God, but his economical kingdom as mediator.

Ver. 8. And thou, O tower of the flock] That is, O Church of Christ, who is often compared to a shepherdess in the Canticles; here to a Migdaleder, or tower of the flock (that flock of Christ which hath golden fleeces, precious souls), in reference either to that tower, #Ge 25:21, built for the safety and service of shepherds, or else to the sheep gate in Jerusalem (whereof read, #Ne 3:1 12:39), so called from the sheep market, which, for the couvenience of the temple, was near to it; as was also the sheep pool, called Bethesda, #Joh 5:2, where the sacrifices were washed. The world is a field, the Church a fold in that field; and a strong fold (strong as a tower), yea, a stronghold, ophel, as it is styled in the next words; and that of the daughter of Zion, that is, of the Christian Church, the inviolable security whereof is here noted.

Unto thee shall it come, even the first dominion] Such as was in David’s days and Solomon’s; large, rich, peaceable, prosperous, terrible to other nations. This was carnally understood by the Jews, who therefore dream to this day of an earthly kingdom, and have in their synagogues a crown ready to set upon the head of their Messiah whenever he shall come: neither were Christ’s disciples without a tincture of this Pharisaical leaven; whence their often inquiries, when the kingdom of God shall come? and their frivolous contests among themselves, who should be the greatest in Christ’s kingdom? who should sit at his right hand and at his left? &c., as if there should have been in Christ’s kingdom (as in Solomon’s) a distribution here of honours and offices. And this groundless conceit hung as bullets of lead at their eyelids; that they could not look up to see that Christ’s kingdom was spiritual, and not of this present world.

The kingdom shall come to the daughter of Jerusalem] This the Jews (mistaking it as before) pray earnestly that it may come, cito, citius, citissime, quickly, more quickly, most quickly bimberah, bejamenu (Buxtor. Syn. Jud.), with speed, and even in our days; often throwing open their windows to behold their king, and to receive their long looked for preferment in his earthly monarchy.

Ver. 9. Now why dost thou cry out aloud?] Shout and howl? q.d. hast thou any such cause to be so unreasonably and outrageously impatient, so long as Christ is thy king and counsellor? What if there now be no king in thee? what if thy counsellor perished? A woeful case, I confess, and great confusion must needs be the issue of it; as it happened in Jerusalem after Josiah was slain: confer #Ho 3:4. {See Trapp on "Ho 3:4"} But yet there is hope in Israel concerning this thing; neither need the saints be so excessively dejected with outward crosses so long as Christ is with them and for them. If Seneca could say to his friend Polybius, Fas tibi non est salvo Caesare, de fortuna tua queri, Be thy case never so miserable, thou hast no cause to complain, so long as Caesar is in safety; how much less ground of mourning or murmuring have Christ’s subjects, so long as he liveth and reigneth! Gaudeo quod Christus Dominus est, alioqui totus desperassem, I rejoice because Christ est Lord, otherwise, I am in total dispair, writeth Miconius to Calvin, of the Church’s enemies: I am glad that Christ is Lord of all, for otherwise I should have had no hope of help at all. David in deep distress comforteth himself in the Lord his God, #1Sa 30:6 Ps 119:94, "I am thine, save me," saith he, q.d. my professed subjection to thee calleth for thy care and protection of me, and here he stays himself. Kings and counsellors are great stays to a state, but Christ is not tied to them. These are but particular good things, as is health against sickness, wealth against poverty, &c., but Christ is a universal good, all-sufficient and satisfactory; every way proportionable and fitting to our souls and several necessities. Why then do we cry aloud as utterly undone? why sing we not rather with David when at greatest under, "The Lord liveth, and blessed be the God of my salvation. It is God that avengeth me, and delivereth me from the violent man," #Ps 18:46. He is King of all the earth. He is wonderful in counsel, and excellent in working. It was a learned man’s motto, Blessed be God, that he is God; and blessed be Christ, that he reigns for ever; that counsel is his, and sound wisdom; that he hath understanding, he hath strength, #Pr 8:14.

For pangs have taken thee as a woman in travail] They have, but they needed not, hadst thou but turned into thy counting house, and considered thy manifold privileges in Christ, thy king and counsellor. We often punish ourselves by our passions, as the lion that beats himself with his own tail. Sed o bene (saith an interpreter here) quod sint hi dolores saltem similes parturientium, It is yet a happiness that the Church’s pangs, though bitter, yet are no worse than as those of a woman in travail (Tarnovius). For, 1. The pains of travail seldom bring death, but life both to mother and child; so do afflictions to the saints, #2Co 4:17 Heb 12:9. 2. Travail comes not by chance, nor for long continuance; neither doth affliction, #Joh 7:30 Lu 22:53. 3. Travail is unavoidable, and must be patiently borne; so must affliction; or else we lose the fruit of it, #Ac 14:22 2Ti 3:12

4. Sharp though it be, yet it is short; so mourning lasteth but till morning, #Ps 30:6 73:24 135:14 Joh 16:22 Jer 10:24. 5. As the travailing woman hath the help of other women; so hath the afflicted, of God, angels, and men. 6. Lastly, as she remembereth the sorrow no more for joy of a man child born into the world; so is it here, #Joh 16:20 Ro 8:17,18.

Ver. 10. Be in pain and labour to briny forth, &c.] Be sensible of thine ensuing captivity, and take on; but yet with hope of a gracious deliverance in due time. {See Trapp on "Mic 4:9"} It is no less a fault to despise the chastening of the Lord than to faint when thou art rebuked, #Heb 12:5. The hypocrite in heart heapeth up wrath, saith Elihu, and why? he crieth not when God bindeth him, #Job 36:13. The wicked, saith Hannah, are silent in darkness, and shall therefore lie down in sorrow, #1Sa 2:9 Isa 50:10. This is not patience, but pertinace, the strength of stones and flesh of brass, #Job 6:12. It is not valour, but apathy, stupidity, and indolence, much complained of in Scripture, and threatened with a succession of sorrows, #Le 26:18,28, seven more, and seven more, and seven to that. Three times in that chapter God raiseth his note of threatening, and he raiseth it by sevens, and those are discords in music. Such sayings will be heavy, songs, and their execution heavy pangs; worse than those of a woman in travail.

For now shalt thou go forth out of the city] This now occured not out of a hundred years after. Foul weather seldom rotteth in the air. Time weareth not out God’s threatenings, Nullum tempus occurrit Regi, nedum Deo: Time can be no prejudice to the Ancient of days; sooner or later his word shall be accomplished. When the sins of the Amorites are full they shall be sure of their payment. The bottle of wickedness, when once filled with those bitter waters, will sink to the bottom.

And thou shalt dwell in the field] Sub dio, under daylight, having no canopy over thee but the azured sky; so little account is made of poor captives: if they may have the open air to breathe in, though they lie without doors, it is better than a stinking dungeon, or to be shut up close under hatches among the excrements of nature, as Barbarossa’s Christian prisoners taken in Greece were; so that all the way as he went home with them to Constantinople, every hour almost some of them were cast dead overboard.

And thou shalt go even to Babylon] There to dwell among plants and hedges, making flowerpots for a foreign prince. "There they dwelt with the king for his work," #1Ch 4:23.

There shalt thou be delivered, there the Lord shall redeem thee] This "there" is as emphatic as that "yet" so often repeated #Zec 1:17. {See Trapp on "Zec 1:17"} It seemed improbable to many, and to some impossible, that ever they should return out of Babylon. But God effected it, to the great astonishment of his poor people, who were like them that dream, #Ps 126:1 and could scarcely believe their own eyes. God loves to deliver those that are forsaken of their hopes. Ad nos ergo transferamus promissionem istam, saith Gualther upon the text. Let us apply this promise to ourselves; and as often as we are pinched with poverty, or tormented with diseases, or cast out into banishment, or are in any great danger by water or land, or under terrors of conscience, let us think we hear God thus speaking to us, "There shalt thou be delivered: there will I redeem thee."

Ver. 11. Now also many nations are gathered, &c.] That is, they shall lie once gathered, when the Babylonians, who are lords of the world, shall muster many nations against thee. Would any man take the Church’s picture, saith Luther? then let him paint a silly poor maid, sitting in a wood or wilderness, compassed about with hungry lions, wolves, boars, and bears, and with all manner of cruel and hurtful beasts and in the midst of a great many furious men assaulting her every moment and minute, for this is her condition in the world.

That say, Let her be defiled] sc. with blood and slaughter. Or, let her be condemned as a hypocrite, let her be stoned as an adulteress; so the Trent translation. Thus they pretend, as Rabshakeh did, that they were sent by God against a hypocritical nation, that had broken their faith with God and men. The like craft and cruelty was used in the Parisian massacre, and gunpowder plot; God and man, said they (in that blind letter, that brought all to light), have agreed to punish the wickedness of this age. Those that would kill a dog give out that he was mad first, saith the French proverb. Whom no man looketh after, #Jer 30:17.

And let our eyes look upon Zion] Let us feed our eyes with such a delightful spectacle; and say, as that cruel Charles IX of France did, when he saw the streets strewed with the bodies of the massacred Protestants, and the rivers dyed with their blood, O pulchrum spectaculum! O brave sight! or as the Queen mother of Scotland, when she beheld the dead carcases of her Lutheran subjects, said, that she never saw a goodlier piece of arras {a} in all her days. See the accomplishment of this prophecy in the Lamentations, #Ps 137, and in the Book of Nehemiah.

{a} A rich tapestry fabric, in which figures and scenes are woven in colours. ŒD

Ver. 12. But they know not the thoughts of the Lord] Nothing like their thoughts, #Isa 55:8. Confer #Isa 10:7,8 Zec 11:15,16. His thoughts are fatherly, while theirs are butcherly. The physician in setting leeches to his patient seeks his good; he aims not at filling the leech’s gorge; neither will he set more on him than will make for his health. God by his wisdom, and according to his eternal counsel (which the wicked understand not), ordereth and draweth the blind and brute motions of the worst creatures to his own honour and his Church’s good; as the huntsman doth the rage of the dog to his pleasure, or the mariner the blowing of the wind to his voyage, or the artist the heat of the fire to his work, or the physician the blood thirstiness of the leech to a cure (Dr Reynolds). "Surely," saith the Psalmist, speaking of Sennacherib’s cruelty in the siege of Jerusalem, "the wrath of man shall praise thee" (eventually, though not intentionally): "the remainder of wrath shalt thou restrain," #Ps 76:10. Let the enemies think and project as they please, let them rage and resolve upon your utter ruin; "I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord; thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end; to recompense tribulation to them that trouble you; and to you who are troubled rest," #Jer 29:11 2Th 1:6,7. "For thus saith the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel; In returning and rest shall ye be saved; in quietness and in confidence shall be your strength," #Isa 30:15. "And I will strengthen the house of Judah, and I will save the house of Joseph, and I will bring them again to place them; for I have mercy upon them: and they shall be as though I had not cast them off: for I am the Lord their God, and I will hear them," #Zec 10:6. Surely as it was said of old, neither shall Rome fall while Scipio standeth, neither shall Scipio live when Rome falleth; so may it more truly be affirmed of Christ, that he and his people shall stand and fall together. But "he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth," #Job 19:25, yea, he shall set his right foot upon the sea, and his left foot upon the earth, #Re 10:2, as Lord of sea and land, maugre the malice of all that sought to supplant him, who shall therehence fall, and never rise up again, #Am 8:14.

Ver. 13. Arise and thresh, O daughter of Zion] "Go in this thy might" (wherewith thou so lustily threshest out thy wheat by the winepress, said the angel to Gideon, #Jud 6:14), and thresh the Midianites another while, "thou shalt smite them as one man," #Jud 6:16; thresh them as the sheaves of the floor, that lie ready for the flail, or, as the custom of those countries was, #De 25:4 1Co 9:9 1Ti 5:18, for oxen to tread out, or the wheel to turn over, #Isa 28:28.

For I will make thine horn iron, &c.] So that thou shalt do great exploits, by mine assistance, against Sennacherib, Antiochus, and other enemies subdued and threshed down to straw by the valiant Maccabees. Spiritualiter etiam hoc intelligendum, saith Sa. here; this is also spiritually to be understood of converting people to the faith, separata palea infidelitatis. This the apostles did vigorously and effectually, being furnished by Christ with horns of iron and hoofs of brass; with spiritual courage and mettle, whereby they did soon beat in pieces many people, and brought them to Christ by the obedience of faith, together with all their wealth and substance, which they cheerfully consecrate unto the Lord of the whole earth. This was typified of old by the tabernacle built with the spoils of the Egyptians; and by David’s dedicating to the Lord the gold and silver which in great abundance he had taken from the enemies, #2Sa 8:11. It is prophesied of Tyre, that being converted, she should find another manner of merchandise than formerly, viz. to feed and clothe God’s poor with durable clothing, #Isa 23:18. The centurion, when once he became a proselyte, built the Jewish synagogues, that had been thrown down by Antiochus, #Lu 7:5. Constantine the Great was bountiful to the Church above measure, insomuch as that he was by the heathens in scorn called Pupillus, orphan, as if he had wanted a guardian to overrule and order his expenses. Sed refriguit hoc studium hodie in magistratibus plerisque, as Gualther here complaineth, and not without cause. The Church is not only scanted, but spoiled of her revenues; and that which was piously consecrated is impiously converted to other uses, &c. Thus he.

Chapter 5

Ver. 1. Now gather thyself in troops, O daughter of troops] Here the virgin, the daughter of Zion, despiseth her adversaries of Assyria and Babylon, and laughs them to scorn; "the daughter of Jerusalem shaketh her head at them," #Isa 37:22; and bearing herself bold upon the foregoing promise, #Mic 4:13, that she should beat in pieces many people, she taketh liberty to taunt the Assyrian monarch with all his troops beleaguering her, and basely abusing her judges, telling him, that the babe of Bethlehem would shortly take an order with him. And although she were but a virgin, yet, having such a champion as Christ, who is in love with her, that will take her part and fight her quarrel, she doubteth not to say, "Now gather thyself in troops," &c. Nunc turmatim coito, o turmaria, Increase thine army and come forth. "Gather yourselves, and ye shall be broken in pieces; gird yourselves, and ye shall be broken in pieces. Take counsel together, and it shall come to nought; speak the word, and it shall not stand; for God is with us," #Isa 8:9,10; Jehovah is our judge, Jehovah is our champion, Jehovah is our king; he will save us, #Isa 33:22. Lo, this is the Church’s confident boasting in Christ, this is the triumph of her trust in him. The thought of his birth swalloweth up all her fears and discontents; and compasseth her about with songs of deliverance, #Ps 32:7.

He hath laid siege against us] And already devoured us in his hopes; but if we do but turn us to Christ, and say, Behold, she whom thou lovest is distressed the Assyrian as a strong river is come up over all his channels, and reacheth even to the neck; yea, the stretching out of his wings filleth the breadth of thy land, O Immanuel, #Isa 8:7,8, he will soon bestir himself, he will besiege our besiegers, he will smite them upon the cheek bone, and break the teeth of those ungodly, #Ps 3:7, that smote the judge of Israel with a rod upon the cheek, for a reproach to the whole people. Hugo by this judge of Israel understandeth Christ, who was indeed at his passion contumeliously buffeted (ερραπισαν Bacillis ceciderunt. Beza), and smitten with rods upon the cheek, #Mt 26:6,7. But this, though it be true, yet cannot be the sense of this text.

Ver. 2. But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah] Not so called from Ephratah, Caleb’s wife, #1Ch 2:19,50,51, but from its fruitfulness; whence also it had the name Bethlehem, that is, the house of bread, where Jesus (that bread of life, that came down from heaven, #Joh 6:33) was born in the fulness of time, as is here first foretold by this prophet; that great mystery of godliness being revealed to the world by degrees, in several ages. Here was Christ born by mere accident, in regard of his parents, who were brought hither by a tyrannical edict of Augustus, #Lu 2:2, but yet by a sweet providence of God, that this Scripture might be fulfilled, and our faith in Christ settled.

Though thou be little among the thousands of Judah] Or, Art thou little? &c.; q.d. no such matter: and so it agreeth with #Mt 2:6. Or thus: And thou, Bethlehem Ephrata, it is a small thing to be among the princes of Judah: Out of thee shall come a ruler, q.d. thou hast a dignity above this, and above them all, in that out of thee shall come a ruler. Take tsagnir in the neuter gender (as Scultetus, after Osiander, and Forster doth), and then the seeming difference (εναντιοφανος) between the prophet and evangelist is taken away. Some make St Matthew to relate the words of the Scribes to Herod, as they had varied the text before him. But we find not that they are anywhere taxed for altering or corrupting the text, but for misinterpreting it only, #Mt 5:17-48. Besides that, they were by their office text men, to look to the letter of the Scripture, and to keep it pure, #1Co 1:20; where they are distinguished from teachers of traditions and teachers of allegories.

Yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me] That is, to God the Father; that we may know that the coming of Christ in the flesh was a plot of God’s own contriving. He came not by chance, but by counsel; him hath God the Father sealed, anointed, and appointed to the work, #Joh 6:27. This is comfortable to consider.

That is go be ruler in Israel] Matthew rendereth it, a captain that shall feed my people Israel, #Mt 2:6. {See Trapp on "Mt 2:6"}

Whose goings forth have been from of old] This is spoken of Christ’s eternal generation, which none can declare, #Isa 53:8. "What is God’s name, and what is his son’s name, if thou canst tell?" #Pr 30:4. The Scripture usually speaketh of this grand mystery by way of circumlocution. It is here spoken of in the plural number for the excellence of it. In this text, then, we have a description of Christ, in his natures and offices. See the like #Ro 1:3,4, and adore the fulness of the Scriptures, Adoro plenitudinem scripturarum (Aug.).

Ver. 3. Therefore will he give them up] As a little before the day springeth it is darker than ordinary; so before the day spring from on high visited God’s people they were under very hard and heavy pressures and miseries; whereby their desires after him were increased and ineagered. The enemy oppressed them, by God’s permission, yea, by his active providence; that they might pant after a Saviour, and sigh out with old Jacob, their father, #Ge 49:18, "O Lord, I have waited for thy salvation."

Until the time that she which travaileth hath brought forth] She, that is, the Virgin Mary, say some: or, she, that is, say others, the afflicted Church, according to #Mic 4:9,10; {See Trapp on "Mic 4:9"} {See Trapp on "Mic 4:10"} She must have a time of travail, of trouble, before she can bring forth, and be delivered. Luther saith well, that the Church is haeres crucis, cling to the cross and that every Christian is a Crucian; we must suffer before we can reign, and bear the cross or e’er we wear the crown.

Then the remnant of his brethren] i.e. The converted Gentiles, whom Christ is not ashamed to call his brethren, #Heb 2:11,12.

Shall return unto the children of Israel] Shall be proselyted, and conjoined to the elect Jews, that there may be one sheepfold under one shepherd. "And the Lord shall be king over all the earth: in that day there shall be one Lord, and his name one," #Zec 14:9. {See Trapp on "Zec 14:9"}

Ver. 4. And he shall stand and feed (or rule) in the strength of the Lord] He shall stand, and none shall be able to stir him; there shall be lifting at his government, but it stands firm and fixed. Earthly monarchies have their times and their turns, their ruin as well as their rise. The Roman empire fell under the weight of its own greatness. The Turkish, although it be indeed very strong, yet is it by many probably thought to be on the declining hand. But Christ shall stand when all earthly greatness shall lie in the dust. And he shall feed his flock in the strength of the Lord, neither shall any ravenous lion or grievous wolf pluck them out of his hand, because he and the Father are one, #Joh 10:30, and God hath laid help on one that is mighty, #Ps 89:19.

And in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God] That is, by the power of God’s word, called his name, #Ac 9:15, and elsewhere. This word hath a singular majesty in it, whereby it aweth and affecteth men’s consciences, to the propagating of Christ’s kingdom, viz. when it is accompanied with the Spirit of God, called his strength in the former clause. And that these ever go together in all the subjects of Christ’s kingdom, see #Isa 59:21: "As for me, this is my covenant with them, saith the Lord; My spirit that is upon thee, and my words which I have put in thy mouth, shall not depart out of thy mouth, nor out of the mouth of thy seed, nor out of the mouth of thy seed’s seed, saith the Lord, from henceforth and for ever."

For now shall he be great unto the ends of the earth] How, that is, ere long; in God’s due time, which often seems long because we are short, apt to antedate the promises in regard to the accomplishment, to limit the Holy One of Israel, and to set him a time, to set his sun by our dial: #Jer 8:20, help they would have that summer at furthest. But as God never fails in his own time, so he seldom comes at ours. We must live by faith, #Hab 2:4, and stay God’s leisure, as David did for the kingdom, and those in Esther for deliverance. God’s promises will at length take their way over all Alps of opposition, but we have "need of patience. For yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry," #Heb 10:36,37.

Ver. 5. And this man shall be the peace] "The man Christ Jesus," #1Ti 2:5; that man, that shall be "as a hiding place from the wind, and a covert from the tempest; as rivers of water in a dry place, as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land," #Isa 32:2. Winds and tempests will arise, and that upon the Church. Assyrians and Babylonians (Nimrod’s brats) will invade and infest her; but that famous he before mentioned shall be her peace, her Prince of peace, #Isa 9:6, who giveth her pacem omnimodam, peace internal, external, eternal, called by the apostle life and peace, #Ro 8:6. This peace, peace, as Isaiah calleth it, #Isa 26:3, that is, a multiplied, renewed, continued peace; this peace, regionis et religionis, of country and of conscience, as God hath promised, and Christ hath purchased. He merited and made it through the blood of his cross, #Col 1:20 Isa 53:5 Eph 2:16. And hence it was, that as he was brought from heaven with that song of peace, #Lu 2:14, so he returned up again with that farewell of peace, #Joh 14:27, left to the world the doctrine of peace, #Eph 2:17, whose ministers are messengers of peace, #Ro 10:15, whose followers are the children of peace, #Lu 10:6, whose rarity is in the bond of peace, #Eph 4:3, and whose duty is the study of peace, #Ro 12:18, and to whom God hath promised "I will give peace in your land. And ye shall chase your enemies," #Le 26:6,7. If any ask, how peace and pursuit of enemies can consist? it is easily answered. You shall have civil peace among yourselves, and besides an ability to quell and quiet foreign enemies. Or, you shall have peace; and if it happens that war arise, you shall have the better in battle. If the Assyrian come into your land he shall be a loser by it; if he tread in your palaces he shall retreat with shame and defeat, as it befell Sennacherib.

Then shall we raise against him seven shepherds] That is, a competent number of chieftains and champions, with their victorious forces, which shall repel the enemies and secure the Church, Christo duce et auspice Christo, under Christ the arch-shepherd. This some understand to be the apostles, those anointed or authorized ones, as the word here signifieth, the weapons of whose warfare were "not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds," #2Co 10:4,5, and bringing in, not the heads, but hearts of those whom they had subdued: as Paul did of Sergius Paulus, the proconsul, #Ac 13:7, where also he is first called Paul, in memory belike of those first spoils he brought into the Church. By shepherds here are meant (saith Gualther) the ministers and preachers of the word, who feed, defend, and watch over the flock. By principal men, magistrates, endued with that free (or, as the Chaldee hath it) kingly spirit, #Ps 51:12, to decree, and act for the good of the Church. Such shepherds in the time of the Assyrian war were Isaiah, Micah, Joel; such principal men were Hezekiah and Eliakim, #Isa 22:20, &c. Such after the captivity were Ezra, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi, Zorobabel, Nehemiah, Judas Maccabeus. Qui nutantem rempublicam et Ecclesiam suis consiliis, et fortibus gestis fulserunt, who underpropped and kept up the tottering Church and commonwealth by their prayers, counsels, and valiant achievements, both before and since the days of Christ upon earth.

Ver. 6. And they shall waste the land of Assyria] Heb. They shall eat it down, as shepherds do pastures with their flocks. Pascere to graze is put for perdere, to destroy, saith Calvin; they shall leave nothing there safe or sound, but either bend or break the Church’s enemies, bring them to Christ by the sword of God’s word, or utterly ruin them by temporal slaughters. Aut poenitendum, aut pereundum. Either repent or perish.

Thus shall he deliver us from the Assyrian] It is Christ that delivereth his, what instruments soever he please to make use of, #Lu 1:71 1Co 15:24, and he must have the praise of it. The Grecians thankfully acknowledged to Jupiter their deliverance from the Persians, wrought by Themistocles; and therehence called him ελευθεριος, as the Romans for like cause Sospitator , presenting a palm to him, and sacrificing a white ox (Liv. lib. 6), so acknowledging it was his power whereby the conquest was achieved. Our Edward III, after his victory at Poictiers (where he took the French king, A.D. 1356), took speedy order by Simon, Archbishop of Canterbury, that eight days together should be spent in giving God the thanks and glory. How much more should we praise him for spiritual deliverances from sin, Satan, the world, &c., and consecrate ourselves wholly to his service, since Servati sumus ut serviamus, #Lu 1:74, deliverance commands obedience, #Ezr 9:14.

Ver. 7. And the remnant of Jacob] The "remnant according to the election of grace," #Ro 11:5. These are but a few in comparison, as a remnant to the whole piece, or a handful to a houseful; but they shall increase and multiply, by God’s blessing upon them, as is here set forth by two similitudes. First, for their propagation and multiplication, the prophet compareth them to the dew, which is engendered and distilled from heaven immediately. Therefore also, #Ps 110:3, new converts are compared to dew, and God’s begetting them, to the womb of the morning, when overnight the earth was dry. Secondly, for their growth and increase, he compareth it to the sprouting up of herbs and grass in the wilderness, where man cometh not, and so their springing tarrieth not for man, nor "waiteth for the sons of men," for them to come with their watering pots to nourish them (as herbs in gardens do), but these have showers from heaven that give the increase. "I the Lord do keep my vineyard, I will water it every moment," #Isa 27:3. There is an honour due to God’s ministers, #1Th 5:13, but the word only must be glorified, #Ac 13:48, and Christ earnestly entreated, that as of old the manna came down with the dew, which covered the manna (whence that expression, "hidden manna," #Re 2:17), so he himself, who is the bread of life, would descend unto us by the word of his grace, and fill us with the fruits of righteousness; that he would, rigare et recreare, refresh and cherish our hearts, as the dew from heaven doth the dry and lady fields.

Ver. 8. And the remnant of Jacob…as a lion among the beasts of the forest] The saints shall prosper and do great exploits, as being endued with an invincible force of the spirit, making them as so many Coeur-de-lions; or as Chrysostom saith of Peter, that he was like a man made all of fire walking among stubble. What lion-like men were all the apostles, those white horses upon which the Lord Christ rode about the world, "conquering and to conquer?" #Re 6:2. That Lion of the tribe of Juda, #Re 5:5, had put upon them of his own spirit; and of his fulness bestowed upon them grace for grace, #Joh 1:16; hence their transcendent zeal and courage for the truth. Stephen was among his countrymen, the Jews, as a lion among the beasts of the forest. So were in their several generations Athanasius, Basil, Ambrose, Luther, Latimer, Farel, &c., that noble army of martyrs. One of them told the persecutors that they might pluck the heart out of his body, but never pluck the truth out of his heart. Another, that the heavens should sooner fall than he would turn. A third, that if every hair of his head were a man he would suffer death in the opinion and faith that he was now in. A fourth said, Can I die but once for Christ? And generally, the valour of the patient and the savageness of the persecutors strove together; till both exceeding nature and belief bred wonder and astonishment in beholders and readers, and in some effectual conversion, as in Justin Martyr, in Calberius, in those four hundred said to be converted at the martyrdom of Cecilia; and lastly, in Silvester, the executioner at the martyrdom of Simon Laloe, at Dijon, in France; where seeing the great faith and constance of that heavenly martyr, he was so compuncted with repentance, and fell into such despair of himself, that after much ado, being comforted and converted, he moved with all his family to the Church of Geneva. But what a silly conceit is that of the Jews at this day, that when Messiah comes they shall be these lions among the Gentiles in the midst of all other people to tread them down, and to tear in pieces without rescue; and what a true character hath a late writer (Sir H. Blount) given of them, that they are a light, aerial, and fanatical brained people; and easily apt to work themselves into the fool’s paradise of a sublime dotage!

Ver. 9. Thine hand shall be lift up upon thine adversaries] q.d. Adversaries thou shalt be sure of, O my Church, but thou shalt have the better of them. Thou shalt keep footing still under the standard of the cross, and prevail, Sub militia crucis (Calv.). The mountain of the house of the Lord shall overtop all other mountains of worldly power, #Mic 4:1. It shall be as that mountain not far from Arbela (where the empire of the world was won and lost in one day), called Nicatorium by Alexander the Great, as a constant trophy of that famous victory he there got over Darius, νικατοριον ορος (Strabo). As she is highest in the favour of God, so she shall be highest in herself; and her enemies shall be found liars unto her. Her hand shall be lifted up, and fall very heavily upon her adversaries: if not sooner, yet at utmost at the resurrection. The upright shall have dominion over them in that morning, #Ps 49:14, the Church shall shine as the sun in his strength, when her enemies shall be in that place that is fittest for them, even the lowest place, the footstool of Christ. Meanwhile she conquereth then when she is conquered (as Christ overcame as well by patience as by power), and is sure not to be shivered though shaken, not to be drowned though doused over head and ears in the waters of affliction.

“ Niteris incassum Christi submergere navem:

Fluctuat, at nunquam mergitur illa ratis.”

That ship may be tossed, saith one, not shipwrecked, whereof Christ is the pilot, the Scripture the compass, the promise the tacklings, hope the anchor, faith the cable, the Holy Ghost the winds, and holy affections the sails, filled with heavenly graces. Such a soul sails safely, and will neither fall upon the soft sands of presumption nor hard rocks of despair.

Ver. 10. And it shall come to pass in that day] viz. Of Christ’s power and kingdom, #Ps 110:3. The word day here signifies non spatium diurnum, sed diuturnum, ac a Deo destinatum, saith Danaeus, not the space of twenty-four hours, but a long time, yet certain and set by God.

That I will cut off thy horses out of thee] For the which thou hast been trading with Egypt: and in which thou trustest more than in me. "Some trust in horses, and some in chariots," &c. I will therefore cut off both, I will take away thine earthly idol; and that in much mercy to thee, that in quietness and confidence may be thy strength, #Isa 30:15 Mic 5:7: your strength is to sit still, or your Egypt is to sit still, q.d. by sitting still you shall have an Egypt (the same word Rahab signifieth strength and Egypt); by being without their horses, you shall do better than when you had them, and thought yourselves simply the better or safer for them. See #Zec 9:10.

And I will destroy thy chariots] That other prop and supposed help I will pull from thee: that thou mayest not trust to such uncertainties that cannot save; but in the "living God, who giveth us all things richly to enjoy," #1Ti 6:17. Trust is God’s jewel; and of all things he cannot endure to be robbed of it, or wronged in it by creature confidence, for it giveth him the sovereignty, #Jud 9:15, and sets the crown on his head, and the contrary.

Ver. 11. And I will cut off the cities of thy land] Thy fenced cities and places of strength, for like reason as before, that thou mayest look upon my name alone as a strong tower, and thereto run and be safe, #Pr 18:10, that thou mayest hover and cover under my wings, #Ps 91:1,2, and there hold thee as secure as in a tower of brass or town of war. "Blessed be the Lord" (saith David, who could not be safe in Keilah, that had gates and bars), "for he hath showed me his marvellous lovingkindness as in a strong city," #Ps 31:21. The tower of Shechem saved not those that ran into it, #Jud 9:49. The stronghold of Zion could not secure the Jebusites, that in the height of their pride scorned David and his host, that laid siege to it, #2Sa 5:6,7. Belshazzar and his Babylonians bare themselves so bold upon the strength of their city, and provision laid in for twenty years, if need were (as Xenophon testifieth), that they reproached the Persians that besieged them, and derided their attempts as to no purpose; yet were shortly after made a prey to the enemy. Arimazes, having garrisoned a very strong and steep rock in the Sogdian country with 80,000 men, sent to Alexander the Great, who demanded it, to know whether he could fly or not? But the next day he was taken together with his stronghold, and nailed to a cross (Plut. in Alex. Curt. lib. 7). God delights to confute men in their confidences; that those that are his may run to the Rock of ages, #Isa 26:4, to that Arx roboris strong citadel of his holy name, which alone is impregnable, inexpugnable. The Spaniards called their navy in ‘88 the Invincible Armada, but it proved otherwise, and that upon St James’s day, whom they count their patron, their tutelary saint. It is not unlawful to have cities and strongholds, but to confide in them, by rising up to a corky, frothy hope when we have them; or to sit down in a faithless, sullen discontent and despondence when we want them; this is to make flesh our arm, and so to incur that heavy curse, #Jer 17:5. God will cut off all occasions of so doing from those whom he loveth, as here he promiseth: and as accordingly he performed to this people, after their return from Babylon, and especially a little before the coming of Christ in the flesh, when they were reduced by Pompey into a province of the Roman empire.

Ver. 12. And I will cut off witchcrafts, &c.] As before God had promised to take away such things as in themselves are not evil, but only by our abuse; so here he will also remove from his people things simply evil and unlawful, such as are witchcrafts, idolatry, &c., that he may make way for mercy, which he is ready to give were they but fit to receive it. The word here rendered witchcrafts hath the signification of changing or turning; and is used for unlawful devilish arts and artisans: ףשׁכ hence βασκαινω, fascino, to bewitch. It is also applied to false teachers and their magic acts, #Ga 3:1 Re 18:23. See a like promise #Zec 13:2. {See Trapp on "Zec 13:2"} See #Mal 3:5. {See Trapp on "Mal 3:5"}

And thou shalt have no more soothsayers] Or star gazers, diviners, fortune tellers. One derivation of the word clepeth them nebulones or knaves; as those that undertake to foretell future things, ex nebulis, by the clouds, planets, star, by calculating nativities, and the like unlawful practices of judiciary astrology, necromancy, pyromancy, oneiromancy, aruspicy, sortilegy, and other diabolical arts of that nature. The Ephesians were much addicted to such wicked practices: hence the proverb εφεσια γραμματα for the black art. The Samaritans also, #Ac 8:11; and hence that malicious slander of the Jews, "Say we not well that thou art a Samaritan," that is, one that dealeth with the devil, #Joh 8:48; for otherwise they knew that Christ was no Samaritan, but a Galilean, as they called him in scorn, in truth a Bethlehemite, as #Mic 5:2. The Jews themselves are taxed, #Isa 2:6, that they were soothsayers, like the Philistines; and told that God had therefore forsaken them, or sent them away into captivity. See more against this sort of sin and sinners, #Isa 44:24-26 47:12-14 Jer 10:2,25 Da 2:1-3, &c.; but especially #De 18:10,11, where we have these five arguments (as one well observeth) against astrological and other unlawful predictions. First, that all such are abomination to the Lord, #De 18:12; Secondly, that for such arts the Canaanites were driven out; Thirdly, that unless men cast away the use of the said arts they cannot be perfect, that is, upright and sincere with God, #De 18:13; Fourthly, that godly men must differ from Canaanites and heathens, in the abandoning of such arts, #De 18:14; Lastly, that instead of such ways of prediction, the Lord raiseth up Christ, the great prophet, to foretell unto them what is meet for them to foreknow, #De 18:15 cf. Ac 3:23. To seek to know more is condemned for curiosity and rashness by Christ himself, in his own disciples, #Ac 1:7; it derogateth from the glory of Christ, in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge: it is to go a whoring from Christ, #Le 20:6, and is therefore in this text fitly yoked with idolatry. It is here also reckoned among those things that must be cut off, if Christ’s kingdom shall be set up among us. So that if there were no other text of Scripture against that wickedness but this alone, it were sufficient.

Ver. 13. Thy graven images also will I cut off] Sorcery and idolatry are fitly coupled here and elsewhere: for they commonly go together, as in the Pope and his clergy, see #Re 9:21 21:8; as also in the Canaanites, Philistines, and other heathens. True it is that the temples at Rome were without images for 170 years after it was built; that the Lacedaemonians would not endure pictures or images, lest by them they should be distracted; that the Turks and Jews both at this day do abhor Christian religion, for the abominable idolatry they see among Papists: for since the captivity of Babylon the graven images and statues have been so cut off from the Jews, that they would never be drawn to worship the work of their hands. They have a saying among them to this day, that no punishment befalleth them, wherein there is not an ounce of that golden calf they once made in the wilderness (Moses Gerand). Having paid, therefore, for their learning, they abhor idols, #Ro 2:22, and count it sacrilege, as Plutarch did, to worship by images. The Papists should do so likewise; and not say, as their Vasquez (unable to answer our arguments) doth, that the second commandment belonged to the Jews only; or bring such proofs of their idolatry that the images themselves (if they were sensible) would blush to hear repeated.

Ver. 14. And I will pluck up thy groves, &c.] Wherein thou placest a part of thy happiness (as the Hebrew word importeth), and hast an overly high opinion of them, because anciently frequented by the Fathers, before the law. But it should have been considered that it was but will worship at best; yea, that God had flatly forbidden the planting of groves, #De 16:21, as things in use among Pagans for honour either of some god or some great man’s ghost which was thought to dwell there. Nulli certa domus, lucia habitamus opacis (Virg. Aeneid). The worshippers of Priapus (that shame), when they had ended their sacrifice, stepped into a grove close by the altar, and there, like brute beasts, promiscuously satisfied their lusts; thereby, as they conceived, best pleasing their god.

So will I destroy thy cities] Or, thine enemies: and this will be the end or fruit of that forementioned reformation. Mr Fox observeth, that in King Edward VI’s time the English put to flight their enemies in Musselborough field in the self-same day and hour wherein the Reformation, enjoyed by Parliament, was put in execution at London, by burning of idolatrous images.

And I will execute vengeance in anger] Upon those that refuse to be reformed, that know not God, and obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, #2Th 1:8. Such as were the Jews’ enemies, the primitive persecutors, the stubborn Papists, some of whom have professed that they would rather take part with the Turks than with the Lutherans: as some rigid Lutherans again have protested openly, that they would return to the Papacy rather than to admit ever that sacramentary and predestinary pestilence (as they called it) of the Calvinists. But what a sad story is that related by Mr Burroughs, who had it from a worthy minister of those parts, that at Hamburgh was not long since held a consultation by some learned Lutherans, concerning the cause and cure of German calamities; and where it was concluded, that Germany suffered so much in these late wars, because their images in churches were not adorned enough, which therefore they would presently procure done. Had they consulted this text. they might soon have seen their mistake, and bethought them of better. But, "Lord, when thine hand is lifted up, they will not see: howbeit they shall see, and be ashamed for their envy towards thy people," #Isa 26:11. Yea their ears shall be opened, and their instruction sealed, #Job 33:16, that they might be accounted worthy to escape that vengeance, that shall be executed in anger and fury upon the heathens that have not heard the joyful sound, but, as so many sea-monsters, have with a deaf ear passed by the doctrine of salvation, the Gospel of peace.

Chapter 6

Ver. 1. Hear ye now what the Lord saith] Exordium breve est, sed plane patheticum, saith Gualther. This is a short, but pithy and pathetic preface, wherein he woos their attention: Audite quaeso, Hear, I pray you. Ministers are spokesmen for Christ, and must therefore give good words: and yet remembering on whose errand they come, it is required that they be found faithful, #1Co 4:2.

Arise, contend thou] Surge, age, O Micah! Debate thou God’s cause against this rebellious and ungrateful people, as it were in judgment; calling all, even the insensible creatures, to be judges. See the like #De 32:1 Isa 1:2 Mic 1:2 (for these two prophets have many things common), and be sensible, that some sit as senseless before a preacher still as the seats they sit on, pillars they lean to, dead bodies they tread upon; so that we have need (as one did once in my hearing) to call to the walls and windows to hear the word of the Lord. This heavy ear is meted for a singular judgment, #Mt 13:13,14 Isa 30:8,9. The philosopher was angry with his Boeotians: telling them that they had not their name for nought, since their ears were ox ears, and that they were dull creatures, and incapable of counsel. Demosthenes also, for like cause, called upon his countrymen of Athens to get their ears healed; and Diogenes used to tell his tale to the statues and images, that he might inure himself to lose his labour, as he had so often done, in speaking to the people. Let us, to the wearing of our tongues to the stumps, preach and pray never so much, men will on in sin, said blessed Bradford, in that excellent sermon of his of repentance. We cry till we are hoarse (saith another rare preacher), we speak till we spit forth our lungs; but all to as little purpose as Bede did, when he preached to a heap of stones. Asino quispiam narrabat fabulam: at ille movebat aures. But shall people thus carry it away, and God lose the sweet words? Never think of it. Those that will not hear the word shall bear the rod, #Mic 6:9: and if they could but see their misery they would do as the prophet requires, cut their hair and cast it away, under the sense of the horror of God’s indignation, #Jer 7:27,29, they would beg of God a hearing ear (which is as an earring of gold, #Pr 25:12), and beseech him to make the bore bigger, that his word might enter; yea, to draw up the ears of their souls to the ears of their bodies, that one saving sound might pierce both at once. Let him that hath an ear to hear, hear; or if yet any think good to forbear, let him forbear, #Eze 3:27, but he will certainly repent it. He that now gives God occasion to call to the hills, &c., shall one day tire the deaf mountains, saying, Fall on me, hide me, dash and quash me in a thousand pieces. Oh that I might trot directly to hell, and not stay to hear that dreadful discedite, Go, ye cursed!

Ver. 2. Hear ye, O mountains, the Lord’s controversy] Although the people would neither hear nor obey God, the prophet doth; and, according to command, he summoneth the mountains to hear and testify; the Lord seeming to say unto him, as once he did to Ezekiel, "But thou, son of man, be not thou rebellious like that rebellious house; but hear what I say unto thee, and do it." It might seem to him a senseless thing to cite the mountains. But he knew that if God command a thing, to argue or debate upon it were bold presumption, to search the reason of it proud curiosity, to detract or disobey it flat rebellion. To the mountains and foundations of the earth he applies himself; haply with like mind and in like manner as the host of Nola did to the churchyard, and there called at the graves of the dead, Oh, ye good men of Nola, come away; for the Roman censor calls for your appearance; for he knew not where to call for a good man alive.

And ye strong foundations of the earth] Those "roots of the mountains," #Jon 2:7; yet not so strong but God can shake them, #Job 9:5,6 Na 1:5,6; and that by so weak a creature as air, gotten underground, and seeking a vent. He can lift them off their foundations, #De 32:22, and carry them to another place to hear his controversy, as he did the hill in Herefordshire, A. D. 1571, and that other in the territories of Bern, that removing out of his place in an earthquake, covered a whole village, that had ninety families in it. {See Trapp on "Am 1:1"}

For the Lord hath a controversy with his people] {See Trapp on "Ho 4:1"} Learn to tremble before this great God, who "sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers," #Isa 40:22; which he can shake out of their place at pleasure, and send them packing to hell. O consider what a fearful thing it is to be at controversy with God, and to have him both our accuser, witness, and judge. O the terror of the Lord at that great and last day of the world! Utinam ubique de hoc iudicio differetur! "Then shall they begin to say to the mountains, Fall on us" (but they shall reply, We are witnesses against you for your detestable unthankfulness), "and to the hills, Cover us," #Lu 23:30, but they shall echo out, Cover us; for who can dwell with this devouring fire? who can abide these everlasting burnings?

And he will plead with Israel] At which time they shall find that an empty title hath but an empty comfort; and that tribulation and anguish shall be on every soul of man that doeth evil: but of the Jew first, because of his privilege, and then of the Gentile, #Ro 2:9. None so deep in utter darkness as those that once were angels of light. Let us all pray with holy David, "Enter not into judgment with thy servant, O Lord," #Ps 143:2. And with Job, "If thou shouldest contend with me, I could not answer thee one of a thousand," #Job 9:2,3. And with Daniel, "O Lord, righteousness belongs unto thee; but to us confusion of face, because we have sinned against thee," #Da 9:7,8.

Ver. 3. O my people, what have I done unto thee?] Or rather, what have I not done to do thee good? "O generation, see ye the word of the Lord," and not hear it only; was ever anything more evidencing and evincing than what I now allege? "Have I been a wilderness unto Israel, a land of darkness?" #Jer 2:31. May I not well say unto you, as Themistocles did to his ungrateful countrymen, What? are ye weary of receiving so many benefits from one man? But say, What harm have I ever done you? and wherein have I wearied you, or been troublesome to you? unless it be by daily loading you with lovingkindnesses, #Ps 68:19, and bearing with your provocations? Forgive me that injury, #2Co 12:13.

Testify against me] "Put me in remembrance, let us plead together, declare thou against me, that thou mayest be justified," #Isa 43:26. See here, first, with what meekness and mildness God proceedeth against sinners: so #Isa 5:3. Iudicate quaeso. See, next, that God is content, for our better confliction, to submit his courses unto scanning, and to bring his proceedings with us to a trial before he pass sentence; that "he might be justified when he speaketh, and cleared when he judgeth," #Ps 51:4. Here he wills them to plead the cause with him, as it were at even hand; offering to make answer to whatsoever they could object or lay to his charge. Seipsum quasi reum sistit (Gaulther). He maketh himself the defendant, and bids them put in their bill of complaint against him, freely and without fear. This is stupenda sane dignatio, a wonderful condescension indeed. Should he use martial law against us, and as soon as ever we offend (like Draco) write his laws in blood upon us (as one well saith), it were but just and right. But for him to reason and plead with us about the justice of his cause before he proceeds to judgment, this deserves admiration and acknowledgment in the highest degree. O the depth!

Ver. 4. For I brought thee up out of the land of Egypt] Here God twits them with his former favours; which he never doth but in case of brutish unthankfulness. Now there was brutish, and worse. To render good for evil is divine; good for good is human; evil for evil is brutish; but evil for good devilish. This makes God, contrary to his custom, upbraid people with what he hath done for them; and angrily call for his love tokens back again, as #Ho 2:9. For their deliverance out of the Egyptian servitude how great a mercy it was, {See Trapp on "Ho 11:1"} such as they were again and again charged never to forget, #De 6:12 5:15 26:5-12. How much more bound are we to God for our redemption by Christ! for what is Pharaoh to Satan? Egypt to this present evil world? Egyptian bondage to sin’s slavery? Seeing then that our God hath given us such deliverance as this, should we again break his commandments? Well might the hills and mountains testify against such a monstrous unthankfulness and disingenuity.

And redeemed thee out of the house of servants] Gradatim progreditur, saith Calvin. It was something to be brought out of the land of Egypt, a most superstitious place, where they turned the glory of the incorruptible God to the similitude of the image of a corruptible man, #Ro 1:23 (for they deified their king, Osiris), and of birds (for they worshipped the hawk and ibis), and of four-footed beasts (for they worshipped an ox, a dog, a cat, a swine), and of creeping things, for they worshipped the crocodile, ichneumon, &c., yea, they worshipped plants and pot herbs. Hence Juvenal,

“ Felices genres, quibus haec nascuntur in hortis Numina”—

To be brought out, therefore, from among such hateful idolaters was no small favour, lest they should smell of their superstitions, as Micah’s mother did after all that erring sin in the desert, #Jud 17:3; and Jeroboam, by being there a while, had learned calf worship; hence that strict charge never to make league with them. But to be redeemed out of the house of servants was more; out of the iron furnace, #De 4:20 Jer 11:4, where they wrought night and day in latere et luto, #Ex 1:11, in setting up those famous pyramids and treasure cities for Pharaoh, where they served with rigour, #Ex 1:13; their lives were made bitter with hard bondage, #Ex 1:14, till God withdrew their shoulders from the burden, and their hands did leave the pots, #Ps 81:6, "till they saw the God of Israel: and there was under his feet as it were a paved work of a sapphire stone," #Ex 24:10, to show that God had now changed their condition, their bricks made in their bondage to sapphires. Confer #Isa 54:11, and consider what God hath done for us, by bringing us into the glorious liberty of his own children, who were once the devil’s drudges and dromedaries, "serving divers lusts and pleasures," #Tit 3:3, which gave laws to our members, #Ro 7:23, and held us under in a brutish bondage, much worse than the heathen’s mill house, the Turks’ galleys, Bajazet’s iron cage, the Indian mines, or Egyptian furnace. For there, if they did their task they escaped stripes; but here, let men do the devil never such doughty service, they are sure of scourges and scorpions after all, armies and changes of sorrows and sufferings, terrors and torments, without any the least hope of ever either mending or ending. This should make us lift up many a humble, joyful, and thankful heart to our most powerful Redeemer; saying with St Paul, "Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honour and glory for ever and ever, Amen," #1Ti 1:17.

And I sent before thee Moses, Aaron, and Miriam] As three principal guides, and Miriam for one who did her part among the women, #Ex 15:20, and having a prophetic spirit, became a singular instrument in the hand of God, who spake by her, #Nu 12:2. But her weak head was not able to bear such a cup of honour without being intoxicated; which caused her father to spit in her face, #Nu 12:2,14. Her death is recorded in Scripture, #Nu 20:1, but not her age, as is Sarah’s, #Ge 23:1. Some have observed that God thought not fit to tell us of the length of the life of any woman in Scripture but Sarah, to humble that sex. But as souls have no sexes, so of some women (such as were Miriam, Deborah, the Virgin Mary, Priscilla, Blandina, the Lady Jane Grey, Queen Elizabeth) it may be said, that in them, besides their sex, there was nothing woman-like or weak: as if (what philosophy saith) the souls of these noble creatures had followed the temperament of their bodies, which consist of a frame of rarer rooms of a more exact composition than man’s doth. It is possible that Miriam might (till that matter of emulation between her and Moses’s wife occured) be as helpful to Moses and Aaron as Nazianzen’s mother was to his father; not a help fellow only, but a doctress and governess, Non solum adiutricem in pietate, sed etiam doctricem et gubernatricem (Nazian.).

Ver. 5. O my people, remember now what Balak] There must be a recognition of God’s mercies, or else there will neither follow estimation nor retribution; else we that should be as temples of his praises shall be as graves of his benefits. Our souls are naturally like filthy ponds, wherein fish die soon and frogs live long; rotten stuff is remembered, memorable mercies are forgotten; whereas the soul should be as a holy ark, the memory like the pot of manna preserving holy truths, as the law; and special blessings, as Aaron’s rod, fresh and flourishing. This Israel did not, and are therefore justly blamed, #Ps 106:7,13,21, and here again reminded of one signal mercy among many, that they might take notice of the enemies’ malignity, God’s benignity, and their own indignity and ingratitude, that parching wind, that drieth up the fountain of Divine favours, Ventus urens et exsiccans.

What Balak king of Moab consulted] Joshua saith, that he arose and fought against Israel, #Jos 24:9, that is, he had a good mind to have fought, but he did not because he dared not. So #Es 8:7. Haman is said to have laid his hand upon the Jews, because he intended and attempted such a matter. They, that is the Sortilegi, or Lot-sorcerers, with whom, Balak-like, he consulted, "cast Pur, that is, the lot, before Haman from day to day, and from month to month," #Es 3:7; viz. to find out what month or day would be lucky for the accomplishment of his intended massacre of the Jews; but before that black day came Mordecai was advanced and Haman hanged. Now, as there, by the special providence of God over ruling the superstition of that wicked wretch, way was made for the preservation of God’s people; so was it here. Balak consulted, and Balaam answered him; that is, he was as willing to curse as the other would have had him, but might not; for God would not hearken unto him, but blessed his people still, and delivered them out of his hand, #Jos 24:10. Yea, though at length he was resolved to curse howsoever, and therefore went not forth as at other times to seek for enchantments, but set his face towards the wilderness, as if he would do the deed, whatever came of it, #Nu 24:1; yet his endeavour was fruitless and frustrated. So shall the malicious attempts of Rome and hell be against the Reformed religion and the professors thereof (whom the Romish Balaam banns and curses with bell, book, and candle at the instigation of the Spanish Balak, with his factors the Jesuits), so long as they adhere to him, and pray as #Ps 109:26-29, "Help me, O Lord my God: O save me according to thy mercy: that they may know that this is thy hand; that thou, Lord, hast done it. Let them curse, but bless thou: when they arise, let them be ashamed: but let thy servants rejoice. Salvation is of the Lord: his blessing is upon his people."

From Shittim unto Gilgal] Oratio elliptica: q.d. Remember what I did for you at Shittim in the wilderness, and so all the way until you came into the promised land, even to Gilgal, where you first pitched tent, #Jos 5:8-10. At Shittim it was, where, by the pestilent counsel of Balaam (the devil’s spellman), the Midianites out witted them, by setting fair women before them as a stumblingblock, #Nu 25:1,18, to draw them to those two sisters sins, adultery and idolatry. Then and there the heads of the people were hanged up before the Lord against the sun, and some others; when as God might justly have cut them all off, and cast them away from being a people before him, Digni qui funditus delerentur (Gualth.). Nonne illic refulsit admirabilis Dei gratia? saith Calvin; was not this a miracle of God’s mercy?

That ye may know the righteousness of the Lord] i.e. The faithfulness and goodness of God in keeping promise with your fathers, notwithstanding your provocations. Or my righteous dealings with those fornicators and adulterers, whom I there judged; preserving the innocent, or penitent, till they came to Gilgal, and onwards. Or, that thou mayest know how just my complaint is of thee, and mine action against thee. So Vatablus expounds it.

Ver. 6. Wherewith shall I come before the Lord?] This is vox populi, the voice of the people now convinced in part; or at least of some one for them. Praestat herbam dare quam turpiter pugnare: Better yield than disgracefully hold out the contest. God, say they, hath the better of us; neither need he now call upon heaven and earth to arbitrate, nor on the mountains and strong foundations to hear the quarrel, for we are self-condemned, #Tit 3:11. Our own consciences read the sentence against us, we have deserved to be destroyed; but O, what may we do to avert and avoid his wrath? "what shall we do that we might work the works of God?" #Joh 6:28. Lo, this is the guise of graceless men; fain they would pacify God, and work themselves into his grace and favour by ceremonies and frivolous businesses; yea, they offer largely for a dispensation to live in their sins, which they had as lief be knocked on the head as part with. Interea per flexuosos circuitus fingunt se ad Deum accedere, a quo tamen semper cupiant esse remoti, saith Calvin; they fetch a compass about God, but care not to come near him. Heaven they would either steal if they could, or buy at any hand, if they might; fain would they pass e coeno ad coelum, a deliciis ad delicias, from Delilah’s lap to Abraham’s bosom; fain they would (as one saith) dance with the devil all day, and then sup with Christ at night. They seem here very inquisitive and solicitous about their soul’s health; they give the half turn, sed ad Deum usque non revertuntur, but they return not even to God; like a horse in a mill, they move much, but remove not at all; like those silly women, #2Ti 3:6,7, or as ants that run to and fro about a mole hill, but grow not greater.

And bow myself before the high God] Or, shall I bow myself, will that, or any like bodily exercise, please him or pacify him? If cringing or crouching will do it, if sackcloth and ashes, if hanging down the head and going softly, if penances and pilgrimages, &c., hypocrites do usually herein outdo the upright. Doth the publican look with his eye on the ground? the hypocritical Jews will hang down their heads like bulrushes. Doth Timothy weaken his constitution by abstinence? the Pharisee will never give over till his complexion be wholly withered and waned. Doth Paul correct his body with milder correction, as it were a blow on the cheek? the Jesuit will martyr his sides with the severe discipline of scorpions. But although God must be glorified with our bodies also, #1Co 6:20, and external service is required (whatever the Swenkfeldians say to the contrary), yet bodily exercise of itself profiteth little, #1Ti 4:8, and let those that brag of or bind upon their outward worship of Christ consider, that the devil himself in the demoniac of Gadara fell down and worshipped him. What comfort can there be in that which is common to us with devils? who, as they believe and tremble, so they tremble and worship. The outward bowing is the body of the action; the disposition of the soul is the soul of it.

Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, &c.] Shall I prevent him, and propitiate him with burnt offerings? shall I meet him marching against me, and thus make my peace with him? The Jews were much in sacrifices, till they wearied God’s soul therewith, and all his senses, #Isa 1:13-15; but they were sacrificing Sodomites, #Mic 6:10, they stuck in the bark, they pleased themselves in the work done, not attending the manner, which either makes or mars every action, and is mainly eyed by God; their devotions were placed more in the massive materiality than inward purity; and hence rejected David could tell (though these questionists could not) that God desired not sacrifice further than as thereby men were led to Christ; and that the sacrifices of God are a contrite spirit, #Ps 51:16,17; that no burnt offering is acceptable, nor calf of a year old, unless laid on the low altar of a broken heart, which sanctifieth the sacrifice.

Ver. 7. Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams?] It was taken for a maxim among all nations that no man was to come before God empty handed, nor to serve him of free cost. And although Lycurgus the Lacedaemonian made a law that no man should be at very great charge for a sacrifice, lest he should grow weary of God’s service; yet when the famous carver Phidias advised the Athenians to make the statue of Minerva rather of marble than of ivory, 1. Because more durable (this passed with allowance), 2. Because less chargeable, at the mention hereof, with infinite indignation, they commanded him silence. Pliny tells us of Alexander the Great, that when, as being yet a youth, he cast great store of frankincense upon the altar, and his schoolmaster told him he must not be so liberal till he had subdued the frankincense countries; when once he had conquered Arabia he sent his schoolmaster a shipfull of frankincense, largely exhorting him to worship the gods therewith. Superstition is, for the most part, not liberal only, but prodigal and no wonder, when as good works are by Bellarmine said to be mercatura regni coelestis the price and purchase of heaven. Hence their churches are so stuffed with vowed presents and memories, as at Loretto, and elsewhere, they are fain to hang their cloisters and churchyards with them. What would not men give, what will they not suffer, that they may be saved? I would swim through a sea of brimstone, said one, that I might come to heaven at last. But those that would buy heaven, and do offer, as these here, a bribe for a pardon, shall hear, Thy money perish with thee; and those that seek to be saved by their works Luther fitly calls the devil’s martyrs; they suffer much and take much pains to go to hell, they buy their damnation, as one saith the Pharisees did when they gave Judas those thirty pieces, for which he sold his salvation.

Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, &c.] The superstitious Jews used, we know, to offer up their children in sacrifice to Moloch, or Saturn, #2Ki 17:15-17 21:5-7 23:10, and that in an apish imitation of Abraham’s offering his son Isaac. To the same Saturn the Phoenicians are said to have sacrificed the best of their sons (Euseb. Praep. Evang. lib. 4). So did the Carthaginians, as Diodorus Siculus testifies. And when as they had for a while left off so to do, and were overcome by Agathocles, they (supposing that the gods were therefore angry with them, because they had not done as formerly) slew two hundred at once, at the altar, of their young nobility, to pacify the offended deity. Of like sort were Anammelech and Adrammelech, the gods of Sepharvaim, unto whom that people "burnt their children in the fire," #2Ki 17:31. And little better were our ancestors, the old Britons, who not only sacrificed their strangers, but their children too, non ad honorem sed ad iniuriam religionis (Cared. Britan.). Here then the prophet seemeth to speak by way of concession, that he may show these questionists how little it would avail them to sacrifice their children, if such a thing were lawful to be done.

Ver. 8. He hath showed thee, O man, what is good] i.e. what is right, just, and acceptable to himself. He showed it by the light of Nature; for Aristotle (Nature’s secretary) saith, It is not likely that God is so well pleased with the costliness of the sacrifices as with the godliness of the sacrifices. He hath showed it much more by the light of Scripture; there he hath told thee what is the unum necessarium, one thing necessary; in comparison whereof all other things are but side businesses; what is the totum hominis, the whole duty of man, sc. to "fear God, and keep his commandments," #Ec 12:13; what is the bonum hominis, as here, yea, the summum bonum, or chiefest good of man attainable in this life, viz. communion with God and conformity to God.

And what doth the Lord require of thee] But thee? Quia in omni creatura terrena nihil melius fecit te, ipse quaerit te a te, quia perdideras te in te, as Augustine elegantly paraphraseth this text: Inasmuch as God hath among all earthly creatures made nothing better than thee, therefore he requireth thee of thee.

But to do justly, and to love mercy] This is the sum of the second table; as that which followeth is of the first, to walk humbly with thy God. Here then is a brief of the whole Bible, a little Bible, as the eleventh to the Hebrews is by one not unfitly called a little book of martyrs. Do this and live: do this here enjoined, and thou shalt never fall; yea, thou shalt go gallantly into heaven, as St Peter hath it, #2Pe 1:10,11. Certa semper sunt in paucis, saith Tertullian. Things simply necessary, whether to be believed or practised, are few in number but many in virtue; in sight small, but great in weight; like gold, which being solid, is contracted into a narrow room; but may be drawn into so large an extent that one angel may cover an acre of ground, as the naturalists have observed. To do justly is the duty, not only of magistrates, whom God hath intrusted with the administration of his earthly kingdom, by the due execution of vindictive and remunerative justice, but also of all other persons in their various places and stations, whose rule must be that golden saying of our Saviour, "Whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you, do ye even so to them; for this is the law and the prophets," #Mt 7:12. {See Trapp on "Mt 7:12"}

And to love mercy] This is more than to show mercy; for that a man may do, and yet, for want of love, lose all, #1Co 1:3. He must not only draw out his sheaf, but his soul to the hungry, #Isa 58:10, nor distribute spiritual alms, but do it out of deep affection, as Titus, #2Co 7:15; he must be "ready to distribute, willing to communicate," #1Ti 6:18; his mercy must flow from him as water doth from the fountain, or light from the sun; it must not be wrung from him, as verjuice {a} from a crab apple, or as distilled water is forced out by the heat of the fire. Let the love of Christ constrain us to look out some of his receivers (as David did Jonathan’s flock), to whom we may show mercy for his sake. What though we be weak, yet if willing to show mercy, God accepteth according to that a man hath, and not according to that he hath not, #2Co 8:12. The widow’s mite is beyond the rich man’s magnificence, because it came out of a richer mind. The apostle bids, "put on, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness," #Col 3:12, such as the jailer had toward Paul and Silas; such as the Samaritan had toward the wounded man by the wayside; such as those primitive Christians had, who came to the church with strong affections, with large contributions, #Ac 4:34. The like is foretold of Tyre, when converted, #Isa 23:18; and of Ethiopia, #Ps 68:31, that she shall "hastily stretch her hands unto God," Heb. she shall make them run, noting her readiness and speediness in giving her goods unto the saints. The tender mercies of the Almighty, shed forth abundantly upon his, leave a compassionate frame upon their hearts, and do dye their thoughts, as the dye vat doth the cloth.

And to walk humbly with thy God] Or, bashfully, with a holy shamefacedness, and solicitousness of doing anything that may offend the eyes of God’s glory. "Yea, what care," saith the apostle, #2Co 7:11, sc. of walking worthy of the Lord, unto all-pleasing, #Col 1:10, as proving your hearts and lives to him in every part and point of obedience. This the Lord in a mystery taught his people, #De 23:13,14, when commanding them to cover their excrements with a paddle, he giveth this reason thereof: "For the Lord thy God walketh in the midst of thy camp, therefore shall thy camp be holy: that he see no unclean thing in thee, and turn away from thee." They that stand in the presence of princes must be every way exact; and give them all due respect. Now a good man, like a good angel, is ever in God’s presence; and must therefore walk worthy of the vocation wherewith he is called, with all lowliness and meekness, #Eph 4:1,2, with all modesty, and demission of mind and of demeanour (as the word here signifieth), and especially when he draweth nigh to God in holy duties. Then it must be his care to exercise a threefold humility. First, precedent: before he sets upon God’s service, he must in heart devote and dedicate all that he is, and hath, as a due debt to the Almighty, saying with David, #1Ch 29:14, It is of thine own, Lord, that I give thee: τα σα εκ των σων, as that good Emperor Justinian said. The second is concomitant; when in the performance of good duties he hath grace (this lovely grace of humility especially), "whereby he may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear," #Heb 12:28; which is nothing else but an awful respect to the Divine majesty, with whom we have to do, #Heb 4:13. The third is subsequent; when after he hath done his best he is dejected in the sense of his many failings in the manner; and looking on his plumes, he looketh also on his black feet, and is abashed and abased before the Lord. Lo, this is to humble himself to walk with his God. And as many as walk according to this rule peace be on them, and mercy, and upon the Israel of God.

{a} The acid juice of green or unripe grapes, crab apples, or other sour fruit, expressed and formed into a liquor; formerly much used in cooking, as a condiment, or for medicinal purposes. ŒD

Ver. 9. The Lord’s voice crieth unto the city] Or, shall cry, viz. by his prophets. φιλει ο θεος προσημαινειν, said the heathen. God loves to forewarn, to warn before he woundeth, to foretell a judgment before he inflicteth it. He had shown his people what was good, and what he required of them; but to little purpose, through their unteachableness and stubbornness. He threateneth, therefore, here to take another course with them.

And the man of wisdom shall see thy name] Gualther rendereth it, And the man of essence, &c., that is, qui revers vir est, non caudex aut truncus, he that is a man indeed, or not a stock, or trunk (such a one as was that sapless fellow Nabal, in whom all true reason was decayed and faded), will easily see God’s name, that is, the Divine majesty of the word working powerfully upon his heart, as the sunbeams beat upon Jonah’s head, and disquieted him. Danaeus rendereth it, And wisdom seeth thy name, that is, wisdom’s children, as #Lu 7:35, which will justify her, when others are either so froward that nothing can please them (neither John fasting, nor Christ eating, #Mt 11:16, &c.), or so dull that nothing can affect them, as these here; the word of God was worse than spilt upon them. Sure it is, that wisdom’s children are not many. "Who is wise, and he shall understand these things," saith Hosea, #Ho 14:9, the very question imports a paucity; see the note there. Though a gun be discharged at a whole flight of birds, there are but a few killed; though the net be spread over the whole pond, but a few fishes are taken. Rari sunt qui philosophantur, saith Ulpian. It is with our hearers as it was with Jonathan’s signal arrows, two fell short, and but one beyond the mark; so where one shoots home to the mark of the high calling in Christ Jesus, many fall short. Three sorts of four of those that heard our Saviour were naught, #Mt 13:4-8. And of those that heard Paul at Athens, some derided, others doubted, and but a very few believed; as Dionysius, and Damaris, and some others with them, #Ac 17:34.

Hear ye the rod] Since ye would not hear the word, and so redeem your own sorrows. All God’s rods are vocal, they are speaking as well as smiting; they are not mute, but mingled with instructions. They are his free school teachers (Διδασκαλοι αμισθοι); curst and crabbed, but such as whereby he openeth men’s ears (till then uncircumcised, and stopped with the superfluity of naughtiness) to discipline, and commandeth them to return from iniquity, #Job 36:10. By chastening men God teacheth them out of his law, #Ps 94:12. Hence Luther calleth affliction Theologium Christianorum the Christian man’s divinity; and another saith, that Schola crucis est schola lucis, The school of the cross is the school of light. There shall be only fear to make you understand the hearing, #Isa 28:19. As God is said to hold his peace when he punisheth not, #Ps 50:21 Isa 41:14, so, to preach and teach when he doth. And look bow Gideon, by threshing the men of Succoth with thorns and briers of the wilderness, taught them, #Jud 8:7,16, so here. "I have a message from God unto thee, O king," said Ehud, #Jud 3:20. Lo, his dagger was God’s message. Whence one well observeth, that not only the vocal admonitions, but the real judgments, of God are his errands and instructions to the earth, the inhabitants of the world. "For when thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness," #Isa 26:9. Smart makes wit, and vexation giveth understanding.

And who hath appointed it] God, who hath not only a permissive, but an active hand in all our afflictions. Others render the text, Quis sit, qui accersat istud, Who is it that hath procured it, or sent for it, who, but yourselves? according to #Ho 13:9, see the note there. Nemo laeditur nisi a seipso. Men may thank themselves for all their sufferings; for God afflicteth not willingly, #La 3:33. He cometh forth of his place to do it, #Isa 26:21, and counteth it "his work, his strange work," #Isa 28:21. He doth justice (when there is no other remedy), but he loveth mercy, and so requireth us to do in the verse next before going.

Ver. 10. Are there yet the treasures of wickedness] What yet? for all that ever I can say or do to the contrary? Though I cry out unto you by my word (and have set it on with my rod, that it might stick the better), Oh do not this abominable thing! is there yet unto every man a house of the wicked and treasures of wickedness (so some read it)? see #Mic 2:2. See Trapp on "Mic 2:2"} The Vulgate reads it (and Gualther disliketh it not), Is there yet fire in the house of the wicked? sc. the fire of God’s wrath? and treasures of wickedness, as fuel cast upon it, to consume all? see #Jas 5:1-3. Treasures of wickedness profit not, #Pr 10:2, since to heap up sin is to heap up wrath, #Ro 2:5, and to rake together ill-gotten goods is to carry home a fardel of plaguey clothes, and death with them. Ephraim said, "Yet I am become rich, I have found me out substance," #Ho 12:8. But in so doing, Ephraim fed upon the wind, #Mic 6:1, yea, upon pestilential air; he daily increased lies and desolation, that is, such lying vanities as bring desolation and not consolation, desolationem potius quam consolationem (Aug.), as hale hell at the heels of them (as we see in the parable of that wretched rich man, #Lu 16:19-31); Animam ipsam incendio gehennae mancipant, the fire that is in them shall feed upon their souls and flesh throughout all eternity. Out of doors, therefore, with these treasures of wickedness, by restoring them to the right owners, as Zaccheus did; and as Justinian the emperor, who would not put the vessels of the temple taken by Titus, and recovered from Gensericus, into the treasury, but restored them.

And the scant measure that is abominable?] Heb. the ephah of leanness, so called, both because it lacks its due proportion ( modius macilentus), and makes men lean, full of wrath; q.d. you scant it to those you trade with, but God fills it up with his fierce wrath and indignation. See #Am 8:5. {See Trapp on "Am 8:5"}

Ver. 11. Shall I count them pure with the wicked balances?] Shall I clear and acquit such? I that am the righteous judge of heaven and earth, I abhor all injustice; I that have named myself a God that will by no means clear the guilty, nor take the wicked by the hand? #Ex 34:7 Job 8:20. Do they think to draw me in as a party; or, that I will bear with their false and fraudulent dealings, which I have so often declared against, and doomed both in the law, and by my servants Solomon, Amos, and others. No: assure yourselves, your sins shall find you out, and I will curse you, smite you, plague you, and so set it on, as no creature shall be able to take it off. Let earthly judges warp as they will, and wink at sin, I neither can nor will; but as men have sowed, so they shall reap; as they have sowed in hardness of heart, so they shah reap in horror of conscience, et quorum oculos culpa clausit, poena aperiet, as they have lived unconscionably, so they shall die uncomfortably; at which times, their treasures of wickedness shall leave them in the lurch; as the devil leaves witches, when they come to prison.

Ver. 12. For the rich men thereof are full of violence] After that they have once enriched themselves by fraud and false dealing, they take the boldness openly to oppress, and to exercise regiment without righteousness, which is no better than robbery with authority; of which before, #Mic 2:1-3:12 Thus wicked men wax worse and worse, #2Ti 3:13, "till wrath come upon them to the utmost," #1Th 2:16.

And the inhabitants thereof have spoken lies] Not the rich men only are in fault; but as the Cretians, so these are always liars, loud and lewd liars; their tongue is deceitful in their mouth, so that they no sooner open their mouths but swarms of lies issue out; they are mendaciorum loquacissimi, they have taught their tongues to speak lies, #Jer 9:5, they are now become artists at it; yea, they take fast hold of deceit, #Jer 8:5, so that they cannot be got off, without striving. This is lamentable, and yet common; especially in trading and trafficking. But oh when shall that golden age return, that the argument may again proceed, Sacerdos est, non fallet: Christianus est, non mentietur. He is a minister, and will not deceive you: He is a Christian, and will not lie! See #Isa 63:8.

Ver. 13. Therefore also will I make thee sick in smiting thee] This is one twig of that rod, #Mic 6:9, that now they shall hear and feel too, that would not hearken to God’s word. Bernard telleth us concerning a brother of his; that when he gave him many good instructions and he, being a soldier, minded them not, he put his finger to his sides and said, One day a spear shall make way to this heart of thine, for instructions and admonitions to enter. God can (and, where he intendeth mercy will) make way for his word by his rod; and seal up instructions by chastening men with pain upon their beds, "and the multitude of their bones with strong pain," #Job 33:16,19. He can fasten them to their beds, as he did Abimelech, David, Hezekiah, and thereby tame them, and take them a link lower, #Job 33:17. He can smite them with sickness, and make them desolate, as it is here; with such sickness as shall make their best friends afraid of them, and that none dare look at them, but as through a grate; and all this with a sting too in the tail of it, because of thy sins. "Fools because of their transgression, and because of their iniquities, are afflicted. Their soul abhorreth all manner of meat" (so sick they are and stomachless, that nothing will down with them); "and they draw near to the gates of death," #Ps 107:17,18. This was the case of that rich and wretched cardinal, Henry Beaufort, Bishop of Winchester and Chancellor of England, in the reign of Henry VI, who, tossing upon his sick bed and perceiving he must die, murmured at sickness and death, that his riches could neither relieve him under the one, nor reprieve him from the other (Fox, Martyrs, tel. 925). This was also the case of that great Emperor Charles V, of whom Duplessy reporteth, that when he was old and crazy he cursed his honours, his victories, trophies, riches, saying, Abite hinc, abite longe, Away, begone, miserable comforters are ye all. Mention is made before of a great man that wrote this a little before his death, Spes et fortuna valete. Farewell hope and prosperity. And surely there are not a few rich cormorants, who may well say to their wealth when they are sick, as Cornelius Agrippa did to his familiar spirit, Abi perdita bestia, quae me perdidisti, Begone, thou wicked beast, thou hast been mine undoing, &c. A promise contrary to this threatening in the text is that #Isa 33:24, "And the inhabitant shall not say, I am sick: the people that dwell therein shall be forgiven their iniquity."

Ver. 14. Thou shall eat, but not be satisfied] Either as not having enough to satisfy, but prisoner’s pittance, so much only as will keep life and soul together; or else, troubled with a bulimy, an appetitus caninus, desire of a dog, a weakness of the digestive faculty, so that thy meat feeds thee not: the staff of it being also broken by God, the nutritive property of it being taken away. {See Trapp on "Hag 1:6"}

And thy casting down shall be in the midst of thee] Thou shalt be laid low enough by civil and intestine discords, which as a fire feedeth upon the people, #Isa 9:19, no man shall spare his brother. Or like as a hungry man snatcheth on the right hand and eateth on the left hand, and yet is not satisfied, #Isa 9:20, till thine unnatural convulsions end in a deadly consumption.

And thou shalt take hold, but shall not deliver] Thou shalt catch up thy children, thy jewels, and think to secure them from the enemy, but shalt not be able. Of this misery we had overly woeful experience in our late unnatural garboils.

And that which thou deliverest will I give up to the sword] Other judgments forerun the sword; which, when they will not do, the sword will then contemn the rod, #Eze 21:10, that is, it will set at nought whatever the rod hath done, and come furbished and sharpened for the slaughter.

Ver. 15. Thou shall sow, but thou shalt not reap] This had been long since threatened by Moses, #De 28:38-40, and was now over seven hundred years after to receive its accomplishment in this people. There is an infallibility in all the menaces of God’s mouth. Men are apt to think that they were uttered in terrorem in fear only; and to put them off, as those in the Gospel did, with a God forbid: "Who knows if the Lord will deal with us according to all his wondrous works, that is evil may pass from us?" #Jer 21:2. But what saith the prophet Zephaniah? "The just Lord is in the midst thereof; he will not do iniquity: every morning doth be bring his judgment to light, he faileth not: but the unjust knoweth no shame," #Zep 3:5; sin hath wended such an impudence in his face, that he shuns no sin, dreads no danger.

Ver. 16. For the statutes of Omri are kept] Subest verbis hisce sarcasmus. Here the prophet taunteth them for their idolatry; and telleth them plainly what will be the issue of it: q.d. You think you deal wisely and take a safe course for yourselves, that together with Ephraim you are joined to idols, and have such great names as Omri and Ahab to countenance you therein. Omri’s statutes can be observed when mine lie neglected.

“ Haec tibi pro vili, sub pedibusque iacent” (Ovid).

The works of the house of Ahab, that non-such, can be imitated, and their counsels embraced, when my work lies undone, and my counsel is rejected, #Lu 7:30. "Full well" (καλως, sane, bene) "ye reject the commandment of God" (being ingrati gratiae Dei, unthankful of the grace of God, as Ambrose speaketh), "that ye may keep your own tradition," #Mr 7:9. And do not the Papists even the very same at this day. The Pope’s canons are kept exactly, and all the rites of the Church of Rome; they walk in the track of the Trent conventicle, and hold it worse to deface an idol than to kill a man; to eat flesh or eggs on a fasting day than to commit incest; to work on a holy day than to break the sabbath. There is no command of the moral law but they can dispense with it; but none of their ceremonial laws. Let God (say they, profanely) look to the breach of his own law; we will look to ours.

That I should make thee a desolation] Luther here observeth, that oppression and other violations of the second table God usually punisheth with war, famine, and pestilence; but breaches of the first table, and especially idolatry, with utter desolation. This is a land destroying sin, #Jer 22:7-9.

Therefore ye shall bear the reproach of my people] That is, of such as had been my people, if you could have held you so; but you are now Loammi, disprivileged. Or, that which I threatened in the law long since to bring upon you, if ye carried not yourselves as my people; or, that which you deserved for having profaned the name and title of being my people, #Eze 36:20,28 Ro 2:24 cf. Lu 12:47.

Chapter 7

Ver. 1. Woe is me, for I am as when they have gathered the summer fruits] Allai li, Alas for me. This last sermon of his the prophet begins with a pathetic queritation, bewailing his own unhappiness in the little good success of his ministry. Mirifice autem nostris temporibus hic sermo convenit, saith Gualther. This discourse suits well with these times; wherein we may justly cry out with the prophet Isaiah, "Who hath believed our report?" And again, "O my leanness, my leanness! woe is me, for there is only as the shaking of an olive tree, and as the gleaning grapes when the vintage is done," #Isa 24:13,16. Hei mihi quam pingui macer est mihi taurus in arvo. Though he had worn himself to a very skeleton in the Lord’s work; yet had he laboured in vain, Israel was not gathered, #Isa 49:4,5, and hence his woeful complaint. The like we read of Elias, #1Ki 19:10, where he bitterly bewails his aloneness; so did Athanasius in his age; and Basil in his Fasciculus temporum, A. D. 884, cries out, for the paucity of good people, Heu, heu, Domine Deus, Alas, Lord, how few appear to be on thy side.

“ Apparent rari nantes in gurgite vasto.”

And Gualther complains, that the Anabaptists in Germany urged this as a chief argument to draw people from communion with our Churches, that there was so little good done by preaching, and so few souls converted. Hence some ministers despond, and are ready to kick up all. Latimer tells of one who gave this answer why he left off preaching, because he saw he did no good. This, saith Latimer, is a naughty, a very naughty answer. A grief it will be, and fit it should be; piety to God and pity to men calls for it. Christ wept over Jerusalem; Paul had great heaviness and continual sorrow in his heart (not inferior to that of a woman in travail ´ Οδυνη, #Ro 9:2) for his contumacious countrymen; neither could he speak of those lewd lowlies at Philippi with dry eyes, #Php 3:18. But an utter discouragement it should not be, since our reward is with God however, #Isa 49:5, and perhaps a larger, because we have wrought with so little encouragement: we have ploughed when others have only trod out the grain: they trod and fed together, when as those that plough have no refreshing till the work be done, #Ho 10:13. Certain it is that God will reward his faithful servants, secundum laborem, non secundum proventum, according to their pains taken in the ministry, and not according to their people’s profiting, Κατα κοπον ου κατα καρπον..

There is no cluster to eat] None to speak of: hedge fruit there is great store; wild grapes not a few; grapes of Sodom, clusters of Gomorrah; but for good grapes, pleasant fruit, godly people, there is a wondrous scarcity of such. Diogenes lighted a candle at noonday to look for a man; the host of Nola went to the graves to call for the good men of the town. Cicero saith, that if there be one good poet in an age it is well. Christ wondered at one good Nathaniel, and tells us in the same chapter, that they are but few that receive him, and with him the adoption of sons, #Joh 1:12. Clusters we must not look for; but if there be found two or three berries in the top of the uppermost bough, four or five in the outmost fruitful branches, it is well, #Isa 17:6. Sufficit mihi auditor unus, sufficit nullus. Paul when he came first to Philippi had a poor audience, only a few women, #Ac 16:13, and one convert: neither had he much better success at Athens, and no Church could be planted there, #Ac 17:33,34.

My soul desired the firstripe fruits] Praecocem fructum, the early ripening fruit, as a great dainty, a precious rarity. We highly prize nettlebuds when they first bud; so doth God our young services. #Jer 1:11, he made choice of the almond tree because it blossometh first; so of Jeremiah from his infancy. He called for firstfruits of trees, and of the earth, in the sheaf, in the threshingfioor, in the dough, in the loaves. He would have ears of corn dried by the fire; and wheat beaten out of the green ears, #Le 2:14. He would have the primrose of our childhood. There were three sorts of firstfruits. 1. Of ears of grain offered about the passover. 2. Of the loaves, offered about Pentecost. 3. About the end of the year, in autumn. Now of the two first God had a part, not of the last. He likes not of those arbores autumnales, autumn trees, #Jude 12 (φθινοπωρινα), that bud at latter end of harvest. Conversion (as divines observe) usually occures between eighteen years of age and twenty-eight: besides Abraham in the Old Testament, and Nicodemus in the New, we have not many instances of men converted in old age. When people grow crooked and rooted in evil practices they are hardly ever set straight again. "Remember therefore thy Creator in the days of thy youth"; his soul delighteth in the first ripe fruits. Remember that Jesus Christ shed his blood for thee when he was but eight days old when he was circumised; and took thee into his family by baptism when thou didst hang on thy mother’s breast.

Ver. 2. The good man is perished out of the earth] Heb. The saint, or, gracious man, that out of mercy obtained from God, can extend mercy to men. Rari quippe boni. Of such it may be said, as one doth of faithful friends in this age, that they are all (for the most part) gone on pilgrimage; and their return is uncertain.

And there is none upright among men] None (to speak of) that maketh straight paths for his feet, #Heb 12:13, that foots it aright (ορθοπαδει), according to the truth of the gospel, #Ga 2:14, that walketh evenly, #Ge 17:1, and accurately (ακριβως), as it were by line and by rule, #Eph 5:15, and that halts not between two opinions, as those Israelites; but is right in his judgment, and undefiled in his way, #Ps 119:1, rather desiring to be good than to seem to be so: few such to be found surely; black swans you may count and call them.

“ Sed nec Brutus erit, Bruti nec avunculus usquam” (Juven.).

They all lie in wait for blood] A company of sanguinaries, blood suckers, hunting for the precious lives of men; but especially of such as reprove them in the gate. If you touch them in their lusts, they will seek to touch you in your life, as Joash did Zechariah, and as the priests and people said of Jeremiah, This man worthy to die. All malice is bloody, and wisheth him out of the world whom it spiteth.

They hunt every man his brother with a net] They add fraud to their force and craft to their cruelty; these seldom go sundered: as some write of the asp, he never wanders alone without his companion with him; and as the Scripture speaks of those birds of prey and desolation, none of them shall want their mate, #Isa 34:16. The matter is made the worse, because it is a brother whom they hunt: whether he be so by race, place, or grace, a brother should be better dealt with.

Ver. 3. That they may do evil with both hands earnestly] Heb. for good and all, or, for ado; that they may speak and do evil as they can, #Jer 3:5, and seek to outsin one another; like unhappy boys that strive who shall go farthest in the dirt. Nolunt solita peccare, saith Seneca: Et pudet non esse impudentes, saith Austin. Luther testifieth of the monks in Germany, that they were so desperately wicked, ut nihil cogitent quod non idem patrare ausint, that they could not devise that wickedness which they dared not do.

The prince asketh] A beggarly practice for a prince, but so base they were grown, and so greedy of filthy lucre. "The prince asketh," and, by asking only, compelleth; for who dare deny him? If some Naboth do, he shall die for it. There is a memorable story of a poor man in Spain, to whom, when the lord’s inquisitors sent for some of his pears, which they had cast their eye upon, he, for fear of offending, brought them his pears, tree and all by the roots.

And the judge asketh for a reward] Heb. The judge for a reward, sc. will gratify that sordidum poscinummium, the prince (Plaut.); who, when he giveth him his commissions, hinteth to him haply, as Nero did to his public officers, Scis quid nobis opus est (Dio.), Thou knowest what I want, and must have; see then that thou help me to it. Such trading there was likewise between our Richard II and judge Belknap with his fellows. To this purpose the Chaldee paraphrast here. The prince, saith he, requireth supplies of the judge, and this bespeaketh him, Fac pro me, et retribuam tibi; Negotiate for me, and I will be thy paymaster; favour me, help me at my need, and I will requite thy courtesy, whensoever thou wilt. Thus muli mutuo scabunt, one hand scratches another; and between the oppressive prince and unconscionable judge "the law is slacked, and judgment doth never go forth: for the wicked doth compass about the righteous; therefore wrong judgment proceedeth," #Hab 1:4.

And the great man, he uttereth his mischievous desire] Heb. he speaketh out the corruption of his soul. "He" doth it. Emphaticum est pronomen Ipse, saith Calvin. This same "he" hath a special emphasis in it, q.d. This impudent man, being now past all grace (for Illum ego periisse dico, cui perit pudor), boasteth of his villany; and thinks to bear it out bravely, because it is facinus maiores abollae, the fact of a great one. But who is this "he," this great man in the text, that dares thus obtrude, and justify to the world his most malapert misdemeanour? The rich client, saith Calvin, that hath his money to plead for him; for in suits both of love and of law, money mostly maketh mastery ( Ibi fas ubi maxima merces); and angels trouble the current of justice (saith one) at certain seasons. Others understand it of counsellors, pleaders, advocates, solicitors, and other officers of justice; who, when as they ought to reprove the iniquity of the judges, do rather help it forward, by justifying the wicked for a reward, and taking away the righteousness of the righteous from him, #Isa 5:20, by making the law a nose of wax, and by quirks and devices varnishing falsehood and wrongdealing.

So they wrap it up] Contorcuplicant: they wreath their wrong dealings together, as a rope twisted of many threads, till their iniquity be found to be hateful; till there wanteth but a hurdle, a horse, and a halter (as Belknap said of himself) to do the right. They make a league together, they join and strengthen their evil counsels and frauds, so Mr Diodati. These men agree among themselves, and conspire with one consent to do evil; so the Genevists.

Ver. 4. The best of them is as a brier] Which a man cannot handle without harm. See #2Sa 23:6 Ps 55:21 58:10 Eze 2:6 Mt 7:16 13:7,22; so, you cannot deal with them without danger; guilt, or grief you shall be sure of. Lot felt it so at Sodom, #2Pe 2:7,8, and so did those that set up that bramble Abimelech for their king, #Jud 9:15,16.

The most upright is sharper than a thornhedge] Ut ibi inveniatur dolor, ubi sperabatur auxilium, saith Jerome here; so that a man shall have grief where he hoped for help and succour; as a man that, taking hold of a thorn hedge to get over, hath his fingers pricked by it, and is glad to let go; or, as a sheep that, fleeing to the bush for defence in weather, loses part of her fleece. Now if the best and most upright among them were no better, what can be imagined of the many (οι πολλοι)? and what better can be hoped for by us (for one egg is not more like another than these times are those here described; it is but the same fable acted over again, only everything is now worse than ever) than a day of visitation, a time of perplexity, as it followeth here? For while they be folded together as thorns, and while they be drunken as drunkards, they shall be devoured as stubble fully dry, #Na 1:10, as sear thorns under the pot, #Ec 7:6. I will go through these briers, saith God, I will burn them together, #Isa 27:4, they shall be utterly burnt with fire in the same place, #2Sa 23:7, that is, in hell, as some interpret it.

The day of thy watchmen, and thy visitation cometh] Where sin is in the saddle punishment will be upon the crupper. {a} God will have a visitation day; and that for his watchmen, prophets, and governors, as well as for the common sort. "Thy visitation cometh," thou shalt share in punishment with them, as thou hast done in sin; neither shall it help thee to say, Our watchmen were in fault; for God will visit you all; and his visitation articles will be very strict and critical.

Now shall be their perplexity] They shall be so intricated and entangled; so ensnared and ensnarled, as that they shall not know which way to turn them. They shall be in as great a distress as Israel was at the Red Sea, #Ex 14:3, or as the Jews at Shushan were, when the decree was gone out for their utter destruction, #Es 3:15, or as Manasseh was, when taken by the Assyrians among the thorns, he was bound with fetters, and carried to Babylon, #2Ch 33:11.

{a} A leathern strap buckled to the back of the saddle and passing under the horse’s tail, to prevent the saddle from slipping forwards. ŒD

Ver. 5. Trust ye not in a friend] Friends (said Socrates), there is no friend: and a friend is a changeable creature, saith another (ζωον ευμεταβλητον); all in changeable colours as the peacock, as often changed as moved. Besides, many friends are not more fickle than false, like deep ponds, clear at the top, and all muddy at the bottom. Fide ergo: sed cui vide. Try before you trust; and when you have tried your utmost, trust not overly far, lest you cry out at length, as Queen Elizabeth did, In trust I have found treason; or as Julius Caesar, when stabbed by Brutus among others, What thou, my son Brutus? He was slain in the senate house, with 23 wounds, given, in the most part, by those whose lives he had preserved.

Put ye not confidence in a guide] Potenti et pollenti consilio et auxilio. Be he never so potent or politic, beyond thousand others, as the word importeth: and as the people said to David, "But now thou art worth ten thousand of us," #2Sa 18:3, thou art the light of Israel, thou art the breath of our nostrils; so that if thou miscarry, we shall all breathe out our last. All which notwithstanding, princes are not to be trusted, #Ps 62:7 118:8,9 146:3, for either they may die, or their affections may die; all their golden thoughts may perish. Great men’s words, saith one, are like dead men’s shoes; he may go barefoot that waiteth for them.

Keep the doors of thy mouth from her that lieth in thy bosom] From thy wife, thine ακοιτις, called the wife of thy bosom, because she should be as dear unto thee as the heart in thy bosom. Be not too open hearted to her, lest she tell all, as Samson’s wife; or as Fulvia, in Sallust, who declared all the secrets of Cneius, a noble Roman, her foolish lover. A fool telleth all, saith Solomon, #Pr 29:11, he is as little able to keep as to give counsel. He is full of chinks, and leaks every way; the doors of his mouth are seldom kept shut; you may know him by his gaping: fools are called by Aristophanes and Lucian, κεχηνοτες; gapers. "But a wise man keepeth it in till afterwards," #Pr 29:11; Tacitus he holds to be the best historian; and keeps his mouth with a bridle, as David did, #Ps 39:1, and as the poets feign of Pegasus, that he had a golden bridle put upon him by Minerva, their goddess of wisdom. God and nature have taught us by the site of the tongue in a man’s mouth, to take heed to it, and to keep the doors of it; and when all is done, to pray God to keep that door, #Ps 141:3. The tongue is ever in udo, in a moisture; but yet tied by the roots, that it may not stir out of place; it is also guarded with a percullis of teeth and a two-leaved gate of lips, which we must carefully keep, and hold that for an oracle,

“ Si sapis, arcano vina reconde cado.”

“If you have sense, hide your personal wine in a jar”

Ver. 6. For the son dishonoureth the father] Or, revileth the father (Menabbel), be-Nabals him, beknaves him (of Nabal comes Nebulo), turpitudine afficit, bepastles him, vilifleth him. This is monstrous wickedness, #Mal 1:6, and a sure sign the devil hath set his limbs in a man that is thus unnatural, fierce, traitorous, heady, high-minded; which yet is foretold of these dregs of time, these last and worst days, both by our Saviour, #Mt 10:21,35,36, and likewise by St Paul, #2Ti 3:3,4. Such a son was he who, when his father complained that never father had so undutiful a child as he had: Yes, said his son (with less grace than wit), my grandfather had. Such a son was Ham, and Absalom, and Amida, son of Muleasses, King of Tunis, who cast his father out of his kingdom, and put out his eyes; and Henry, eldest son to our Henry II, who rebelled against his father, and died before him of a fever and a flux, with excoriation of the bowels; and, lastly, Adolphus Egmondanus, who imprisoned his own father six years for no other cause but for living so long, and keeping him from the dukedom of Guelderland.

The daughter riseth up against her mother] As Mr Fox mentioneth some that witnessed against their own parents here in Queen Mary’s days, and were a means of their martyrdom.

A man’s enemies are the men of his own house] See #Mt 10:36. {See Trapp on "Mt 10:36"} Take our Saviour’s counsel there; "Be ye wise as serpents, innocent as doves"; but beware of men, yea, of the men of your own house.

“ Fide Deo soli: mortali fidito nulli:

Fallunt mortales: fullere Iova nequit.”

Ver. 7. Therefore will I look unto the Lord] "Therefore," inasmuch as there is no faith nor fair dealing among men, "I will look unto the Lord"; look wishly and intently, as a watchman in his watch tower doth look as far as ever he can see on every side. I also will lift up mine eyes unto those hills of heaven, from whence cometh my help, #Ps 121:1; I will pray and look up, #Ps 5:3; I will keep close communion with the Lord, and by faith commit the keeping of my soul to him in welldoing, as unto a faithful Creator, #1Pe 4:19. This I will do; and yet more than this.

I will wait for the God of my salvation] If he tarry, I will wait for him; because he will surely come, he will not tarry, #Hab 2:3. This is the voice of faith; and here is the faith and patience of the saints, #Re 13:10 14:12. God sometimes lies off and stays long; even till our eyes even fail with looking for his salvation, #Ps 119:82; and all to try what we will do; as Samuel tried Saul, who, because he stayed not out his just time, lost his kingdom. David waited for the kingdom; and had it not till he had learned to quiet and behave himself as a child weaned of his mother, #Ps 131:2. Those in Esther waited for deliverance; and had it not till almost forsaken of their hopes. "I have waited for thy salvation, O Lord," saith dying Jacob, #Ge 49:18; and "I will wait for the God of my salvation," saith our prophet here, for a precedent to all the good souls of his time. Let us but consider our distance from God in worth and degree, together with our dependence upon him, our undone condition without him, how long he waited for us, how he hath hitherto helped us, as #1Sa 7:12, and now seems to say unto us, as he did once to Peter, "What I do, thou knowest not now, but thou shalt know hereafter," #Joh 13:7, and we shall be content to wait, as here, and to say,

My God will hear me] According to my faith, and his own faithfulness. The whole force of faith consisteth in this, saith Luther, Ut quis bene applicet pronomina, that a man will apply pronouns; that he can fiducially say, My God; and, will hear me. Were it not for this word of possession, mine, the devil might say the creed to as good purpose as we. He believeth there is a God, and a Christ, and such a Christ as is there described; but that which torments him is, he can say my to never an article of the faith. At the time in which Christ heard the devil begging that he might enter into the swine; but he could not say, My God hath heard me. Let us secure our interest in God; let us individuate Christ (ιδιοποιεισθαι), and appropriate him to ourselves by a particular faith, and then all shall be well with us.

Ver. 8. Rejoice not against me, O mine enemy] Here is the triumph of faith, in the fail of outward comforts, in the midst of the world’s insultations and irrisions. Ne laeteris de me. O daughter of Babylon, that art to be destroyed, thou that art victrix gentium, captiva vitiorum (as Austin said of Rome in her pride), thou that for present carriest the ball upon the foot, and none can come near thee: Rejoice not against me, as forlorn and hopeless; say not, "This is Zion, the outcast, whom no man seeketh after," #Jer 30:17. For assure thyself, The right hand of the Lord will change all this, and

“ Flebile principium melior fortuna sequetur.”

When I fall, I shall arise] Because fall I never so low, I cannot fall below the supporting hand of God, which will help me up again, #Ps 37:24. The wicked fall and never rise, #Am 8:14, they shall drink of the cup of God’s wrath, "and be drunken, and spew, and fall, and rise no more," #Jer 25:27; their carcases shall fall as dung upon the open field, and as the handful after the harvestman, and none shall gather them, #Jer 9:22. This is fearful. If Haman fall before Mordecai the Jew, he shall not easily stop, or step back, #Es 6:13. A Jew may fall before a Persian and get up and prevail. But if a Persian or other persecutor begin to fall before a Jew, he can neither stay nor rise. There is an invisible hand of omnipotence that strikes in for his own, and confounds their opposites.

When I sit in darkness, the Lord shall be a light unto me] He can lighten the greatest darkness, as be did the dungeons to the martyrs. From the delectable orchard of the Leonine dungeon, so Algerius, an Italian martyr, dated his heavenly epistle. I am now in the Bishop of London’s coal house (saith Mr Philpot), a dark and ugly brison as any is about London; but my dark body of sin hath well deserved the same; and the Lord now hath brought me into outer darkness, that I might be the more lightened by him; as he is most present with his children in the midst of darkness. And in his letter to the Lady Vane, I thank the Lord, saith he, I am not alone, but have six other faithful companions, who in our darkness do cheerfully sing hymns and praises to God for his great goodness. We are so joyful that I wish you part of my joy. The posy of the city of Geneva stamped round about their money was formerly out of Job, Post tenebras spero lucern, After darkness I look for light; but the Reformation once settled among them, they changed it into Post tenebras lux (Scultet. Annul.), Light after darkness. Like as the Saxon princes, before they became Christians, gave for their arms a black horse; but being once baptized, a white.

Ver. 9. I will bear the indignation of the Lord, because I have sinned against him] The Church had sinned, and God was angry with her. So #Zec 1:12 Isa 57:17. What mean, then, the Antinomians to tell us that God is never angry with his people for their foul and flagitious practices; no, not with a fatherly anger? nor chastiseth them for the same; no, not so much as with a fatherly chastisement? Is not this contra Solem mingere? Godliness is no target against affliction. Blind Nature saw this.

“ nec te tua plurima, Pantheu,

Labentem texit pietas”—

Only it helps to patient the heart under affliction by considering, 1. That it is the Lord. 2. That, a man suffers for his sin; as the penitent thief also confessed, #Lu 23:41 3. That the rod of the wicked shall not lie long upon the lot of the righteous, το πικρον μικρον. Say we then, every one, with David, I know that thy judgments are right, and thou hast afflicted me justly, #Ps 119:75; yea, in very faithfulness hast thou done it, that thou mightest be true to my soul: and with that noble Du-plessy, who when he had lost his only son, a gentleman of great hopes (which was the breaking of his mother’s heart), quieted himself with these words of David, "I was silent and said no word, because thou, Lord, didst it," #Ps 39:9. See my Love Tokens. It shall be our wisdom in affliction to look to God, and to reflect upon our sins, taking his part against ourselves; as a physician observes which way nature works, and helps it.

Until he plead my cause] As a faithful patron and powerful avenger; for though it be just in God that I suffer, yet it is unjust in mine enemies, who shall shortly be soundly paid for their insolence and cruelty.

He will bring me forth to the light] He will uncloud these gloomy days, and in his light I shall see light.

I shall behold his righteousness] That is, his faithfulness in fulfilling his promise of deliverance in due time. Meanwhile I will live upon reversions, live by faith, and think to make a good living of it too. All the ways of God to his people are "mercy and truth," #Ps 25:10: this is a soul satisfying place of Scripture indeed. All the passages of his providence to them are not only mercy, but truth and righteousness; they come to them in a way of a promise, and by virtue of the covenant, wherein God hath made himself a voluntary debtor to them, #1Jo 1:9.

Ver. 10. Then she that is mine enemy shall see it, &c.] Not only shall I behold his righteousness (as before), but mine enemy shall see it, and feel it too, to her small comfort. They shall see it when it is too late to remedy it; as they say the mole never opens her eyes till pangs of death are upon her.

And shame shall cover her] When she shall see that thou hast showed me a token for good; that thou hast helped me, and comforted me, #Ps 86:17.

Which said unto me, Where is the Lord thy God?] So laying her religion in her dish, whereby God became interested in her cause, and concerned in point of honour to appear for her. The Church is no less beholden to her enemies’ insolence for help than to her own devotions; for God will right himself and her together. See #Joe 2:17. {See Trapp on "Joe 2:17"}

Mine eyes shall behold her] And feed upon her misery, not as mine enemy, but as God’s; nor out of private revenge, but out of zeal for his glory.

Now shall she be trodden down as the mire of the streets] Exit infra omnes infimos: she shall be as mean as may be. Nineveh, that great city, is now a little town of small trade; Babylon is nothing else but a sepulture of herself. Those four monarchies that so heavily oppressed the Church are now laid in the dust, and live by fame only; so shall the Romish hierarchy and Turkish empire. All Christ’s enemies shall shortly be in that place that is fittest for them; sc. under his feet, as was before noted; he will dung his Church with the carcases of all those wild boars and bulls of Bashan that have trod it down.

Ver. 11. In the day that thy walls are to be built] In the type, by Nehemiah, #Ne 3, who did the work with all his might; and having a ready heart, made riddance and good dispatch of it. In the truth, and spiritually, when the gospel was to be "preached to every creature," #Mr 16:15, and a Church collected of Jews and Gentiles. The Church is in the Canticles said to he a garden enclosed; such as hath a wall about it and a well within it, #So 4:12. {See Trapp on "So 4:12"} God will be favourable in his good pleasure unto Zion, and build the walls of Jerusalem, #Ps 51:18. His spirit also will set up a standard in his saints, against strong corruptions and temptations; and make them more than conquerors, even triumphers, #Isa 59:19 Ro 8:37 2Co 2:14.

In that day shall the decree be far removed] That decree of the Babylonians, forbidding the building of the temple and city, shall be reversed; and those statutes that were not good (given them by Gods permission, because they had despised his statutes, #Eze 20:24,25), shall be annulled, and removed far away. Some read it, In that day shall the decree go far abroad; and interpret it, by #Ps 2:7,8, of the doctrine of the gospel.

Ver. 12. In that day also he shall come even to thee from Assyria] To thee, Jerusalem, in the type, shall recourse be had from all parts, as if thou wert the chief city of the world (Pliny saith, that in his time she was the most famous of all the cities of the East; and Titus himself is said to have wept at the last destruction of it by his soldiers, whom he could not restrain from firing the temple). To the new Jerusalem, the Church of the New Testament, in the antitype: from whence the gospel was sent out to "every creature which is under heaven," #Col 1:23, and whereunto people of all sorts flowed, and many nations came, #Mic 4:1,2, with highest acclamations, most vigorous affections, and utmost endeavours bestowing themselves upon the Lord Christ, #Ac 2:9. Jerusalem in the Hebrew tongue is of the dual number; in regard of the two parts of the city, the upper and the nether town. Or (as the Cabalists give the reason), in regard of a two-fold Jerusalem, the heavenly and the earthly; and the taking away of the earthly, they say, was signified by the taking away of the letter jod out of Jerushalajim, #2Sa 5:13. "But Jerusalem which is above is free," firm and full; "the desolate" (once so) "having many more children than she that hath a husband," #Ga 4:26,27, "Whom the Lord of hosts also doth bless, saying" (as a father to them all), "Blessed be Egypt my people, and Assyria the work of my hands, and Israel mine inheritance," #Isa 19:25.

And from the fortress even to the river] i.e. from all bounds and borders of the land, yea, of the world, {#Ps 89:12, Tabor and Hermon are put for the east and west parts of the world} shall people come to the new Jerusalem, which hath "twelve gates: On the east three gates; on the north three gates; on the south three gates; and on the west three gates," #Re 21:12,13. {See Trapp on "Re 21:12"} {See Trapp on "Re 21:13"}

Ver. 13. Notwithstanding the land shall be desolate] Understand it, not of the land of Chaldea, as A Lapide doth; but of Judea, which must be desolated before the coming of Christ in the flesh. And this is here foretold. 1. Lest the impenitent, by misapplying the former promises, should dream of impunity, saeculi laetitia est impunita nequitia (Aug.); and, 2. Lest the godly, because of this desolation shortly to ensue, should despair of the former promises.

Because of them that dwell therein, for the fruit of their delays] What their doings were, and what the fruit thereof, see #Jer 9:3-5,12-16. This prophet could not but tell them of both, though he had small thanks for his love and labour; even as little as Moses had of that perverse people in the wilderness. His service among the Jews was in some sense like that of Manlius Torquatus among the Romans; who gave it over, saying, Neither can I bear their manners, nor they my government. Jeremiah once thought to have done so, #Jer 20:9, but might not. He lived to see this prophecy of Micah fulfilled; and was afterwards carried down to Egypt by his ungrateful countrymen; where also (for a reward of his 41 years’ incessant pains in the ministry as a prophet) they stoned him to death, who had been a brazen wall to his country, eiusque commodis adaugendis natus, and a common blessing.

Ver. 14. Feed thy people with thy rod] Rule them with thy sceptre, or feed them with thy pedum pastorale, thy shepherd’s rod, or staff, #Ps 23:4. This, say some, is the speech of God the Father to God the Son, or (as others), of God to the ministers and pastors, charging them to take heed to his flock, and to feed his Church; but it seems rather to be a prayer of the Christian Church (seeing the ruin of the Jewish synagogue) that Christ (the chief shepherd) would do all good offices for his poor people, feeding them with his rod, that is, with his word and Spirit, guiding them with his eye, #Ps 32:8, leading them in the way everlasting, #Ps 139:24, lest, seduced by their own lusts, or other men’s evil lives, they should any way miscarry.

The flock of thine heritage] Those poor of the flock, #Zec 11:7, that hear his voice and follow him, #Joh 10:3-5,27, being holy, harmless, tractable, sociable, patient, profitable as sheep; which have wool for raiment, skin for parchment, flesh for meat, guts for music. Such shall go in and out, and find pasture, #Joh 10:9, pasture that will breed life, and life in more abundance; see #Ps 23, David’s pastoral, where he assureth himself, as a sheep of Christ’s heritage, that he shall have all things needful for life and godliness; and so may every poor Christian, grounding his faith upon the covenant, #Eze 34:25,28.

Which dwell solitarily in the wood] Sleepeth in the woods, #Eze 34:25, where they meet with many a brush; yea, many a bruise, #Eze 34:28; where they walk in dark and dangerous paths, even in the valley of the shadow of death, #Ps 23:4, of the darkest side of death, of death in its most horrid and hideous representations. Feed them, therefore; fence them with thine omnipotent arm, bear them in thy bosom, see to their safety.

Let them feed in Bashan and Gilead] Not bite upon the bare ground, but feed pleasantly, plentifully; feed among the lilies, frequent also the foddering places, turn to the under-shepherds, the ministers, and so return to the Arch-shepherd and Bishop of their souls, following the Lamb wheresoever he goeth; who will teach them many things, and that out of deepest compassion, #Mr 6:34, who will also show them great and mighty things, that they knew not, #Jer 33:3.

As in the days of old] As thou wast with the Church of the Old Testament, so be not wanting to that of the New; but feed them according to the integrity of thine heart, and guide them by the skilfulness of thine hands, #Ps 78:72. Pull them out of the lion’s mouth, seek them up when lost, tend them, handle them, heal them, wash them, drive them as they can go, bearing the lambs in thy bosom, #Isa 40:11. Do for them as thou hast ever done for thy people in former ages. "So we thy people and sheep of thy pasture will give thee thanks for ever: we will show forth thy praise to all generations," #Ps 79:13.

Ver. 15. According to the days of thy coming out of the land of Egypt] Here is a present and full answer to the Church’s prayer; so ready is the Lord to fulfil the desires of the righteous. It is but ask and have; and they are worthily miserable that will not make themselves happy by asking. The sum of Christ’s answer is this: As I led Joseph like a flock out of Egypt through the wilderness, and fed them there daily and daintily, with angels’ food (never was prince so served in his greatest pomp), so will I show thee marvellous things at Babylon, and bring thee thence with a mighty hand, #Eze 20:34, to make me a glorious name, #Isa 63:14, and both these deliverances shall be a most certain type of thy spiritual redemption by Christ. Lo, thus will I do for thee as in the days of old, #Mic 7:14, and so fit mine answer, ad cardinem desiderii, give thee not only the desire of thine heart, but the request of thy lips, #Ps 21:2, let it be to thee even as thou wilt, #Mt 15:28.

Ver. 16. The nations shall see and be confounded] Considering how I have defeated and befooled them, how I have made all their might to melt and moulder, they shall stand amazed, and be made a common table talk; as Belshazzar and the Babylonians were, when Cyrus (God’s servant) suddenly brake in upon them and surprised their city, which they held insuperable: and as the heathen emperors of Rome were, when the Christians, under the conduct of Constantine, carried it against them.

They shall lay their hand upon their mouth] Be struck dumb, as if they had seen Medusa’s head; they shall not be able to contradict the gospel, or to hinder the progress of it. Valens, the Arian Emperor, coming upon Basil while he was in holy duties, with an intent to do him harm, was not only silenced, but so terrified, that he reeled, and had fallen had he not been upheld by those that were with him.

Their ears shall be deaf] With the sudden bursting forth of God’s wonderful and terrible works, saith Mr Diodati.

Ver. 17. They shall lick the dust like a serpent] That is, be reduced not only to extreme hunger and penury, but to utmost vility and baseness of condition, so as to lick the very dust. And whereas it is added, like a serpent, he puts them in mind of that old malediction, Gen. iii., and gives them to know, that as, like that old serpent, they have lifted themselves up against God, so will God cast them down again to the condition of serpents, and abase them to the very dust. See #Ps 22:29 72:9 Isa 49:23.

They shall move out of their holes like worms (or creeping things) of the earth] They shall tumultuate, and be all on a huddle, like ants when their molehill is thrown up with a spade. The Hebrew word imports great commotion and bustle.

They shall be afraid of the Lord our God, and shall fear because of thee] O God, or, O Church, terrible as an army with banners. Impiety triumpheth in prosperity, trembleth in adversity: and contrarily, saith holy Greenham, since the fall, we tremble before God, angels, and good men. What have I to do with thee, thou man of God (said she), art thou come to call to mind my sin and to kill my son? At the siege of Mountabove, in France, the people of God within the walls ever before a sally sang a psalm: with which holy practice of theirs, the enemy becoming acquainted, when they heard them singing would so quake and tremble, crying, They come, they come, as though the wrath of God had been breaking out upon them.

Ver. 18. Who is a God like unto thee?] No God surely (whether so reputed or deputed; whether heathen deities, heavenly angels, or earthly rulers) can compare with our God, or come near him, for pardoning of sin. Indeed, none can do it at all but he; as the blind Pharisees saw and could say. Men may pardon the trespass, but God alone the transgression. But say they could do something that way; yet nothing like our God, who maketh his power appear to be great, #Nu 14:17, in pardoning such offences as no God or man besides would pardon. See #Jer 3:1 Ne 9:31. He forgiveth iniquity, transgression and sin, #Ex 34:6,7, that is, all sorts of sins, to all sorts of sinners, without exception, #Mt 12:31. This is the express letter of God’s covenant, which we ought not either to obliterate or to interline; but to believe it in the full latitude and extent. We are apt to cast God’s pardoning grace into a mould of our own; and to measure it by our model. But against this we are cautioned, #Isa 55:8. God must be magnified in our thoughts, his quarters there enlarged, high and honourable conceptions are to be had of him; or else we wrong him no less than we should do a king by respecting and receiving him no otherwise than we would do another ordinary man. He is set forth here as a God imparallel, and that not without an interrogation of admiration, O! who is a God like unto thee? Thy mercy is matchless, thy grace aboundeth even to an overflow, #1Ti 1:14, it is more than exceeding, it hath a superpleonasm, υπερεπλεονασε, saith the apostle here. Surely as the sea swallows up huge rocks, and as the sun scattereth greatest mists; so doth he pardon enormities as well as infirmities, and blotteth out the thick cloud as well as the cloud,. #Isa 44:22. His mercy rejoiceth against, or glorifieth over, judgment, #Jas 2:13, and is ready to say of a great sinner indeed

—“ Iam dignus vindice nodus:”

The more desperate the disease is, the greater glory redoundeth to him that cureth it. Our Saviour received a glorious name by curing incurable diseases; and gained greatest love by frankly forgiving Mary Magdalen’s and others’ sins, #Lu 7:42,47, which were many and mighty, or bony, as the prophet’s word signifies, #Am 5:12. Adam’s apostasy, Noah’s drunkenness, Lot’s incest, David’s blood guiltiness, Manasseh’s idolatry and witch craft, Peter’s thrice denying and abjuring his Master, Paul’s blasphemy and persecution,—all these sins and blasphemies, have been forgiven, to the sons of men neither can they commit more than he both can and will remit to the penitent. Note this against Novatus, that proud heretic; and strive against that natural Novatianism that is in the timorous conscience of convinced sinners, to doubt and question pardon for sins of apostasy, and falling after repentance, and to say as those unbelievers of old, Can the Lord prepare a table for us in the wilderness? so, can he forgive such and such iniquities so often reiterated? This is a question, no question; what cannot our God do in this kind, who pardoneth sin naturally, #Ex 34:6 (and therefore freely as the sun shineth, or as the fountain casteth out waters); who doth it also abundantly, #Isa 55:7, multiplying pardons as fast as we multiply sins; and lastly, constantly, #Ps 130:4 Joh 1:29 Zec 13:1. It is his perpetual act; and it should be as a perpetual picture in our hearts. We should go on our way toward heaven, as Samson did toward his parents, feeding on this honeycomb.

That pardoneth iniquity] Heb. that taketh away, sheer away, non ne sit, sed ne obsit, not sin itself, but the guilt of it; the damning and domineering power of it: this David calleth the iniquity of his sin; and saith that this God forgave him, #Ps 32:5, pronouncing himself and all such happy as are so dealt with, #Mic 7:1,2.

And passeth by the transgression] Heb. passeth over it, taketh no notice of it, as a man in a deep muse, or as one that hath haste of business, seeth not things before him; his mind being upon another matter, he neglects all else besides that. As David, when he saw in Mephibosheth the features of his friend Jonathan, took no notice of his lameness, or any other defect or deformity; so God, beholding in his people the image of his Son: winks at all faults, that he might soon find in them. That which Cicero said flatteringly of Caesar is truly affirmed of God, Nihil oblivisci solet praeter iniurias, He forgetteth nothing but the wrongs that are daily done him by his; and as it is said of our Henry VI, that he was of that happy memory that he never forgot anything but injury: so here.

Of the remnant of his heritage?] Not of all, but of those poor few that confess and forsake their sins, #Pr 28:13, and "in whose spirit there is no guile," #Ps 32:2; that are mortified persons, #Ro 11:26 cf. Isa 59:20. It is a privilege proper to the communion of saints.

He retaineth not his anger for ever] Angry he may be, and smite in his anger, #Isa 57:17; yea, he may take vengeance of the inventions of those whom he hath pardoned, #Ps 99:8, temporal vengeance I mean; but it soon repenteth him concerning his servants; and a little punishment serveth turn for a great offence, #Jer 31:19-21. David no sooner said, "I have sinned," but he heard, "The Lord hath taken away thy sin," #2Sa 12:13.

Because he delighteth in mercy] And hence he pardoneth iniquity of free grace, ex mero motu, out of his pure and unexcited love, out of his philanthropy and undeserved favour, the sole impulsive cause of pardon. What a man delighteth to do he will do howsoever. If the sun delight to run his race, who shall stop him? If God so delight in mercy that he will save for his name’s sake, and come in with his Non obstante, as he doth, #Ps 106:8, who or what shall hinder him?

Ver. 19. He will turn again, he will have compassion upon us] Here is the pith and power of faith, particularly applying promises to a man’s self. Say that sin hath separated between us and our God, #Isa 59:2, and made him send us far away into captivity; yet he will turn again and yearn toward us, he will turn again our captivity as the streams in the south. His compassions are more than fatherly, #Ps 103:13; motherly, #Isa 49:15; brotherly, #Heb 2:12. This the Church knows, and therefore cries after him, "Make haste, my beloved, and be thou like to a roe or to a young hart," #So 8:14, which when it fleeth looketh behind it, saith the Chaldee paraphrast there. And this that he will do, she is bold to believe. He will, he will, and that to us, saith the prophet here. Lo, this is that work of faith, to wrap itself in the promises as made to us in particular, #1Ti 1:15; and unless faith be on this sort actuated, it is, as to comfort, as good as no faith. See #Mt 8:26 cf. Mr 4:30.

He will subdue our iniquities]. By force and violence (as the word signifieth), subiugabit, pessundabit, conculcabit. Sin is sturdy, and will rebel where it cannot reign. It hath a strong heart, and will not easily yield. But yield it shall, for God will subdue it. And this is a further favour (as every former is a pledge of a future). To pardon of sin God will add power against sin; to justification by Christ’s merit, sanctification by his Spirit; he will let out the life blood of sin, and lay it a dying at our feet; he will tread Satan with all his black train under our feet shortly, #Ro 16:20. He will not only turn us again, but turn his hand upon us, and purely purge away our dross, and take away all our tin, #Isa 1:25. In fine at the end he will so mortify the deeds of the body by his Spirit, that sin shall not have dominion over us, #Ro 6:14, shall not play Rex King in us; the traveller shall not become the man of the house, as Nathan’s parable speaketh.

And thou wilt cast all their sins into the bottom of the sea] Wherehence they shall never be buoyed up again. Thus the prophet, by an insinuating apostrophe, turneth himself to God, and speaks with much confidence. Such is the nature of true faith, sc. to grow upon God, and, as I may so say, to encroach; as Moses did, #Ex 33:12,13 34:10; and as David did, #1Ch 17:23, &c. See how he improves God’s promise, and works upon it, #1Ch 17:24,25, he goes over it again, and yet still encroacheth; and the effect was good, #1Ch 18:14. We hinder ourselves of much happiness by a sinful shamefacedness. Let us come boldly to the throne of grace, #Heb 4:16; so shall we see our sins, as Israel did the Egyptians, dead on the shore.

Ver. 20. Thou wilt perform the truth to Jacob, and the mercy to Abraham] Heb. Thou wilt give; for all is of free gift. His love moved God to promise, his truth binds him to perform; #2Sa 7:18,21, "For thy word’s sake, and according to thine own heart, hast thou done all these things." Having made himself a voluntary debtor to his people, he will come off fairly with them; and not be worse than his word, but better. Hence, #Re 10:1, Christ is said to have a rainbow upon his head; to show that he is faithful and constant in his promises, and that tempests should blow over, the sky be cleared. "For this is as the waters of Noah unto me," saith the Lord: "for as I have sworn that the waters of Noah should no more go over the earth; so have I sworn that I would not be wroth with thee, nor rebuke thee. For the mountains shall depart," &c., #Isa 54:9,10. God hath hitherto kept promise, with nights and days, #Jer 33:20,25, that one shall succeed the other; therefore much more will he keep promise with his people.

Which thou hast sworn unto our fathers] And, in them, to us, by virtue of the covenant. So he spake with us, when he spake with Jacob at Bethel, #Ho 12:4; and that the promises sworn to the fathers of the Old Testament belong also to us of the New, see #Lu 1:55,73,74. Now, that God swore at any time to them, or us, he did it for our sakes doubtless; "that by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us," #Heb 6:17,18. {See Trapp on "Heb 6:17"} {See Trapp on "Heb 6:18"}

Gloria Deo in excelsis.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7