OS A MA.
and Bethel; and tho’ the people of Yael were very fubje& to idolatry, and fet up images and ftatues for worthip before their captivities, yer fince have nothing of image-worfhip among them, but ftriétly obferve the command. And without an ephod; a linen garment wore by the high-priefts under the law, to which the breaft-plate was faftened, which had in it the Urim and Tbummim, and which were wanting in the fecond temple, and have been ever fince; fo that thefe people have been fo long without this way and means of enquiry of God about future things, fee Ezra ii, 63. this may be put for the whole priefthood, now ceafed in a-proper fenfe; and fo the Septuagint render it, without a pricthood, fo that the Fews are without any form of government, civil or ecclefiaftical; they have neither princely nor prieftly power: and without terapbim; which fome underftand to be the fame with the Urim and Thummim, and fo the Septuagint render it, without manifeftations; by which they are thought to mean the Urim, which according to them fo fignifies: but the word is generally thought © to defign fome little images or idols, like the penates or houfhold gods of the Romans, which were confulted about future things; and fo theews commonly underftand it, and fome defcribe them thus 8, ‘¢ what are the ¢eraphim? they flay the firft-born ‘** of aman, cut off his head, and pickle it with “¢ falt and oil, and infcribe on a plate of gold the name of an unclean fpirit, and put that under his tongue; then they place it in a wall, and light candles before it, and pray unto it, and it talks with them.” ‘But now, according to this prophecy, the Yews in their captivity fhould have no way and means of knowing future things, either in a lawful or unlawful manner; fee P/- Ixxiv. 9. ‘How the whole of this prophecy is now fulfilled in. them, hear what they themfelves fay, particularly Kimchi, ‘* thefe are the days of the *< ‘captivity in which we now are at this day; we ** have no king nor prince.out of J/rael; for we “* are in the power of the nations, and of. their kings and princes; and have no facrifice for “¢ God, nor image for idols; no epbod for God, “< that declares future things; and no seraphim.for idolatry, which fhew things to come, according << to the mind of thofe that believe in them;” and fo Farchi, ‘* without a facrifice in-the fanctuary in “< Fudah, without an image of Baal in Samaria, “¢ for the kings. of J/rael; without.an. ephod. of “<-Urim and I hummim, that declares hidden things; “< and Terapbim made for a time to. {peak of, and “¢ thew things, that are fecret;” and. to, the fame purpofe Aben Ezra. The Largum is, ‘*.without,a “king of the houfe of David, and without a ruler “over J/rael, without ‘facriace for acceptance in “ Ferufalem, and without an high place in. Sama- “¢ ¢ja;-and without an ephod, and him that fhews;” i. e. what fhall come to pafs.- The Syriac verfion renders, the laft claufe, without.one that offers. incenfe;,and the Arabic verfion,.without.one that teaches. |
‘y.5. Afterward fhall the children of Ifrael return, &c.] ‘The ten tribes of J/rael, and alfo the two tribes of Fudab and Benjamin, which are included in the name of J/rael, as Aben Ezra interprets it; and thefe are joined together in parallel places; fee Fer. xxx. 3, 9. and 1. 4, 5. for tho’ they did not go into captivity together, yet their return and converfion will be at the fame time; and they are all all fpoken of under the name of I/rael by the apo- {tle Paul, when he foretels their converfion and falvation, Rom. xi. 26. The return of them, here prophefied of, does not barely mean their return to their own land, which will be at this time; fee “Fer, xxx. 3. Ezek. xxxvil. 21, 22. Amos ix. 15. but their return to the Lord by repentance; when they fhall repent of, and turn from their finful courfe of life, and particularly of their unbelief and rejection of the true Meffiah, and embrace him; and of their traditions and falfe ways of worfhip which they fhall difcard; and of their own righteoufnefs they fhall now renounce; and fhall turn to the Lord Jefus Chrift, and believe in him for righteoufnefs, life and falvation: and feek the Lord their God, and David their king; thefe may be confidered either as two diftinét perfons, Jehovah the Father, and the Meffiah, as in £zek. xxxiv. 23, 24. and xxxvii. 23, 24. and fo the Targum, ‘* and “« feek the worfhip of the Lord their God, and “ obey Meffiah the fon of David their king;” who will be both equally fought after, and unto, by them; and.which is a proof of the divinity of the Meffiah, and of his equality with God his father; as well as points out the right way in which Jehovah is to be fought, namely with Chrift, or in him, in whom he is a God gracious and merciful; and to feek and know both the one and the other, is eternal life, ‘fohm xvii. 3. or elfe all this is to be underftood of the Meffiah, rendering the words, and feek the Lord their God, even David their king, as alfo Fer. xxx. 9. Fud. 3. may be rendered; and fo thefe are all epithets, titles, and characters of him: he is Jehovah, the everlafting I am; the true God, and eternal life; Immanuel, God with us; God in our nature, manifeft in the flefh; the fon of David, and his antitype, often called David in fcripture, P/ lxxxix. 3, 4. Ezek. xxxiv. 24. and xxxvii. 24. king of kings, king of the faints, of his church, and will be owned as fuch by the Yews at the time of their converfion, though they have rejected him; but now they’ll receive him, and be fubject to him; they’ll feek to him for falvation, for the pardon of their fins, for righteoufnefs, for reft, for food, for protection and fafety, and to ferve and obey him: and this feeking will not be out of curiofity, or xx. 6. and in the world to come, as it is written, they fhall feek the Lord their God, and David their king, &c. David was king in this world, and Devid fhall be king in the time tocome. And in both Zalmuds the words are applied to the Meffiah; in one of them ‘, after quoting this text, it is added, the Rabdins fay this is the king Meffiah; if of the living, David is his name; if of the dead, David is his name. And in the other *, it is faid, when Ferufalem is built, David comes; that-is, the fon of David, the Meffiah; which is proved by this paflage, afterwards the children of Ifrael foall return, and feek the Lord their God, and David their kings that is, as the g/o/s interprets it, after they thall return to the houfe of the fanctuary, or the temple: fo Abarbdinel, both in his commentary upon this place, and elfewhere ', as he interprets the one bead in ch. i. 11. of Mefiah ben Ephraim, whom he, with the reft of his tribe, feign fhall perith in war; fo he obferves, that then J/rael thall feek David their king, the rod out of the root of Feffe, whom the Lord fhall chufe, and caufe to reign over them. And another of their later writers ™ interprets the paflage of the Meffiah, and produces it to prove againft the Chriftians, that he fhould come in the end of days, or in the latter days; as it is plain and certain that our Jefus, the true Meffiah, came at the end of the Zewi/b world, in the laft days of their civil and church-ftate; fee Hed. i. 1, 2. and ix, 26. and fhall fear the Lord, and bis goodne/s in the latter day; not man, but the Lord; not his wrath and vengeance, but his goodnefs; not with a fervile, but with a godly, filial fear; a fear influenced by the bleffings of goodnefs they fhall now be partakers of, particularly pardoning grace and mercy, Pf. cxxx. 3, 4. they fhall fear the Lord who is good, and goodnefs itfelf, and Chrift, in whom the goodnefs of God is ~ difplayed, and who is prevented with the bleffings of goodnefs for his people: it may be rendred, they hall fear, or come. fearing to the Lord, and his gocdne/s*, being fenfible of their fin, danger, and mifery; they fhall flee to the Lord as to their city of refuge, and to the bleffings of his goodnefs they fee their need of; and this they fhall do ia hafte, as dden Ezra interprets it, comparing it with ch. xi. 11. The Septuagint verfion is, they in a carnal way, or for felfifh ends; nor hypocri- /aall be amazed at the Lord, and bis good things;
tically, but with their whole hearts, and diligently, and in earneft. Not only the Zargum interprets this of Meffiah the fon of David, but Aben Ezra on the place fays, this is the Meffiah; and it is applied to him, and his times, by other Fewih writers, both antient and modern. In an antient book* of theirs, fpeaking of David, it is faid, the holy bleffed God is well pleafed with him in this world, and in the world to come; in this world, as it is written, and I will defend this city for mine own fake, and for my fervant David's fake, 2 Kings the Syriac verfion, they hall know the Lord, and bis goodnefs; the Arabic verfion, they fhall confefs the Lord, and bis benefits; the Targum, “ they thall “« give themfelves to the fervice of the Lord, and ‘“« his goodnefs fhall be multiplied, which fhall ‘“* come to them in the end of days;” or, as Aben Ezra, in the end of the prophecy of the prophets; in future time, in the times of the Meffiah; which, as Kimchi obferves, are always meant by the 1 days; and here it fignifies the latter day of the laft — days, or of the gofpel-difpenfation. a
HIS chapter contains a new fermon or prophecy, delivered in proper and exprefs words, without types and figures, as before; in which the people of J/rael are fummoned to appear at the tribunal of God, to hear the charge brought againft them, and the fentence to be pronounced upon them, and which would be executed. They are charged with fins of omiffion and commifiion; with want of truth and mercy to men, and with ignorance of God; with fwearing, lying, murder, theft, and adultery, ¥. 1, 2. the punifhment threatned, is the fword, famine, and peftilence; which fhould affeét the whole land, and all creatures in it, men, beafts, fowls, and fifhes, ¥. 3. then the priefts and falfe prophets are threatened with falling into calamities along with the people, and with rejection from their office, and forgetfulnefs of their pofterity, and a taking away their glory from them, becaufe of their ftriving with the true prophets; their rejection of knowledge; forgetfulnefs of the law of God; covetoufnefs, adultery, and drunkennefs, ¥. 4—11.° then the difcourfe is turned to the people again, who are charged with divination and idolatry, which is fpiritual adultery; and therefore, by way of retaliation, their wives and daughters would be left to commit adultery and fornication, y. 12, 13,.14. and the chapter is concluded with advice to J/rael, not to tempt Fudab to fin; or to Fudab not to do the like, after the example of J/- rael, who were backfliders, idolaters, left. of God and alone; guilty of bribery, and the like fhameful things, and would be fuddenly filled with fhame, Ye B55 16, 17s; £85019.
¥. 1. Hear the word of the Lord, ye children of Ifrael, &c.| The people of the ten tribes, as diftinct from Fudab, ¥.15. the prophet having finifhed his parables he was ordered to take up and deliver, and his explanations of them, and concluded with a gracious promife of the converfion of the Jews in the latter day; enters upon a new difcourfe, which begins with reproof for various fins; fince what had been delivered in parables and types had had no effect upon them, they are called upon to hear what the Lord would fay to them by the prophet, in more clear and exprefs terms; filence is ordered, and attention required to what follows: for the Lord hath a controverfy with the inhabitants of the land; the land of J/rae/; againft him they had finned, before him they ftood guilty; he had fomething, yea many things againft them; a charge is brought into open court, the indictment is read, an anfwer muft be made: God is the antagonift, that moves and brings on the controverfy in a judicial way, and who can anfwer him for one of a thoufand? or ftand before him, or in court with.him, when. he marks iniquity? the charge is.as follows, Lecaufe there is no truth; none that do or fpeak truth;.that are true and faithful men, true to their word, and faithful to their truft; no truth of grace in them, nor truth of doétrine held and received by them; truth failed from among them, and none were valiant for it; no truth or civil faith with refpect to men, nor any truth of word or worfhip with refpect toGod: nor mercy; to poor and indigent creatures; no compaffion fhown them; no offices of humanity, or acts of beneficence exercifed towards them; tho’ thefe are mote defirable by the Lord than, and are prefetred by him to, all ceremonial facrifices, ch. vi. 6. or no piety, religion, godlinefs, powerful godlinefs, which has the promife of this life, and that to come: nor knowledge of God in the land; in the land of J/rael, where God was ufed to be known; where he’ had been worfhipped; where his word had been difpenfed, and his prophets had been fent, and his faints that knew him, and his mind, and will, formerly had dwelt; but now a company of atheifts, at leaft that lived as fuch, and had no true fpiritual faving knowledge of God, and communion with him; they had not true love to him, nor a godly reverence of him, which this implies; and that was the fource of all the wickednefs committed by them, afterwards exprefled. The Yargum is, ** there are none that do truth, nor dif- “¢ penfe mercy, nor walk in the fear of the Lord, “¢ in the land.”
y. 2. By fwearing, and ling, 8&c.| Which fome join together, and make but one fin of it, falfe fwearing, fo Farchi and Kimchi, but that fwearing itfelf fignifies, as the Targum interprets it; for it not only takes in all curfing and imprecations, profane oaths, and taking the name of God in vain, and {wearing by the creatures, but may. chiefly defign perjury; which, tho’ one kind of y- ing, may be diftinguifhed from it here; the latter intending Jying in common, which the devil is the father of, mankind are incident unto, and which is abominable to God, whether in civil or in religious things: and killing, and flealing, and committing adultery; murders, thefts, and adulteries, were very common with them; fins againft the fixth, eighth, and feventh commandments: ¢hey break out thro’ all the reftraints of the laws of God and man, like an unruly horfe that breaks his bridle and runs away; or like wild beafts, that break down the fences and inclofures about them, and.break out, and get away; or like a torrent of water, that breaks down its dams and:-banks, and overflows the meads and plains; fuch a flood and deluge of fin abounded in the nation. Some render it, they thieve °; or act the part of thieves and robbers: and the Targum, “ they beget fons of ‘¢ their neighbours wives;” and fo Abarbinel interprets it, of breaking thro’ the hedge of another man’s wife; but thefe fins are obferved before: and blood toucheth blood; which fome underftand of fins in general, fo called, becaufe filthy and abominable; and of the addition and multiplication of them, there being as it were heaps of them, or rather a chain of them linked together. So the Targum, ‘* and they add fins to fins.” Others in- _ terpret it of impure mixtures, of inceftuous lufts, or marriages contrary to the ties of blood, and laws of confanguinity, Lev. xviii. 6. Ezek, xxii. 11. or rather it is to be underftood of the great effufion of blood, and frequency of murders; fo that there was fcarce any interval between them, but a continued feries of them. Some think refpeét is had to the frequent flaughter of their kings; Zachariah the fon of Feroboam was fain by Shallum, when he had reigned but fix months;
and Shallum was flain by Menahem, when he had rity and happinefs, into great evils and calamities;
reigned but one month; and this Menabem was a murderer of many, fmote many places, and ript up the women with child; Pekabiab his fon was killed by Pekah the fon of Remaliah, and he again by Hofhea, 2 Kings xv. 8, 10, 13,14, 16; 25, 30.
¥. 3. Therefore foall the land mourn, &c.| Becaufe of the calamities on it, the devaftations made jn it; nothing growing upon it through a violent drought; or the grafs and corn being trodden down, or eaten up, by a foreign army: and every one that dwelleth therein foall languifh, that is, every man, an inhabitant thereof, fhall become weak, Janguifh away, and die thro’ wounds received by the enemy; or for want of food, or being infected with the wafting and deftroying peftilence: with the beafts of the field, and with the fowls of heaven; the one fhall die in the field for want of grafs to eat, and the other fhall drop to the earth thro’ the infection of the air: yea, the fifoes of the fea alfo foall be taken away or gathered? to fome other place, fo as to difappear; or they fhall be confumed and die, as Kimchi interprets it; and as all thefe creatures are for the good of men, for fuftenance, comfort, and delight, when they are taken away, it is by way of punifhment for their fins. So the Targum, ‘* the fithes of the fea fhall be_lef- «© fened for their fins.”
¥. 4. Yet let no man firive, nor reprove another, &c.}] Or rather, let no man firtve, nor any man reprove us*; and are either the words of the people, forbidding the prophet, or any other man, to contend with them, or reprove them for their fins, tho’ guilty of fo many, and their land in fo much danger on that account: fo the Targum, <* but yet “¢ they fay, let not the fcribe teach, nor the pro- ‘¢ phet reprove:” or elfe they are the words of God to the prophet, reftraining him from ftriving with, and reproving fuch a people, that were incorrigible, and defpifed all reproof; fee Ezek. iii. 26. or of the prophet to other good men, to forbear any thing of this kind, fince it was all to no purpofe; it was but cafting pearls before {wine it was all labour loft, and in vain: for thy people are as they that firive with the prieft; they are fo far from receiving correction and reproof kindly from any good men, that they will rife up againft, and ftrive with, the priefts, to whom not to hearken was a capital crime, Deut. xvii. 12. Abarbinel interprets it, and fome in Abendana, like the company of Korab, that contended with Aaron; fuggefting that this people were as impudent and wicked as they, and there was no dealing with them. So the Targum, ‘* but thy people contend with their *¢ teachers;” and will fubmit to no correction, and therefore it is in vain to give it them. Tho’ fome think the fenfe is, that all forts of men were fo corrupt, that there were none fit to be reprovers; the people were like the priefts, and the priefts like the people, ¥. 9. fo that when the priefts reproved them, they contended with them, and faid, phyfician heal thyfelf; take the beam out of your own eye; look to yourfelves, and your own fins, and don’t reprove us,
¥. 5. Therefore foalt thou fall in the day, &c.] Either, O ye people, every one of you, being fo refractory and incorrigible; or, O thou prieft, being as bad as the people; for both, on account of their fins, fhould fall from their prefent profpe- particularly into the hands of their enemies, and be carried captive into another land: and this fhould be in the day, or to-day*; immediately, quickly, in a very fhort time; or in the day-time, openly, publickly, in the fight of all, of all the nations round about, who fhall rejoice at it; or in the day of profperity, while things go well, amidft great plenty of all good things, and when fuch a fall was leaft expected: and the prophet alfo foall fall with thee in the night, or the falfe prophets that are with you, as the Targum, and fo Farchi; either with you, O people, that dwell with you, teach you, and caufe you to err; or with thee, O prieft, being of the fame family, as the prophets, many of them, were priefts; now thefe fhould falllikewife into the fame calamities, as it was but juft they fhould, being the occafion of them: and this fhould be i# the night; in the night of adverfity and affliction, in the common calamity; or in the night of darknefs, when they could not fee at what they ftumbled and fell, and fo the more uncomfortable to them; or as the one falls in the day, the other falls in the night; as certainly as the one falls, fo fhall the other, and that very quickly, immediately, as the night follows the day: and I will deftroy thy mother; either Samaria, the metro-> polis of the nation; or the whole body of the people, the congregation, as the Targum, and Kimchi, and Ben Melech, being as a'mother with refpect to individuals; and are threatened ‘with deftruction, becaufe the corruption was general among ‘prophets, priefts, and people, and therefore none could hope to efcape.; ¥. 6. My people are defiroyed for lack of knowledge, &c.} This isnot to be underftood of thofe who are the Lord’s people by fpecial grace; for they cannot be deftroyed, at leaft with everlaiting deftruction; God’s love to them, his choice of them, covenant with them, the redemption-of them by Chrift, and the grace of God in them, -fecure them from fuch deftruction: nor can they perifh thro’ want of knowledge; for tho’ they are by nature as ignorant as others, yet it is the determinate will of God to bring them to the knowledge of the truth, in order to falvation; and that fame decree which fixes falvation as the’ end, ‘fecures the belief of the truth as the means; and the covenant of grace provides for their knowledge of {piritual things, as well as other fpiritual bleffings; inconfequence of which their minds are enlightened by the Spirit of wifdom and underftanding, and they have the knowledge of God and’ Chrift given them, which is life eternal. But this is to be underftood of the people of the ten tribes of J/raél, who were nationally and nominally the people of God, were fo by profeffion; they called themfelves the people of God; and tho’ they were idolaters, yet they profeffed to worfhip God in their idols; and as yet God’s Lo-ammi had not taken place upon them; he ftill fent his prophets among them, to reprove and reform them, and they were’ not as yet finally reje@ted by him, and caft out of their land. Thefe may be faid to be deftroyed, becaufe they were threatened with deftruction, and it was‘ near at hand, they were juft upon the brink of it; and becaufe of the certainty of it, and this through lack of knowledge; either in the people, who were ignorant of God, his mind,‘and will, oe; 6 2 300E Cr, DORA d and without fear and reverence of him, which ‘was the caufe of all the abominations they ran into, for which they were threatened with ruin; or in the priefts, whofe bufinefs it was to teach and inftruc& the people; but inftead of teaching them true doctrine, and the true manner of worfhip, taught them falfe doétrine, and led them into {fuperftition and idolatry; and fo they perifhed thro’ the default of the priefts in performing their office; which fenfe is confirmed by what follows: becaufe thou haft rejected knowledge, I will alfo reject thee, that thou jealt be no prieft to mes the priefts that Feroboam made were of the loweft of the people, ignorant and illiterate men, 1 Kings xii. 31. and xiii. 33. and they chofe to continue fuch; they rejected with contempt and abhorrence, as the word fignifies, the knowledge of God, and of all divine things; of the law of God, concerning what was to be done, or not to be done by the people; and of all ftatutes and ordinances relating to divine worfhip, and the performance of the prieftly office: and though there might be fome of Agron’s line that continued in the land of J/rael, and in their office; yet thefe affected the fame ignorance, and therefore the Lord threatens them with a rejection from the priefthood; or however, that they fhould be no priefts to him, or in his account, but fhould be had in the utmoft abhorrence and contempt. The word here ufed has a letter in it more than ufual +, which may fignify the utter rejection of them, and the great contempt they were had in by the Lord; this was to take place, and did, at the captivity by Salmanefer. Seeing thou baft forgotten the law of thy God; which he had given them, who was their God by profeffion; and which they had forgot as if they never had read or learnt it; and fo as not to obferve and keep it themfelves, nor teach and inftruét others in it: J will alfo forget thy children, have no regard to them, take no notice and care of them, as if they were never known by him; meaning either the people in general, their difciples and fpiritual children; or elfe their natural children, who fhould be cut off, and not fucceed them in the priefthood. The words are very emphatical, I will forget them, even It; which exprefies the certainty of it more fully, as well as more clearly points at the juftnefs of the retaliation.
¥. 7. As they were increafed, fo they finned againft me, &c.] As.the children of the priefts increafed and grew up, they finned againft the Lord, imitating their parents; they were as many finners as they were perfons, not one to be excepted: this exprefies their univerfal depravity and corruption. Some underftand it of their increafe as in number, fo in riches, wealth, honour, dignity, and authority, and yet they finned more and more; which fhews their ingratitude. So the Targum, * as I ** have multiplied fruits unto them, &c.” Therefore will I change their glory into fhame, take away their priefthood from them, fo that they fhall be no more priefts, and as if they never had been; and reduce them to a {tate of poverty, meannefs, and difgrace; and caufe them to go into captivity with the meaneft of the people; and be in no more honour, but firbje&t to as much fcorn and contempt as they.
¥. 8. They eat up the fin of my people, &c.] That is, the priefts did fo, as the Targum, the priefts of Jeroboam; they eat up the facrifices which the people brought for their fins: and their fault was, either that they eat that which belonged to the tru¢ priefts of the Lord, fo Farchi’; or they did that, and had no concern to inftru@ the people in the right way; all that they regarded were good eating and drinking, and living voluptuoufly; and were altogether carelefs about inftru&ting the people in the nature of facrifices, and in the way cf their duty: or this may regard the Bacchanalian feafts, as fome think, which the people made in the temples of idols, and fo finned; and of which the priefts greatly partook, and encouraged them in, and fo were partakers not only of their banquets, but of their fins. They fet their heart on their iniquity, either their offerings for their iniquity, or their iniquity itfelf: or, ft up their foul * to it; diligently looking after it, not caring how much they committed; fince the more fin-offerings would be brought, which would be to, their advantage. Tho’ fome think the fin of whoredom; frequently and impudently committed at thefe idolfeafts, is meant, which the priefts were much addicted to, and very greedy of; they committed uncleannefs with greedinefs, Eph. iv. 19.
¥. 9. And there foall be like people like prief, 8c.
No difference between them in their feftivals, the one being as greedy of committing intemperance and uncleannefs as the other, and in their common converfation of life; tho’ the priefts ought both to have given good inftructions, and to have fet good examples; but inftead of that were equally guilty as the people, and fo would be alike in their punifhment, as it follows: and I will puni/b them for their ways; their evil ways, as the Zargums their wicked manner of life and converfation, both of the people and the priefts; efpecially the latter are meant: or, I will vifit upon bim bis ways *; upon every one of the priefts, as well as the people; which vifit muft be underftood in a way of wrath and vengeance: and reward them their doings; reward them according to their doings, as their fins deferve, and as it is explained in the next verfe: or, I will return their doings to them* bring them back again, when they feemed to be paft and gone, and fet them before them, and charge them with them, and punifh for them.
y¥.10. For they fhall eat, and not have enough, &c.] Namely, the priefts; for of them the words are continued, who eat of the facrifices of the people, and of the feafts made in honour of idols; and yet, either what they eat did not fatisfy or nourifh them, or elfe their appetites were ftill greedy after more of the fame kind: or this may refpect a famine, either at the fiege of Samaria, or in their captivity; when they who had lived fo voluptuoufly fhould have fo little to eat, that it fhould not fatisfy them: or though, as others, they eat to the honour of their idols, expecting to be blefled with plenty by them, they fhall not have it: zhey shall commit whoredom, and fall not increafe; that is, their offspring; they fhall not beget children, fo the Targum, Farchi, and Kimchi; or the children they beget fhall quickly die; yea, tho’ they com-
* “SDNSNS the laft &§ is fuperfluous; the reafon of the word being fo written, Ben Melech confeffes his ignorance of.
et ad iniquitatem eorum tollunt animam fuam, Schmidt. Pagninus, Montanus, Cocceius, Schmidt.
» pont poy ITIIPH) et vifitabo fuper eum vias ejus, V. L.
mit whoredom in the idols temple with that view, where the women proftituted themfelves for that purpofe: becauje they have left off to take beed to the
Lord, to his,word, and worfhip,. ‘and ordinances, which they formerly had fome regard unto, but now had relinquifhed: or, the Lord they have for-.
faken, or left off to obferve”,; his ways, his word and worfhip. R. Saadieh connects this with the following words, they have forfaken the Lord to obferve fornication and wine; but wrongly.
¥. 11. Whoredom and wine, and new wine, take away the heart.| Uncleannefs and intemperance befot men, deprive them of reafon and judgment, and even of common fenfe, make them. downright fools, and fo ftupid as to do the following things; or they take away the heart from following the Lord, and taking heed to him, and. lead to idolatry; or they occupy * the heart, and fill it up, and caufe it to prefer fenfual lufts and pleafures to the fear and love of God: their ftupidity brought on hereby is expofed in the next verfe; though it feems chiefly to refpect the priefts, who erred in vifion thro’ wine and ftrong drink, and ftumbled in judgment, J/ xxviii. 7.
y. 12. My people afk counfel at their fiocks, &c.] Or at bis wood*, or ftick; his wooden image, as the Jargum; their wooden, gods, their idols made of wood, mere ftocks and blocks, without life or fenfe, and much lefs reafon and underftanding, and ftill lefs divinity. Reference is here had either to the matter of which an idol was made, being the trunk of a tree, or a block of wood; as the poet > introduces Priapus faying, olim truncus eram ficulnus, inutile lignum: or to fticks of wood themfelves, without being put into any form or fhape; for fo it is reported ©, that the ancient idolaters ufed to receive for gods, with great veneration, trees or pieces of wood, having the bark taken off; particularly the Carians worfhipped for Diana a piece of wood, not hewed, fquared, or planed ¢: tho’ the firft feems rather to be the fenfe here; and either was extremely foolifh. And yet fuch was the f{tupidity of this people, whom God had formerly chofe for his people, and had diftinguifhed them by his favours from others, and they had profefled themfelves to be his people, and as yet were not utterly caft off, as to forfake him and his divine oracles, and all methods of knowing his will; as to afk counfel of fuch wooden deities in matters of moment and difficulty, what fhould be done by them, or concerning things to come. And their ftaff declareth unto them; what methods are to be taken by them in the prefent cafe, or what fhall come to pafs as they fanfy; that is, either their idol, made of a ftaff or ftick of wood, or a little image carried on a ftaff; fuch as probably were the teraphim they confulted, inftead of the Urim and Thummim, and imagined they declared to them what they fhould do, or what would befal them., Kimchi’s father interprets it of the falfe prophets on whom they depended, and whofe declarations they received as oracles. Perhaps fome refpett is had to a fort of divination ufed among the heathens by rods and ftaves, called Rabdomancy, which the Fews had learnt of them;
found among you any that ufeth divination.
or ftaff, and as that fell, fo they judged and determined what was to be done. The manner, according to Lheophylaé?, on the place, was this, ‘¢ they fet up two rods, and muttered fome verles *¢ and enchantments; and then the rods falling ‘* thro’ the influence of damons, they. confider how they fell, whether forward: or backward, to the fight or the left; and fo gave anfwers to the “¢ foolifh people, ufing the fall of the rods for ‘* fions,” The Fews take this to be forbid by that negative precept, Deut. xviii. 10. there Jhall not be So Farchi-and Baal Hatturim on that text explain.a diviner, by one that holds his ftaff; and the former adds and fays, fhall I go, or fhall I not.go?asit is faid, my people afk counfel at their frocks, 8c. the manner of which they thus defcribe °, <‘ when they ‘*¢ are about to go a journey, they enquire before — they fet out, 7. e. whether it will be profperous or no; and the diviner takes a branch of a tree, and takes off the bark on one fide, and leaves it on the other, and then throws it out of his hand; if, when it falls, the bark is uppermoft, he fays this is a man; then he cafts it again, and if the white is uppermoft, this is a woman; to a man, and after that a woman, this is a good fign, and he goes his journey, or does what he defires to do: but if the white appears firft, and after that the bark, then he fays, to a woman, << and after that a man, and he forbears (that is, to go his journey, or do what he. defired): but if the bark is uppermoft in both (throws), or the white uppermoft in both, to a man after a man, and a woman after a woman, then his jour- <¢ ney (as to the fuccefs of it) is between both; <¢ and fo they fay they do in the land of Slavonia.” And from the S/avonians, Grotius fays, the Germans took this way of divination, of which Zacitus gives an account; and it feems by him, that the Chaldeans alfo had it, from whom the Jews might have it. This way of divination by the ftaf, is a little differently given in Ha/cuni®: the diviner meafures his ftaff with his finger, or with his hand; one time he fays, I will go; another time, I will not go; but if it happens at the end of the ftaff, I will not go, he goes not.. For the pirit of whoredom hath caufed them to err; a violent inclination and biafs of mind to idolatry, which is fpiritual adultery, and a ftrong affection for it, ftirred up by an evil f{pirit, the devil; which fo wrought upon them, and influenced them, as to caufe them to wander from the true God, and his worfhip, as follows: and they have gone a whoring from under their God; or ‘* erred from the worthip of their “© God,” as the Targum; from the true God, who {tood in the relation of an hufband to them; but led by a {pirit of error, they departed from him, and committed fpiritual adultery, that is, idolatry; which is explained and enlarged upon in the next verfe,.
¥. 13. They facrifice upon the tops of the moun.
tains, cc.) The higheft part ef them, neareft to the heavens, where they built their altars to idols, and offered facrifice unto them, as we often read in fcripture they did: and burn incenfe upon the bills, like that by arrows ufed by Nebuchadnezzar, Ezek. xxi. 21. This was performed by fetting up a ftick to their idols, which was one kind of facrifice put for all others: «under oaks, and poplars, and elms,
Schmidt; reliquerunt obfervare, Cocceius; deferuerunt obfervare, fo fome in Vatablus.
Ch. 1v..-¥%. b4. and indeed under-every green tree that grew upon them, where there were groves of them raifed up for this purpofe; fee Fer. ii. 20. and iti, 6:. decaufe the foadow thereof is good, the fhadow of thefe trees, of each of them, was large, and preferved them from the fultry heat of the fun, as well as hid them from the fight of men; they could perform their idolatrous rites, as well as gratify their impure lufts, with more privacy and fecrecy; and perhaps they thought the gods delighted in fuch fhady places, and that thele were frequented by fpirits, and the departed fouls of men; in fuch places the heathens, whom the Yews imitated, built their temples, and offered their facrifices *, The oak is a very {preading tree; its branches are large, and its fhadow very, great: hence the religious heathens in ancient times ufed to live under them, and worfhip them as.gods, and dedicate temples to them, becaufe they furnifhed them with acorns for food, and a fhelter from the rain, and other inclemencies of the heavens"; particularly, the oak was confecrated to Fupiter, as appears from what Virgil fays'. The oak at Dedona is famous for its antiquity, where were a fountain and. groves, and a temple dedicated to,the fame heathen deity; and from whence oracles were given forth *. The Druids here in Britain chofe to have their groves of oaks; nor did they perform any of their facred rites without the leaves of them: hence Pliny ' fays they had their name. The poplar mentioned, is the white poplar, as the word ufed fignifies, and which affords a very hofpitable fhadow, as the poet ™ calls it; and this was a tree alfo with the heathens facred to their gods, particularly to Hercules °; becaufe it is faid he brought it firft into Greece from the river Acheron, where it grew; and the wood of no other tree would the Eleans ufe, in preparing the facrifices for Fupiter Olympius°, The elm is alfo a very fhady tree; hence Virgil? calls it, ulmus opaca, ingens; and under this tree facrifices ufed to be offered to idols, as is evident from Ezek, vi. 13. where the fame word is ufed as here, tho’ it is there rendered an oak; but that it is different from the oak, appears from thefe two words being read together, fo that they cannot be names of one and the fame tree, J/ vi. 13. where it is rendered the fey-tree, as diftinét from the oak. Now thefe trees being very fhady ones, and under which the Gentiles wled to perform their religious rites, the Fews imitated them therein, which is here complained of. Therefore your daughters fhall commit whoredoms, and your {poufes foall commit adultery, or their fons wives? either fpiritually, that is, commit idolatry by the example of their parents and hufbands; or corporally, being left at home whilft their parents and hufbands were worfhipping their idols upon the mountains, as Aden Ezra and Kimchi: and fo this
_is to be confidered as a punifhment of the idolatry of their parents and hufbands; that as they commit fpiritual adultery againft God, or idolatry,
‘their daughters and wives fhall be given up to fuch
& Lucus in urbe fuit media, ltiffimus umbra:
vile affections, or by force fhall be made, to commit corporal adultery againft them; or rather the. fenfe is, led by the example of their parents and hufbands, whom they {ee not only facrifice to idols in the above places, but commit uncleannefs with: harlots there, they will throw off all fhame, and commit whoredom with men: for fo the words may be rendered, hence Abar binel,
¥. 14. 1 will not punih your daughters when they commit whoredoms, nor your {poufes when they com- mit adultery, &c.] Either not punith them at all, fo that they fhall go on in fin, and toa greater degree, to the difgrace and reproach of. their parents and hufbands; or not as yet, or not fo feverely in them, becaufe it was by their example they were led into it.
tinent, that God threatens them with the difufe of
Farchi’s note is very imper- the bitter waters of jealoufy. The words are by fome rendered interrogatively, hall I not puni b your daughters, &c'. verily I will; and not them only, but their parents and hufbands too, who deferve more fevere corrections: for them/felves are feparated with whores, and facrifice with barlots, they feparated themfelves to Baal-Peor, that fhameful idol, ch. ix. 10, the Priapus of the Gentiles, in whofe idolatrous worfhip many ob{cene rites were ufed; thefe men feparated themfelves from their wives, as well as from God and his worfhip, and from the company and converfation of men, and in private committed uncleannefs with the women that attended, and with the fhe-priefts that officiated at the worfhip of idols; thole /anétified ones, as the word may be rendered; and after that eat of things offered to idols with them. So the Targum, ‘* they *¢ affociated themfelves with whores, and eat and *¢ drank with harlots.” -Some verfions underftand the latter of catamites, or fodomitical perfons, and of the wickednefs practifed by them in fuch places. Therefore the people that doth not underfland, the law, as the Targum; what is to be done, and what to be avoided; the difference between the true and falfe religion; have no knowledge of divine and fpiritual things, at leaft.are very wavering and unfettled in their minds about religion, having thought little, and know lefs of the matter: hall fail, into idolatry and adultery, led by fuch examples. So the Septuagint verfion, is implicated with a whore; or embraces a whore, as the Syriac and Arabic verfions; fee Prov. vii. 22. and xxii. 14. or fhall fall into calamities, ruin, and deftruétion; /hall be dafbed, as the Targum; fo the Arabic interpreter of Mark ix. 26. Luke ix. 42. ufes the word: tho’ den Ezra and Kimchi fay, that in the Arabic language it fignifies to be perplexed and difturbed, fo as not to know what to do*. The firft fenfe feems to be beft, of being {candalized, offended, and ftambling and falling into fin; and which Adarbinel faggefts, and it agrees with what follows concerning Judah,