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tho” fome read the words, decanfe they divided, or cleaved the mountain of Gilead*; fo Aben Ezra and Kimchi, tho’ they mention the other fenfe: this they did to get into the land of Gilead, as Hannibal cut thro’ the Alps; or rather to remove the borders of it, and lay it even with their own, and fo enlarge theirs; which, as Kimchi fays, was a very great iniquity, being one of the curfes written in the law, Deut. xxvii. 17. thus one fin leads on to another. Some by mountains underftand towers or fortified cities, as Kimchi and Ben Melech obferve; fuch as were built on mountains, which fenfe is approved by Guffetius'.
y¥.14. But Iwill kindle a fire in the wall of Rabbab, &c.) Which was the metropolis of the children of Ammon, and their royal city, 2 Sam. xii. 26, This is to be underftood of an enemy that fhould deftroy it, perhaps Nebuchadnezzar; or of war being kindled and raifed in their country; this place being put for the whole; fee the note on Fer. xlix. 2: and it fhall devour the palaces thereof; the palaces of the king, and his nobles: with Soouting in the day of battel; with the noife of foldiers when they make their onfet, or have gained the victory: fee Fer. xlix. 2: with a tempeft in the day of the whirlwind; denoting that this judgment fhould come fuddenly, and at an unawares, with great force, irrefiftibly, and a tempeft added to fire, if literally taken, muft fpread the defolation. more abundantly, and make it more terrible.
¥.15. And their king foall go into captivity, 8cc.} Not only the common people that are left of the {word fhall be carried captive, but their king alfo, This was Baalis their laft king, who was acceflary to the murder of Gedaliab, Fer. xl. 14. whom the king of Babylon had fet over the remnant of the Jews left in Fudea; which might provoke him to fend Nebuzaradan his general againft him, who put his country to fire and fword, deftroyed his chief city Rabbah, and carried him and his nobles into captivity. Some underftand this of Milchom, or Moloch the god of the children of Ammon, who fhould be fo far from faving them, that he himfelf fhould be taken and carried off; it being ufual with the conquerors to carry away with them the gods of the nations they conquered; fee Fer. xlviii. 7. and xlix. 3. So Ptolemy Euergetes king of Egypt having conquered Callinicus king of Syria, carried © captive into Egypt the gods he then took, Daz. xi. 8. and it was ufual with the Romans to carry the gods of the nations captive which they conquered, and to carry them in their triumphs as fuch; fo Marcellus was blamed for rendring the city of Rome envied and hated by other nations, becaufe not men only, but the gods alfo were carried in pomp as captives: and of Paulus imylius it is faid, that the firft day of his triumph was fcarce fufficient for the paffing along of the captive ftatues, pictures ° and colofies, which were drawn on two hundred and fifty chariots “: be and bis princes together, faith the Lord; which is repeated, and efpecially the: laft words added, for the confirmation of it. The Septuagint, Syriac and Arabic verfions read, their priefts and their princes, as in Jer. xlix. 3. This was fulfilled five years after the deftruction of Ferufalem, as Fofepbus ' relates.; if f Yelammedenu apud Yalkut Simeoni in Jer. vii. 31. fol 61. de TT LOyPA eo quod fciderint montes, Pa inus, fo fome in Druofius, K Vid. Plutarch. in Vita Marcelli & Aimylii.
took it by florm. -Kimchi thinks, as other inter- to fome fact, notorious in thofe times, the truth of which is not to be queftioned, tho’ we have no other account of it in fcripture; very probably it was the fame king of Moab that did it, and the fame king of Edom that was fo ufed, mentioned in the above hiftory; the king of Moab being enraged at him for joining with the kings of Jrael and Fudab againft him, who afterwards falling into his hands, he ufed him in this barbarous manner; or very likely being poffefled of his country after his death, or however of his grave, he took him out of it, and burnt his bones to lime, in revenge of what he had done to him. This was a very cruel action thus to ufe an human body, and this not the body of a private perfon, but of a king; and was an act of impiety, as well as of inhumanity, to take the bones of the dead out of his grave, and burn them; and which tho’ done to an heathen prince, God who is the creator of all, and governor of the whole world, and whofe Vvicegerents princes are, refented; and therefore threatend the Moabites with utter deftruction for it.
¥.2. But I will fend a fire upon Moab, &c.] Either on the whole country, or on fome particular city fo called, as in all the other prophecies; and there was a city called Moab, now Areopolis, fee the note on Fer. xlviii. 4. tho’ it may be put for the whole country, into which an enemy fhould be fent to deftroy it, even Nebuchadnezzar: and it Joall devour the palaces of Kerioth; a principal city }in the land of Moab; according to Kimchi, it was the royal city, and therefore mention is made of the palaces of it, here being the palace of the king and his princes; fee Yer. xlviii. 24. tho’ the word may be rendered cities, as it is by the Septuagint and Arabic verfions; and fo the Zargum, ‘* and ‘¢ fhall confume the palaces of the fortified place;” and fo may fignify all the cities of Adoad, and their palaces: or however may be put for them: and Moab fhall die with tumult, with fhouting, and with the found of the trumpet, that is, the Moabites fhall die, not in their beds, and in peace, but in war, amidft the howlings of the wounded, the fhouts of foldiers, the clafhing of arms, and the found of trumpets.
¥. 3. And I will cut off the judge from the midft thereof, &c.] Either from the midft of Moad, the country in general; or from Kerioth in parti— cular, fo Kimchi; meaning their principal governor, their king, as ben Ezra; for kings fometimes have acted as judges, took the bench, and fat and adminiftered juftice to their fubjects: and I will flay all the princes thereof with him, faith the Lord; the king, and the princes of the blood, and his-:nobles; fo that there fhould be none to fucceed him, or to protect and defend the people; the deftruction fhould be an entire one, and inevitable, for the mouth of the Lord had fpoken it. This was fulfilled at the fame time as the prophecy againft the children of Ammon by Nebuchadnezzar, five years after the deftruction of Ferufalem °, which is next threatened.
¥. 4. Thus faith the Lord, for three tranfgreffions of Fudab, &c.] With whom Benjamin mutt be
N this chapter the prophet foretels the calamities that fhould come upon the Moabites for their tranfgreffions, ¥. 1, 2, 3. and the deftruction of Fudab and ‘Yeru/alem for their iniquities, ¥. 4, 5. alfo the judgments of God that fhould come upen Hrael the ten tribes for their fins, which fins are enumerated; their oppreffion of the poor, their lewdnefs and idolatry, ¥. 6, 7, 8. and which are ageravated by the bleffings of goodnefs beftowed upon them, both temporal and {piritual, ¥. 9, 10, 11, 12, wherefore they are threatened with ruin, which would be inevitable, notwithftanding their fwiftnefs, ftrength and courage, and their {kill in fhooting arrows, and riding horfes, y. 13, 14, y. 1. Thus faith the Lord, for three tranfgreffions of Moab, &c.} Or the Moabites, who defcended from the eldeft fon of Zot, by one of his daughters; and tho’ related, were great enemies to the Tfraelites; they fent for Balaam to curfe them when on their borders, and greatly opprefied them in the times of the judges: and for four, 1 will not turn away the punifhment ¢hereof; fee the note on ch. i, 3. Idolatry, as well as the fin next charged, muft be one of thefe four tranfgreffions: the idols of Moab were Chemofh and Baal-peor; of the former fee the note on er, xlviii. 7. and of the latter fee the note on Ho/. ix. 10: becaufe be burnt the bones of the king of Edom into lime; either like to lime, or for lime; he burnt them thoroughly, till they came to powder as fmall and as white as lime, and ufed them inftead of it to plafter the walls of his palace, by way of contempt, as the Zargum; and fo Farchi and Kimchi: this is thought probable by Quinquarboreus™, for which he is blamed by Sané#ius, who obferves, there is no foundation for it in fcripture; and that the afhes of the bones of one man would not be fufficient to plafter a wall; and befides, could never be brought to fuch a confiftence, as to be fit for fuch a purpofe; yet if it only means bare burning them, fo as that they became like lime, as the colour of it, it could not be thought fo very barbarous and inhuman, fince it was the ufage of fome nations, efpecially the Romans, to burn their dead: no doubt fomething fhocking is intended, and which ufage to the dead is refented by the Lord. Sir Paul Rycaut " relates a piece of barbarity fimilar to this, that the city of Philadelphia was built with the bones of the befieged, by the prince that prets alfo do, that it refers to the hiftory in 2 Kings iii. 27. where the king of Moab is faid to offer his eldeft fon that fhould have reigned in his ftead for a burnt-offering; which he underftands, not of the king of Adcaé’s fon, but of the king of Edom’s fon, here called a king, becaufe he was to have fucceeded his father in the kingdom; but it feems rather to be the king of MJoad’s own fon that he offered; nor is it likely that the king of Edom’s fonw as in his lands; for he would have broke thro’ into the king of Edom, but could not; and then did this rafh action; not in wrath and fury, but in a religious way. The prophet here refers.
joined; for the two tribes are meant as diftin from the ten tribes, under the name of J/rae/, following. The prophet proceeds from the heathens round about to the people of God themfelves, for the ill ufage of whom chiefly the above nations are threatened with ruin, left they fhould promife themfelves impunity in fin; tho’ if they rightly confidered things, they could not expect it; fince, if the heathens, ignorant of the will of God, and his law, were punifhed for their fins, then much more thofe who knew it, and did it not, Luke xii. 47. and he begins with ¥udah, partly becaufe he was of that tribe, left he fhould be charged with flattery and partiality; and partly becaufe of the order of his prophecy, which being chiefly concerned with J/rae/, it was proper that what he had to fay to Fudah fhould be delivered firft: and for four, I will not turn away the punifhment thereof; the prophet retains the fame form as in his prophecies againft the heathen nations; his own people, and God’s profeffing people being guilty of numerous tranferefiions, as well as they, and more ageravated than theirs; fee the note on ch. i. 3: becaufe they have defpifed the law of the Lord, a law fo holy, juft and good, and fo righteous, as no other nation had; and yet was not only not obferved, but contemned: other nations finned againft the light of nature, and are not charged with breaches of the law of God, which was not given them; but thefe people had it, yet lightly efteemed it; counted it'as a ftrange thing; walked not according to it, but caft it away from them; which was a great affront to the fovereignty of God, and a trampling upon his legiflative power and authority: aud have not kept bis commandments; or flatutes ®; the ordinances of the ceremonial law, which he appointed them to obferve for the honour of his name, as parts of his worfhip; and to lead them into the defigns of his grace and falvation by the Meffiah: and their lies caufed them to err; either their zdo/s, as the Vulgate Latin verfion renders it; which are lying vanities, and deceive, and by which they were made to err from the pure worfhip of the living and true God to fuperftition and idolatry; or the words of the falfe prophets, as Kimcbi; the falfe doctrines they taught, contrary to the word of God, directing them to feck for life by their own works; and promifing them peace, when deftruction was at hand, and daubing with untempered morter; and as no lie is of the truth, but againft it, fo one untruth leads on to another: after the which their fathers have walked; after which lies, idols and errors, as in Ur of the Chaldees, in Egypt, in the wildernefs, and even in later times: this was no excufe to them that they followed the way of their anceftors, but rather an aggravation of their guilt, that they imitated them, took no warning by them; but filled up the meafure of their iniquities, and fhewed themfelves to be a feed of evil doers, a generation of wicked men, the fons of rebellious parents.
¥. 5. But I will fend a fire upon Fudab, &c.] An_enemy, Nebuchadnezzar, who fhould burn, waite and deftroy all that. were in his way: and it fall devour the palaces of Ferufalem, the chief city of ‘Judah, the royal city, where ftood the temple, the palace of the Moft High, and the palaces of the king and his nobles; thefe were burnt with fire when it was taken by. the Chaldean army, about two hundred years aftet this prophecy, Fer. lii.
¥. 6. Thus faith the Lord, for three tranfgreffions of I/rael, &c.]. The ten tribes rent from the houfe of David in the times of Reboboam, and who departed from the true worfhip of God, and fet up calves at Dan and Bethel: and for four, I will not turn away the punifhment thereof; the following part of this prophecy is taken up in pointing at the fins and punifhment of J/rael, now the prophet is come to the main bufinefs he was fent to do: becaufe they fold the righteous for filver, meaning not any particular perfon, as Fofepb fold by his brethren, for in that they were all concerned, ~ Fudob as well as the reft; nor Chrift, as others 4, fold for thirty pieces of filver; fince the perfons here charged with it, and the times in which it - was done, will not agree with that cafe; but the fenfe is, that the judges of J/rae/ were fo corrupt, that for a piece of money they would give a caule againft a righteous man, and in favour of an unjutt man that bribed them: and the poor for a pair of faces, that is, for a mere trifle they would pervert jultice; if two men came before them with a caufe, and both poor; yet if one could but give a pair of fhoes, or any thing he could part with, tho’ he could not give money; fo mean and fordid were they, they would take it, and give the caufe for him, however unjuft it was. re ¥. 7. That pant after the duft of the earth on the head of the poor, &c.| Either were greedy after money, the duft of the earth, and even that {mall portion of it the poor were poffefied of; they could not be eafy that they fhould enjoy that little of it they did, but were defirous to get it out of their hands by oppreffion and injuftice: or they were eagerly defirous of throwing the poor upon the earth, and trampling upon them, and dragging them thro’ the duft of it, thereby filling their heads, and covering their faces with it; and caufed them to put their mouths in the duft, and be humble. fuppliants to them. Some think there is an allufion to an ancient cuftom, which Yofeph ben Garion * {peaks of, that a guilty perfon fhould ftand before the judges, clad in black, and his head’ covered with duft; and this thefe judges defired here might be done by the rich, that the poor might be accufed by them, from whom they expected gifts: and turn afide the way of the meek; decline doing them juftice, pervert it, and hinder the courfe of it, denying it to thofe who are humble, meek and modeft; or elfe by one means or another turned them from the good ways in which they were walking, and by degrees at length brought — them to fuch impudence and immodetty, as is next. exprefied, fo Aben Ezra: and a man and bis father will go in unto the fame maid, to profane my holy name; that is, will be guilty of fuch uncleannefs, as not only to have and enjoy the fame harlot, but of fuch inceft, as that the fon would lie with his father’s wife, and the father lie with his fon’s wife; a fin which was not named among the Gentiles, 1 Cor. vy. 1. and whereby the name of God was blafphemed among them, as if their religion taught them and encouraged them in fuch filthy aétions; fee Rom. ii. 24. AD ¥. 8. And they laid themfelves down upon cloaths laid to pledge, by every altar, &c.| That is, the cloaths they took in pledge of poor people, which they fhould have reftored before fun-fetting, Exod. Me _XxiL. & Vid. Ga- ~ c. 44, apud Drufium in loc, _, ads xxii: 26, 27. thefe they fpfead by every altar, of fuch a cuftom obtained in the times of the prophet
- which they had many ereéted to their idols, and on thefe as on carpets they flept by them, as was ufual with the Gentiles; who not only in common ufed to lie and fleep on garments, or carpets; or fkins {pread on the floor *; but upon fuch in the temples of their idols, in order to obtain good dreams: fo in the temple of Amphiaraus in Greece, after purgations and facrifices to him, and to the gods whole ‘names were engraven on the fame altar, they flew a ram, and fpread the fkin, on which they laid themfelves down, and had dreams, the fignification and events of which they prefently interpreted ‘; and Yerom fays *, they ufed to fpread the {kins of the facrifices, and lie upon them, that they might by dreams know things to come, which cuftom in the temple of #/culapius continued to._ his times; and this cuftom might be imitated by the Fews; and fo they are defcribed by fuch, who Sleep in the temples of idols, in the Vulgate Latin verfion of Jf, Ixv. 4. fee the note there; but very falfe it is what Strabo fays, that the Jews were taught this cuftom by Mofes; telling them that fuch as lived foberly and righteoufly ought to fleep in the temple, where they might expect good dreams for themfelves and others, as good gifts and figns from God, which others might not expect: or elfe the fenfe is, they laid themfelves down on thefe cloaths, and feafted on them; it being their cuftom at meals not to fit upright, but to recline on couches; or as the manner of the Turks and other ea{tern nations to fit on carpets; and it was alfo the cuftom of the heathens to feaft in their temples, and by their altars, in honour of their gods. So Herodotus relates *, that at a feftival of uno with the Argives, the mother’ of Cleobis and Biton prayed the goddefs, whom they had drawn to the temple, oxen not being ready, that fhe would give to them what was beft for men; after which prayer, it is faid, they facrificed and fea/red; and the young men falling afleep in the temple, never rofe more, but finifhed this life; the deity judging ‘it better for a man to die, than to live; and this cuftom’
of feafting in idols temples obtained in the times of the apoftles, as appears from 1 Cor. viii. 10. and which was now obferved by the J/raelites, with this aggravation of their fin; that they laid themfelves on the garments of the poor they had taken for a pawn, when they were performing their idolatrous rites; which muft be very provoking to God: and they drink the wine of the condemned in the houfe of their God either wine which ufed to be given to condemned malefactors to cheer and refrefh them; which cuftom among the Yews was founded on Prov. xxxi. 6, 7. fee the note there. The manner was to put a grain of frankincenfe into a. cup of wine, which they gave to the malefactor juft as he was going to be executed, that his mind might be difturbed and become infenfible, and which was ufually the free gift of honourable women, out of compaffion to the fufferer; and if they did it not, it was provided at the expence of the public”; but this feems to be done rather to jntoxicate and ftupify them, that they might not feel their pain and mifery, than to cheer; and is thought to be the potion which was offered to Chrift, and he refufed, Mark xv. 23. but whether