Pe OV See
there He ‘treads out the corn, and willingly goes to. it, though it is to labour, as well as to eat; and {o puts [/rael to thame, who were weary of the worfhip of-God in the temple, where {piritual- food was provided “for them, but-chofe not to go for it, ‘beeaufe ‘of labour there. But Ijrael doth not know; his maker and owner, his king, Lord, and mafter, his father, faviour, and redeemer; he does hot own-and acknowledge him, but rejects him 5 fee Fohni. 10, 1. My people doth not confider 5 the ews who were the people of God by profeffion, did not ftir themfelves up to confider, nor make ufe of meats of knowing and underftanding divine and fpiritual things, as the word ufed™ fignifies: they would not attend to the word and ordinances, which anfwer to the crib or manger; they would not hear nor regard the miniftry of the word by Chrift, ‘and his apoftles,’ nor fuffer’others, but hindered them as much as in them lay; fee Matt. xxiii. 13, 37. Ais xiii. 45, 46. The Targum is, ‘* Tfrael does *< not learn to know my fear, my people do not *¢ underftand to turn'to my law.” \ In like mannet, the more than brutal ftupidity of this people is expofed in Fer. viit. 7.:
¥. 4. Ab Sinful nation, 8c.) Or finning nation’, that was continually finning,- doing nothing’ elfe but fin} the reverfe of what they were chofen to be, Deut. vii. 6. Thefe words are faid, either as calling and crying to them, to caufe them’ to hear’and hearken to what is faid, as dben Ezra and Kimchi obferve, and as ‘3m is ufed in JZ lv. 1. Zech: ii. 6, 7. or by way of complaint and lamentation, as Jarchi thinks, becaufe of their general and continued wickednefs, fee 1 Kings xiii. 30. or by way of threatening, as in ¥. 24. and fo the Targum paraphrafes it, ** wo to them who are called an holy ‘* people, and have ‘finned:” and fo the Vulgate Latin and Arabic verfions render it, wo to the finning nation; their ruin is at hand: a people laden with iniquity, fall of fin; they multiplied offences, as is the Chaldee paraphrafe: they were heavy with them, as the word fignifies, yet felt not, nor complained of the burden of them: a feed of evil doers; this is not faid of their fathers, but of themfelves, as Farchi obferves; they had been planted a right feed, but now were degenerate, a wicked generation of men. Children that are corrupters; of themfelves and others, by their words and actions; who had corrupted their ways, as the Targum adds; and fo Kimchi and Aben Ezra. They have forfaken the Lord,; the worfhip of the Lord, as the Targum interprets it; the ways and ordinances of God, forfook the affembling of themfelves together,’ neglected'the hearing of the word, and attendance on the worfhip of the Lord’s houfe: ¢hey have provoked the holy one of Ifrael to anger, by their numerous fins, both of omiffion and commiffion: they are gone away backward; were become backfliders and revolters, had apoftatized from God and his worthip, turned their backs on him, ‘and caft his law behind them. The-charaéters here given, not only agree with the Fews in the times of J/aiab, but alfo with thofe in the times of Chrift and his Apoftles, Mart. Xii, 39. and xxiii. 33..
¥. 5. Why foould ye be firicken any more? 8c.) Or for what are ye ftricken again?* with affictions and chaftifements, with which God {mites his peo-
* THAN a $2 intellexit. So Guffetius fays, it fignifies a fpontaneous application, by which you ftir up you ftand; which is an action leading to wifdom, and-without which no man can be wife. Ibid: p tar. >» 2 VY TAD gravi iniquitate, V. L. Ar. ° FIND 1D’DIN addentes prevaricationem, ar F humorem, hoc fignificari claram eft ex Jud. vie38, Gu Tremellius, ‘ ple by way of ¢ortection for their firs, Ji Wvit rg. Af. vi. t. and the fenfe-is, either that they did not confider what they were afflicted for, that it’was for their ‘fins and tranfgreffions; they thought they came by chance, or imputed them to'fécond caufes, and ‘fo went on in fin, and added"fin’ to fin; to’ which fenfe the Targum; Farchi, and’ Kimchi in-’ cline: or*the meaning is, ‘that! the chaftifements that were laid upon them were to no purpofe, had produced no good effect, were of no avail, and un= profitable to them; and which is mentioned as an ageravation of their fins, obftinacy,' and ‘impenitence; fee Fer.'v..3. Ye will revolt more and more, or add defeftion»; so on infin and apoftatize more and more, ‘and'gtow more obdurate’and refolute in’ it, unlefs afflictions are ‘fandctified; ‘men become.
more hardened by then’: “he whole head isfick, and. the whole heart faint, which may bé tnderftood: either of their chaftiferhents, which wére'niverfal,' and had reached all forts atid’ ranks ‘of men ‘among’ them, without any reformation, and therefore it was in vain to ufe more; ‘or of their fins‘and tranf-' greffions-which abounded among thein, even a the principal of them; their civil rulers and gover= nors, meant by the head, and the priefts who fhould’ feed the people with knowledge and underftanding,’ defizned by the heart; but both were corrupted,’ and in a bad condition. biG y. 6. From the fole of the foot, even unto the bead,* there is xo foundne/s in it, &c.] Every member of the body politic was afflicted in one way or another, or fadly infected with the’ difeafe of fins fee P/ xxxvili. 3. So the Targum, “ from the reft of the’ “¢ people, even unto the princes, there is” none’ “among them who is perfect’ in’my fear 5” fee! Dan. ix. 8. Fer. viii. 10. but wounds, and bruifes,. and putrifying fores’; to which either public ealami— ties On-a city or nation may be compared, Hof v.* 13. or the fins and tranfgreffions, both of fingle perfons, and of whole bodies of men, P/ xxxviii. 5,7. ‘The Targum is, “‘ they are.all ftubborn and’ ‘< rebellious, they are defiled with’ fins.as an ulee- “ rous wound.” They have not been clofed; that is, the wounds and fores-have not. been healed; or’
they have not been preffed or Jqueexed *; in order to eet the purulent matter out of them»: meither bound up; with bands, after the matter is fqueezed out, anda plafter laid on: weirber mollified with ointment; which is ufed for the fuppling and healing of wounds; fee Luke x. 34. °The fenfe either is, that they were not reformed by ‘their affiictions; or that they did not repent of their fins, nor feek to God for healing and pardon, nor make ufe of any means: for their more healthful {tate and condition. © The Targum paraphrafes the words thus, ‘* they don’t’ ‘¢ Jeave their haughtineflés, nor are they defirous of “« repentance, nor have they any righteoufnefs to “* protect them.”, rar
¥.%7. Your country is defolate, &c.| Or foall be; this is either a declaration in proper terms of what is before figuratively exprefled, or rather’a prophecy of what would be their cafe on account of tranfgreffions; and which had its accom partly in the Babylonifh captivity, and 1 the deftruétion of YFerufalem by the Romans; when not only theircity and temple, called their houfe, Matt. xxili. 38. were left unto j whole land; and they were carried captive, and fcattered among the nations, where they have been ever fince: your cities are, or fhall be durnt with Sire; as ferujaicm has been, and other cities in Fudea, Matt. xxii. 7. your land firangers devour it in youg prefence,; betore their eyes, and it would not be in their power to prevent it; meaning either the Babylonians, or the Romans, or both, and efpecially the latter, who were ftrangers and aliens from. the commonwealth of [jrael: and at is defolate as overthrown by firangers; who ravage, plunder, and deftroy all they meet with, and {pare nothing, not intending to fettle there, as thofe who are near do, when they conquer a neighbouring nation. Some think this. prophecy was delivered in the times of Abaz, and reters to the defolation in his time, 2 Chrou. xxviii. 17, 18, 19. but rather, as Foe and
Amos prophefied before J/aiah, he may refer to thofe defolating judgments, they fpeak of, by the locuits, caterpillars, and fire, Yoel i. 4, 10, 11,12, 17, 18, 19, 20. Amos iv. 6; 11. but to confider the words as a prediction of what fhould be in after-times, feems beit; and fo the Arabic verfion reads the words, your land foall be defolate, your cities fhall be burnt with fire, and your country firangers feall devour before you, or fhall be as overthrown by itrangers, being oyerfiown with a flood or ftorm of rain; fo Abendana’.:
¥. 8. dud the daughter of Ziau is left as a cotiage én the vineyard, &c.| The Targum is, ‘ after they ‘¢ haye got in the vintage.”, A cottage in a vineyard was a booth, as the word ° fignifies, which was erected in the middle of the vineyard, for the keeper of the vineyard to watch in night and day, that the fruit might not be hurt by birds, or ftolen by thieves, and was a very lonely place; and when ' the clufters of the vine were se a this cottage or booth was left by the keeper himfelf: and fuch it is fuggefted Feru/alem fhould be, not only ftand alone, the cities all around being deftroyed by the befiegers, but empty of inhabitants itfelf, when taken. 4s @ lodge in a garden of cucumbers: the Targum. adds here alfo, ‘‘ after they have gathered ** them out of it.” A lodge in a garden of cucumbers. was built up for the gardener to watch in at night, that no body came and {tole away the cucumbers, and this was alfo a lonely place; but when the cucumbers were gathered, the gardener left his lodge intirely; and fuch a forfaken place would Ferujalem be at the time of its deftruction; fee Luke xix. 43, 44. as a befieged city; which is in great diftrefs, and none care to come near it, and as many as can make their efcape out of it; or as a city kept; fo Guffetius, who underftands this, and all the above claufes, of fome places preferved from the fword in the common defolation.
¥. g.. Except the Lord of bofts had left unto usa very Jmall remnant, &c.| This is an inftance of the fuper-abounding goodnefs of the Lord of hofts, as the Targum expreffes it; that he fhould in thofe very wicked and calamitous times, leave and referve a few from being defiled with the fins of the age, and from being involved in the general calamity of it; which was true of the Chriftian Fews at the time of Feru/falem’s deftruction; for that this prophecy belongs to thefe times, is clear from the ap- ' plication of it by the apoftle Paul, Rom. ix. 29.
and which confirms the fenfe given of the above!
paflages: the very fmall remnant, are the remnant according to the election of grace, the little flock, the few that entered in at the ftrait gate and are faved, or the few that believed in Chrift,. and fo were faved from that untoward generation; thefe were Zt, referved, diftinguifhed, and fecured. in eleCtion-grace, being a remnant according to it, in the hands of Chrift to whom they were given, and in whom they were preferyed; in redemption by him, that they might be a peculiar people; in provi= dence till called, in which the Lord watched over them to do,them good, and waited to be gracious to them, and faved them to be called; and in effectual vocation, in which he feparated them from the reft of the world, and kept them by his power through faith unto falvation. And this was done unto us; for the fake of his church, that that might continue, and he might have a feed to ferve him: and by tbe Lord of hofis, of the hofts of heaven, the fun, and moon, and ftars, and of the angels there,.and of the inhabitants of the earth; which fhows great condefcenfion in him to regard this remnant, and great grace to them; fince he could not ftand in need of them, having the hoft of heaven on his right-hand, and on his left; nor was there any thing in them that could deferve this of him; but it was, as Farchi obferves, in his mercy, and not for their righteoufnefs:,.to which may be added, that fince he is the Lord of hofts, he was able to protect and preferve this remnant, notwithftanding all the oppofition of men and devils, as he did; and had he not taken fuch’a method as this, we foould have been as Sodim, and we foould have been like unto Gomorrka; cities that were infamous for their fins, and notorious for the punifhment of them, being confumed by fire from heaven, Gen. xiii. 13, and xvili. 20. and xix..24.,- and not only the Jews, but any and every nation,-eyven the whole world, would have been like thefe cities, both for fin and punifhment, had it not been for the diftinguifhing grace of God, in leaving and referying a few for his glory, and the fupport of his intereft. All the holinefs that ever was,.is, or will. be in the world, is owing to electing, redeeming and efficacious grace: there had not been a, holy man, nor a holy ° woman in the world in any age, if God had not taken fuch methods of grace; and it is owing to, and for the fake of this {mall remnant, that temporal judgments are often averted from anation and people, and that the conflagration of the world is not yet; this is kept back till they are gathered in: and were it not for this diftinguifhing grace, every individual of mankind would have. been caft into hell, and muft have fuffered the vengeance of eternal’ fire, which the punifhment of Sodom and Gomorrha was an: example of.
y. 10. Hear the word of the Lord ye rulers of Sodom, 8cc.|. Not literally, but myftically, meaning the governors of ‘Fudea; they and their people having finned in like manner, and as openly as the rulers of Sodom, and the inhabitants thereof; fee ch. iii. g. and fo the Targum paraphrafes the words, “© receive the word of the Lord ye governors, “« whofe works are evil like the governors of So- << dom.” ‘Thefe are called to attend to the word of the Lord; either the fcriptures, which fhould be the rule of faith and practice, from which they had fwerved; or to the word which now came to them
4 As if it was DD", which fignifies a food, or overflowing of water, Hab. iii. 10. to which fenfe Aben Ezra inclines; fo