Exposition of the Whole Bible

all this, the prophet is bid to tell them, that it was for their forfaking the Lord and his worfhip, and for their idolatrous practices; of which they were more guilty than their forefathers, and therefore would be caft out of the land, and carried captive into a ftrange country, ¥. 10, 11, 12, 13. but after all this, they fhould be reftored again to their own land, and have.a greater deliverance than that out of Egypt, as they themfelves would own, y. 14, 15. but before this would be, fifhers and hunters fhould be fent to diftrefs them, and all becaufe of their iniquities, which God’s eye was upon, and would recompenfe, ¥. 16, 17, 18. and the chapter is clofed with the prophet’s prayer, in which he exprefies his faith in the Lord, and in the converfion of the Gentiles, who would be convinced of their idolatry, and made to know the power and name of the Lord, y¥. 19, 20, 21.

y. 1. The word of the Lord came unto me, faying,] The Targum is, the word of prophecy from the Lord: whether this is a new prophecy, or the former continued, is not certain; the latter feems probable. This introduction is omitted in the Septuagint and Arabic verfions.

¥. 2. Thou foalt not take thee a wife, &c.| Not becaufe it was unlawful; for it was lawful for pro-.

phets to marry, and they did; but becaufe it was not advifeable, on account of the calamities and diftrefles which were coming upon the nation; which would be more bearable by him alone, than if he had a wife, which would increafe his care, concern, and forrow. Neither jhalt thou have fons nor daughters in this place; in Anathoth, fays Kimchi, but itis moft likely that Yerufalem in particular is. meant, tho’ the whole land of Fudea in ’ general may be defigned; and though nothing is more defirable than to have children to build up the family, and bear and continue a man’s name for futurity, yet in times of public calamity thefe do but add to the affliction.

y. 3. For thus faith the Lord concerning the fons, and concerning the daughters that are born in this place, &c.| This is a reafon given, why the prophet fhould not, have, and why he fhould not be defirous to have, ions and daughters in fuch a place and country, devoted to deftruétion: and concerning their mothers that bare them, and concerning their fathers that begat them in this land; the land of Fudea, which fhows what is meant by the place before-mentioned; both the one and the other, parents and children, fhould die there; this is what was determined by the Lord concerning them; and therefore it could notsbe a defirable thing for a man to have wife and children, whom he mutt art with in fuch an uncomfortable manner, as is after defcribed; and to fhew the certainty of which, the prophet is forbid to do as above.

¥. 4. They foall die of grievous deaths, &c.] Such as the fword, famine, and peftilence. The Targum particularly adds famine. It may be rendered, deaths of difeafes, or fickneffes*, fuch as are brought on by long ficknefs and lingering diftempers; by which a man confumes gradually, as by famine, and is not fnatched away at once; and which are very gricyous to bear. They fhall not be lamented, neither foall they be buried, which two offices are ufually done to the dead by théir furviving relations; who mourn for them, and exprefs their grief by various geftures, and which efpecially were ufed by the eaftern natioas; and take care that they have a decent burial: but neither of thefe would now be, which is mentioned as an aggravation of the calamity; that not only the deaths they fhould die of would be grievous ones, but after death no regard would be fhown them; and that either becaufe there would be none to do thefe things for them; or they would be fo much taken up in providing for their own fafety, and fo much ° in concern for their own ‘prefervation, that they would not be at leifure to attend to the above things: but they /hall be as dung upon the face of the earth; lie and rot there, and be dung to the earth; which would be a juft retaliation for their filthy and abominable actions committed in the land:. and they fall be confumed by the fword, and by famine; the grievous deaths before-mentioned; the fword without, and the famine within; the one more fudden, and at once, the other more linger-. ing; and therefore may be more efpecially defigned by the death of lingering fickneffes referred to: and their carcafes foall be meat for the fowls of heaven, and for the beafts of the earth; lying unburied; fee ch. vii. 33. ¥. 5. For thus faith the Lord, enter not into the houfe of mourning, &c.| On account of his dead relations or neighbours; fince they were taken away from the evil to come, and therefore no occafion to mourn for them: moreover, this was to fhow the certainty of what is before and after faid; that at the time of the general calamity prediéted, there would be no lamentation made for the dead. R. Fofeph Kimchi fays, the word here ufed fignifies, in the Arabic “ language, a lifting up of the voice, either for weeping, or for joy*; and Farchi, out of the ancient book S/phri, interprets it a feaft s and it is rendered a banquet in Amos vi. 7. and fo may here defign a mourning-feaft, fuch as were ufed at funerals, called by the Greeks Megiermna, and by the Latines Parentalia, as Ferom obferves. Neither go to lament, nor bemoan them, neither go to the houfe of mourning, or the mourning-feaft; to the houfes of the deceafed, to condole the furviving relations, and to exprefs forrow for the dead, by fhedding tears, and fhaking the head, or by any other gefture or ceremony after mentioned. For I have taken away my peace from this people, faith the Lord; all peace or profperity is of God, and therefore called his, and which he can take away from a people when he pleafes; and having determined to take it away from this people becaufe of their fins, he is faid to have done it, it being as certain as if it was done: even loving kindnefs and mercies; all benefits, which flowed from his favour, love, and mercy, as the whole of their profperity did. ¥. 6. Both the great and the fmall fhall die in this land, &c.] The nobles as well as the common people, high and low, rich and poor; none fhall be exempted from the grievous deaths by the fword, famine, and peftilence. They fhall not be buried, neither foall men lament for them; as before, y. 4. this fhall be the common cafe of them all; the great and the rich fhall have no more care and notice language, as Schindler obferves in Lex. col. 1722.

So Stockius, p. 340, 597. who reftrains it to the death of individuals by the pettilence. ” €2/;* magna et vehementi voce preditus, Golius ex Giggeio, col. 979.

* So the word is ufed jn the Chaldee © tice taken of them than the poor: mor cut themelves; their flefh, with their nails, or with knives, to fhow their grief for the dead, and to alleviate the forrow of iurviving friends, by bearing a part with them: nor make themfelves bald for them, by plucking off the hair of their heads, or by fhaving them, and between their eyes; which though forbidden the Fews by the law of God, as being heathenifh cuftoms, yet obtained in the times of Feremy, and were ufually done; fee Deut. xiv. I.

y. 7. Neither foall men tear themfelves, Se. ] Either their fleth, or their cloaths: or, jiretch out’, that is, their hands, and clap them together, and wring them, as perfons in great diftrefs do: or divide, or break, or deal unto them *; that is, bread, as at their funeral-feafts. Thus the Septuagint verfion, neither fhall bread be broken in their mourning; and to the fame fenfe the Targum; fo the word is ufed in J/: lviii. 7. a practice that obtained among the heathens; fee Dewt. xxvi. 14. and now with the Fews, as it feems: which they did for them.in, mourning, to comfort them for the dead; they ufed to carry or fend food to the furviving relations, and went and eat with them, in order to comfort them for the lofs of their friends; but this now would not be done, not becaufe an heathenifh cuftom, but becaufe they would have no heart nor leifure for it; fee Ezek. xxiv.17. Neither fhall men give them the cup of confolation to drink for their father, or for their mother; not give them a cup of good liquor to comfort and chear their fpirits, over-whelmed with forrow, on account of the death of a father or mother; which was wont to be done, but now fhould be omitted; the calamity would be fo great, and fo univerfal, that there would be none to do fuch offices as thefe; fee Prov. xxxi. 6, 7.

¥. 8. Thou fhalt not alfo go into the houfe of feafting, &c.] Which it was lawful to do, and which the prophet doubtlefs had done at other times, but now a time of calamity coming on, it was not proper he fhould; and the rather he was to ab- {tain from fuch places, and from pleafant converfation with his friends, to affure them that fuch a time was coming, and this his conduct was a fign of it; for which reafon he is forbid to attend any entertainment of his friends, on account of marriage, or any other circumftance of life, for which feafts were ufed: to fit with them to eat and to drink; which not only exprefies the pofition at table, but continuance there; for at feafts men not only eat and drink for neceflity, or juft to fatisfy nature, but for pleafure, and unto and with chearfulnefs; which may lawfully be done, provided that temperance and fobriety be preferved; but the prophet is not allowed to do that now, which at other times he might do, and did; and that on purpofe that his friends might take notice of it, and enquire the reafon of it, the diftrefs that was coming upon them, as the words following fhew.

¥. 9. For thus faith the Lord of hofts, the God of Jfrael, &c.} Who is able to do what he here threatens he will, and which he will do, notwithftanding his being the God of T/rael; their hearts not being right with-him, nor they ftedfaft in his covenant. Behold, I will caufe to ceafe out of this place, in your e,es, and in your days, the voice of

mirth, and the voice of gladnefs,; upon any account — whatfoever, civil or religious; and that out of Fe- — rufalem, where their religious feafts were kept, as ~ well as where were often expreffions of joy made on civil accounts; and this fhould be in af fight, it fhould be notorious and remarkable, that they could not but obferve it; and it fhould’be in a fhort time, in their days, tho’ they were very defirous of putting thefe evil days far from them, ~ and were not willing to believe they fhould be at ° all, or however not in their days: she voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride, the Epitha~ lamiums, or marriage-fongs, fung at the celebra- ~ tion of nuptials; thefe fhould ceaie, marrying and” giving in marriage being over; the confequence of which muft be ruin to the nation; a lawful ~ fucceffion of mankind being no otherwife to be kept up.

¥. 10. And it fhall come te pafs, when thou fralt Joew this people all thefe words, ec.) Or, all thefe things *; which he was forbid to do; as marrying and having children, going into the houfe of mourn. ing or feafting, with the reafons of all, becaufe of the calamities coming upon them: amd they fhall Jay unto thee, wherefore hath the Lord pronounced all ° this great evil againft us? as if they were quite innocent, and were not confcious of any thing they had done deferving fuch punifhment, efpecially fo great as this was threatened to be inflicted on them; as their dying grievous deaths, parents and children, great and {mall, and be unlamented, and unburied: or what is our iniquity 2 or what is our fin that we have committed againft the Lord our God? fuppofing we have been guilty of fome weaknefies and frailties, or of fome few faults; which tho’ they can’t be juftified, yet furely are not to be reckoned of fuch a nature, as to deferve and require fo great a punifhment: thus would they either deny or leffen the fins they had been guilty of, and fuggeft that the Lord was very hard and fevere upon them.

y. 11. Then fhalt thou fay unto them, &c.] In anfwer to their queftions; not in a general way, but by obferving to them particular fins, and thofe erofs ones they had been guilty of: Jecaufe your fathers have forfaken me, faith the Lord; that is, his worfhip, as the Targum; they had quitted his fervice, and left attending on his word and ordinances; and therefore it was but juft with him to forfake them, and give them up into the hands of their enemies: and have walked after other gods, and have ferved them, and have worfbipped them; were guilty of grofs idolatry, ferving and worfhipping the creature, more than and befides the Creator; even idols of gold, and filver, and brafs, and wood, and ftone, which were no gods; for there is no other true God befides the Lord; and which they were well informed of, and therefore their fin was the greater to leave him, and worfhip them and which fin, becaufe of the hainoufnefs of it, is repeated: and have forfaken me, and have not kept my law; they forfook his worfhip, as the Targum, and did not obferve the law of the decalogue or ten commands; efpecially the two firft of them, which required the worfhip of the one true God, and forbid the worfhipping of others; and which threatened the vifiting fuch iniquities of fathers” upon the children, to the third and fourth genera- tion, of fuch that hated the Lord; and fuch were thefe perfons, as follows.

¥..12. And ye have done worfe than your fathers, &e.] Not only committed the fame fins, but greater, or however attended with more aggravating circumftances; they were wilfully and impudently done, and obftinately perfifted in; and therefore deferving of the great evil of punifhment pronounced againit them. For behold ye walk every one after the imagination of bis evil heart, they walked not as the word of God directs, but as their own evil heart dictated; the imagination of which was evil, and that continually, Gen. vi. 5. That they may not hearken unto me; to the word of the Lord, and obey that; their minds being blinded, and their hearts hardened, and they obitinately bent on their own evil ways.

y¥. 13. Therefore will I call you out of this land, &c.]. By force, and againft their wills, whether they would or no, and with abhorrence and contempt: it is to be underftood of their captivity, which was but a juft punifhment for the above fins; for fince they had caft off the Lord and his worfhip, it was but juft that they fhould be caft off by him, and caft out of their land, which they held by their obedience to him: into a land that ye know not, neither ye nor your fathers, a foreign country, at a great diftance from them 5 with which they had no alliance, correfpondence, or commerce; and where they had no friends to converfe with, or fhow them any refpect; and whofe language they underftood not; all which was an aggravation of their captivity in it: and there fhall ye Jerve other gods day and night; thould have their fill of idolatry, even. to loathfomenefs; and what they had done willingly in their own land, following the imagination of their own evil hearts, now they fhould be forced to; and what they did for their own pleafure, and at certain times, when they thought fit, now they fhould be obliged to attend to, night and day. The Targum is, and there foall ye ferve people that worfhip idols day and night; that as they had ferved idols, now they fhould ferve the people, the worfhippers of thofe idols; the former was their fin, the latter their punifhment: where I will not foew you favour; or, not give you grace’; the favour and mercy of God ferve to fupport perfons in diftrefs; but to be denied thefe is an aggravation of it, and muft needs make the captivity of thofe people the more afflicting. Some underftand this of the Lord’s not fuffering their enemies to fhow them any favour or mercy; fo Kimchi, ** the enemy fhall have no mercy on you, «© but make you ferve with rigour;” and to the fame purpofe the Targum, connecting them with the people, the idol-worfhippers, and paraphrafing them thus, ‘* who fhall not be merciful. to you;” and fo the Septuagint and Aradie verfions, who shail not give you mercy; or ref, as the Vulgate Latin. The Jews ‘ interpret this of the Mefiiah, whofe name they fay is Chaninah, the word here ufed, whom the Lord would not give them where they were.

¥. 14. Therefore bebold, the days come, faith the Lord, &c.| Or neverthelefs, notwithfanding*, their fins and iniquities, and the punifhment brought upon them for them: or /urely, verily; for Farchi fays it is an oath, with which the Lord fwore he.

would redeem them, tho’ they had behaved fo ill unto him: ¢hat it fhall no more be faid, the Lord liveth, that brought up the children of Irael out of the land of Egypt; this was the form of an oath with the ews, when a man, as Kimchi obierves, ufed to {wear by the living Ged that brought J/rael out of Hegypt; or this was a faét which they ufed frequently to make mention of, and relate to their children, and obferve to them the power and good- » nefs of God in it; and fo the Targum, <<‘ there fhall

‘< be no more any declaring the power of the Lord

¥. 15. But the Lord liveth, &c.|] Ox they fhall fwear by the living Lord or declare his power, as theTargum: that brought up the children of Ijrael from the land of the north; that is, from Babylon, which lay north of Fudea. The Fews * gather from hence, that the land of J/rael was higher than all other lands, becaufe it is faid, that brought up, or caufed to afcend; as out of the land of Egypt as before, fo out of all other lands. The meaning is, that the deliverance from the Babylonifh captivity, was a greater bleffing and mercy than the deliverance out of Egypt; the hardfhips they endured in Babylon, being in fome refpects greater than thofe they endured in Egypt; and efpecially the favour being recent, and frefh upon their mind, it would fwallow up the remembrance of the former mercy; that would be comparatively forgotten, and not be fo frequent and common in the mouths of men; fo great would be the fenfe of this deliverance; where-: fore this prophecy both exprefles the grievoufnels of their captivity in Babylon, as exceeding their bondage in #gypt, and the greatnefs of their falvation from it; when they fhould be not only brought out of Babylon, but alfo from all the lands whither be bad driven them, trom Egypt, Media, and Perfia, and other places: or, whither they were driven; by the kings of the earth, as Kimchi interprets it; tho’ it is certain the Lord’s hand was in it; it was according to his will, and by his providence, that they were fcattered about among the nations: and I will bring them again into their land, that I gave unto their fathers; which had its accomplifhment at their return from the Badylonifh captivity; and will be more fully accomplifhed in the latter day, when the Fews fhall be converted, and return to their own land. Kimchi fays this refers to the days of the Meffiah, and the gathering of the captives; and fome following paflages manifeftly belong to gofpel-times. So Farchi and Abarbinel underftand this and the following of the days of the Meffiah.

y. 16. Bebold, I will fend for many fibers, faith the Lord, and they foall fifo them, &c.] Which fome underftand of the Egyptians, who lived much on fifh, and were much employed in catching them, to which the allufion is thought to be; but rather the Chaldeans are intended, whorh God, by the fecret inftiné&t of his providence, brought up againft the Yews; who befieged Ferufalem, and inclofed them in it, and took them as fifhes in a net; fee Hab. i. 14—17. tho’ fome interpret this, and what follows, of the deliverance of the Fews -by the Medes and Perfians under Cyrus, who fearched for them in all places, and fent them into their own land; or of Zerubbadel, and others with him, who ufed all means to perfuade the Fews in the captivity to go with them, and build the houfe of” the Lord in Yerufalem; and there. are not wanting others, who by the fers think the apoftles are meant; who were fifhers by occupation, and whom Chrift made fifhers of men, and fent forth to caft and fpread the net of the gofpel in the feveral parts of Fudea, for the converfion of fome of that people; fee Matt. iv. 18, 19. Ezek. xlvii. 7, 8: and after will I fend for many hunters, and they foall bunt them from every mountain, and from every bill, and out of the holes of the rocks; either the fame perfons, the Chaldeans, are meant here, as before; who, as they fhould flay thofe they took in Ferufalem with the edge of the fword, as fifhes taken in a net are killed, or prefently die, which is the fenfe of the Targum, and other Fewi/h commentators; fo thofe that efcaped and fled to mountains, hills, and holes of the rocks to hide themfelves, fhould be purfued by them, and be found out, taken, and carried captive: or, the Romans *. So Nimrod, the beginning of whofe kingdom was Babel, being a tyrant and an oppreffor, is called a mighty hunter, Gen. x. 8, 9, 10,

¥. 17. For mine eyes are upon all their ways, &c.] Not only which they may take to hide themfelves from their enemies, and where they fhould be directed to find them; but their evil ways in which they walked, and which were the caufe of their calamities; thefe, how fecret foever they were, were under the eye of God, whofe eyes are in every place, and upon all the ways of men, good and bad; tho’ they might flatter themfelves, as wicked men fometimes do, that the Lord fees them not, and does not take notice of their iniquities; but that they might be affured of the contrary, °tis added, they are not hid from my face, neither 1s their iniquity bid from mine eyes; neither their ways nor their works, their perfons nor their actions, could be concealed from the Lord; none can hide himfelf in fecret places, that they fhould not be feen by him; the darknefs and the light are both alike to an omnifcient God.. The Zargum is, ‘ their “* iniquities are not hid from before (or from, or *¢ the fight of) my word;” the effential word of God; fee Hed. iv. 12, 13.

y. 18. Aud firft, I will recompenfe their iniquity, and their fin donble, &c.]. Or, but firft, I will recompenfe, &c‘. meaning, before he fhewed favour to them, and returned their captivity, ¥. 15. he would punifh them according to their fins; not double to what. they deferved, but to what they were ufed to have, or he was ufed to infliét upon them, punifhing them lefs than their fins deferved; but now he would reward them to the full, tho’ not beyond the meafure of juftice, yet largely and abundantly, and with rigour and feverity. Some underftand,this of God’s gathering together all their fins and iniquities from the beginning *, as they render the word; the fins of their fathers, and their own, and punifhing them for them all at once; or firft their fathers fins, and then their own, in which they imitated their fathers, and filled up the meafure of their iniquity. So the Targum. ‘* and «* J will render to the fecond as to the firft, for ‘* every one of both, their iniquities and their fins.” Because they have defiled my land, out of which he ca{t the’ Canaanites for the, fame reafon; and which he chofe for the place of his refidence and worfhip, and fettled the people of Jae! for that purpole in it; that they might ferve him in it, and not do as the heathens before them had done, and which yet they did; and this was what was provoking to him. 7, hey have filled mine inheritance with the carcafes of their detefRable and abominable f mayyuiy7 ims sary fed reddam primim.

things 5 with their idols, which ‘were not only life- unclean creatures, which were facrificed unto them; and fome think human facrifices, the bodies of men, are meant: places of idolatrous worfhip were | fet up every where in the land, and therefore it is faid to be filled therewith; and it was an vation of their wickednefs, that this was done in a land which the Lord had chofen for his own poffeffion, and had given to //rae? as an inheritance.

¥. 19. O Lord, my firength and my fortrefs, &e.] Thefe are the words of the prophet, rifing out of ' the temptation which befet him; cafting off his’ impatience, diffidence, ‘and unbelief; calling upon < God, and exercifing faith in him; having received ° the promife of the reftoration of his people to their * land, and a view of the future converfion of the’ Gentiles; which were a means of recovering his fpiritual ftrength, of invigorating grace in him, and of encouraging him ‘to exércife it in a lively ° manner; to go on in his duty conftantly, and to bear affliction chearfully and patiently; /trength to’ do which he had from the Lord 5 and to whom ‘he ‘ afcribes it; and whom he calls his fortre/s,: or* ftrong-hold; and fuch the Lord is to his people, a {trong-hold to prifoners of hope, and a ftrong’ tower or place of defence to all his faints: and my refuge in the day of affliction; in which he now'was, or faw was coming upon him, when ‘he fhould be* carried captive into Babylon; but God was his ré+* fuge, fhelter, and protection, and to him he be-’ took himfelf, where he was fafe; and which was’ infinitely better to him than the mountains, hills, and holes of rocks, others would flie unto, ¥) 16.. The Gentiles fhall come unto thee from the ends of the' earth; not the Jews, who were like to the Gentiles? for their idolatries, and other wicked praétices, and* therefore fo called, who fhould return from the fe— veral diftant countries where they had been {cattered, to their own land, and to the worfhip of God in it; but fuch who were really Gentéles; that fhould be converted, either at the time of the Babylonifa captivity, and fhould come along with the Fews*when they returned, and worfhip the Lord with them; or rather in gofpel-times. And fo

Kimchi fays this belongs to the times of the Mef= fiah; when the gofpel was to be, and was preached among them, even to the ends of the earth; and many favingly came to Chrift for righteoufnefs and {trength, for peace, pardon, falvation, and eternal life; and turned to him as toa ftrong-hold, and

| fled to him for refuge, and laid hold on him, the hope fet before them. And fhall fay, furely our fa-

| thers have inherited lies, vanities, and things wherein there is wo profit; meaning their idols, which did not give what their priefts, and the abettors of them promifed; and fo deceived their votaries, and difappointed them of their expectations, which became vain, and fo were of no profit and adyantage to them; a poor inheritance this, which they had poffefied and enjoyed for many generations, which their children, now being convinced of, relinquith; for a falfe religion is not to be retained on this fcore, becaufe the religion of anceftors and of long pofleffion with them.. Paty te; y. 20. Shall a man make gods unto bimfelf, 8cc.} Can a man make his own gods? a poor, weak, mortal man? can he make gods of gold, filver. brafs, wood, or ftone? can he put deity into them? — and when he has made inane Laue he be fo ftupid as to account them gods, re ‘ them?

them? can he be fo fottifh, and void of under. ‘ftanding, as to imagine that any thing that is ‘made by himfelf, or any other, can be God? and ‘they are no gods; that are made by men; he only is the true God, that is the maker and creator of ‘all things or they are no gods themfelves that pretend to make them, and therefore how fhould they make gods? can they give that which they have not? or impart deity to others, which they have not themfelves? Theie words are a continuation of the fpeech of the Gentiles, and contain their reafonings, expofing the folly of their idolatrous anceftors: tho’ fome take them to be the words of God, or of the prophet, inveighing againft the ews for their ftupidity in worfhipping idols; when the Gentiles were convinced of the folly and vanity -

‘of fuch practices, and acknowledged it.

“yt. 21. Therefore bebold, I will this once caufe them to know, &c.| Or, at this time, as the Targum; when the Gentiles fhall be convinced of the idolatry they ‘have been brought up in, and of the vanity and falfhood of their idols; they fhall be made to know the true God, God in Chrift, Chrift himfelf, whom to know is life: eternal, and to know the way of life and falvation by him;. and all this thro’ the miniftry of the gofpel, that fhould be brought among them, the Spirit of God accompanying it; by megns of which they fhould come to Chrift from the ends of the earth, before predicted. Iwill caufe them to know my band and my | might; to experience the power and efficacy of his grace in converfion; quickening their dead fouls, iottening their hard hearts, taking away the ftony heart, and giving an heart of feth and rhaking them willing in the day of his power to be faved by Chrift, and to ferve him, to relinquifh their idols, and turn to and worfhip the living God, in fpirit and in truth: tho’ moft under{tand this. not as a promife of grace to the Gentiles, but as a threatening of punifhment to the idolatrous Fews; that becaufe of their idolatry they fliould once for all, or by this one and grievous calamity, ‘captivity in Babylon, be made to know, what they could not be brought to know by all the inftructions and warnings of the prophets; they fhould now feel the weight of the Lord’s hand, the lighting down of his arm with the indignation of his wrath; and fo the Targum, ‘ I will fhow them my ven- *< eeance, and the ftroke of my power.” Aud they Jeall know that my name-is the Lord; the Jehovah, the felf-exiftent being, the being of beings, the everlafting and unchangeable I AM; who is able to make good his promifes, or perform his threatnings; a name incommunicable to creatures, which don’t belong to the idols of the Gentiles, is peculiar to the true God, who is the Moft High in all the earth; ‘fee’ P/. Ixxxiii.’18.

fi IS chapter is a further prophecy of the deftru@tion of the Fews, with the caufes of

- it, their fins, as their idolatry, which was notorious; of which their own confciences, their altars, and their children, were witnefles, ¥. 1, 2. for which they are threatened with the {fpoil of their fubftance and treafure, and difcontinuance in their land, ¥. 3, 4. as alfo their confidence in an arm.of fiefh, which brought the curfe of God upon them, when fuch are bleffed that truftin him; and the difference between thofe that truft in men, and thofe that truft in the Lord, is illuftrated by very apt fimilies, ¥. 5, 6, 7, 8. the fource of which vain confidence is the wicked heart of man, known to none but God, ¥. 9, ro. and the vanity of ‘it is | expofed, by a partridge fitting on eggs without hatching them, y. 11. and their departure from God, by trufting in the creature, and in’ outward things, “Is aggravated by their temple being the throne and feat of the “divine majefty; by» what God is to his people that truft in him; and by the fhame and ruin that follow an’ apoftacy from him, y. 12;°13: wherefore the’ prophet, fenfible of his own backflidings, prays to be healed and faved by the Lord, who fhould “have all’ the praife and glory, ¥. 14° and then relates the fcoffs “of the people-at the word of God by him, another caufe of théir ruin; declares his own innocence ahd intearity; prays for protection and fecurity from fear in a time of trouble; and for confufion, terror, and deftruction ‘to ‘his ‘perfecutors, ¥. 15, 16, 17, 18. then ‘follows an’ order ‘to hin from the Lord, to go and’ {tahd*in the gate of the city, and” exhort all'ranks of'men to the obfervation of the fabbath, with directishs how to keep it, which had“nor been Obferved by their fathers, and which was another “P'Hierdvoic. par. 2. 1.6, 11. \colh 842. of which —. a7. CC caufe of their ruin, ¥. 19, 20, 21, 22, 23. and the chapter is clofed with promifes of bleffings in city, court, and country, in church and ftate, fhould they religioufly obferve the fabbath-day, but ‘if they ptophaned it, the city of Feru/alem, and’ its palaces, fhould be burnt with fire, ¥. 24, 25, 26;

27. ¥. 1. The fin of Fudab is written with a pen of iron, &c.],Or an iron.tool, fuch as engravers ufé in working on hard matter: and with the point of @ diamond; fach as glaziers ufe. in cutting their glafs; tho’ this is not the word ufed for a diamond in Exod. xxviii. 18. this word is elfewhere tranflated an adamant, Ezek. iil..9. Zech. vii. 12.,Bochart» takes it to be the. Smiris, which jewellers ufe in polifhing their gems. ‘archi makes mention of 4 Midrafh or expofition, which explains the iron pen of Feremiah, and the point of the adamant or diamond of £zekiel, ‘becaufe of what is faid of them, Fer. i. 18. Ezek. iii. 9.. Kimchi thinks the word — Shamir, rendered diamond, is-expreffive of the fubjeét-matter on which their fin is faid to be-written, ‘and. not of the inftrument with which; and then it is to be read’ thus, “ the. fin of 7udab “© is written with an iron pen. (with an iron claw “or nail, of which “mention is made in fome “< Yewifh writings) upon Shamir, or an ‘adamant- ‘¢ {tone;” which is no other than their; {tony heart; as it follows: itis graven upon the table of their heart, where it is fo fixed that it canhot be, tdoted’ out, and will never be forgotten by them,‘ but*al-' ways femembered and’. defired’; fot, “Which they have the ftrongeft affections,. ee and. having thade deep impreffidns there: *dr°this rhay - denote the evidence of it in their own confciences, oul t3 oer Cicrrretich ftone, fee Diofcorides, Hefychius; & StepHanus ‘in ib. mrs BGT See | 20tKI14 of 1 which bore witnefs to it, and which they could not from it, and no longer enjoy it: or, /halt intermit

* deny: and upon the horns of your altars, on which from thine heritage”, halt not till the land, plough

‘the names of their idols were engraven or infcribed, Ais xvii. 23. fo that their idolatry was notorious; their confciences within, and their altars without, were teftimonies of it; and befides, the blood of the facrifices was poured upon the horns of the altar, Lev..iv. 7. and which, as it was done at _ the offering of facrifices appointed of God, fo very probably at the offering of facrifices to idols, and which made their fin notorious; yea, even all the facrifices of the ceremonial law were a ftanding teftimony of their being finners, and carried in them a confefion of fin, and that they were deferving of death, and fo were an hand-writing againit them; for there is no need to limit the fin of Fudeh here to idolatry, but it may include all their fins; and fo the Targum exprefles it in the plural number, ‘‘ the fins of Fudab,” the’ if any particular fin is intended, it feems to be idolatry, by what follows.. ¥.2. Whilf their children remember their altars, &c.] Which is a further proof of their long continuance in idolatrous practices, and a frefh witnefs againft them; they trained up their children in them; who, when grown up, could not forget them, but imitated them, and went on in the fame evil ways. Some render the words, as they remember their children, fo they remember ¢hezr altars', and their groves, by the green trees upon the Ligh bills; they had the fame love to their idols, and the worfhip of them, as they had to their children. This fenfe is received by Kimchi“; yea, they had a greater affection for their idols, than for their children; fince they made their children pafs thro’ the fire to Moloch, and burnt their fons and their daughters to Baal. ‘The fargum renders it, their groves under every green tree; fee ch. ii. 20. and iii. 6. Kimchi and Ben Melech connect green trees not with groves, but with altars; and take the fenfe to be, that their altars were by green trees; fince groves and green trees were the fame, and which altars alfo were upon high hills. ¥. 3. O my mountain in the midft of the field, &c.} Meaning either the temple, called the mountain of the houfe, and of the Lord’s houfe, Mic. iii, 12. and iv. 1. or elfe Ferufalem, which ftood on an hill in the midft of a plain, furrounded with fruitful fields and gardens; or in the midft of a land like a field. The Targum is, ‘* becaufe thou wor- ** fhippeft idols upon the mountains. in the field:” I will give thy fubftance, and all thy treafures to the fpoil; all the riches of the city and temple, to be the fpoil and plunder of the enemy; fee the note on ch, xv. 13: and thy high places for fin throughout all thy borders. The fenfe is, that all their fubftance and treafure throughout their borders, the riches. of the whole land, as well as of the city and temple, ch. xy. 13. and. all their high places throughout the land, which were ufed for fin, for idolatrous practices, on account thereof, fhould become the fpoil of the enemy. 4 ¥.4. And thou, even thyfelf, &c.) Or, thou, and in thee'; that is, thou and thofe that are in thee, all the inhabitants of Ferufalem and Fudea; or, thou even thro’ thyfelf™; thro’ thine own fault, by reafon of thy fins and iniquities: /halt difcontinue and fow, and reap, and gather the fruits of it: this was enjoined on every feventh year, when the land was to have its reft, or fabbath, Exod. xxiii. 10, 11. but this law they did not obferve; and now, therefore, whether they would or no, the land fhould be intermitted, and not tilled and enjoyed by them. The Targum takes in the whole of the fenfe, ‘* and I will bring an enemy upon ** your land; and it fhall be defolate as in the year *¢ of intermiffion: and I will take vengeance of ‘* judgment upon you, until I remove you from ‘¢ your inheritance which I have given unto you;” the land of Canaan, which was given them for an inheritance: I will caufe thee to ferve thine enemies in the land which thou knoweft not; the Babylonians in Chaldea; or, as Ferom thinks, the RKomans. Of the different reading of thefe words, fee the note on ch, xv. 13: for ye have kindled a Jire in mine anger; or by their fins had caufed the anger of the Lord to burn like fire: which fall burn for ever; as it will in hell, and therefore called everlafting fire: here it only means until thefe people and their country were confumed by the enemy; perhaps fome reference is had to the burning of the city and temple by the Babylonians, or Komans, or both. Thefe firft four verfes are left out by the Septuagint interpreters, Ferom thinks, to fpare their own people.

¥. 5. Thus faith the Lord, &c.| Here begins a new difcourfe, or part of one; or however an-~ other caufe or reafon of the ruin and deftruction of the Fews is fuggefted; namely, their truft in man, or confidence in the creature, which is refented and condemned: curjed be the man that trufteth in man; as the Fews did in the Egyptians and Affyrians; fee ch. ii. 36, 37. and in dbrabam their father, and in being his feed, as they did in Chrift’s time; and which was trufting in the flefh; and as all fuch may be faid to do, who truft in their natural defcent from good men, Mazz. ili. 9. Fobm Viil. 33, 39. Phil. iii. 4, 5. they alfo snl in Mo- Jes, in the law of Mo/es, and in their having, hearing and obeying it; which prononunces every man curfed that does not perfectly perform it: the trufted in themfelves, and in their own righteout nefs; defpifed others, and rejected Chrift ‘and his righteoufnefs; and brought an anathema upon them, Fobn v. 45. Luke xviii. g. and all fuch that truft in their own hearts, and in their own works, truft in man, in the creature, in creature-aéts, and involve themfelves in the curfe here denounced. The Yews alfo, to this day, expect the Meffiah to come as a mere man, and fo truft in him as fuch; and all thofe that call themfelves chriftians, and take Chrift to be a mere. creature, as the Arians, and. a_mere man, as the Secinians, may be faid to truft in man, and entail a curfe upon themfelves; tho’ we truft in Chrift, yet not as a man, but as he is the true and living God: and maketh flefh his arm; or his confidence, as the Targum, to lean upon, and be protected by; man is but flefh, feeble, ftrengthlefs and inactive; frail and; finful and corrupt; and fo very unfit to make ' of, or todepend upon: God, and an arm of flefh, are oppofed to each other; as are ale going: Chrift, Felis, and having conta)

1 DMNA VID ADI ficut recordantur filioram fuorum, ita recordantur aries fuarum; fo fome in Vatablus.

P—yAODw") ita intermiffionem facies, Junius parteth from the Lord; as mens hearts may, under the greateft fhew of outward religion and righteoufnefs; and as they always do, when they put their truft in fuch things; every act of unbelief and diftruft of the Lord, and every act of truft and confidence in the creature, carry the heart off _ from God; every fuch aét is a departing from the living God, fee J/. xxix. 13. Heb. iii. 12. ¥.6. For be fhall be like the heath in the defert,. &c.] The Vulgate Latin verfion renders it myrice; and fo the Za¢ia interpreter of the Targum; but the word that paraphrafe makes ufe of, according to R.Hai, mentioned by Kimchi, fignifies fomething that is thorny without, and eatable within; but this is not likely to be intended here. The Septuagint verfion renders it, wild-myrice: it feems to be the fame that is called erice, or ding, and heath; which delights to grow in wild and wafte places; hence fuch with us are called heaths, whether this grows upon them or no. It is a low fhrub, fruitlefs and ufelefs; and becaufe it neither bears fruit nor feed, is reckoned by Pay ° among unhappy plants, and fuch as are condemned or forbid religious ufes; and very fit to reprefent fuch perfons as truft in men and in themfelves, and not in the Lord: aad foall not fee when good cometh; perceive or receive any advantage by rain coming upon it; as fuch perfons do not receive any good by the pure miniftration of the word, compared to rain; and fo the felf-righteous Hews did not fee when the Meffiah came, who is goodnefs itfelf; nor fee him, and embrace him, nor his righteoufnefs; but rejected him and that; went about to eftablifh their own, and did not fubmit to his; nor did they attain to righteoufhefs, or enjoy eternal life; as is the cafe of all felf-jufticiaries: but hall inhabit the parched places in the wildernefs, in a falt land, and not inhabited; which became literally true of the land of Fudea, for the rejection of the Meffiah, and truft in themfelves; fee Deut. xxix. 23. and may fitly reprefent the barren paftures of a man’s.

own works of righteoufnefs, which fuch as truft in themfelves feed upon. All the characters are expreffive of barrennefs, as a wildernefs, places parched with heat, and where falt is; for, as Pliny ° fays, where falt is found, it is barren, and produces nothing.

¥. 7. Bleed is the man that trufteth in the Lord, &c.] In the word of the Lord, as the Targum, in Chrift the effential word of God; fee Pf il. 12. 6. 7. and Ixxxiv. 11, 12. who have a fpiritual knowledge of him, and fo truft in him, P/- ix. ro. who have feen the vanity and emptinefs of all other objects of truft, there being no falvation in them, only in him; who betake themfelves to him as their only refuge; lay hold, reft and rely upon him, as their Saviour; commit their all unto him; truft him with all their concerns, refpecting life and falvation, and with their immortal fouls; and expect all from him, grace here, and glory hereafter: who truft in his perfon for their acceptance with God; in his righteoufnefs for their juftification; in his blood for the pardon of their fins; in his fulnefs for the fupply of their wants; in his power for protection and prefervation, and in all for eternal life and happinefs: and fuch are bleffed perfons; for they are in the utmoft fafety, they are as mount Zion, which can never be removed; they fhall want no good thing, temporal or fpiritual, proper for them; they enjoy great peace now, and in the world to come everlafting glory: and whofe hope the Lord is; the word of the Lord, according to the Zargum, as before: Chrift, who is the hope of J/rae/, our hope, and Chrift in us the hope of glory, Yer. xiv. 8. 1 Tim.i. 1. Col. i. 27. whofe hope is from the Lord, of which he is the author and giver; and is a good hope, thro’ his grace; and which has the Lord Jefus Chrift for its object; who turn in to him as prifoners of hope; and lay hold on him, the hope fet before them; and do hope in him for pardoning mercy, falvation and eternal life. Blefied men! their hope fhall not make them afhamed; they fhall not be difappoint— éd, Pf. cxlvi. 5.

¥.8. For be fhall be as a tree planted by the waters, &c.] Not as an heath or fhrub, but as a tree, a green olive-tree, a palm-tree, a cedar in Lebanon, a fruitful flourifhing tree; and heis one that really is a tree of righteoufnefs, that is filled with the fruits of righteoufnefs; and not like one of the trees of the wood, that grows wild, or as a wild olive-tree, but as one planted in a garden, vineyard or field; and is one that is planted in Chrift, in the likenefs of his death and refurrection, and in the houfe of the Lord; and that not only by means of the engrafted word, and of gofpel-minifters, who plant and water inftrumentally; but by the Lord himfelf, as the efficient caufe; and therefore called, the planting of the Lord; and fuch plants as fhall never be plucked-up, J/ Ix. 21. and Ixi, 3. and not like the heath in the wildernefs, or trees in dry and barren foils; but like fuch that are planted y the waters, which run about their roots, and make them fruitful; by which may be meant, the love of God, and the ftreams of it; the fulnefs of grace in Chrift, and the word and ordinances, the ftill waters of the fanctuary, Pf. xxii. 2. and xlvi, 4. Cant.iv.15: and that /preadeth out ber roots by the river; and which is the caufe of the fpreading of them; fuch an one is rooted in Chrift, and in the love of God, which is as a river; with which being watered, he cafts out his roots as Lebanon, as the cedars there; and is’ both firm and fruitful; fee Hof xiv. 5: and fall not fee when heat cometh; fhall not perceive it, nor be affected with it, being planted {fo near a river: or, fhall not fear; whichis the Cetib, or writing of the Hebrew text; and. is followed by the Septuagint, Syriac and Arabic verfions; tho’ the Keri, or marginal reading is, /ball not fee, which is followed by the Targum, and by us, and.others. The man that trufts in the Lord, he is not. afraid of the heat of perfecution when it comes, nor} is‘ he hurt by it; he does not perceive it, but grows the more under it; when an hypocrite and formal profeffor is withered by it; fee Matz. xiii. 6. 20, 21; but her leaf fball be green; neither fail, nor lofe its colour: a profeffion of faith is held without wavering; there being a radical moifture, the truth of grace, a well of living water, {pringing up into everlafting life to fupply and fupport it: and hall not be careful in the year of drought; for lack of moifture, having a fufficiency.. The man that trufts in the Lord, is, or ought to be, and may be, careful for nothing, but caft all his care on the Lord, that careth for him: whether this year of drought is to be underftood of famine, in a literal fenie; of careleffnefs in which, or ftrength of faith, Habakkuk is.a famous inftance, Had. iji, 17, 18, 19. or of a famine of the word, in a fpiritua] fenfe, thro’ the perfecutions of men; yet even the believer is not folicitous, or in anxious diftrefs;

‘°¥. 9. Lhe heart is deceitful above all things, &c.

This is the fource of the idolatry and creatureconfidence of the ‘Zews, fins which’ were the caufe of their ruin; and tho’ what is here faid is particularly applicable to their hearts, yet is in general true of the heart of every man; which is deceiéful, and deceiving; and puts a cheat upon the man himfelf whofe it is: it deceives him with refpect to fin; it propofes it to him under the notion of pleafure; it promifes him a great deal in it, but does not yield a real pleafure to him; it is all fancy and imagination; a mere illufion and a dream; and what it gives is very fhort-lived; it is but for a feafon, and ends in bitternefs and death: or, it propofes it under the notion of profit; it promifes ‘him riches, by fach and fuch finful ways it fuggefts; but when he has got them, he is the lofer ‘by them; thefe deceitful riches choke the word, caufe him to err from the faith, pierce him thro’? with many forrows, and endanger the lofs of his foul: it promifes honour and preferment in the world, but promotes him to fhame; it’ promifés him liberty, but brings him into bondage; it promifes him impunity, peace and fecurity, when fudden deftruction comes: it deceives* him in poiht of knowledge; it perfuades him that he is a very Inowing perfon, when he is blind and ignorant, and knows nothing as he ought to know, and’ only ‘deceives himfelf; for there is no true knowledge but of ‘God in Chrift, and of a crucified-Chrift, and falvation by him; fee 1 Cor. iii. 18. and viii: 1, 2. Gal. vi: 3. it deceives in the bufinefs of religion; it makes- a mdn believe that he is a very holy and righteous man, and in a fair way for heaven, when he is far’ from that, and ‘the character it gives him; in order to this, it fuggefts to him that concupifcence or luft, or the inward workings of the mind, are not fin; and it is only on this principle that it can be accounted for, that Saul before converfion, or any other man, ‘fhould be led into fuch'a miftake; as to conclude, that touching the righteoufnefs of the law he was blamelefs: it reprefents other fins as mere peccadillo’s, as little fins,“and not to be regarded; and even puts the name of virtue’ on vices; profufenefs and prodigality it calls liberality, and doing public good;’and covetoufnefs has the name of frugality, and» good ‘ceconomy: it ‘dire&ts men to compare themfelves, and ‘their outward converfation with others, “that are very profane and diffolute; and from ‘thence to form a good charaéter of. themfelves, as better than‘othérs;'and as it buoys up power ‘of man’s free*will, ‘to do that which is good, ‘and particularly to repent at pleafure; and it-_puts'the profane finner ‘upon trufting, to ‘the abfolute mercy of God, and ‘hides from hini his juftice and holinefs; and it’ puts others ‘ise “depending’ upon the outward acts of ‘Feligion, "OR upon. {peculative notions, to the negleét oF, godlinels; fee Fam.i,'22,°26. The man of a deceitful heart, the hypocrite, ‘tries to ‘deceive God himfelf, “but he’ cannot;* he ’ oftentimes “deceives *

XXVi. 33, 35, 70, 72,74. The heart is to a very great degree, it is fuperlatively all, above all creatures; the ferpent are noted for their fubtlety, and wicke compared to them for it; but thefe es oy ons tall {hort of expreffing the wicked fubtlety nd deceit in mens hearts; yea, it is more deceitful to a man than the devil, the great deceiver himfelf; becaufe it is nearer to a man, and Can come at him, and work upon him, when fatan cannot: or about, or concerning all ‘things; it is fo in every thing in which it is concerned, natural, civil, or religious, and efpecially the latter. The Septua- Sint verfion renders it, deep; it is an abyfs, a bottomlefs one; there is no fathoming of it, the depths of fin are in it; fee P/- Ixiv. 6. and feeing it is fo deceitiul, it fhould not be trufted in; a man fhould neither truft in his own heart, nor in another’s, Prov. xxviii. 26. and xxv. 19: and defperately vicked, every thing in it is wicked; the thoughts of it are evil; the imaginations of the thoughts are fo; even every imagination, and that only, and always, Gen. vi. 5. the affections are inordinate; the mind and confcience are defiled; the underftanding darkened, fo dark as to call evil good, and good evil; and the will obftinate and perverfe: all manner of fin and wickednefs is in it; it is the cage of every unclean bird, and the hold of every foul fpirit; all fin is forged and framed in it; and all manner of eyil comes out. of it, Rev. xviii. 1. Mati. xv. 19. yea, it is wickednefs itfcli, Pf v.g. itis fo even to defperation; it is incurably wicked", as it may be rendered, it is fo without the grace of God, and blood of Chrift: who can know it? angels do not, fatan_ cannot; only the fpirit of a man can know the things of a man within him tho’ the natural.man does not know the plague of his own heart; the Pharifee and perfectionilt-do not, or they, would not fay. they were without fin; fuch rant arifes from the ignorance of theit hearts; only a {piritual man knows his own heart, the plague of it, the deceitfulnefs and wickednefs in it; and he does not Knowitall 5 God only knows it fully, (as is exprefied in the next words, ‘which are an anfwer to the, queition; fee. i Cor. Hi..i1. 1 Kings vill, 38, Pf, Xie tee

““y. 10. 1 ‘the Lord fearch the heart, Bi " The, inward parts of it, every room and corer in it;, and know the thoughts of it; all its intents, purpofes, defigns, contrivances ard imaginations; all the fecret motions of it, and the wick is in it; fo that this is an anfwer tot in the preceding verfe;. and theref cat OF eh chee: and the Lord tries thef “wheche