Exposition of the Whole Bible

him or not; and whether fincere or hypocritical; Chrift the omnifcient God knew Peter’s love to him, and the fincerity of it; for which he appeals to him as fuch, Yobn xxi. 17: even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of bis doings; to do which it is neceflary to fearch the heart, and try the reins, the fountain of all actions; and in which the principles of them are, and according to which they are denominated and judged of: in the future judgment every f{ecret thing will be brought into account; the counfels of the heart will be made manifeft; the book of confcience will be opened; and out of it, as well as other books, men will be judged according to their ways and works; and theretore it is requifite that the judge fhould be the Lord God omnifcient, the fearcher and trier of the hearts and reins, as Chrift is.

y. 11. As the partridge fitteth on eges, and batcheth them not, &c.) Here feems to be another fin pointed at, as the caufe of the ruin of the Fews; as idolatry and truft in the creature before-mentioned; fo riches unjuftly got, and thefe boafted of and trufted in; the folly of which is illuftrated by the fimile of a bird fitting on eggs, and not hatching them; being either addled, or broke by the male thro’ luft, or by the foot of man or beatt, being laid on the ground; or by a bird which gathers *, as fome; 6r hatches, as others, eggs it has not laid; which being hatched, run away from ir, and fo not enjoyed by it. The Targum is, ‘* as “« the partridge, or Koraab, which gathers eggs «* that are not its own, and nourifhes young ones *¢ which will not follow it, fo,” €c. whether the partridge is meant by Kore, the word here ufed, is uncertain. Bochart‘ thinks the woodcock, or fnite or /nipe, is intended. ‘archi interprets it, by the cuckow, which is not likely; fince that does not take away another’s eggs, and fit on them; but lays its own eggs in another’s neft, and leaves them to be hatched by it; but it muft be underftood rather of fuch an one that gets the eggs of another, and hatches them, but can’t keep the young when hatched; and this is faid of the partridge, that when its own eggs are broke, it will get others, and fit upon them; and hatch them; but being hatched, knowing her not to be their dam, and hearing the voice of that which is, run from her to it": fo he that getteth riches, and not by right; but by fraud, rapine and oppreffion; fuch are they that will be rich, that are refolved upon it at any rate, right or wrong; and fuch perfons may fucceed, and become rich by illicit methods; but then, as fuch riches may be truly called mammon of unrighteoufnefs; fo they-will not profit in a time to come, in a day of wrath; neither are they of long continuance now: for fuch a man, Joall leave them in the midft of bis days; which, according to the common term of life, and courfe of nature, he might hope to arrive to; he hall die, and not enjoy what he has got together; whilft he is promifing himfelf much and long happinefs, his foul is required of him; and whofe his fub{tance fhall be, he knows not; the riches he has heaped up together, he knows not who fhall gather; nor to whom he leaves them, whether a wife man or a fool: however this is certain as to himfelf, and at bis end fhall be a fool; he fhall appear to be one for getting riches in an unlawful way; for trufting in uncertain riches; for promifing himfelf a great deal of pleafure and felicity in them for a long time, which he could not fecure; and for negleéting the true riches of grace and glory; fee Luke xii. 19, 20,21. The Zargum is, ‘* at his end he is called a wicked man;” becaufe of the unjuft manner in which he has got his riches, and which appears by his end; every wicked man is a fool.

The word here ufed is Na- ° bal, and as is his name, fo is he.

y. 12. A glorious high throne from the beginning is the place of our fanéiuary.| The temple, which was a fanctified place, where the holy God dwelt, his holy worfhip was obferved, and his holy people met together. Here, from the beginning of its erection, from the time of its dedication, the Lord took up his refidence; the glory of the Lord filled the houfe; he fet up his throne in it, a high and glorious one; he dwelt between the cherubim, over the mercy-feat, typical of the throne of grace.

Tibbon is of opinion, that the Cap of fimilitude is here wanting; and that it fhould be interpreted thus, as @ glorious high throne, &c. heaven is the high and glorious throne, where the Lord fits and reigns; and the temple or fanctuary bore fome likenefs and refemblance to it; it was a figure of it; and every place where God is worfhipped, and grants his prefence, is no other but the bouje of God, and the gate of heaven; and therefore it was great wickednefs and ingratitude in the Fews, who were fo highly favoured of God, to’forfak@jhim, his houfe, his worfhip, his word and ordinances, as the following verfes fhew; and which fuggeft another reafon of their deftruction. The words in connexion with the following verfe may be read thus, ‘* and thou, whofe glorious high throne, the ‘* place of our fanctuary is, O Lord, the hope of “© Trael,” Se.

¥. 13. O Lord, the hope of Ifrael, &c.] Of all true J/raelites; fuch as are regenerate perfons, and true believers in him; Chrift is the author and giver of that hope that is in them; the door of it unto them; the objeét on which it is exercifed 5 the ground and foundation of it, or what gives encouragement to it; and the perfon they are hoping for; Old Teftament-faints hoped, waited for, and expected his firft coming; and New Teftament-faints are hoping for his fecond coming, and to be for ever with him: all that forfake thee frail be afbamed; who forfake him as the. hope of

Tfrael, and place their hope elfewhere; in the creature, in themfelves, in their riches, in their righteoufnefs, and profeffion of religion; fuch fhall be afhamed of their vain hope; whereas a true hope,

Gen. i. 10. and elfewhere; a place to bathe in; hence Fortunatus Scacchus, in Sacror. Eleachor. Myrothec. 1.1. ¢..33. col. 159, renders it here, the bath of Ifrael, the Lord; the Lord Jefus Chrift, whofe blood is a fountain opened, in which finners wath, and are cleanfed from their fins, Zach. xiii. 1. and this agrees with the latter part of the verfe, where the Lord is called the fountain of living water; fo De Dieu, on ch. xiv. 8. obferves, the word is fo ufed in Exod. vii. 21. and fo R. Akiba interprets the “ word, faying, “ what is the meaning of "}\P?D, it is that which cleanfes the unclean; even fo God cleanfes Ifrael;” and it is, adds De Dieu, as if you were to call God the pool of [fracl, or a confluence of water, where Ifrael may be wafhed from a hope upon, the right object, on Chrift the hope of I/rael, makes not afhamed; nor fhall the man that has it be afhamed of that. The Targum paraphrafes it, ‘* all who. forfake thy worfhip thall ‘¢ be afhamed;” for they forfake their own mercies, who forfake the houfe and ordinances of God, and the affembling of themfelves together:, and they that depart from me; the prophet; refufing to hear the word of the Lord by him, which was all one as departing from the Lord. Some render it, from thee, as the Vulgate Latin and Arabic verfions; and fo the Targum, ‘‘ and the ungodly that tranfgrefs “¢ thy word;” whofe heart departed from the Lord, as in ¥, 1. notwithftanding their fhow of devotion and religion. Some render the words, that are chaftifed by me; but repent not, and are not reformed thereby; reading not *)D1, as the Maforites direét, and we, and many others, follow; but, according to the letters, and retaining them, 1D! *} hall be written in the earth; havea name among earthly and carnal men, and be called fo, being fenfual and carnal, and minding nothing but earth and earthly things; and fhall not be written among the living in Feru/alem, or have a name and a place among fpiritual men: or they fhall. be of a fhort continuance; their memory hall rot; their names be put out for ever; and their memorial perifh with them; for things written in the duft do not continue, but are prefently deftroyed by a puff of wind, or by the treading of the foot upon them; or they fhall die, and return to the earth, and be laid in the grave, as Farchi and Kimchi interpret it; or fhall perith eternally, die the fecond death, being not written in the Lamb’s book of life.. The Zargum is, ‘* into hell thall ‘© they fall.” The phrafe is oppofed to a being written, or having names written in heaven, Luke x. 20. Heb. xii. 22. which is the fame as to be writ in the book of life, or to be ordained unto*eternal life, Pdil. iv. 3. Aés xiii. 48. and what is the cafe of fuch who are not written in heaven, but in earth, may be feen in Rev. xx.'15. and xxi. 27: becaufe they have forfaken the Lord, the fountain of living waters; fee the note on ch. al. 13;

¥.14. Heal me, O Lord, and I fall be bealed, &c.] _ Thefe are the words of the prophet, fenfible of his own fins and backflidings, and of the part which he himfelf.had in thefe corrupt and declining times; and being confcious of his own impotency to cure himfelf; and being fully fatisfied of the power of thé Lord to heal him; and being well affured if he was healed by him, he fhould be thoroughly and effectually healed; therefore he applies unto him. Sins are difeafes; healing them is the forgivenefs of them; God only can grant this: or this, may have refpect to the confolation of him, whofe foul was diftreffed, grieved and wounded, with the confideration of the fins of his people, and the calamities coming upon them on that account: fave me, and I foall be faved, with a temporal, fpiritual and eternal falvation; fave me from the corruptions of the times, from the defigns of my enemies; preferve me to thy kingdom and glory; there are none faved but whom the Lord faves, and thofe that are faved by him, are faved to a'purpofe;. they can never perifh: for thou art my praife, the caufe of it, by reafon of mercies beftowed 5: the objec of ity whom he did} and would praife- evermore, becaufe of his favours, — particularly the bleffings \of shealing—and falvation by,,him 5 fee Pficilint+4i 4). ho 1 ¥.15. Bebold, they fay unto me, &ox\ « Or, they are faying unto me%, continually; thefeswere their daily flours and jeers: where is the word of, the Lord? that thou haft fo often talked oft; ‘thew haft fora long time. threatened us with a fiegejvand famine, peitilence, and the fword, and:eapuivity, but none, of thefe come-to pafs; where’s the accomplifhment of them?.thou haft pretended’:to shave the word of the Lerd for all this; but wheres it, or the fulfilment of it? fo the Yargum, ** where “is that which thou haft propheijed inthe name. “ ot the Lord?” the; judgments, as punifhments for fin, he.prophefied of,, This: has) been always ufual in all ages, that when, Ged’s judgments threatened have not, been immediately, executed, {coffers and mockers have rofe up, fuggefting they would never come; fee Ma/.ii..17. 2 Pets iting, a: let it come vow; immediately, or well not belicyve it ever will,;, a very impudent, daring: and wicked expreffion: this is like that.in J/v. 1g.0 The Largum is, ** let it now be confirmed 5”) on fulfilled; declaring as their impiety, \fo theirinfidelity 5. not believing it-ever would be-fulfilled. oi) wemeo > ¥.16. As for me, I have not-bapened, from being with fo much ill ufage, and was hated: by, the people for bringing fuch meflages to them, and was jeered and fcoffed at becaufe his prophecies were not accomplifhed; yet he had not been hafty, and folicitous, and importunate with the Lord. tovdifmifs him from his fervice; but was willing to continue in his office as a paftor or prophet, and to follow the Lord fully, and faithfully perform the work he had called him to, whatever difficulties and difcouragements attended him, or reproaches were caft upon him. Some render the words, J haftened not, or I have not urged, or prejed, to be a pafior after thee +; to which the fenfe of Kimchi agrees, ‘* I did not prefs myfelf, or was anxious ‘¢ about the matter, thatI fhould be a fhepherd ‘¢ after thee, or a prophet;’’ he did not run before he was fent; he did not thruft himfelf into - this office; he was not forward, but backward to it, as appears from ch. i. 6. a paftor of the Lord is an under-fhepherd; one that has his miffion and commiffion from the Lord; who obeys him in all things; follows his directions; goes where and with what he fends him; and fuch an one was Fe-~ remiab tho’ it was not what he fought after, and was prefling for; and this he fays to take off the edge of the peoples refentment againft him; to which agree the following words: weither have I defired the woful day, thou knoweft, he forefaw that reproaches and calumnies would be caft upon him, and that bonds and affiiétions would abide him wherever he went with his meffages and prophecies; he knew it would be a woful and miferable day to him, whenever he was fent as a prophet to this people; and that he fhould meet with nothing but forrow, and trouble, and vexation of fpirit; and therefore it could not be defirable to him, as aman, to be in fuch an office, or to be fent on fuch an errand; to be a mefitnger of fuch terrible things, and to denounce fuch woful judg- the words not fo properly, cafigationes mea, = PANS Fy oA ND urfi fe pafter poft te, Noldius, p. 567,

7 958 ON UM TIM ecce ili funt dicentes ad me, Schmidt. 298) ego autem non feftinavi ut effem paftor poft te, Calvin; & me (quod attinet) 4 a * 4 ®

ments; and mitch lefs did he defire the execution of them, even tho’ he had prophefied of them’; having not fo much regard to his own honour and credit, as an affection to the’ people, and a com+ paffionate concern for their welfare; and for all this he could appeal to the heart-fearching and reintrying God. The Septuagint, Vulgate Latin, Syriac and rabic verfions render it, man’s day; fee 1 Cor. iv. 3. but the Yargum paraphrafes it agreeable to the fenfe given, ** and the evil day which thou “* fhalt bring upon them, I have not defired:” that which came out of my lips, was right before thee; as he could appeal to the omnifcient God for the truth of the above, fo for this, that he delivered nothing by way of prophecy, but what he had from the Lord; and that he delivered out truly and faithfully whatever he had from him; and it was all done openly and publickly, and: in his fight, with all fincerity and truth; fee 2 Cor. ii. 17.

y. 17. Be not a terror unto me, &c.] “By deferting him, and leaving him in’ the hands of his enemies; or by denying him fupports under their reproaches and perfecution; or by withdrawing his gracious prefence from him, than which nothing is more terrible to a good man; or by withholding the comfortable influences of his Spirit; or by fuffering terrors to be injected into him from any quarter; and more is meant, than is. expreffed; namely, that God would be a comforter of him, and bear him up under all his troubles: ¢hou art my hope in the day of evil; the author and object of his hope; the ground and foundation of it, from whom he hoped for deliverance, when it was atime of diftrefs with him, from outward as well as from inward enemies; he was his hope in a time of outward: calamity, and in the hour of death, and day of judgment.

y. 18. Let them be confounded that perfecute me, &c.] With words, with reproaches, with fcoffs and jeers, faying, where's the word of the Lord? jet fuch be afhamed, that fcoffingly put fuch a queftion, by feeing the accomplifhment of it: du¢ let not me be confounded; who have delivered it out as the word of the Lord, that fhould be furely fulfilled; let not me.brought to fhame by the non-accomplifhment of it, and be reckoned as a falfe prophet: Jet them be difmayed,-terrified and affrighted, when they fhall fee the judgments of God coming upon them, which they have jeeringly called for: ut let not me be difmayed, by their not coming, or when they fhall come; but preferve and protect me: bring upon them the day of evil;

| fanctification of the fabbath, ay * re G. ae » ee EMIAH. 47% and a very ptoper place to begin a new chapter: go and fiand in the gate of the children of the people, where there were great numbers ‘of people paffing and repaffing; and whither the people rae upon one account or another; or where they dwelt. Some particular gate of the city of Ferufalem {eems to be meant; and not the gate of the temple, as.dbarbinel, Some think the fheep-gate, and others the watergate, Neh, iii. 1, 26. perhaps rather the latter; fince the Nethinim dwelt near it, who were the Gibeonites, fo called, becaufe given to the congres gation of [rae/, to be hewers of wood, and drawers of water to it; and thefe were the childrcn o the people, of the nations of the world, the. ol Canaanites, as well as they were the fervants of the people of J/rael: but what -particular gate is intended is not certain; it is very likely it was one that was near the court, by what follows: whereby the kings of Fudab come in, and by which they go out when they went out to war and returned; or went to their country-houfes and came back; or on any bufinefs and occafion whatever. This fhews a reafon why the prophet was to go and ftand in this gate, firft; becaufe his meflage was to be firit delivered to thefe great perfonages, who had a perfonal concern herein, and who could influence others by their authority and example: and in all the gates of Ferufalem; atter he had been in the former, and delivered his meffage; for it concerned all the inhabitants of the city, high and low, rich and poor, male and female, young and old; and therefore he was to go to every gate, and ftand and proclaim there, as being the moft public places of refort and concourfe, and where people were continually going and coming. °

¥.20. And fay unto them, hear ye the word of the Lord, &c.] Concerning the fanétification of the fabbath; for this was not of human, but of divine inftitution: ye kings of Fudah; which muft be underftood, either, as Kimchi thinks, of the then prefent king and his fons, fo called becaufe they would reign after him; for there was but one king at a times and who, perhaps, at this time,.was Jofiah: or elfe the king and ‘his nobles, the princes of the land, are meant: and all Fudah, and all the inbabitants of Ferufalem that enter in by thefe gates; the people in the feveral parts of the land of Fudea, that came to Yerufalem either for trade and merchandife, or for worfhip, and all that dwelt in the metropolis; for the bufinefs the prophet had to charge them with, concerned them all.

v.21. Thus faith the Lord, take heed to your- of punifhment; which they put far away, and fcoff /e/ves, &c.] That ye fin not -againft the Lord, by at; tho’ the prophet did not defire the woful day to come upon the people in general, yet upon his perfecutors in particular. ‘archi interprets it of the men of Anathoth alone; and which defire of his did not arife from malice towards them, but from indignation at their fin, and for the glory of the divine being, whofe name was blafphemed by them: and deftroy them with double deftruétion, not with two forts of judgments, fword and famine, as Ferom, but with an utter deftruction, with breach after breach, deftruction after deftruction, until they were entirely deftroyed; unlefs it fhould have regard to the two times of deftruction, “firft by the Chaldeans, and then by the Romans. ¥.19. Thus faid the Lord unto me, &c.] Here begins a new fermon or difcourfe, concerning the breaking the fabbath, and fo bring wrath and ruin upon yourfelves: or, to your fouls*; to the inward frame of them, that they be in difpofition for the work of that day; and that they be wholly engaged therein, even all the powers and. faculties of them; and that they be not.taken up in thoughts and cares about other things: aud bear no burden on the fabbath-day; as no worldly thoughts. and cares fhould cumber the mind, and lie heavy thereon, to the interruption of {piritual exercifes of re~ ligion; fo neither fhould.any.weight or burden be borne by the body, or carried from place, to place; as not by themfelves, fo neither by their fervants,. nor by their cattle, nor in carts and waggons, nor by any inftrument whatever; in fhort all fervile work was forbidden: nor bring it in by the gates of y¥. 22. Neither carry forth a burden out of your boufes, &c.] Not of dirt and foil only, as fome reftrain the fenfe; but of any ware or merchandife; in order to be fold in the city or elfewhere: neither do ye any work, any fervile work, any kind of manufacture, either within doors or without; or exercife any kind of trade, or barter and merchandife, or do any fort of worldly bufinefs; nothing but what was of mere neceffity, for the prefervation of life; fee Exod. xx. 10: but hallow ye the fabbath-day, or, fanétify it ®; by feparating it from all worldly bufinefs, and devoting it to the worfhip of God in public and private, {pending it wholly in acts of religion and piety: as I commanded your fathers; not Abraham, Ifaac, and Facob; but thofe that came out of Egypt, to whom, and to their pofterity after them, this commandment was enjoined, Exod. xx. g, 9, 10. and xxxi. 13—17. fo that this was not a novel injunction, but what was commanded from the beginning of their civil and church-ftate; from the time of their coming out of Egypt, and becoming a feparate people and nation, under a theocracy, or the government of God himfelf; being chofen and fet apart to be a fpecial, peculiar, and holy people to himfelf, of which the fanctification of the fabbath was a fign; and was to be obferved unto the Meffiah’s coming, the fum and fubitance of it, Col. ii. 16, 17.

fo as to obferve and do; that is, their fathers did not; this command was very early difobeyed, and more or lefs in all intervening times: neither inclined their ear, ox liftened attentively to what was faid to them; but if they heard at all, it was in a very indifferent and carelefs manner, as if they cared not whether they heard or no; whereas perfons intent on hearing, bow the head, and turn the ear; and if they have one. better than another, will turn that, in order to take in what they are attentive to; but fo did not the Yewsh fathers: but made their neck ftiff; or bard*; and would not bend it, to take upon them the yoke of the commandments: a metaphor taken from untamed oxen, that will not fubmit the neck to the yoke, but draw back from it. The Septuagint and Arabic verfions underftand all this, not of the Fewi/h fathers of old, but of their children, even of the then prefent generation, rendering the words, ut hardened their neck more than their fathers; they were more ftiff-necked, refractory, and difobedient than they were; this was always the character of this people; as were the fathers, fo were the children, if not worfe; fee fs vii. 51: that they might not hear nor receive inftruGtion, about the command of the fabbath, or any other: or correttion, or difcipline*; the yoke of which they were as unwilling to bear, as the yoke of the commandments, ‘Yer. xxxi. 18.

¥. 24. And it fhall come to pafs, &c.] Or, yet it fhall come to pafs*; {0 it fhall be, notwithftanding all former difobedience and rebellion: if ye diligently hearken unto me, faith the Lord; or, in obey the command given before-mentioned, fo a$ to bring in no burden through the gates of this caty on the fabbath-day, to be bought or fold, or to be wrought on or with; and fo likewife to ¢ nothing out of their houfes or city, which, thoug not expreffed, is underftood as before; and this refpects not only the city of Fcru/alem, but all other cities and towns in Yudea; for the word of the Lord, concerning this matter, was fent to all 7xdab, the whole land of Judea, ¥. 20: but ballow the fabbath-day, to do no work therein, one part of the fanctification of the fabbath lay in a ceffation from all fervile work, tho’ not wholly, but alio in the obfervance of religious worfhip, and the one was in order to the other; for unlefs they ab- {tained from worldly bufinefs, they could not be at leifure to attend divine fervice. |

¥. 25. Iben fhall there enter into the gates of this city, &c.} In a very publick and iplendid manner: kings and princes fitting upon the throne of David; that is, kings, with the princes of the blood, or with their nobles, who fhall be of the houie and line of David; and in a continual fucceffion fha!l fit upon his throne, and poffefs the kingdom of the houfe of Fudcb, and rule over them in great glory, peace, and profperity: riding in chariots and on horfes, they and their princes, the men of Fudab, and the inhabitants of Ferufalem, fome riding in chariots, and fome on horfes; the king, with fome of the princes of the blood, in one chariot; his nobles in others, or on horfeback; with great numbers of the citizens of Ferufalem, and people from all parts, flocking to fee them, and join in the proceffion, and fo make it more grand and auguit: and this city fhall remain for ever, or, be inhabited for ever»; a long time, and not be deftroyed, as has been threatened, or its inhabitants carried captive.

y. 26. And they fhall come from the cities of Fxdab, &c.} That is, men fhall come from all parts of the land of Fudea to the city of Ferufalem, and to the temple; efpecially at the times of their folemn feafts, three times a year, as the law directed: and from the places about Ferufalem, and from all the towns and villages adjacent to it, juch as Bethany and Bethphage, and many others: and from the land of Benjamin, which tribe continued with the tribe of Fudgh when the reft revolted, and was now with it, and ftill would continue*with it, and join with it in religious worfhip, were they careful to obferve what the Lord commanded them: and

from the plain, and from the mountains, and from

the fouth, thefe refpect the feveral parts of the land of Fudah, which, the Fews ‘ fay, was divided into three parts, the mountain, plain or champaign country, and the valley: the p/aim was that part where Lydda and other cities were; the mountain is the fame with the hill-country of Judea, Luke i. 39, 65. and the /outh, the fouthern part of the land, that which is called the wildernefs of Fudea, of which fee Fo/b. xv. 20—63. The above Jewi/b writers fay *, that from Bethoron to Emmaus was the mountain or hill-country; from Emmaus to Lydda the plain, and from Lydda to the fea the valley; now, from all thefe places fhould perfons come to the temple: dringing burnt-offerings and hearing hear *®; hearken attentively, and readily /acrifices, and meat-offerings and incenfe; Sacrifices,

and offerings of all forts, according to the law; hereby iignifying, that if the fabbath was obferved, as it would go well with the kings and princes of Fudab, they would keep a fplendid court, and have a numerous retinue, fo it would be well with the prieits that ferved at the altar; facrifices would be brought to them, of which they would have their part, as well as God have glory by an obedience to his laws; and befides thefe, other facrifices would alfo be brought, as follows: and bringing facrifices of praife unto the houfe of the Lord; thank-offerings for mercies received and deliverances wrought, as well as facrifices for fins ccmmitted; and this was one fort of the peace-offerings, Lev, vil, 11—15.

y. 27. But if ye will not hearken unto me, &c.] With refpect to this particular point, more efpe- ‘cially: to hallow the fabbath-day, to keep it holy to the Lord in a religious way, in the exercife of the duties of religion, both publick and private: and not to bear a burden, even entering in at the gates of Ferufalem on the fabbath-day; or, and go through, or, fo as to go through ', &c. and may intend either one and the fame thing, namely, entering in at the gates with a burden upon the fhoulders; or two things, bearing a burden, and Carrying it any where in or out of the city; and an unneceffary paffing and repaffing thro’ the gates of the city, whether a man has or has not a burden upon him, fince the fabbath might be violated either way: then will I.kindle a fire in the gates thereof; where the prophet was to publifh all this, and where the people finned by paffing and repaffing, and carrying burdens in and out on the fabbath-day: and it fhall devour the palaces of Ferufalem, the king’s palace, and the palaces of the princes and nobles, as well as the cottages of the poorer fort: and it fhall not be quenched; until it has utterly deftroyed the city: this was fulfilled by the Chaldeans, ch. lii. 13. The Fews fay, there’s no fire kindled, but where the fabbath is prophaned; and that Yeru/alem was deftroyed, becaufe they prophaned the fabbath

HIS chapter-exprefies the fovereign power of God over his creatures, and his ufual methods of dealing with them; it threatens deftruction to the Fews for their idolatry, and is clofed with the prophet’s complaint of his perfecutors, and with imprecations upon them. The fovereign power of God is exprefied under the fimile of a potter working in his fhop, and making and marring veffels at pleafure, ¥. 1, 2, 3, 4. the ’ application of which to God, and the houfe of J/- rael, isin ¥. 5, 6. and is illuftrated by his ufual dealings with kingdoms and nations; for tho’ he is a fovereign being, yet he acts both in a kind and equitable way; and as the potter changes his work, fo he changes the difpenfations of his providence, of which two inftances are given; the one is, that having threatened ruin to a nation, upon their repentance and good behaviour he revokes the threatening, ¥. 7, 8. and the other is, that having made a declaration of good to a people, upon their fin and difobedience he recalls it, and punifhes them for their wickednefs, ¥. 9, 10. then follows a prophecy of the deftruction of the Fews in particular, in which they are exhorted to repentance to prevent it; their obftinacy is obferved; their folly in departing from God, and worfhipping idols, is expofed; and they are threatened with utter ruin, ¥. 11—17. the confpiracy and evil defigns of the Fews againft the prophet, their malice and ingratitude, are complained of by him, y. 18, 19, 20. his imprecations upon them, and prayers for their deftruction, are delivered out in ¥. 21, 225 23s y. 1. The word which came to Feremiah from the Lord, faying,| ‘The word of prophecy, as the Zargum: this is a diftinét prophecy from the former, tho’ it may be conneéted with it; it referring to the deftruction threatened in the latter part of the preceding chapter.

* Apud Kimchi & Ben Melech in

¥.2. Arife, and go down to the potter’s houfe, &c.] Which, no doubt, was well known to the prophet; but where it was, is not certain. Some think Feremiah was in the temple, and this houfe was beneath it, and therefore he is bid to go down to it; but of this there is no certainty, nor even probability: it is moft likely that this houfe was without the city, perhaps near the potter’s field, Matt. xxvii. 10. and which lying low, he is ordered to go down to it: and there I will caufe thee to bear my words; there the Lord would tell him what he had further to fay to him, and what he fhould fay to the people; and where by lively reprefentations, by fenfible objects before him, he would caufe him to underftand more clearly what he faid and defigned to do: as God fometimes reprefented things to the minds of the prophets in dreams and vifions, fetting before them mental objects, and raifing in their minds ideas of things; fo fometimes he reprefented things to them by real vifible objects, and by fimilies taken from thence, conveyed unto them a clear and diftinét knowledge of his mind and will, and they to the people; which was the cafe here. ¥. 3. Ibhen I went down to the potter's houfe, &c.] He did as the Lord commanded him; he was obedient to the divine will; he went to hear what the Lord had to fay to him there, and to obferve fuch things, from whence he might learn in- - ftruction for himfelf and others: and bebold, he wrought a work on the wheels; the Targum renders it, upon a feat, or his feats, as Funius and Tremellius; but it fignifies not the inftrument on which the potter fat whilft he worked, but that on which he did his work. The Septuagint verfion renders it, on fiones"; and R. Fonab ° fays, that in fome countries the potter’s inftrument is in the likenefs of two mill-ftones, the lowermoft is the greateft, and the uppermoft is the leaft. Or rather the word may fignify frames or moulds ® made of ftone, in 8 yaNn dy, in which the potter put his clay, and fathioned it: tho’ I fee no reafon to depart from the fignification of wheels, which are ufed in the potter’s work, even two of them; and fo the word here is of the dual number; tho’ one is more properly called the wheel, and the other the /athe, and are defcribed

as follows: ‘© The potter’s wheel confifts principally in its nut, which is a beam or axis, whofe foot or pivot plays perpendicularly on a free- {tone-fole or bottom; from the four corners a-top of this beam, which does not exceed two feet in height, arife four iron bars, called the fpokes of the wheel; which forming diagonal lines with the beam, defcend, and are faftened at bottom to the edges of a {trong wooden circle, four feet in diameter, perfectly like the felloes of a coachwheel; except that it hath neither axis nor radit, and is only joined to the beam, which ferves it as an axis, by the iron-bars. The top of the nut is flat, of a circular figure, and a foot in diameter.. On this is laid a piece of the clay or earth to be turned and fafhioned. The wheel thus difpofed, is encompafied with four fides of four different pieces of wood, fuftained in a wooden frame: the hind-piece, which is that whereon the workman fits, is made a little inclining towards the wheel: on the fore-piece are placed the pieces of prepared earth: laftly, the fide-pieces ferve the workman to reft his feet againft; and are made inclining, to give him more or lefs room, according to the fize of the veffels to be turned; by his fide is a trough of water, wherewith from time to time he wets his hands, to prevent the earth fticking to them. —The potter having prepared his clay or earth, and laid a piece of it fuitable to the work he intends, on the top of the beam, fits down; his thighs and legs much expanded, and his feet refted on the fide-pieces, as is moft convenient. In this fituation he turns the wheel round, till it has got the proper velocity; when wetting his hands in the water, he bores the cavity of the veffel, continuing to widen it from the middle; and thus turns it into form, turning the wheel afrefh, and wetting his hands from time to time.—The potter’s /athe is alfo a kind of wheel, but fimpler and flighter than the former; its three chief members are an iron beam or axis, three feet and an half high, and two inches in diameter; a little wooden wheel all of a piece, an inch thick, and feven or eight in diameter, placed horizontally a-top of the beam, and ferving to form the veffel on; and another larger wooden wheel all of piece, three inches thick, and two or three feet broad, faftened to the fame beam at the bottom, parallel to the horizon. The beam or axis turns by a pivot at bottom, in an iron ftand. The workman gives the motion to the lathe with his feet, by pufhing the great wheel alternately with each foot; {till giving it a lefler or greater degree of motion as his work requires 3.” Thus Zere-

miah {aw the potter work, or fomewhat like this; for no doubt pottery, as other things, has been improved fince his time.

¥. 4. And the veffel that be made of clay, &c.] Which is the matter the veflel is made of: was marred in the hand of the potter; whilft he was read in the margin of our bibles. momento ut loquutus fuero, Tigurine verfion.

; eayyn pa ond wy son ws on corruptum eft vas quod ille faciens (erat) ficut lutum (folet) in manu figali, Schmidt, Montaiiaie So Abarbinel; and * "2°IN YIF momento loquor, Schmidt; momento eloquor, Junius & working it; either it fel/, as the Septuagint verfion renders it, out of his hands, or from the beam on which it was laid; or was fpoiled by fome means or other, fo that it was not fit for the purpofe he firft intended it: or the words fhould be read, according to fome copies, and the veffél was marred which he made, as clay in the hand of the potter *; while it was clay; or moift, as Yarchi interprets it; and while it was in his hands, forming and fafhioning it: fo be made it again another veffel; put it into another form and fhape it would better ferve: as feemed good to the potter to make it; juft as he pleafed, and as his judgment in his art direéted him; he having power over the clay to mould it as he would, and as it beft anfwered fo to do.

¥. 5. Then the word of the Lord came unto me, Jaying,| Whilft he was in the potter’s houfe; and after he had obferved his manner of working, and the change he had made in his work, the Lord fpoke to him, and applied it in the following manner ii y. 6. O boufe of Ifrael, cannot I do with you as this potter, faith the Lord? &c.] Make, and marr, and remake at pleafure? certainly he could. God is a fovereign being, and has a fovereign and uncontroulable power over his creatures; he has an indifputable right unto them, and can difpofe of them as he pleafes; he has as good a right to them, and as great power over them, as the potter has to and over his clay, and a better and greater; fince they are made-by him, and have their all from | him, their being, life, and motion; whereas the clay is not made by the potter; it is only the veffel that is made of the clay by him, which has its form from him; if therefore the potter has fuch power over the clay, which he did not make, as to caft it into another form as it pleafes him, and efpecially when marred; the Lord hag an undoubted power over men, and a juft right to change their flate and circumftances as he pleafes; nor have they any reafon to complain of him, efpecially when they have marred themfelves by their own fins and tranfgreffions; which was the prefent cafe of the houfe of Jrae/, or the Fews; fee If xxix. 16. and xlv. 9. Rom. ix. 20,21. Bebold, as the clay is in the potter’s hand; and he can form and fafhion it as he pleafes, and it is not in the power of the clay to refift and hinder him: /o are ye in mine band, O houfe of Ifrael; and 1 can difpofe of you as I pleafe, and put you in what circumftances it feems good unto me, drive-you from your land, and fcatter you among the nations; nor can you hinder me from doing this, or whatever elfe is my pleafure. And this his fovereign power and pleafure, and as exercifed in a way of mercy and equity, are exemplified in the following cafes.;

y. 7. At what inftant I foal fpeak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, &c.| By way of threatening: or, the moment I foall fpeak*, 8c. as foon as ever I have declared concerning an ple whatever, Fews or Gentiles’; that if they go on in their fins, and remain impenitent, and do not turn from them, that they muft expeé I will quickly come out againft fuch a nation and king- om in a providential way, as threatened: 70 pluck up, and to pull down, and to deftroy it; as the pro- — prietor of a garden, when it don’t turn to his account

2) fed us it is Tremellius 5 count, plucks up the plants, and pulls down the | fences, and lets it go to ruin.,

¥. 8. If that nation againft whom I have pronounced, &c.] Such a fentence as this, fhould immediately, upon the above.declaration, do as Niniveh did: turn from their evil; their evil of fin, their evil ways and works, as an evidence of the truth of their repentance for former fins: J will repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them; as they change their courfe of life, God will change the difpenfations of his providence towards them, and not bring upon them the evil of punifhment he threatened them with; in which fenfe repentance can only be underftood of God, he doing that which is fimilar to what men do when they repent of any thing; they ftop their proceedings, and change their outward conduct; fo God proceeds not to do what he threatened to do, and changes his outward behaviour to men; he wills a change, and makes one in his methods of acting, but never changes his will.

¥. 9. And at what inftant I fhall [peak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, &c.| By way of promife on the other hand: or, and the moment I fhall fpeak, &c. as in ¥. 7. in favour to a people; fignifying, that if they do that which is right and good, and continue therein, it may be expected that I will appear for and among fuch a nation and kingdom: to build, and to plant it; to build up its fences that have been broken down, and to plant it with pleafant plants, and make it profperous and flourifhing, and protect and defend it, and keep it fafe, and in a fecure condition; fo that it fhall be in very thriving circumftances, and be out of the power of its enemies to hurt it.. y. 10. If it do evil in my fight, &c.] What is finful, contrary to the law and will of God, openly and publickly, in a bold and daring manner:: that it obey not my voice; in my word, and by my prophets, but turn a deaf ear to them, and flight and defpife all inftruétions, admonitions, and reproofs: then I will repent of the good, wherewith I faid I would benefit them, or, do them good‘; that is, withhold it from them, and not beftow it on them; but, on the contrary, correct or punifh them according to their deferts. Thus, tho’ God is a fovereign God, yet in the difpenfations of his providence towards kingdoms and nations, he deals with them in fuch a merciful and equitable manner, that there is no juft reafon to complain of him; and yet he maintains and keeps up his power and authority, fuch as the potter exercifes over the clay.;

ra 11. Now therefore go to, &c.] This is the application of the above general rules of procedure to the people of the Yews, and particularly that which relates to the deftruction of a nation or kingdom, and the declaration of it in order to reclaim them: peak to the men of Fudab, and to the inhabitants of Ferufalem, faying, thus faith the Lord; or, to the man of Fudah“; the body of the Fewifh nation, and efpecially the inhabitants of the metropolis of it; which,was the fource of fin to the whole kingdom, and on which the calamity threatned would chiefly come, if not prevented by a reformation: behold, I frame evil againft you; as the potter frames his clay upon the wheel, to which the allufion is; which is to be underftood of the evil of punifhment, but not of any fecret purpofe, and fettled determination, in the mind of God te bring it upon them; for that is, never difannulled by himfelf-or others, or ever changed; but fome operation in providence, which began to work towards their deftruction; fome providential, ftep which God had taken, anid which threatened their ruin: and devife a device againft you; the fame as before; by which it looked as if he had thought of the matter, and had contrived’a fcheme, which if he went on with, would iffue in the fubverfion of their whole ftate: return you every one frim,-bis evil way; that fo the reformation may be as general as the cotruption was: it fuppofes a fenfe of the evil of their former conduét, and repentance for their fins; of which their forfaking and ab- {taining from them would be an evidence: and make your ways and your doings good; for it is not fufficient barely to abftain from fin, which is.only a negative holinefs; but there muft be a performance of good works, a walking in them, a conftant feries and courfe of obedience to God, according to the rule of his word.

¥. 12. And they faid; there is no hope, &c.] Or; but they faid™; not that there was no hope of the grace and mercy of God upon their repentance and reformation, for that is before declared; but that they were fo hardened in their fins, fo fixed in their wicked courfes,: and fo determined to go on in them, that there was no. room for the prophet _ to hope of ever reclaiming them; fignifying, that it was to little purpofe to.talk to them, or exhort them, his labour would be in vain; for they were at a point, and refolved to continue in their evil practices, let the confequences be what they would. Farchi’s note is, ** but I know that they will fay “ to thee concerning thy words, that we don’t ** care for them;”’ no not a rufh, you may as well hold your peace and fay nothing; we are in no pain about future judgments, thefe give us no uneafinefs. The Zargum is, ‘* we ate turned *¢ from thy worfhip;’’. and we are refolyed to continue as we are, and not to return to it, fay what you will: dut we will walk after our own devices; God may take his way, and we will take ours; he has devifed evil againft us, you fay, and he may bring it if he pleafes; we have devifed fin, and we'll go on in it: and we will do every one the imagination of bis evil heart; whatfoever our hearts fuggeft to us as pleafant and agreeable, that we’ll do, let the iffue be what it will: it is not to be thought that thefe people exprefled themielves in fo many words; but this was the language of their’ hearts, and of their actions, known unto the Lord, and are put into this form by him, or by the prophet, expreffing the real fentiments of their minds.

y¥. 13. Therefore thus faith the Lord, &c.| This being the cafe of the people of the ews, and they fo refolutely bent on their own ways: afk ye among the heathen; enquire among the nations of the world, the Gentiles that know not the true God, and have not the external revelation of his will, only the dim light of nature to guide them; and fee if any thing like this is to be found among them, as with this people, favoured with the law of God, his word and ordinances to direct them, and his prophets to teach and inftruct them; fuggefting, that they were worfe than the heathens, and that it would be more tolerable for them one day, than

Toms sod ad benefaciendum ei, Montanus; ut benefacerem ei, Vatablus, Pagninus; henefacturum ej, Junius & Tre- we Spe ad virum Jehudah, Montanus, Cocceius, Schmidt.

than for thefe people: who bath heard fuch things? as exprefled in the preceding verfes; fuch defperate words, fuch bold and daring expreffions, fuch impious refolutions; for generally when perfons are reproved and threatened for fin, they promife amendment; or what is after related concerning their idolatries; intimating that nothing like it was ever heard of among the Gentiles; fee ch. ii. 10,11: the virgin of I/rael hath done a very horrible thing; the congregation of Jfrael, as the Targum; the people of the ews, ironically fo called; becaufe they had been efpoufed to the Lord as a chafte virgin, and ought to have remained fo, pure and incorrupt in the worfhip of him; but had committed fpiritual adultery, that is, idolatry; even very grofs acts of it; horrible to hear and think of; enough to make a man’s hair ftand an end to be told of; or what was very filthy and abominable, and to be loathed and detefted, which is explained, y¥.15. unlefs it can be thought to refer to what goes before, concerning their dreadful refolution to continue in their evil ways.

y¥.14. Will a man leave the fnow of Lebanon, which cometh from the rock of the field? &c.] Lebanon was a mountain on the borders of Fudea, the top of which was covered in the fummer-time with fnow, from the whitenefs of which it had its name, Lebanon; as the Alps, for the fame reafon, which lie between France and Jtaly: now, the fnow being diffolved by the heat, ran in flowing {treams down the rocks into the field and plain, where they might be eafily come at, and drank of; and would a thirfty traveller, on a fummer’s day, pafs by fuch ftreams as thefe, and not drink of them? certainly he would not leave them, but ftop and drink; he muft be an unwife man that fhould do otherwife; and yet this was what the people of the Fews did; they forfook the Lord, the fountain of living waters; and who, becaufe of the plenty of good things in him, and flowing from him to them, were as /freams from Lebanon, and yet they left thefe cryftal ftreams, for the black and muddy waters of Sibor, or idols of Egypt, Cant. iv. 15. Fer. ii. 13, 18. or the words may be rendered, qwi / a man leave what comes from the rock of the field, for the fuow of Lebanon*? that is, will a man neglect to drink of the water that comes out of a rock in his field, pure and clear, and is near at hand, and chufe to go to mount Ledanon to drink of the fnow-water, which runs down the mountain, and can never be thought fo clear as what comes out of the rock? furely he will not; he muft aét an unwife part if he does; and fuch a part, and worfe did the people of the Hews act in forfaking God: or, fhall the cold flowing waters which come from another place be forfaken? or, ftrange waters ¥; which come from far, from fome diftant rock, being conveyed in pipes, in which they come cool, and in flowing ftreams, for the fervice of a city and its inhabitants; and who, having fuch a privilege, would negleét them, and drink of ftanding water in a pond or puddle? or, the words, as the former, may be rendered, /hall for Strange frozen waters, be left flowing ones? fee Grotius.

¥.15. Becaufe my people bath forgotten me, &c.] Or, that they have forgotten me*; this is the horrible thing they had done, which was unheard of among the Gentiles, who were always tenacious of

. ma5 Sv sy “WS'D AVY nunquid deferit aliquis aguam manantem de petra agri, ut bibat nivem Libani; fo fome * St tS aque alienz, Schmidt, Montanus; peregrine, De Dieu.

in Vatablus. quod obliti funt, Schmidt.

their gods, and the worfhip of them; and that foolifh and unwife thing, which was like leaving pure flowing ftreams of water for dirty puddles. This is to be underftood of their forfaking the worfhip of God, as the Targum interprets it, and following after idols: they have burnt incenfe to vanity, to idols, which are vain empty ‘things, and which cannot give their worfhippers what they expect from them: or, im vain they burn incenfe*; even to the true God, whilft. they alfo facrificed unto idols; which to do was an abomination to the Lord, J/ i. 13. and efpecially burning incenfe to idols muft be a vain thing; and fo the Targum, ** to no profit they burn incenfe or fpices:” and they have caufed them to ftumble in their ways; that is, either the idols they worfhipped, or the falfe prophets caufed the proftefling people of the Jews to {tumble and fall in the ways into which they led them: and from the ancient paths, or, the paths of eternity»; which lead to eternal life; or which were of old marked out by the revealed will of God for the faints to walk in; and in which the patriarchs and people of God, in all former ages, did walk; and which were appointed from everlafting, and will remain for ever; and thefe are the good old paths in ch. vi. 16: to walk in paths, in @ way not caft up; a new way, unknown in former times; an unbeaten track, which the faints had never walked in; a rough path, unfafe and dangerous; and hence they ftumbled, and fell, and. came to ruin; as follows,

¥.16. To make their land defolate, &c.] Not that this was the intention either of thofe that led them out of the right way into thofe wrong paths, or of them that went into them; but fo it was eventually; this was the iffue of things; their idolatry and other fins were the caufe of their land being defolate; thro” the ravage of the enemy, let in upon them by way of judgment; and thro’ the deftru€tion of men by them; fo that there were few or none to cultivate and manure it: and @ perpetual hiffing, to be hiffed at perpetually by the enemy, whenever they paffed by it, and obferved its defolation; thereby expreffling their: hatred at its inhabitants; their joy at its defolation; and their fatisfaction in it, which would be for ever; Or, as Kimchi interprets, a long time. This is the prefent cafe of the ‘fews; and has been ever fince their deftruction by the Romans; and will be until the fulnefs of the Gentiles is gathered ins every one that paffeth thereby fhall be aftonifbed; to fee the defolations made, and the {trange alterations ina place once fo famous for fruitfulnefs and number of inhabitants: and wag his bead; either out of pity, or rather in a way of derifion and exultation; fee Lam. ii. 15, 16.

¥.17. Iwill featter them as with an eaft-wind before the enemy, &c.] As the eaft-wind, which is generally {trong and boifterous, drives the chaff and ftubble, and any thing that is light, before it, and {catters it here and there; fo the Lord threatens to fcatter the people of the Fews over the face of the earth, before their enemies, whom they fhould not be able to withftand. It denotes the power of the enemy, God would make ufe of; the eafe with which this fhould be done; and the utter difperfion of them; and is their prefent cafe: 1 will fhew-

them the back, and not the face, in the day of their calamity; that is, will not look upon them Ng

favourable way, nor with any pity and compaffion for them, nor hear their cries; but turn his back upon them, and a deaf ear unto them, and give them no fuccour and relief, or deliver them out of their calamities; but fuffer them to continue upon them, and them to fink under them; fee Prov.i. 26,27, 28. which refers to the fame time of calamity.as here.

X¥. 18. Ihen faid they, come, and let us devife devices againft Feremiah, &c.| Being enraged at the judgments threatened them, they propofe to enter into a confederacy and confultation together, to think of ways and means to ftop the mouth of the prophet, and even to take away his life; fince he had told them that God had devifed a device againit them, they were for devifing devices againft him; that fo they might walk after their own devices, without being teized and tormented with this prophet: for the law fhall not perifh from the prie¢t; whofe bufinefs it is to teach it; we have other priefts befides Feremiah, and we'll feek the Jaw at their mouths, and not at his; and. perhaps thefe are the words of the priefts themfelyes, the men of Anathoth; fo Farchi thinks; pleafing themfelves with their character and office, and the perpetuity of it; that notwithftanding what Jeremy had faid, there would be a conftant fucceffion of. this order of men; nor fhould the law ever ceafe from being taught by them, to whofe inftruction men ought to liften, and not to fuch a prophet: nor counfel from the wife; we have wife rulers and governors, counfellors of ftate, and members of the Sanhedrim, and judges of all controverfies, and who are capable of giving advice upon any occafion; nor fhall we ever want fuch, to whofe prudent counfel we do well to attend, and not to what this babling man fays; does he think to know better than our ftatefmen and fages, our counfellors in church and ftate? nor the word from the prophet; we have prophets among us, that prophefy as well as he, and better things; and whofe words of prophecy fhall be fulfilled, when his will not; who affure us, that we fhall have peace and profperity; and therefore let us not regard what this man fays, or be intimidated by his threatnings: come, and let us fmite him with the tongue; by faying all the evil we can of him; by threatning him with pains and penalties; by loading him with reproaches and calumnies; by taking away his good name, and leffening his character and reputation among the people; and fo the Targum, * let us bear falfe witnefs agdinft him;” or, /e¢ us finite bim in the tongue*; cut it out, as Abarbinel, or ftop his mouth, and hinder him from fpeaking any more in this manner to the people; or, let us finite him for the tongue *; becaufe ot the words he fays, or the prophecies he delivers out: and let us not give heed to any of his words, or, to all bis words *; all which they.reckoned his own, and not the words of the Lord.. The Sepruagint verfion is, and we fhall hear all his words; we fhall provoke him to fay all he has to fay, and thall hear and have enough out of his mouth to condemn him; and in all this, and in many other things that follow, Feremiah was a type of Chrift, to whom Yerom applies the whole paffage.

¥.19. Give heed to me, O Lord, &c.] To his prayer, fince his enemies would not give heed to his prophecies; and God does give heed to the cries and complaints of his minifters, when men will not give heed to their words and doétrines; they have a God to go to, who will hear them, when men defpife them: and hearken to the voice of them that contend with me; hear their reproaches and rantings, their blafphemies and evil fpeakings, their lies and falfhoods, and judge between me and them; let it appear who is in the right; vindicate my caufe, and plead with them that plead againft me.

¥.20. Shall evil be recompenfed for good? &c.| For all the good that I have done them, fhall this be all the recompence I fhall have, to be evilly treated by them, to have my good name, and even life taken away by them? fhall this be fuffered to be done? and if it is, fhall it go unpunithed? the prophet taxes the people with ingratitude, which he afterwards inftances in, and proves: for they have digged a pit for my foul; or life, they lay in wait to take it away; or they had formed a defign againit it, and brought a charge and accufation againft him, in order to take it away, under colour of law and juftice. Kimchi interprets it of poifon, which they would have had him drank of: remember that I flood before thee to {peak good for them, and to turn away thy wrath from them; he was an interceflor for them with God, pleaded with him on their behalf, that good things might be beftowed upon them, and that wrath might be averted from them; fo Chrift did for the Fews that crucified him, Luke xxiii. 34. this is ah inftance of their ingratitude; that tho’ he had been an advocate for them, ftood in the gap between God and them, and was importunate for their good, yet this was all the recompence he had ftom them; they fought his life to take it away. This kindnefs of his for them was forgotten by them; but he trufts the Lord would remember it, and net fuffer them to act the bafe part they intended; and now he determines no more to plead their caufe, but to imprecate evils upon them, as follows, y.21. Therefore deliver up their children to the famine, &c.| To be ftarved, and perifh by it, as they were in the fiege of Ferufalem, both b the Chaldeans, and the Romans: and pour out their blood dy the force of the fword; or, upon the bands of the fword‘; by means of it; that is, the blood of the parents of the children; let the one perifh by famine, and the other by the fword; which, ‘when thruft into a man, blood gufhbes cut, ‘and

Fruns upon the fword to the handle of it: and let their wives be bereaved of their children, and be widows; let them have neither hufbands nor children; which latter might bea comfort to them, when they had’ loft their hufbands; but bei ftript of thefe alfo, ‘the affliftien and. diftrefs mu be the greater: and let their men be put to death’, or flain with death ¢; with the peftilence, as Kimchi rightly interprets it; fee Rev. vi. 8. Farché underftands it of the angel of death; fee Hed. ii. 14: let their young men be flain by the fword in battel; fach being commonly employed in milihs fervice, as being the moft proper perfons or it. ¥. 22. Let a cry be beard from their houfes, &c.] A fhrieking of women and children, not only for the eynan bo bs the lofs of hufbands and parents, but becaufe of from thy fight, they had finned the unpardonable the entrance of the enemy into the city, and into their houfes, to take away their lives and their fubftance; as follows: when thou fhalt bring a troop fuddenly upox them, or an army, as the Targum, either the Chaldean army, or rather the Koman army: for they have digged a pit to take me, and hid fuares for my feet and therefore it was a jut retaliation, that a troop or army fhould fuddenly come upon them, and feize their perfons and fubftance; tho” Kimchi underftands it, as before, of poifon, which they would have given him; but archi, of a fufpicion and vile calumny they raifed of him, that he was guilty of adultery with another man’s wife; a whore being called a deep fin; or however a fin unto death, for which prayer for the forgivenefs of it was not to be made, 1 ohn v.16. this the prophet knew: what he here imeprecates, and both before and after, muft be confidered, not as flowing from a private fpirit, or from a fpirit of malice and revenge; but what he delivered out under a fpirit of prophecy, as foretelling what would be the fad eftate and condition of thefe perfons; for otherwife, the temper and difpofition of the prophet were the reverfe; and he was inclined to fue for mercy for thefé people, as he often did; wherefore this is not to be drawn into a precedent and example for any to follow: but let them be overthrown before thee; by the fword, ditch by the wifeman, Prov. xxiii 27. and fo it is famine and peftilence: or, det them be made to frum-

¥. 23. Yet Lord, thou knoweft all their counfel againft me to flay me, &c.] However deep they had laid them;. and however unknown they were to him; or however private and fecret they might be thought to be by them; God is an omnifcient God, and knows and fees all things; the thoughts of mens hearts, and all their fecret defigns in the dark againft his minifters, people and intereft: forgive not their iniquity, neither blot out their fin ble before thee *, and fall into perdition; they having made others to ftumble in their ways from the ancient paths of truth and goodnefs; fo that it was but a righteous thing that they fhould be punifhed after this manner; fee ¥. 15: deal thus with them in the time of thine anger, the fet time for his wrath to come upon them to the uttermoft; then do unto them according to all the imprecations now made; which the prophet forefaw, and believed he would do; and therefore thus ipake.