Go — From Anathoth to Jerusalem. Remember — I remind thee of the kindness that was between us. The love — When I entered into covenant with thee at the giving of the law. Wilderness — I took such care of thee, in the howling wilderness, a land that was not sown.... [ Continue Reading ]
Holiness — A people dedicated to God. As — As the first fruits were holy to God, so was Israel. Devour — All that were injurious to him. Offend — Were liable to punishment. Evil — Evil was inflicted on them from the Lord, as upon the Egyptians, Amalekites, Midianites, Canaanites.... [ Continue Reading ]
Vanity — Idols. Vain — Fools; senseless as the stocks and stones that they made their idols of.... [ Continue Reading ]
Neither — They never concerned themselves about what God had done for them, which should have engaged them to cleave to him. Of drought — Where they had no water but by miracle. Death — Bringing forth nothing that might support life, therefore nothing but death could be expected; and besides, yieldi... [ Continue Reading ]
My land — Consecrated to my name; by your idols and many other abominations.... [ Continue Reading ]
They — They that should have taught others, knew as little as they, or regarded as little, who are said here to handle the law, the priests and Levites, who were the ordinary teachers of the law. Pastors — Either teachers, or kings and princes. Prophets — They that should have taught the people the... [ Continue Reading ]
Plead — By his judgments, and by his prophets, as he did with their fathers, that they may be left without excuse. Children — God often visits the iniquities of the parents upon the children, when they imitate their parents.... [ Continue Reading ]
Of Chittim — All the isles in the Mediterranean sea, with the neighbouring coasts; for the Hebrews call all people, that separated from them by the sea, islanders, because they came to them by shipping. Kedar — Arabia that lay east — south — east of Judea, as Chittim did more north or north — west;... [ Continue Reading ]
Their glory — The true God, who was their glory; and who always did them good, giving them cause to glory in him.... [ Continue Reading ]
O ye heavens — A pathetical expression, intimating that it is such a thing, that the very inanimate creatures, could they be sensible of it, would be astonished. Be desolate — Lose your brightness, as the sun seemed to do when Christ suffered.... [ Continue Reading ]
Of living waters — A metaphor taken from springs, called living, because they never cease, or intermit; such had God's care and kindness been over them. Cisterns — Either their idols, which are empty vain things, that never answer expectation, or the Assyrians, and Egyptians. Indeed all other suppor... [ Continue Reading ]
A slave — Slave is here added to home — born to express the baseness of his service, because the master had power to make those slaves who were born of slaves in his house. Why — Why is he thus tyrannized over, as if strangers had the same right over him as owners over their slaves?... [ Continue Reading ]
Lions — Understand the Assyrians, Babylonians, and Egyptians, called lions from their fierceness, and young from their strength. Yelled — Noting the terrible voice that the lion puts forth, either in seizing the prey, or devouring it.... [ Continue Reading ]
Noph, &c. — Two of the kings of Egypt's principal seats. Noph was sometimes called Memphis, now Cairo. Tahapanes probably took its name from Taphanes queen of Egypt, 1 Kings 11:19, called also Hanes: Isaiah 30:4. The inhabitants of these cities are called here their children.... [ Continue Reading ]
When — By the conduct of providence in the wilderness, keeping thee from all dangers.... [ Continue Reading ]
And now — What business hast thou there? Sihor — The Nile: it signifies black, called Melas by the Greeks, either from the blackness of the land it passed through, or of the soil it casts up. The waters — Here and by the same words before is meant, to seek help from either place. River — Euphrates,... [ Continue Reading ]
Thy wickedness — Thy own wickedness is the cause of thy correction. Know — Consider well, and thou canst not but be convinced.... [ Continue Reading ]
Broken — The bondage and tyranny that thou wert under in old time in Egypt, as also divers times besides. Tree — Under these shades idolaters thought there lay some hidden deity. Wanderest — The word properly signifies, making hast from one tree to another, or from one idol to another. Playing — Com... [ Continue Reading ]
A right seed — A right seed of true believers.... [ Continue Reading ]
Nitre — Though interpreters do greatly vary in describing what is particularly meant here by Nitre and Soap, and would be superfluous to mention here; yet all agree, they are some materials that artists make use of for cleansing away spots from the skin. The blot of this people is by no art to be ta... [ Continue Reading ]
Baalim — The word is plural, as comprehensive of all their idols. Thy way — The filthiness thou hast left behind thee, whereby thou mayst be traced. Valley — Whether of Hinnom where they burnt their children in sacrifice, or in any valleys where thou hast been frequent in thy idolatries. Traversing... [ Continue Reading ]
A wild ass — Another similitude for the more lively description of the same thing. The wind — This creature, by the wind, smells afar off which way her male is. In her occasion — That is, when she has an occasion to run impetuously to her male, she bears down all opposition. In her month — Perhaps t... [ Continue Reading ]
Withhold — Take not those courses that will reduce thee to poverty, to go bare foot, and to want wherewith to quench thy thirst. No hope — We care not since there is no remedy. Strangers — Idols.... [ Continue Reading ]
Found — Not ashamed of his sin of theft, but that he is at last found.... [ Continue Reading ]
Brought me forth — Or begotten me; so is the word used, Genesis 4:18. This denotes the sottish stupidity of this people, to take a lifeless stock or stone to be their maker, and to give the honour of God unto them, Isaiah 44:17. Turned — They turn their faces towards their idols.... [ Continue Reading ]
For — Thou hast enough of them, imitating the Heathens, who had, according to Varro, above thirty thousand deities. Make trial if any, or all of them together, can help thee.... [ Continue Reading ]
Children — Your inhabitants in every city, they being frequently called the children of such a city. Correction — Instruction: though they were corrected, yet they would not be instructed. Your sword — You have been so far from receiving instruction, that you have, by the sword, and other ways of de... [ Continue Reading ]
O generation — O ye men of this generation. See — You shall see the thing with your eyes, because your ears are shut against it. A wilderness — Have I been like the wilderness of Arabia, have not I accommodated you with all necessaries? A land of darkness — As it were a land uninhabitable, because o... [ Continue Reading ]
A maid — How unlikely is it, that a maid should forget her ornaments? A bride — Those jewels which the bridegroom was wont to present his bride with. Forgotten — In the neglect of my worship; me, who was not only their defence, but their glory.... [ Continue Reading ]
Trimmest — Or, deckest, Ezekiel 23:40, thinking thereby to entice others to thy help. Taught — Nations that have been vile enough of themselves, by thy example are become more vile.... [ Continue Reading ]
Skirts — Of thy garments: the tokens of cruelty may be seen openly there. Innocents — In thee is found the murder expressed here by blood of innocent persons, murdering souls as well as bodies. Search — Heb. by digging; as if the earth had covered the blood, or as if they had committed their wickedn... [ Continue Reading ]
Behold — I will proceed in my judgment against thee. Because — Because thou justifiest thyself.... [ Continue Reading ]
Why — Why dost thou seek auxiliaries anywhere, rather than cleave to me? Ashamed — Egypt shall stand thee in no more stead than Assyria hath done.... [ Continue Reading ]
Yea — All the help thou canst procure shall not prevent thy captivity, but from hence thou shalt go. Thy hands — An usual posture of mourning.... [ Continue Reading ]