being as greedy of committing intemperance and un-
cleanness as the other, and in their common conversa-
tion of life; though the priests ought both to have
given good instructions, and to have set good examples;
ut instead of that were equally guilty as the people,
and so would be alike in their punishment, as it fol-
lows: and I will punish them for their ways; their evil
ways, as the Targum; their wicked manner of life and
conversation, both of the people and the priests; espe-
cially the latter are mean.t: or, I will visit upon him his
ways {w}; upon every one of the priests, as well as the
people; which visit must be understood in a way of
wrath and vengeance: and reward them their doings;
reward them according to their doings, as their sins de-
serve, and as it is explained in the next verse: or, I will
rtturn their doings to them {x}; bring them back again,
when they seemed to be past and gone, and set them
before them, and charge them with them., and punish
for them.
Ver. 10. For they shall eat, and not have enough, &c.]
Namely, the priests; for of them the words are conti-
nued, who ate of the sacrifices of the people, and of
feasts made in honour of idols; and yet, either what
they ate did not satisfy or nourish them, or else their
appetites were still- greedy after more of the same
kind: or this may respect a famine, either at the siege
of Samaria, or in their captivity; when they who had
lived so voluptuously should have so little to eat, that
it should not satisfy them: or though, as others, they
eat to the honour of their idols, expecting to be blessed
with plenty by them, they shall not have it: they shall
commit whoredom, and shall not increase; that is, their
offspring; they shall not beget children, so the Targum,
Jarchi, and Kimchi; or the children they beget shall
quickly die; yea, though they commit whoredom in
the idol's temple with that view, where the women
prostituted themselves for that purpose: because they
have left off to take heed to the Lord; to his word, and
worship, and ordinances, which they formerly had
some regard unto, but now had relinquished: or, the
Lord they have forsaken, or left off to observe {y}; his
ways, his word, and worship. R. Sandlab connects
this with the following words, they have forsaken the
Lord to observe fornication and wine; but wrongly.
Ver. 11. Whoredom and wine, and new wine, take
away the heart.] Uncleanness and intemperance besot
men, deprive them of reason and judgment, and even
of common sense, make them downright fools, and so
stupid as to do the following things; or they take
away the heart from following the Lord, and taking
heed to him, and lcad to idolatry; or they occupy {} the
heart, and fill it np, and cause it to prefer sensual lusts
and pleasures to the fear and love of God: their stupi-
dity brought on hereby is exposed in the next verse;
though it seems chiefly to respect the priests, who
erred in vision through wine and strong drink, and
stumbled in judgment, Isa. xxviii. 7.
Vet. 12. My people ask counsel at their stocks, &c.]
Or at his wood {a}, or stick; his wooden image, as the
Targum; their wooden gods, their idols made of wood,
mere stocks and blocks, without life or sense, and
much less reason and understanding, and still less divi-
nity. Reference is here had either to the matter of
which an idol was made, being the trunk of a tree, or a
block of wood; as the poet {b} introduces Priapus saying,
olim truncus eram ficulnus, inutile lignum : or to sticks
of wood themselves, without being put into any form
or shape; for so it is reported {c}, that the ancient idola-
ters used to receive for gods, with great veneration,
trees or pieces of wood, having the bark taken off; par-
ticularly the Carians worshipped for Diana a piece of
wood, not hewed, squared, or planed a: though the
first seems rather to be the sense here; and either was
extremely foolish. And yet such was the stupidity of
this people, whom God had tbrmerly chose for his
p-ont~    nd'
~ r.-, a.._ had distinguished them by his favours
from others, and they had professed themselves to be
his people, and as yet were not utterly cast off, as to
forsake him and his divine oracles, and all methods of
knowing his will; as to ask counsel of such wooden
deities in matters of moment and difficulty, what
should be done by them, or concerning things to come.
And their staff declareth unto them; what methods are
to be taken by them in the present case, or what shall
come to pass, as they fancy; that is, either their idol,
made of a staff or stick of wood, or a little image car-
ried on a staff'; such as probably were the teraphim
they consulted, instead of the 'Urim and Thurnmim;
and imagined they declared to them what they should
do, or what would befall them. Kimchi's father inter-
prets it of the false prophets cn whom they depended,
and whose declarations they received as oracles. Per-
haps some respect is had to a sort of divination used
among the Heathens by rods and staves, called rabdo-
mancy, which the Jews had learat of them; like that
by arrows used by Nebuchadnezzar, Ezek. xxi. 2l.
This was performed by setting up a stick or staff, and
as that fell, so they judged and determined what was
to be done. The manner, according to Theophylact on
the place, was this," they set up two rods, and mut-
"tered some verses and enchantments; and then the
"rods falling through the influence of demons, they
"considered how they fell, whether forward or back-
" ward, to the right or the left; and so gave answers
"to the foolish people, using the fall of the rods for
"signs." The Jews take this to be forbid by that ne-
gative precept, Dent. xviii. 10. there shall not be found
among you any that useth divination. So Jarchi and
Baal Hatturim on that text explain a diviner by one
that holds his staff; and the former adds and says, shall
I go, or shall I not go ? as it is said, my people ask
counsel at their stocks, &c.; the manner of which they
thus describe {e}," when they are about to go a journey,
"they inquire before they set out, i.e. whether it will

{w} \^wykrd wyle ytdqpw\^ "et visitabo super eum vias ejus", V. L. Pagninus,
Montanus, Cocceius, Schmidt.
{x} \^wl byva wyllemw\^ "et opera ejus redire faciam", Zanchius.
{y} \^rmvl wbze hwhy ta\^ "Jehovam desierunt observare", Junius & Tre-
mellius, Piscator, Rivetus, Liveleus; "ad observandum", Schmidt; "reli-
querunt observare, Cocceius; "deseruerunt observare", so some iu Va-
tablus.
{z} \^bl xqy\^ z 21/~ "occupant cor", so some in Calvin and Rivet; 
"occupavit cor", Schmidt.
{a} \^wueb\^ "in ligno suo", V. L. Montanus, Calvin; "liguum suum", Pag-
ninus, Junius & Tremellius, Piscator.
{b} Horat. Sermon. I. 1. Satyr. 8.
{c} Alexand. ab Alex. Genial. Dier. 1.6. c. 26.
{d} Arnobius adv. Gentes, I. 6. p. 232.
{e} Moses Kotsensis praecept. neg. 52.