covenant with the king of Egypt against the king of
Assyria, 2 Kings xvii. 4.
Ver. 7. As .for Sa.maria, &c.3 The metropolis of
the ten tribes of Israel, and here put for the whole
kingdom: her king is cut off; which some understand
of Pekah, who was killed by Hoshea; others of seve-
ral of their kings cut off' one after another, very sud-
denly and quickly, as the metaphor after used shews ;.
or rather Hoshea the last king is meant, who was cut
off by the kiug of Assyria; the present tense is used
for the future, to denote the certainty of it. Aben
Ezra thinks the verb cut o39' is to be repeated, Samaria
is cut off, her king is cut off; both king and king-
dom destroyed. So the Targum," Samaria is cut off'
"with her king:" as the Jbam upon the water; as any
light thing flowing upon it; as the bark of atree, as
Kimchi aud Aharbinel; or as the scum upon a boiling
pot of water, as Jarchi, and the Targum; or as foam,
which is an assemblage of bubbles upon the water;
such are kings and kingdoms, swell, look big and high
for a while; but are more bubbles, empty tidings; ..and
are often suddenly, quickly, and easily destroyed; so
Samaria and her king were by the Assyrian army; the
Lord of hosts, the King of kings, being against them.
Ver. 8. The high places also of Aven, &c.] Beth-el,
which is not only as before called Beth-avert, the house
of iniquity; but Aven, iniquity itself; the high places
of it were the temple and altars built there for ido-
latrous service, which were usually set on hills and
mountains: the sin of Israel shall be destroyed; that is,
which high places are the sin of Israel, the occasion
of sin unto them; and where they committed sin, the
sin of idolatry, in worshipping the calves; these should
be thrown down, demolished, and no longer used:
the thorn and the thistle shall come up on their altars;
lying in ruins, these shall grow upon them, the people
and priests being carried captive that used to sacrifice
upon them; but now they shall lie deserted by them,
being destroyed by the enemy: and they shall say to
the mountains, cover us; and to the hills, fall on us;
not that the high places and altars shall say so in a
figurative sense, according to R. Moses in Aben Ezra;
but, as Japhet, they that worshipped there, the priests
and people of Samaria, Beth-arch, and even of all
Israel, because of their great distress; and, as persons
in the utmost consternation, and in despair, and con-
founded, and ashamed, shall call to the mountains and
hills where they have been guilty of idolatry to hide
and cover them fi',m the wrath of God; see Luke xxiii.
30. Rev. vi. 16.
Ver. 9. 0 Israel, thou hast sinned from the days of
Gibeah, &c.] This has no respect, as the Targum,
and others, to Gibeah of Saul, of which place he was,
and the choosing him to be king; but to the affair of
the Levite and his concubine at Gibeah in the days of
the judges, and what followed upon it, Judg. xix. and
xx. suggesting, that the sins of Israel were not new
ones; they were the same with what were committed
formerly, as early as the history referred to, and had
been continued ever since; the measure of which were
now filling up: or, as Aben Ezra and Abarbinel in-
terpret it, thou hast sinned more than the days of Gibeah;
were guilty of more idolatry,, inhumanity, and impu-
rity, than in those times; and yet the grossest of sins,
particularly unnatural lusts, were then committed:
there they stood; either the men of Gibeah continued
in their sins, and did not repent of them; and stood
in their own defence against the tribes of Israel, and
the Benjamites stood also with them, and by them;
and stood two battles, and were conquerors in them;
and, though beaten in the third, were not wholly de-
stroyed, as now the Israelites would be: or the tribes
of Israel stood, and continued in, and connived at, the
idolatry of the Levite; or rattler stood sluggish and
slothful, and were not forward to fight with the Ben-
jamites, who took part with the men of Gibeah; which
were their sins, for which they were worsted in the
two first battles, and in which the present Israelites
imitated them: the battle in Gibeah against the children
of iniquity did not overtake them; the two first battles
against the men of Gibeah and the Benjamites, who
are the children of iniquity, the one the actors, and
the other the abettors and patrons of it, did not suc-
ceed against them, but the Israelites were overcome;
and the third battle, in which they got the day, did
not overtake them so as utterly to cut them off; for
six hundred persons made their escape; but, in the
present case prophesied of, 'tis suggested, that as their
sins were as great or greater than theirs, their ruin
should be entire and complete: or the sense is, that
they were backward to go to battle; they were
not eager upon it; they did not at once espouse the
cause of the Levite; they did not stir in it till he had
done that unheard-of thing, cutting his concubine into
twelve pieces, and sending them to the twelve tribes
of Israel; and then they were not over-forward, but
sought the Lord, as if it was a doubtful case; which
backwardness was resented in their ill success at first ;.
and the same slow disposition to punish vice had con-
tinued with them ever since; so Schmidt.
Ver. 10. It is in my desire that I should chastise them,
&c.] Or, bind them {}, and carry them captive; and
by so doing correct them for their sins they have so
long continued in: this the Lord had in his heart to
do, and was determined upon it, and would do it with
pleasure, for the glorifying of his justice, since they
had so long and so much abused his clem.ency and
goodness: and the people shall be gathered against them;
the Assyrians, who, at the command of the Lord,
would come and invade their land, besiege their city,
and take it, and bind them, and carry them captive:
when they shall bind themselves in their two furrows;
when, like heifers untamed, and bound in a yoke to
plough, don't make and keep in one furrow, but turn
out to the right or left, and make cross furrows; so it
is intimated that this was the reason why the Lord
would correct Israel, and suffer the nations to gather
together against them, and carry them captive, be-
cause they did not plough in one furrow, or keep in
the true and pure worship of God; but made two fur-
rows, worshipping partly God, and partly idols: or,
when they, their enemies, shall bind them, being ga-
thered against them, and carry them captive, they
shall make them plough in two furrows, the one up,

{a} \^Mroaw\^ "et, vel ut vinciam eos", Junius & Tremellius, Drusius, 
Grotius; "colligabo eos", Cocceius.