the earth; yet shall be throwu down unit, found no
more, tbr the I,ord is strong that judgeth her,' Rev.
xvii. 9, 18. and xviii. 8, 21.
Ver. 5. If thieres came to thee, if robbers by night,
&c.] Whether the oue came by day, and theother by
night, or both by night, the same being meant by dif-
ferent words, whose intent is to plunderand.steal, and
carry off what they can; thy coudition would not be
worse, nor so bad as now it is: for how art thou. cut off!
from being a nation, wholly destroyed; thy.people
killed, or carried captive; thy tbrtresses demolished,
towus and cities !evelied witll the ground, and all thy
wealth arid substance carried off, and nothing left:
these are either the words of God, OF Of the prophet,
se.tting' fortll tlleir utter ruin, as if it was already; or
of the nations round about, wondering at their sudden
destructiou. Some render it, how silent art thou {q} !
that is, under .all these ca!amities: or, how art thou
asleep ! or stupified ! as the ... _ anti Jarctli; not
to be upon thy guard against the incursions of the
enemy, but careless, secure, and stupid, and now
stripped of every thing: had common thieves and
robbers broke in upon thee, would they not have stolen
till they had enough ? as much as they came for, or
conld carry off; they seldom.strip a house into whicll
they enter of every thing in it; they come for some
particular tllings, and, meeting with ttlem, they go off,
and leave the rest: if the grape-gatherers come to thee,
would they not leave some grapes? ttlat is, if men
should come into thv vineyards, aud gather the grapes,
and carry them off by tbrce or stealth, would they
take them all a. way? doubtless they would leave some
behilld; some would be hid under the boughs, and be
left unobserved by them: or tile allusion is to ga-
therers of grapes, wllo gather them forthe owners, and
at their direction, wllo were wont to leave some clusters
for tile poor to glean aft. er them; but in the case of Edom
'tis suggested that nothing should be left, all should be
clenn carried otf; the destruction would he complete
and entire. The Targum is, "if spoilers as grape-
" gatherers sllou ld come unto ttlee," 4'c.: see Jer. x I ix. 9.
Ver. 6. ltow are the things of Esau searched out !
&c.] Or how are the Esauites, tile posterity of Esau,
sought out! though they dwelt in tlle clefts of tile
rocks, and hid themselves in caves and dens, yet ttleir
enemies searched them, and found tilere, anti plucked
them out from thence, so that uone escaped: how are
his hid things sought up ! his riches, wealth anti trea-
sure, hid m fortresses, in rocks and caves, where they
were thou-ht to be safe, and judged i,naccessible; or
that au cuelily would not have ventured iu searell of
them there; and yet these should be souglit after aud
found by the greedy, aud diligent, and veuturous .sol-
dier, and carried off; which was tile case ofttie Edom-
ites by the Chaldeans, aud will be of the antichris-
tian states by tlle kings of the earth, Rev. xvii. 16. see
Jet. xlix. 10.
Vet. 7. All the men of tt,,y confederacy hare brought
thee even to the border, &c.] Or of thy covenant {}; that
are in league With thee; thine allies, even all of them,
prove treacherous to thee,' in whom thou trustedSt';
when they sent their ainbassadors to them, they re-
ceived them kindly, promised great things to them,
dismissed them honourably, accompanied them to the
borders of their country, but never stood to their en-
gagements: or those allies came and .joined their forces
with the .Edomites, and went out with them to meet
the enemy, as if they would fight with them, and
them; but when they came to the border of the land
they left them, and departed into their own country;
or went over to the enemy; or these confederates were
the instruments of expelling them out of their own
land, and sending them to the border of it, and carry-
ing them captive;-or they followed them to the border
of the land, when they were carried captive, as if
they lamented their case, when they were assisting to
the enemy, as Kimchi; so deceitful were they. The
Targum is to the same purpose, "from the border
"all thy confederates carried thee captive {} :" the men
that were at peace with thee have dcceived thee, and pre-
vailed against thee; outwitted them in their treaties ot'
peace, and got the advantage of them; or they proved
treacherous to them, and joined the enemy against
them; or they persuaded them to declare themselves
enemies to .the Chaldeans, which proved their ruin;
and so they prevailed against them: they that eat thy
bread: so the Targum and Kimchi. supply it; or it
may be supplied from the preceding clause, the men of
thy bread; who received subsidies from them, were
maintained by them, and quartered among-th.em:
have laid a wound under thee; instead of supporting
them, secretly did that which was wounding to them.
The word signifies both a wound and a plaster; they
pretended to lay a plaster to heal, but made a wound;
or made the wound worse. The Targum is, ': they
".laid a stumbling-block under thee ;" at which they
stumbled and fell: or snares, as the Vulgate Latin
version, whereby they brought. them to ruin: there is
none understanding in hinz ; in Esau, or the Edomites;
they were so stupid, that they could not see into the
designs of their pretended friends, ahd prevent the exe-
cution of them, and their ill effects.
Vet. 8. Shall I not in that day, saith the Lord, even
destroy the wise men out of Edom ; &c.] 'When they
shall be invaded hy the enemy, and treacherously dealt
with by their allies; so that there shall be no wise
counsellots .at court to give advice what proper me-
thods should be taken at such a season; they should
either be taken off' hy death, or their wisdom should be
turned into folly, and they be rendered incapable of
giving right connsel: and understanding out of the mount
o. fEsau ? that is, men of understanding, as the Tar-
gum, should be destroyed out of Edom or ldumea,
which was a mountainous country; such as were well
versed in politics, or nnclerstood military affairs, and
how to conduct at such a critical time; to form schemes,
and coucert measures, and wisely put them in execu-
tion; and to be deprived of all such must be a great
loss at such a time, and add to their distress and cala-
mity; see Jer. xlix. 7.

{q} \^htymdn Kya\^ "quomedo redactus es in silentium?" Calvin;
"quomodo sives?" some in Tarnovius; so Syr.
{r} \^Ktyrb yvna\^ "viri foederis tui", Vulg. Lat. Montanus, Vatablus,
Burkius.
{s} So R. Sol. Urbin. Ohel Moed, fol. 51. 2. and .52. 1.