even many of their doctors and mentbers of the san-
hedrim; see the note on Isa. viii. 19: and against the
adulterers; with whom that age also abounded; henct.
our Lord calls it an adulterous generation, Matt. xii.
39. see John viii. 3--9. Rum. ii. 22: and against false
swearers; ,who were guilty of perjury, and of vain
oaths; who swore by the creatures, and not by the
Lord, and to things not true; see Matt. v. 33---37:
and against those that oppress the hireling in his wages,
.the widow, and the .fatherless; defrauding of servants
of their wages, devouring widows' houses, and dis-
tressing the fatherless, were sins the Jews were addicted
to in those times, as appears from Jam. i. 27. and v. 4.
who wrote to the twelve tribes; and from what our
Lord charges them with, Matt. xxiii. 14: and that turn
aside the stranger from his right; and so Kimchi sup-
plies it," that turn aside the judgment of the stranger ;"
,that don't do him justice in civil things; yea, perse-
,cuted those that became proselytes to the Christian
religion: and fear not me, saith the Lord of hosts;
which was the root and cause of all their sins; irre-
verence of Christ, disbelief of him, and contempt of
his Gospel.
Ver. 6. For I am the Lord, &c.] Or Jehovah; a
ú name peculiar to the most High, and so a proof of the
.deity of Christ, who here speaks; and is expressive of
his being; of his self-existence; of his purity and sim-
plicity; of his immensity and jutlaity; and of his eter-
nity and sovereignty: I change not; being the same
to-day, yesterday, and for ever; he changed not in his
divine nature and personality .by becoming man; he
took that into union with him he had not before, but
remained the same he ever was; nor did he change in
his threatenings ofdestruction to theJews, which came
upon thetn according to his word; nor in his promises
of his spirit, and presence, and protection to his peo.
pie; nor will he ever change in his love and affections
to them; nor in the efficacy of his blood, sacrifice,
-and righteousness; wherefore, as this is introduced to
assure the truth and certainty of what is said before,
concerning his being a swift witness against the wicked,
so also for the comfort of the saints, as follows. The
Targum is, ".for I the Lord have not changed my
"covenant." Therefore ye sons of Jacob are not con-
sumed; such who were Israelites indeed, true be-
lievers in Christ; tl:ese were t,ot consumed when the
wicked Jews were, but were directed to leave the city
before its destruction, and go to another place, as they
did, whereby they were preserved; and so it was,
that not one Christian perished in it; see the note on
Matt. xxiv. 13. and so it is owing to the unchangeable
love, grace, and power of Christ, that none of his
perish internally er eternally, but have everlasting
life.
Vet. 7. Even from the days of your fathers ye are
gone away from mine ordinances, &c.] Here begins
an enumeration of the sins of the Jews, which were
the cause of their ruin; and here is first a general
charge of apostacy from the statutes and ordinances
of the law, which they made void by the traditions of
the fathers; and therefore this word is used as refer.
ring to this evil, as well as to express their early, long,
and continued departure from the ways of God; which
as it was an aggravation of their sin, that they should
have so long ago forsook the ordinances of God, and
have not kept them, but transgressed them by observing
the traditions of men, Matt. xv..3. so it is an instance
of the patience and forbearance of God, that they were
not as yet consumed; and of his grace and goodness,
that he should address them as tbliows: return unto
me, and I will return unto you, saith the Lord oJ hosts;
this message was carried to them by John the Baptist,
the forerunner of Christ, and by Christ himself, who
both preached the doctrine of repentance to this peo-
ple, Matt. iii. 2. and iv. 17. The Targum is," return
"to my worship, and I will look in my word to do
"well unto you, saitlt the Lord of hosts ;. and sucit
who returned, and believcd in Christ, and submitted
to his ordinances, it was weli with titera. But yesaid.
wherein shall we return ? what have we to turn from.
or repent of? what evils have we done, or can be
us  what need have we of repentance or
charged on ',r ..... i ...... -t.~.;~.- ~ ;~ ~ ,isn't ....
cOilversion, or of such an exhortation to it? ....... 
keep the law, and all the rituals of it? this is the true
language of the Pharisees in Christ's time, who, touch-
ing the righteousnessof the law, were blameless it, their
own esteem, an{1 were the niuety and nine just per-
sons that needed not repentance, Luke xv. 7.
Ver. 8. Will a man rob God ? &c.] Or the gods;
the false gods, the idols of the Gentiles; the Heathens
will, not do that, accounting sacrilege a great sin, and
yet this the Jews were guilty of: or the judges {}, as
the Targum; civil magistrates; will any dare to de-
fi'aud them of their due ? see ch. i. 8. yet ye have
robbed me; keeping back from the priests and Levites,
his ministers, what was due to them; and which, being
no other than a spoiling or robbing of them, might be
interpreted a robbing of God: but ye say, wherein
have we robbed thee? as not being conscious of any
such evil; or, bowever, impudently standing in it, that
they were not guilty: to which is returned tbr answer.
in tithes and offerings; that is. they robbed God in not
giving the tithes, and not offering sacrifices, according
as the law required: but it may be objected, that the
Jews in Christ's time did pay tithes, even of all 'things;
yea, of more than the law required, Matt. xxiii. 23.
Luke xviii. 12. to which it may be replied, that though
they gave tithes, yet it was \^her Nyeb\^, with an evil eye,
as Aben Ezra says; grudgingly, and not cheerfully.
and with an evil intention; not to shew their gratitude
to God, and their acknowledgment of hint as their
Lord, from whom they had their all, but in order to
merit at his hands; besides, our Lord suggests that
they did not give to God the things that were God's,
Matt. xxii.21. and the apostle charges them with being
guilty of sacrilege, Rom. ii. 22. and, moreover. the
priests might not give it to the Levites, as they ought;
and wbich is what they are charged with in Neh. xiii.
10. and Grotius says that they were guilty of this
before the destruction by Vespasian, as appears by
Josephus.
Vet. 9. Ye are cursed with a curse, &c.] Or with
penury, as the Vulgate Latin version; which, though
not a proper rendering of the word, is the meaning of


{c} \^Myhla\^ deos, vel judices, Calvin, Drusius, Grotius.