Online Bible 1995 March/ROM-1025.iso/olb/gill/4_600.lzh/4_607.TXT

Text File | 1994-09-23 | 7KB | 131 lines

is cautious about taking an oath, and Chooses to be ex-
cused from taking one, on any account, could he be
excused; preferring such advice as is given, Matt. v. 34.
Jam. v, 12. swear not at all: the counsel about swear-
ing, which Isocrates t gives, seems worthy of notice;
"take an oath required on two accounts,; either
"to purge thyself from a foul crime charged with, or
"to save friends in danger, and deliver them out of it;
"but on account of money (or goods) swear not
"by any deity, no, not even if thou canst take an oath
"safely; for by some thou wilt be thought to be per-
" jured, and by others to be covetous." The word
in Hebrew for swearing is always passive, because a
man should not swear, unless obliged; and the same
form of language is used by Latin writers {u}; and the
Hebrew word for it comes from a root which signifies
seamen, in allusion, as some think, to seven witnesses
required to an oath; the Arabians, when they swore,
anointed seven stones with blood; and, whilst anoint-
lug them, called on their deities {w}; see Gen. xxi. 30.
It may be observed, that all men are here divided into
good and bad; this has been the distinction from the
beginning, and continues, and ever will.
Vet. 3. This is an evil among all things that are done
under the sun, that there is one event unto all, &c.] A
very great evil, a very sore one, the worst of evils. Not
an evil, as the providence of God is concerned with it,
who does no evil; nor is there any unrighteousncsS in
him; he is righteous in all his ways: but this is an
evil, and distressing thing, to the minds of good men;
see Psal. lxxiii. 2, 12--14. Jcr. xii. 1. and is what bad
men make an ill use of, to harden themselves in sin,
and to despise religion as an unprofitable thing, Job
xxi. 14, 15. Yea, also the heart of the sons of men is
full of evil: they are naturally full of evil, of all un-
righteousness and wickedness, what comes out of them
shew it; and because the same things happen to good
and bad men, and the wicked pass with impunity, and
are outwardly happy as others, or more so, their hearts
are fully set in them to do evil, ch. viii. 11. And mad-
hess is in their heart while they live; or madnesses {x}:
every sin is madness; for who but a madman would
stretch out his hand against God, and strengthen him-
self against the Almighty, and run upon him ? who
but a ma<lman would rush into sin in the manner he
does, and expose himself to dangers and death, even
eternal death ? Wicked men are mad upon their lusts,
and mad against the saints, and all that is good; this
insanity is in their hearts, and shews itseft in their
lives, and continues with them as long' as they live,
unless called by grace. And after that they go
dead; after all the madness of their lives, they die and
go into the state of the dead, and are among
which refers not so much to the interment. of
bodies in the grave, as the company with which their
separate spirits are; thev go not to the righteous dead,
but to the wicked; see Pray. ii. 18. and ix. 18. so
Alshech; they go to the dead; not to the righteous,
wl;o, in their death, or when dead are called livin-
but, as Jarchhi observes, at their end they go down to
hell. The Targum is, "after the end of a man, it is
"reserved for him that he be corrected with the dead,
"according to the judgment (or desert) of sins."
Vet. 4. For to him that is joined to all the living
there is hope, &c.] That is, who is among the living,
is one of them, and, as long as he is, there is hope, if
his circumstances are mean, and he is poor and
afflicted, that it may be better with him in time; see
Job xiv. 7. or of his being a good man, though now
wicked; of his being called and converted, as some are at
the eleventh hour, even on a death-bed; and especially
there is a l)ope of men, if they are under the means of
grace, seeing persons have been made partakers of the
grace of God after long waiting. There is here a Keri
and a Cetib, a marginal reading and a textual writing;
the former reads, that is joined, the latter, that is chosen;
our version follows the marginal reading, as do the
Targum, Jarchi, Aben Ezra, the Septuagint, Syriac,
and Arabic versions: some, following the latter, ren-
der the words, who is to be chosen Y, or preferred, a
living, or a dead man ? not a dead but a living man: to
all the living there is hope; 0ftheir being better; and,
as Jarchi observes, there is hope, while alive, even
though he is a wicked man joined to the wicked; yea,
there is hope of the wicked, that he may be goo{i betbre
he dies. For a living dog is better than a dead lion; a
proverbial speech, shewing that .life is to be preferred
to death; and that a mean, abject, and contemptible
person, living, who for his despicable condition may
be compared to a dog, is to be preferred to the most
generous man, or to the greatest potentate, dead;
since the one may possibly be useful in some respects
or another, the other cannot: though a living sinner,
who is like to a dog for his uncleanness and vileness, is
not better than a dead saint or righteous man, com-
parable to a lion, who has hope in his death, and dies
in the Lord.
Ver. 5. For the living know that they shall die, &c.]
I)eath is certain, it is the demerit of sin, the appoint-
ment of God.. and the time of it is fixed; it may be
known that it will be, from the word of God that
assures it, from all experience which confirms it, and
from the decline of nature, and the seeds of death in
men. This the living know that live corporeally, even
the wicked themselves, though' they put the evil day
far fi'om them; and so good men, that live spiritually,
being quickened by the spirit and grace of God, and
live a life of faith and holiness; they know they shall
,tic, though Christ died for them, and has abolished
death, .as a punishment and a curse, and took away
its sting, and made it a. blessing; wherefore it is de-
sirable to them, as being for their good: but there are
some things about death they ordinarily know not;
they do not know the time of their death; nor the
place where they shall die; nor of what death they
shall die; nor in what circumstances, both outward
and inward: of these the Targum understands the
passage; "for the righteous know that if they sin,
"they shall be reckoned as dead men in the world to
"canoe, therefore they keep their ways, and sin not;


{t} Paraenes. ad Demonic. p. 10.
{u} Juratus ruin, Plauti Corculio, Act. 3. v. 88.  Fui juratus, ib.
Act. 4. Se. 4. v. 10.  Non tu juratus mihi es? juratus sum, ib.  Ru-
dens, Act. 5. Sc. 3. v. 16, 17.
{w} Herodot. Thalia, sive l. 3. c. 8.
{x} \^twllwh\^ insaniae, Montanus, Mercerus, Drusius, Amama, Gejerus,
Rambachius; omnis insania, Junius & Tremellius.
{y} \^rxby rva ym\^ quisquis eligatur, Montanus, so Gejerus.