Online Bible 1995 March/ROM-1025.iso/olb/gill/5_000_p.lzh/5_029.TXT

Text File | 1995-01-10 | 7KB | 126 lines

is literally expressed in the following part of the
chapter.
\*Ver. 8. \\Woe unto them that join house to house\\, &c.]
Or %O ye that join%, &c.; for, as Aben Ezra observes, it
signifies calling, as in \\#Isa 55:1\\ though Jarchi takes
it to be expressive of crying and groaning, on account
of future punishments; and he observes, that as there
are twenty two blessings pronounced in the book of
Psalms, on those that keep the law, so there are
twenty two woes pronounced by Isaiah upon the
wicked: \*\\[that] lay field to field\\; the sin of covetousness
is exposed and condemned in these words; not that it
is unlawful in itself for a man that has a house or
field of his own to purchase another that is next unto
it; but when he is insatiable, and not content with
his houses and lands, but is always coveting more,
this is his sin, and especially if he seeks to get them
by fraud or force: \*\\till [there] be no place\\; for others to
dwell in and possess; and so the Targum, \*"and say,
"until we possess every place;"\* or %unto the end of the
place {x}%, city, or field; till they have got all the houses
in the town or city, and all the pieces of ground in
the field, in their own possession: \*\\that they may be
placed alone in the midst of the earth\\, or land; that is,
of Judea; wholly inhabit it themselves, and have the
sole power and jurisdiction over it. It is in the He-
brew text {y} %that ye may be placed%, &c.; the Targum is,
\*"and they think they shall dwell alone in the midst
"of the land."\*
\*Ver. 9. \\In mine ears, [said] the Lord of hosts\\, &c.]
This may be understood either of the ears of the
Lord of hosts, into which came the cry of the sins of
covetousness and ambition before mentioned; these
were taken notice of by the Lord, and he was deter-
mined to punish them; or of the ears of the prophet,
in whose hearing the Lord said what follows: so the
Targum, \*"the prophet said, with mine ears I have
"heard, when this was decreed from before the Lord
"of hosts:"\* KILL \*\\of a truth many houses shall be desolate\\;
or %great% ones {z}; such as the houses of the king, of the
princes, and nobles, judges, counsellors, and great men
of the earth; not only the house of God, the temple,
but a multitude of houses in Jerusalem and elsewhere;
which was true not only at tbe taking of Jerusalem by
the Chaldeans, but at the destruction of it by the
Romans, to which this prophecy belongs, \\#Mt 23:38\\
the words are a strong asseveration, and in the
form of an oath, as Jarchi and Kimchi observe; \^al\^
\^Ma\^, %if not%; if many houses are not left desolate, let it be
so or so, I swear they shall: \*\\[even] great and fair, without
inhabitants\\: houses of large and beautiful building
shall be laid in such a ruinous condition, that they
won't be fit for any to dwell in, nor shall any dwell in
them: and this is the judgment upon them for join-
ing house to house; that for laying field to field
follows.
\*Ver. 10. \\Yea, ten acres of vineyard shall yield one
bath\\, &c.] They shall get nothing by laying field to
field, for their fields shall be barren and unfruitful;
though Jarchi and Kimchi take this to be a reason
why their houses should be desolate, and without in-
habitants, because there would be a famine, rendering
the words, %for ten acres%, &c. The Targum makes this
barrenness to be the punishment of their sin, in not pay-
ing tithes; paraphrasing the words thus, \*"for because
"of the sin of not giving tithes, the place of ten acres
"of vineyard shall produce one bath."\* The word \^ydmu\^
signifies %yokes%, and is used of yokes of oxen; hence
the Septuagint and Arabic versions render the words
thus, %for where ten yoke of oxen work%, or %plough, it shall
make one flaggon%; and so Kimchi explains them, the
place in a vineyard, which ten yoke of oxen plough in
one day, shall yield no more wine than one bath. A bath
is a measure for liquids; according to Godwin {a}, it held
four gallons and a half; a small quantity indeed, to be
produced out of ten acres of ground; an acre, accord-
ing to our English measure, being a quantity of land
containing four square roods, or one hundred sixty square poles or
perches: \*\\and the seed of an homer shall yield an ephah\\:
that is, as much seed as an %homer% would hold, which
was a dry measure, and which, according to the above
writer, contained five bushels and five gallons, should
yield only an ephah, which was the tenth part of an
homer, \\#Eze 45:11\\ so that it would only produce a
tenth part of the seed sown.
\*Ver. 11. \\Woe unto them that rise up early in the
morning\\, &c.] To rise up early in the morning is
healthful, and to rise to do business is commendable;
but to spend the day in drunkenness and intemperance
is very criminal, which is here meant: \*\\[that] they may
follow, strong drink\\; not only drink it, but follow on to
drink; diligently seek after it, where the best is to be
had; go from house to house till they have found it;
closely follow the drinking of it, till inebriated with it:
\*\\that continue until night\\; at their pots, with their
drinking companions, even all the day till night comes,
the twilight either of the evening or of the morning:
\*\\[till] wine inflame them\\; their bodies with heat, and their
souls with lust.
\*Ver. 12. \\And the harp, and the viol, the tabret, and
pipe\\, &c.] Instruments of music; some struck with a
bow or quill, or touched with the fingers; and others
blown with the mouth: \*\\and wine are in their feasts\\;
so that they lived jovially and merrily, like sons of
Bacchus, more than like the people of God: \*\\but they
regard not the work of the Lord, neither consider the ope-
ration of his hands\\; meaning not the law, as the Targum
and Kimchi, which was the work of the Lord, and the
writing of his hands; rather, as Aben Ezra, the punish-
ment inflicted on the ten tribes being carried into cap-
tivity; or else the works of creation and providence,
and the daily mercies of life; or, best of all, the great
work of redemption by Christ, and the conversion
of sinners, both among Jews and Gentiles, by the
preaching of his Gospel; for this refers to the Jews
in the times of Christ and his apostles, which immedi-
ately preceded their utter destruction; and those sins
here mentioned were the cause of it. See \\#Ps 28:5\\.
\*Ver. 13. \\Therefore my people are gone into captivity\\,

{x} \^Mwqm opa de\^ %usque ad terminum loci%, V. L.
{y} \^Mtbvwhw\^ %constituamini%, Vatablus, Forerius, Montanus;
    %colloeemini%, Calvin.
{z} \^Mybr Mytb\^ %domus magnificae, sive sumptuose%, Vatablus.
{a} Moses and Aaron, l.?? 6. c. 9.