Online Bible 1995 March/ROM-1025.iso/olb/gill/5_100_p.lzh/5_155.TXT

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such as, if received, would be of the greatest advan-
tage to them, for their comfort and refreshment, yet
it was refused by them with the utmost contempt;
which was to be their ruin, ver. 12, 13, wherefore the
rulers of Jerusalem are threatened with the judgments
of God, which should come upon them night and day,
the reportof which would be a vexation to them; and
from which they should not be screened by their cove-
· nant with death and hell, or by their shelters and co-
verings with lies and falsehood, in which they placed
· their confidence, ver. 14, 15, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22. in
the midst of which account, for the comfort of the
Lord's people, stands a glorious prophecy, concerning
the sure foundation laid in Zion, on which all that
are built are safe and happy, ver. 16. and the cer-
tainty of these judgments is illustrated by the method
which the ploughman takes in sowing his corn, and
threshing it out; for which he has instruction and di-
rection from the Lord of hosts, ver. 23, 24, 25, 26, 27,
0.8, 29.
Ver. 1. Woe to the crown of pride, to the drunkards
of Ephraim, &c.] Or, of the drunkards of Ephraim:
or, 0 crown of pride, 0 drunkards of Ephraim {l}; who
are both called upon, and a woe denounced against
· ,hem. Ephraim is put for the ten tribes, who were
drunk either in a literal sense, for to the sin of drunken-
ness we.re they addicted, Hos. vii. 5. Amos vi. 6. The
Jews say{m}, that wine of Prugiatha (which perhaps
was a place noted for good wine), and the waters of
Diomasit (baths), cut off the ten tribes from Israel;
which both Jarchi and Kimchi, on the place, make
mention of; that is, as Buxtorf{n} interprets it, pleasures
and delights destroyed the ten tribes. The inhabit-
ants of Samaria, and the places adjacent, especially
were addicted to this vice; these places abounding
· with excellent wines. Sichem, which were in these
parts, is thought to be called, from the drunkenness of
its inhabitants, Sychar, John iv. 5. this is a sin very
uncotnely in any, but especially in professors of reli-
gion, as these were, and ought to be declaimed against:
or they were drunkards in a metaphorical sense, either
 with idolatry, the two calves being set up in Dan and
Beth-el, which belonged to the ten tribes; just as the
kings of the earth are said to be drunk with the wine
ofantichrist's fornication, or the idolatry of the church
of Rome, Roy. xvii. _c2. or with pride and haughtiness,
being elated with the fruitfulness of their country, their
great affluence and riches, and numbers of people; in
all which they were superior to the tribes of Judah
and Benjamin, and in which they piqued themselves,
and are therefore called the crown of pride; and espe-
cially their. king may be meant, who was lifted up
with pride that he ruledover such a country and peo-
ple; or rather the city of Samaria, the metropolis of
the ten tribes, and the royal city. Perhaps there may
be an allusion to the crowns wore by drunkards at their
revels, and particularly by such who were mighty to
drink wine or strong drink, and overcame others, and
triumphed in it: pride and sensuality are the vices con-
demned, and they often go together: whose glorious
beauty; which lay in the numbers of their inhabitants, in
their wealth andriches, and in their fruits of corn and
wine: is afadingflower; not to be depended on, soon
destroyed, andquickly gone: which are on the head
of the fat valleys; meaning particularly the corn and
wine, the harvest and Vintage, with which the fruitful
valleys being covered, looked very-beautiful and glo-
rious: very probably particular respect is had to Samaria,
the head of the kingdom, and which was situated on a
hill, and surrounded with fruitful valleys; for not Jeru-
salem is here meant, as Cocceius; nor Gethsemane, by
the fat valleys, as Jerom: of them that are overcome with
wine; or smitten, beaten % knocked down with it, as .
with a hammer, and laid prostrate on the grotmd,
where they lie fixed to it, not able to get up; a true
picture of a drunkard, that is conquered by wine, and
enslaved unto it; see ver. 3.
Ver. 2. Behold, the Lord hath a mighty and strong
one, &c.] That is, a powerful king, with a mighty
army, meaning Salmaneser king of Assyria; whom the
Lord had at his beck and command, and could use at
his pleasure, as his instrument, to bring down the
towering pride of Ephraim, and chastise him for his
sensuality: which as a tempest of hail; that beats down
herbs and plants, and branches of trees, and men and
beasts: and a destroying storm; which carries all before
it, blows down houses and trees, and makes terrible
devastation wherever it comes: as a flood of mighty
waters overflowing; whose torrent is so strong there is
no stopping it: so this mighty and powerful prince
shall cast down to the earth with the hand; the crown of
pride, the people of Israel, and the king of it; he shah
take the crown from his head, and cast it to the ground
with a strong hand, as the Jews interpret it, with great
violence; or very easily, with one hand, as it were,
without any trouble at all. The Targum is, "so shall
"people come against them, and remove them out of
"their own !and into another land, because of the sins
"which were in their hands ;" see oh. viii. 7.
Ver. 3. The crown of pridc, the drunkards of Ephraim,
shah be trodden underfeet.] .Not only cast down with
the hand, but trampled upon with the feet; showing
their utter destruction, and the contempt with which
they should be used; which, with their character, is re-
peated, 'to point out their sins, the cause of it, to denote
the certainty of it, and that it might be taken notice of.
Ver. 4. And the glorious beauty which is on the head
of the fat valley, &c.] Meaning the riches and fruit-
fulness of the ten tribes, and especially of Samaria the
head of them: shall be a fading flower; as before de-
clared, ver. 1. and here repeated to shew the certainty
of it, and to awaken their attention to it: and as the
hastyfruit before the summer; the first ripe fruit, that
which is ripe before the summer-fruits in common are.
The Septuagint render it the first ripe fig; and so the
Targutn and Aben Ezra: wliich while he that looketh
upon it seeth it; that it is goodly and desirable, and so
gathers it, Mic. vii. I: while it is yet in his hand he
eateth it up; and as soon as he has got it into his hand,
he can't keep it there to look at, or forbear eating it,

{l} \^Myrpa yrkv twag trje ywh\^ vae coronae erectionis eoriorum
Ephraimi, Cocceius, Gataker.
{m} T. Bab. Sabbat, fol. 147.2.
{n} Lex. Talmud. col. 529.
{o} \^Nyy ymwlh\^ coneussi vino, Pagninus, percussi vino, so some in
Vatablus; conquassantur vel conculcantur a vino, Forerius; contuso-
rum a vino, Cocceius.