Online Bible 1995 March/ROM-1025.iso/olb/gill/5_200_p.lzh/5_270.TXT

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their own souls, their idols; to whom also souls may
be ascribed by way of derision, being inanimate as well
as irrational; and it is not unusual for idols to be said
to be carried captive; hence those Words of Tertul lian,
manent & simulachra caplira: or rather the Babylo-
nians, who went into captivity themselves, and so
could not save their idols: thus they who had led cap-
tive the Jews are led captive themselves; and thus it
will be with mystical Babylon, Rev. xiii. 10.
Ver. 3. Hearken unto me, 0 house o.f Jacob, &c.3 The
Jews, the descendants of Jacob: and all the remnant of
the house of Israel; those that remained of the ten
tribes that had been carried captive long ago. These
may, in a spiritual sense, design those who are Israel-
ites indeed; the household of the God of Jacob; the
chosen of God, and called; the remnant according to
the election of grace: which are borne by me from the
belly, which are carried from the womb: here the Lord
distinguishes himself from the idols of the Babyloninns;
they were laid as burdens upon beasts, and bore and
carried hy them; but the Lord is born and carried by
none, but bears and carries his people. The allusion
is to tender parents that have compassion on their
children as soon as born, and take care of them, and
bear them in their bosoms, and carry them in their
arms; and may have respect, in the literal sense, to the
infant state of the Jews, both as a church and com-
monwealth, when the Lord took pity on them, and
care of them, and bore them as a father bears his son;
and bore with their manners too, and carried them all
the days of old through the wilderness to Canaan's
land; see Numb. xi. I2. Dent. i. 31..Acts xiii. 18. Isa.
lxiii. 9. It may be applied to the care of God in the
preservation of men by his providence, especially his
own people, whose God he is from their mother's
belly; who takes them under his protection as soon as
born, and carries them through every state of infancy,
youth, manhood, and old age, and never leaves nor for-
nkes them; see Psal. xxii. 10. and lxxi. 5, 6, 17, 1S.
and xlviii. 14. and with great propriety may be applied
to regenerate persons, who, as soon as born again, are
regarded by the Lord in a very visible, tender, and
compassionate manner; he bears them in his bosom,
and on his heart; he bears them in his arms; he puts
his everlasting arms underneath them; he bears with
them, with all their weakness and infirmities, their
peevishhess and frowardness; he bears them up under
all their afflictions, and sustains all their burdens; he
bears them through and out of all their troubles and
difficulties: he carries them, in like manner, in his
bosom, and in his arms; he carries them into his house,
the church, which is the nursery for them, where they
are nursed and fed, and have the breasts of consolation
drawn out to them; he carries on the good work of
grace in them; he carries them through all their trials
and exercises safe to heaven and eternal happiness; for
they are poor, weak, helpless creatures, like new-born
babes, can't go alone, but must be bore up and carried.
Ver. 4. And even to your old age I am he, &c.] The
same he ever was, the eternal and unchangeable Jeho-
yah; the same in his love and affections; in his sym-
pathy. and care; in his power and protection; in his
promises, truth, and faithfulness to his people, in their
last days, as at the first moment of their conversion;
and therefore they are safe; see Psal. cii. 27. Mal.
iii. 6: and even to hoot hairs will I carry you {n}; which
is doing more than the most tender parent does, or can,
or need to do ! God won't leave his people in the de-
cline of life, when pressing infirmities are upon them,
and they stand in as much need as ever of. being bore
up, snpported, and carried: wherefore it follows, I
have made; these persons, not merely as creatures,' but
as new creatures; they are formed for myself; they
are my sons and daughters, the works of my hands: I
have an interest in them, therefore I will bear, even I
will carry: from the first of their regeneration,
to their entrance into glory; see the note on vcr. 3.
And will deliver you; out of all affliction; out of all
temptations; out of the hand of every enemy; from a
final and total falling away; from a body of sin and
death; from death eternal, and wrath to come; and
even at last from the grave and all corruption.
Ver. 5. To whom will ye liken me? &c.] Was it
lawful that any likeness might be made, which yet is
forbidden, Exod. xx. 4. what likeness could be thought
of? is there any creature in heaven or earth, among all
the angels or sons of men, to whom God can be likened,
who has done such works of power, and acts of grace,
as to care and provide not only for the house of Israel,
from the beginning of their state to the close of it, but
for all his creatures from the beginning of life to the
end thereof, yea, from the begitming of the world to
the end of it, and has ,hewn such special grace and
goodness to his chosen people, in such a kind and
tender manner? And make me equal; or any equal to
him in power and goodness, since all are but wormi,
dust, and ashes, as'the small dust of the balance, yea,
as nothing in comparison of him. And compare me,
that we may be like ? which is impossible to be done;
for what comparison or likeness can there be between
the Creator and a creature, between an infinite, immense,
and eternal Being, possessed of all perfections, and a
finite, frail, imperfect one ? see Isa. xl. lS. To pre-
tend to frame a likeness of such a Being, is to act the
absurd and stupid part the Heathens do, described in
the following verses.
Ver. 6. They lavish gold out of the bag, &c.] As if
it was of no value and account; that is, the Heathen
idolaters, some of them, who are excessively devoted
to idolatry; these, being rich, take out their bags of
gold, and give it in a very profuse manner to a work-
man to make a golden image for them, not caring what
it cost them; such an one was that which Nebuchad-
nezzar made, sixty cubits high, and six broad, Dan.
iii. 1. see an instance of profuseness this way in the
Israelites themselves, Exod. xxxii. 2, 3, 4. And
weigh silver in the balance; or with a reed°. Others,
though idolaters, yet less devoted to idolatry, and more
tenacious of their money, make silver do for a god,
and weigh it out to the workman, that it be made of

{n} This seems to express more than old age, as Ben Melech observes
hence the Jews say, a man sixty years old is come to old age, and one
of seventy to hoary hairs.
{o} \^hnqb\^ in calamo, Pagninus, Montanus. The bar of the balance
on which they hang the scales with threads, Ben Meleck says is
called \^hnq\^, the reed. So Vatablus.