Online Bible 1995 March/ROM-1025.iso/olb/gill/5_500_p.lzh/5_506.TXT

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his evil heart; whatsoever our hearts suggest to us as
pleasant and agreeable, that we'Ll do,. let the issue be
what it will: it is not to be thought that these people
expressed themselves in so many words; but this was
the language of their hearts, and of their actions,
known unto the Lord, and are put into this form by
him, or by the prophet, expressing the real seutiments
of their minds.
Ver. 13. There. fore thus saith the Lord, &c.] This
being the case of the people of the Jews, and they so
resolutely bent on their own ways: ask ye among the
Heathen; inquire among the nations of the world, the
Gentiles that know not the true God, and have not the
external revelation of his will, only the dim light of
nature to guide them; and see if any thing like this is
to be found among them, as with this people, favoured
with the law of God, his word and ordinances to di-
rect them, and his prophets to teach and instruct
them; suggesting that they were worse than the Hea-
thens, and that it would be more tolerable for them,
one day, than for these people: who hath heard such
things? as expressed in the preceding verses; such
desperate words, such bold and daring expressions,
such impious resolutions; for generally, when persons
are reproved and threatened for sin, they promise
amendment; or what is after related concerning their
idolatries; intimating that nothing like it was ever
heard of among the Gentiles; see oh. ii. 10, 11: the
virgin of Israel hath done a very horrible thing; the
congregation of Israel, as the Targum; the people of
the Jews, ironically so called; because they had been
espoused to the Lord as a chaste virgin, and ought to
have remained so, pure and incorrupt in the worship
of him; but had committed spiritual adultery, that is,
idolatry; even very gross acts of it; horrible to hear
and think of; enough to make a man's hair stand an
end to be told of; or what was very filthy and abo-
minable, and to be loathed and detested, which is ex-
plained, ver. 15. unless it can be thought to refer to
what goes before, concerning their dreadful resolution
to continue in their evil ways.
Ver. 14. Will a man leave the snow of Lebanon, which
cometh from the rock of the field ? &c.] Lebanon was
a mountain on the borders of Judea, the top of which
was covered in the summer-time with snow, from the
whiteness of which it had its name, Lebanon; as the
Alps, for the same reason, which lie between France
and Italy: now, the snow being dissolved by the heat,
ran in flowing streams down the rocks into the field
and plain, where they might be easily come at, and
drank of; and would a thirsty traveller, on a summer's
day, pass by such streams as these, and not drink of
them? certainly he would not leave them, but stop
and drink; he must be an unwise man that should do
otherwise; and yet this was what the people of the
Jews did; they tbrsook the Lord, the .fountain of living
waters; and who, because of the plenty of good things
in him, and flowing from him to them, were as streams
from Lebanon; and yet they left these crystal streams
for the black and muddy waters of Sihor, or idols of
Egypt, Cant. iv. 15. Jer. ii. 13, 18. or the words may
be rendered, Will a man leave what comes from the rock
of the field for the snow of Lebanon {x}? that is, will a
man neglect to drink of the water that comes out of a
rock in his field, pure and clear, and is near at hand,
and choose to go to Mount Lebanon to drink of the
snow-water, which runs down the mountain, and can
never be thought so clear as what comes out of the
rock ? surely he will not; he must act an unwise part
if he does; and such a part, and worse, did the people
of the Jews act, in forsaking God: or, shall the cold
flowing waters which come from another place be for-
salcen? or, strange waters {y}; which come from far,.
from some distant rock, being conveyed in pipes, in;
which they come cool, and in flowing streams, for the
service of a city and its inhabitants; and who, having
such a privilege, would neglect them, and drink of
standing water in a pond or puddle ? or, the words, as
the former, may be rendered, shall for strange frozen
waters, be left flowing ones ? see Grotius.
Ver. 15. Because my people hath forgotten me, &c.]
Or, that they have forgotten me {z}; this is the horrible
thing they have done, which was unheard-of among
the Gentiles, who were always tenacious of their gods,
and the worship of them; and that foolish and unwise
thing, which was like leaving pure flowing streams of
water for dirty puddles. This is to be understood of
their forsaking the worship of God, as the Targum in-
terprets it, and following after idols: they have burnt
incense to vanity; to idols, which are vain empty things,
and which cannot give their worshippers what they
expect from them: or, in vain they burn incense {a};
even to the true God, whilst they also sacrificed unto
idols; which to do was an abomination to the Lord,
Isa. i. 13. and especially burning incense to idols must
be a vain thing; and so the Targum, "to no profit
a they burn incense or spices :" and they have caused
them to stumble in their ways; that is, either the idols
they worshipped, or the false prophets caused the
professing people of the Jews to stumble and fall in the
ways into which they led them: and fi'om the ancient
paths; or, the paths of eternityb; which lead to eternal
life; or which were of old marked out by the revealed
will of God for the saints to walk in; and in which the
patriarchs and people of God, in all former ages, did
walk; and which were appointed from everlasting,
and will remain for ever; and these are the good old
paths in ch. vi. 16: to walk in paths, in a way not cast
up; a new way, unknown in former times; an un-
beaten track, which the saints had never walked in;
a rough path, unsafe and dangerous; and hence they
stumbled, and fell, and came to ruin; as follows:
Ver. 16. To malce their land desolate, &c.] Not that
this was the intention either of those that led them out
of the right way into those wrong paths, or of them
that went into them; but so it was eventually; this
was the issue of things; their idolatry and other sins
were the cause of their land being desolate; through
the ravage of the enemy, let in upon them by way of
judgment; and through the destruction of men by

{x} \^Nwnbl glv ydv rwum bwzeyh\^ nunquid deserit aliquis aquam
manatem de petra agri, ut biblat nivem Libani; so some in Vatablus.
{y} \^Myrz Mym\^ aquae alienae, Schmidt, Montanus; peregrinae, De Dieu.
{z} \^ynxkv yk\^ quod obliti sunt, Schmidt.
{a} \^wrjqy awvl\^ frustra adolebunt, vel adolent, Pagninus, Calvin.
{b} \^Mlwe ylybv\^ semitae quae a seculo, sed antiquo, vid. Schmidt; so
Targ.; semitis jam olim praescriptis, Piscator.