Online Bible 1995 March/ROM-1025.iso/olb/gill/5_500_p.lzh/5_510.TXT

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a king; and to the idol under each name they burned
their children with fire, and offered them as burnt-
offerings unto it; which was a most cruel and bar-
barous way of sacrificing. Some think they only
caused them to pass through two fires; but the text
is express for it, that they burnt them with fire, and
made burnt-offerings of them, as they did with slain
beasts. It seems very hkely that they did both: which
1 commanded not; in my law, as the Targum adds;
and which was intimation enough to avoid it; though
this was not all, he expressly forbad it, Lev. xx. 2, 3,
4, 5: nor spake it, neither came it into my mind; and
it is marvellous it should ever enter into the heart of
man; none but Satan himseff could ever have devised
such a way of worship.
Ver. 6. ThereJbre, behold, the days come, saith the
Lord, &c.] Or, are coming {o}; a little while and it will
come to pass, what follows; to which a behold is pre-
tixed, as calling for attention and admiration, as well
as to assure of the certain performance of it: that this
place shall no more be called Topher : as it had been,
from the beating of drums in it, that the cries and
shrieks of infants burnt in the fire might not be heard
by their parents: nor the valley of the son of Hinnom ;
which was its name in the times of Joshua, and long
before it was called Tophet; but now it should have
neither names: but the valley of Slaughter; or, of the
slain, as the Targum; from the multitude_of those that
should be killed here, at the siege and taking of Jeru-
salem; or that should be brought hither to be buried;
see yet. 11. and the note on ch. vii.
Ver. 7. And I will make void the counsel of Judah
and Jerusalem in this place, &c.] The counsel which
they took in this place and agreed to, in offering their
sons and daughters to idols; and which they took with
these idols and their priests, from whom they expected
assistance and relief; and all their schemes and pro-
jects for their deliverance; these were all made to
spear to be mere empty things, as empty as the
earthen bottle he had in his hand, to which there is
an allusion; there being an elegant paronomasia be-
tween the word {p} here used and that: and I will cause
them to fall by the sword before their enemies: such as
sallied out from the city, or attempted to make their
escape: and by the hands of them that seek their lives;
and so would not spare them, when they fell into them:
sad their carcasses will I give to be meat for the fowls
the heaven, and for the beasts of the earth: signit
that they should have no burial, but their slain bodies
should lie upon the earth, and be fed upon by fowls
and beasts.
Vet. 8. And I will make this city desolate, and an
hissing, &c.] An hissing to its enemies; an hissing
because desolate; when its walls should be broken
down, its houses burnt with fire, and its inhabitants
put to the sword, or carried captive: every one that
passeth thereby shall be astonished, and hiss; surprised
to see the desolations of it; that a city once so famous
and flourishing should be reduced to such a miserable
condition; and yet hiss by way of detestation and ab-
horrence of it, and tbrjoy at its ruin: because of all the
plagues thereof: by which it was brought to desolation,
as the sword, famine, burning, and captivity.
Ver. !). And I will cause them to eat the flesh of their
.cons, and the flesh of their daughters, &c.] For want
of tbod; the famine should be so great and pressing.
Jcremy, that foretells this, was a witness of it, and has
left it on record, Lain. iv. 10: and they shall eat every
or, e the flesh of his friend. 'rhe Targum interprets it,
the goods or substance of his neighbour; which is some-
times the sense of eating the flesh of another; but as it
is to be taken in a literal sense, in the preceding clause,
so in this: so it should be, in the siege and straithess,
wherewith their enemies, and they that seek their lives,
shall straiten them; the siege of Jerusalem should ba
so close, that no provision could be got in to the relief
of the inhabitants; which obliged them to take the
shocking methods before mentioned. Jetore observes,
that though this was fulfilled at the Babylonish capti-
vity, yet more fully when Jerusalem was besieged by
Vespasian and Titus, and in the times of Hadrian.
Josephus {q} gives us a most shocking relation of a woman
eating her own son.
Ver. 10. Then shall thou break the bottle in the sight
of the men that go with thee.] The earthen bottle he
was bid to get of the potter, ver. 1. this he is ordered
to break in pieces.before the eyes of the ancients of
and of the priests that went with him out
,rusalem to Topher, as au emblem of the easy,
sure, and utter destruction of Jerusalem; for nothing
is more easily broken ihan an earthen vessel; and so
easily was Jerusalem destroyed by the Chaldean army;
nor can an earthen pot resist any force that is used
against it; nor could the inhabitants of Jerusalem with-
stand the force of'Nebuchadnezzar's army; and an
earthen vessel once broken cannot be put together
again; a new one must be made; which was the case
both of the city and temple; and which, upon the
return from the captivity, were not repaired, but
rebuilt.
Ver. 11. And shalt say unto them, thus saith the
Lord of hosts, &c.] Of armies above and below; and
so able to execute what he here threatens: even so
will I break this people and this cit.V : the people, the
inhabitants of this city, and that itself, by the sword,
famine, burning, and captivity: asone breaketh a pot-
ter's vessel, that cannot be made whole again; or healed {r} ;
a potter's vessel, upon the wheel, such an one as the
prophet had seen, and to which the Jews are com-
pared, oh. xviii. 3, 4. being marred, may be restored
and put into another form and shape; but one that is
dried and hardened, when broke, can never be put to-
gether again; so a vessel, of gold, silver, and brass,
when broke, may be made whole again; but an earthen
vessel never can; a fit emblem therefore this to repre-
sent utter and irrecoverable ruin; see Isa. xxx. 14.
Jerom here again observes, that this is clearly spoken,
not of the Babylonish, but of the Roman captivity;
after the former the city was rebuilt, and the people
returned to Judea, and restored to former plenty; but

{o} \^Myab Mymy\^ dies (sunt) venientes, Montanus, Schmidt.
{p} \^qbqb\^ & \^ytqbw\^.
{q} De Bello Jud. I. 6. c. 3. sect. 4.
{r} \^hprxl\^ sanarii Montanus; curari, Pagninus, Junius & Tremel-
lius.