Online Bible 1995 March/ROM-1025.iso/olb/gill/5_500_p.lzh/5_533.TXT

Text File | 1994-08-11 | 7KB | 131 lines

of a man, save the spirit of a man that is in him; yet
God, that knows all things, knew that these were all
lies and impostures, and that they had never had a
dream from him, or any revelation of his will in that
way.
Ver. 26. flow 1ong shall this be in the heart of the
prophets that prophesy lies ? &c.'] To invent such lies,
and deceive the people, and turn them away from
God; agreeably to the preceding and following verses:
this shews that this was not through ignorance and in-
advertence; it was a meditated and studied thing by
them; they contrived it in their hearts, and they were
resolute and bent upon it, and took much delight and
pleasure in it; their hearts were in it, and it was in
them to do as they did; and in this way they had been
long, but should continue no longer. Or the words
may be rendered, how long h ? and a stop be put there,
being a short abrupt expression, like that in Psal. vi. 3.
and the sense be, how long shall they go on thus, pre-
tending to dreams, and visions, and revelations from the
Lord, and so impose upon the people ? shall they al-
ways go on after this manner ? no, they shall not: and
then the next words may be read, is there any thing in
the heart of the prophets that prophesy lies {i}? nothing
that is good; truth is not there; nothing but lies and
deceit; the word of God is not there, as it is with the
true prophet of the Lord, he that hath my word, as in
ver. 28. there is no fear of God, nor knowledge of him
and his will, nor faith in him, nor love to him, or any
regard to his hunour and glory. Yea, they areprophets
of the deceit of their own hearts; they prophesy no-
thing but what their own deceitful hearts suggest to
them, whereby they are deceived themselves, and de-
ceive others, 2 Tim. iii. 13.
Vet. 27. Which think to cause my people to forget my
name, &c.] The Septuagint and Arabic versions ren-
der it, my law. The word and worship of God; from
which men are drawn off by false teachers, and are in
a fair way to be brought to atheism, and to forget that
there is a God; for when once men are turned from the
word of God to believe lies, and from the pure worship
of God to a false religion, there is no knowing where
things will end; and, indeed, it was the design of these
false prophets, a scheme and device of theirs, in which
they hoped to succeed by their dreams; which, says the
Lord, they tell every man to his neighbout ; privately
from house to house, as well as publicly, to take off
the people from all thoughts of God and his worship:
as their fathers have forgotten my name for Baal : or, by
Baal {k}; by means of Baal's prophets in Samaria before
mentioned; who seduced Israel from the pure worship
of God, and made them forget him; having the name
of Baal more in their minds and mouths than the name
of God. The Syriac version is, as their fathers forgot
my name, and worshipped Baal ; and so the Targum,
"as their fathers forsook the worship of my name, and
"swore by the name of idols."
Ver. 28. The prophet that hath a dream, let him tell a
dream, &c.] These words are directed not to a true
prophet of the Lord, that has a dream from him, or
something communicated to him in a dream by the
Lord, which he is to deliver as such; but to a false
prophet, that says he has dreamed; and if he has
dreamed a dream, let him tell it as a dream {l}; so some
supply it, as the fruit of his own roving fancy and ima-
gination in sleep; and not call it a revelation from the
Lord, and impose it upon the people as such. The
Septuagint version is, let him tell his dream; let him
tell it as his own, and not as a dream from the Lord.
And he that hath my word; the word of prophecy by
revelation, and under the influence of the spirit of God,
as the true prophets: my word; not the word of men,
or the word spoken by angels, or the Scriptures in ge-
neral; but the word of the Gospel, the word of peace
and reconciliation, of righteousness, life, and salvation;
the evangelical part of the word, though not to the ex-
clusion of all the rest, but this chiefly: he that hath it;
or with whom, or in whom it is {m}; who has it not only
in his hands to read, nor merely in his head, so as to
have speculative notions of it; but has it in his heart,
where it is come with power, and is become the in-
grafted word; and who has a large share of spiritual
and experimental knowledge of it, and an ability and
capacity to express it to the edification of others. Let
him speak ,ny word .faithfully; or truly {n}; as it is.
Ministers of the word are stewards, and it is required of
such that they be faithful, and a more honourable cha-
racter they cannot well have; and then may the word
of the Lord be said to be spoken faithfully, when no-
thing else is spoken but that; when there is no mixture
ofman's with it; and when the whole of it is spoken,
and nothing kept back or concealed; when a man's
views in it are sincere and upright, and he aims only
at the glory of God; and the good of immortal souls;
when it is spoken out, openly and boldly, not as
pleasing men, but God, and as in his sight, to whom
the account must be given: or, let him speak my word,
truth°; which is truth; or, for it is truth, as Kimchi;
so this is a reason why it should be spoken freely, fully,
publicly, and boldly, because it is truth, and nothing
but truth: or, let him speak my word as truth; or as it
is {p}; it comes from the God of truth; it' lies in the
Scriptures of truth; the subject-matter of it is truth,
Christ, who is truth itself, and those doctrines, relative
to his person, office, and grace, and salvation by him;
and it is the spirit of truth that directs into it, owns it,
and makes it useful. What is the chaff to the wheat ?
saith the Lord; there is no comparison between the
one and the other; the one is greatly preferable to the
other; there is as much difference between the dreams
and lies of the false prophets and the word of God, as
there is between chaff and wheat. False doctrine is as
chaff, 'light; when put into the balance of the sanc-
tuary it is found wanting; it is of no value; it is as

{h} \^ytm de\^ quousque? Cocceius, Schmidt; quousque tandem: Junius
& Tremellius, Piscator; usque quando? De Dieu.
{i} \^Myabnh blb vyh\^ an est in corde prophetarum: De Dieu,
Gataker, Schmidt.
{k} \^lebb\^ per Baalem, Junius & Tremellius, Piscator, Cocceius,
Schmidt.
{l} \^Mwlx rpoy\^ narret ut somnium, Grotius, Gataker, Schmidt.
{m} \^wta yrbd rvaw\^ & penes quem est verbum meum, Junius &
Tremellius, Piscator; at eum quo est verbum meum, Schmidt; \~kai en\~
\~w o logov mou prov auton\~, Sept.
{n} \^tma\^ Pagnius, Junius & Tremellius; veritate, Montanus,
Schmidt.
{o} \^tma yrbd rbdy\^ narret meum verbum veritatem, quod est veritas,
Kimchi, Ben Melech, Abarbinel.
{p} Loquatur verbum meum sienti est, Schmidt.