Online Bible 1995 March/ROM-1025.iso/olb/gill/6_300.lzh/6_382.TXT

Text File | 1994-09-06 | 7KB | 126 lines

p.roviding for her, and protecting and defending her;
but leave her to shift for herself, and to the insults and
abuses of others; having been guilty of idolatry, which
is spiritual adultery, as the Israelites before the cap-
tivity were; and as the Jews in Christ's time were
guilty of rejecting the word of God, and preferring
their own traditions to it: hence it follows, let her
therefore put away her whoredores out of her sight, or
from her face e, and her adulteries from between her
breasts; alluding to the custom of harlots, who used
to paint their faces, and to allure with their looks,
words, and actions, and to make bare their breasts, or
adorn them, or carry in them what wereenticing and
alluring. These adulteries and whoredores, which are
the same thing, may signify the many idolatries of the
people of Israel before their captivity, and which were
the cause of it; or the sins of the Jews before their
dispersion; or their evil works, as the Targum, by
which they departed from God and the true Messiah,
and went a whoring after other lovers: thus they re-
jected, transgressed, and made of none effect the com-
mandments of God bv their traditions; paid tithe of
mint, anise, and cummin, and neglected the weighty
· matters of the law; sought' not the honour of God,
but that which comes from men; and therefore con-
fessed hot the true Messiah, though-under convictions
of him, and went about to establish their own righte-
ousness, and submitted dot to his; these were the
idols of their hearts, and the whoredores and adul-
teries the Jewish converts, that truly believed in
Christ, are ordered to exhort them to pat away. The
Septuagint and Arabic versions are, I will take away
her whoredores, &c.
Ver, 3. Lest I strip her na/ced, and set her as in the
day that she was born, &c.] Alluding to the case of
an infant when born, which comes naked into the
world; and referring to the state and condition of the
Israelites in Egypt, which was the tithe of their na-
tivity, as a people and church; see Zech. xvi. 4. and
when they were in. a state of servitude and bondage,
and had no wealth and substance, and without pos-
sessions and hnds, and had no country of their own
to inhabit; and Signifying that this should be their
case again, if they persisted in their idolatry, im-
penitence,-and unbelief; as has been the case of the
ten tribes upon their captivity, when they were
stripped of all their wealth and riches, carried away
out of their own land, and scattered among the nations,
and have never returned since; and as was the case of
the Jews in their last destruction, for the rejection of
Christ, they were stripped of their civil and religious
privileges, of their temporal and spiritual mercies as a
nation and church; what they feared is come upon
them, that the Romans would come and take away
their place and nation, John xi. 48. and make her as a
wilderness, and set her like a dry laud; having some
respect to her former condition in the wilderness,
where they had no food nor drink but what they had
from God, as Abarbinel thinks; or else to the de-
struction and consumption of them in the wilderness,
their carcasses falling there, who shined against the
Lord, as the Targum and Jarchi; and denoting the
utter destruction of their commonwealth and church,
when their land was laid waste, their city destroyed,
their house and temple left desolate and burnt, and
th. ey deprived of all the necessaries of life, which
was their case at their last destruction by the Ro-
mans; and to this day they are as they are de-
scribed, oh. iii. 4: and slay her with thirst; after
their vainly-expected Messiah, which has brought
them to desperation; or with a thirst, not for water,
but of hearing the word of the Lord, Amos viii. 11.
the Gospel, and the ordinances of it, being taken away
from them, and the clouds ordered to drop down no
rain upon them; that is, the ministers of the word
not to preach the Gospel_ to them; and so are left de-
stitute of the means of grace, and of spiritual life, and
of escaping eternal death, Matt. xxi. 43. Isa. v. 6. The
Targum of the whole is, "lest I remove my Shechinah
"from her, and take away her glory, and set her for-
" saken, as in the days of old, before she came to my
"worship; and my fury shall remain upon her, as
"it remained upon the people of that generation
"that transgressed my law in the wilderness; and
"I will set the land desolate, and kill her with
" thirst."
Vet. 4. And I will not have mercy upon her children,
&c.] The posterity of the Jews in succeeding ages,
until the time of their conversion comes; they persist-
ing in the sins of their forefathers, filling up the mea-
sure of their iniquities; remairiing in their obstinate
rejection of the Messiah, and in the same irapenitence
and unbelief, and having his blood imprecated upon
them: for they be the children of whoredores ; begotten
and born in whoredom, spurious and illegitimate; or
that commit whoredores; imitate their parents; are
guiity of the same vices; a generation of vipers. So
the Targum, "for they are children that commit ido-
"larry ;" retain the traditions of the elders; go about
to establish their own righteousness, and reject the
Messiah.
Ver. 5. For their mother hath played the harlot, &c.]
Or committed idolatry; which is the reason why she
is to be pleaded with, and why the Lord will not own
her as his wife, or be a hasband to her; and why
she is to be exhorted to put away her whoredores from
her; and was in danger of all the above evils coming
upon her, continuing in the same practice; and why
her children were children of whoredores. Though
the connexion may be with the verse following, for' or
because their mother hath played the harlot, &c. there-
fore I will hedge. up her way, &c. She that conceived
them hath done shamefully; all sin is shamet'ul and
scandalous, especial{y adultery; it brings a reproach
and a blot upon a person, that will not be wiped off;
and so idolatry, worshipping stocks aud stones instead
of the living God; and particularly the sin of the Jewish
church, in rejecting the true Messiah and his righte-
ousness, and setting up their own, and tenaciously
adhering to the traditions of the eiders; and so de-
parting from the true God, and his word .,nd worship,
which is no other than spiritual adultery or idolatry.

{e} \^hynpm\^ "a facie sua", Calvin, Pagninus, Piscator, Cocceius;
"a faciebus suis", Montanus, Schmidt.