Online Bible 1995 March/ROM-1025.iso/olb/gill/6_400.lzh/6_426.TXT

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live'; and, if they would., could not go up to the house
of the Lord, and worship him there: or rather this
may design, either the visible church of God, out of
which they would be now ejected ;' or their native
country, where they had been, as the thmily and
household of God; but now should be so no more,
but, as afterwards said, wanderers among the nations,
and no more reckoned as belonging to the Lord, and
under his paternal care and protection: I ,will love them
no more; which is not to be understood of the special
love and favour the Lord bears to his own people in
Christ, which is everlasting and unchangeable; but of
his general and providential favour and regard unto
these people, which he had manifested in bestowing
many great and good things upon them; but now
would do so no more; he would do nothing to them,
or for them, that looked like love, or be interpreted
of it, but all the reverse; and, by his behaviour to
them, shew that they were the objects of his aversion
and hatred; and this was to continue, and has con-
tinued, and will continue unto the time of their con-
version in the latter day, when all Israelshall be saved,
Rom. xi. 26: all their princes are revolters; from God
and his worship, who should have set a good example
to the people; and since these were perverse and re-
bellious against God, it is no wonder that the people
in general apostatized. This is to be understood of
their king as supreme, and all subordinate rulers; of
their judges and magistrates of every order; of all
their governors, both civil and ecclesiastic; and not
at Gilgal only, but in all the land. There is an elegant
paronomasia {n} in the original, the beauty of which
cannot be expressed in the translation.
Ver. 16. Ephraim is smitten, &c.3 The people of the
ten tribes, the kingdom of Israel, who had been like a
tree planted in a pleasant place, yet. 13. and were in
very flourishing circumstances in the times of Jeroboam
the second; but now were like a tree smitten with
thunder and lightning, or hail-stones, and beat to
pieces; or with the heat of the sun, or with blasting
winds, or by worms; as in the sncceeding reigns, by
the judgments of God upon them; by civil wars, con-
spiracies, and murders among themselves; and by the
exactions of Pul and depredations of Tiglath-pile.ser
kings of Assyria; and quickly would be smitten again;
the present being put for the future, because of the
certainty of it, as usual in prophetic writings; or be
utterly destroyed by Salmaneser, anti be no more a
kingdom: their root is dried up; like the root of a tree
that has no sap and moisture in it, and can communi-
cate none to the body and branches or' the tree, which
in course must die. This may be understood of their
king, princes, nobles, and chief men, the support and
strength of the nations; and of parents and heads of
families, cut off' by one judgment or another: they shall
bear no fruit; as a tree thus smitten, and its root dried
up, cannot; so neither, this being their case, there
would be none to beget, nor any to bear children, and
bring them forth; called the fruit of the womb, in
allusion to the fruit of trees: yea, thou,,_4h they bring
.forth; though some of them should be spared, women
with their husbands, and should procreate children:
yet will I slay] even the beloved fruit of their .womb;
their children they should bring forth, on whom their
affections wcrc strongly set; and the rather, as they
were but few, and from whom they had raised ex-
pectations of builtling up their families; even these
the Lord would stay, or suffer- to be slain,. either by
the sword oftheenemy, or by fitmine, or by pestilence,
or by some disease or another; so that there should be
no hope of a future posterity, at least of no great.
uumber of them.
Vet. 17- My God will cast them away, &c.] With
loathsomehess and contempt, having sinned against
him, and done such abominable things; cast them
out of their own !and, as m'en not fit to live in it; cast
them out of his sight, as not able to endure them; cast
them away, as nnprofitable and good for nothing;
reject them from being his people; no more own
them in the relation they had stood in to him; nor
shew them any more favour, at least until the con-
version of them in the times of the Messiah. These
are the words of the prophet, who calls the Lord his
God, whom he worshipped, by whom he was sent,
and in whose name he prophesied; and this in oppo-
sition to, and distinction front, Israel, who worshipped
other gods, and who had cast off the true God, and
were now, or would be, cast away by him, and so no
longer their God: because they did not hearken unto
him; to his word, as the Targum; to him speaking by
his prophets; to the instructions, admonitions, threat-
enings, and predictions delivered to them from him;
they did not obey his law, regard his will, or attend
his worship; which was the cause of the rejection of
them, and a just one: and they shall be wanderers
among the nation, s; being dispersed by the Assyrians in
the several nations of the world, where they were fugi-
tives- and vagabonds; as their posterity are to this day.

CHAP. X.

TitIs chapter is of the same argument with the i
former, and others before that; setting tbrth the sins
of the ten tribes, and threatening them with the judg-
ments of God for them; and exhorting them to repent-
ance, and works of righteousness. They are charged
with unfi'uitfulness and ingratitude; increasing in ido-
latry, as they increased in temporal good things, ver.
1. with a divided heart, and with irreverence of God,
and their king; and with false swearing, covenant-
breaking, and injustice, vet. 2, 3, 4. and are threatened
with a removal of their king, and with the destruction
of their idols, and places of idolatry, which should
cause fear in the common people, and mourning among
the priests, ver. 1, 5, 6, 7, 8. It is observed, that
their sin had been of long continuance, though the
Lord had been kind and good unto them, in chastising

{n} \^Myrro Mhyrv\^ Sharehem Sorerim.