Online Bible 1995 March/ROM-1025.iso/olb/gill/6_500.lzh/6_559.TXT

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heed to false prophets, and delighted in them, vet. 11.
and the chapter is concluded with words of comfort
to the remnant among them, and with precious pro-
mises of the Messiah, and the blessings of grace by
him, vet. 12, 13.
Vet. 1. 14roe to them that devise iniquity, &c.] Any
kind of iniquity; idolatry, or worshipping of idols, for
the word is used sometimes for an idol; or the sin of
uncleanness, on which the thoughts too often-dwell
in the night-season; or coveting of neighb0urs' goods,
and oppressing the poor; sins which are instanced in
the next verse; and every thing that is vain, foolish,
and wicked, .and in the issue brings trouble and dis-
tress: now a woe is denounced against such that think
on such things, and please themselves with them in
their imaginations, and contrive ways and means to
commit them: and work evil upon their beds; when,
the senses being less engaged, the thoughts are more
free; but should not be employed about evil; but
either in roedilating on the divine goodness, and
praising the Lord for his mercies; or in examining
a man's heart, state, and case, and mourning over his
sins, and applying to GOd for the remission of them;
but, instead of this, the persons here threatened are said
to work evil on their beds, when they should be asleep
and at rest, or engaged in the above things; that is,
they plot and contrive how to accomplish the evil they
meditate; they determine upon doing it, and are as
sure of effectinS it as if it was actually done; and do
act it over in their own minds, as if it was real; see
Psal. xxxvi. 4: when the morning is light, they practise
it; they wish and wait for the morning light, and as
soon as it appears they rise; and, instead of blessing
God for the mercies of the night, and going about
their lawful business, they endearour to put in prac-
tice with all rigour and diligence, and as expeditiously
as they can, what they have projected and schemed in
the night-season; because it is in the power of their
hand; to commit it; and they have no principle of
goodness in them, nor fear of God before them, to re-
strain them from it: or, because their hand is unto
powers; it is stretched out, and made use of in the
commission of sin to the utmost of their power, with-
out any regard to God or man. The Vuigate Latin
version is, because their hand is against God; their
hearts are entnity to God, and therefore they oppose
him with both their hands, and care not what iniquity
they commit; they are rebels against him, and will not
be subject to him. The Septuagint and Arabic versions
are, because they lift not up their hands to God; they
don't pray to him, and therefore are bold and daring
to perpetrate the grossest iniquity, which 'a praying
man durst not do; hut the Syriac version is the re-
verse, they do lift up their, hands to God; make a shew
of religion and devotion, when their hearts and their
hands are deeply engaged in, sinning; which shews their
impudence and hypo.c. risy; but the passages in Gen.
xxxi. 29. Deut. xxxu. 28. Prov. iii. 27. favour and
contirm our version, arid the sense of it; so the
Targum.
Ver. 2. And they covet fields, and take them by vio-
lence, &c.] The fields of their poor neighbours, which
lie near them, and convenient tbr them; they wish
they were theirs, and they contrive ways and means to
get them into their possession; and if they can't get
them by fair means, if they can't persuade them to sell
them, or at their price, they'll either use some crafty
method to get them from them, or they'll take them
away by force and violence; as Ahab got Naboth's
vineyard from him: and houses, and take them away;
they covet the houses of their neighbouts also, and
take the same course to get them out of their hands,
and add them to their own estates: so they oppress a
man and his house, evgn a man and his heritage; not
only dispossess him of his house to dwell in, but of his
paternal inheritance, what he received from his an-
cestors, and should have transmitted to his posterity,
being unalienable; and so distressed a man and his.
family for the present, and his posterity .after him.
The Vulgate Latin version is, they calumniate a man
and his house; which seems to be designed to make it
agree with the story of Ahab, 1 Kings xxi. 13.
Vet. & Therefore thus saith the Lord, behold, against
this family do I devise an evil, &c.] Because of those
evils of covetousness, oppression, and injustice, secretly
devised, and deliberately committed, the Lord, who.
neither slumbers nor sleeps, declares, and would have
it observed, that he had devised an evil of punishment
against the whole nation of Israel, the ten tribes par-
ticularly, among whom these sins greatly prevailed;
even an invasion of their land by the Assyrians, and
the carrying of them captive from it into foreign parts:
from which ye shall not remove your ncchs ; that is, they
should not be able to deliver themselves from it; they
would not be able to stop the enemy in his progress,
having entered their land; nor oblige him to break up
the siege of their city, before which he would sit, and
there continue till he had taken it; and being carried
captive by him, they would never be able to free them-
selves from the yoke of bondage put upon them, and
under which they remain unto this day.. The allusion
is to beasts slipping their necks out of the collar or
yoke put upon them: these sons of Belial had broke
off the yoke of God's commandments, and now- he'll,
put another yoke upon them, they shall never be
able to cast off until the time of the restitution of all
things, when all Israel shall be saved: neither shall ye
go haughtily; as they now did, in an erect posture,,
with necks stretched out, and heads lifted up high, and
looking upon others with scorn and contempt; but
hereafter it should be otherwise, their heads would
hang down, their countenances be dejected, a, nd their
backs bowed with the burdens upon them :..for this
time is evil; very calamitous, afflictire, and distressing;
and so not a time for pride and haughtiness, but for
dejection and humiliation; see Ephes. v. 16.
Vet. 4. In that day shall one talce up a parable against
you, &c.] Making use of your name, as a by-word,
a proverb, a taunt, and a jeer; mocking at your cala-
mities and miseries : or, concerning you {}; take up and
deliver out a narrative of your troubles, in figurative
and paraholical expressions; which Kimchi thinks is


{b} \^Mdy lal vy yk\^ quia est ad potentiam manus ipsorum, Calvin.
{c} \^Mkyle\^ super vos, Pagninus, Montanus; de vobis, Junius & Tre-
mellius, Piscator; super vobis, Cocceius.