of your hands do ye hope that he will do good unto you or as a MS copy reads that I will or shall do good unto you Others taking the letter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 L prefixed to the last word to import here as sometimes it doth for or instead of thus for the evil of your hands because it is to you instead of doing good is or shall this come or as another expounds it For evil two hands i. e. two portions instead of doing good i. e. they render double of evil for or instead of good This seems very obscure and would be plainer thus for doing or to do evil i. e. They do of evil twice as much as they do of good or double evil to what or instead of what they should do of good Others will have the words to be thus expounded They set themselves as for the evil that is in their hands that they may do it well i. e. confirm it or do it effectually or throughly that they may take bribes so that in their opinion the meaning of the word to do well is to do firmly or throughlâ— Against which another of them excepts because it is improper to saâ— a man may do ill well but to that may seem an easy answer that the doing it well imports not any goodness in the thing that is done but earnestness and putting to force in doing it which in other Languages is not unusual to say that a man doth such a thing well when he throughly and earnestly doth it though the thing it self be not good And therefore do ours with other modern Translators and Expositors take this meaning The meaning which he that excepts against this gives is When any desires to have any evill that is in the hands of any or is done him by the hands of any rectified any wrong or injury done to him redressed by those that are in authority they to do him right require bribes and gifts so that the remedy shall be â—orse to him than the damage that he hath suffered and desires to have made good to him and will cost him more This meaning doth a late learned man likewise give viz. that it cannot be obtained of those that are in authority and place of Judicature to defend and do right to an innocent oppressed man against him that is of wicked hands without giving them bribes and rewards so that the words may run to do good or right against him that is of wicked hands the Prince asketh c. or Is good and right to be done against him that is of wicked hands i. e. if right be to be done c. or the hands are i. e. ought to be for doing good or right against evil or interrogatively are the hands for doing right against evil but they abuse their hands instead of doing right with them they use them onely to take bribes the Prince asketh c. But there seems no reason to depart from that sense which our Translators follow understanding by earnestly fully with diligence and the utmost of their power It seems well to agree to the words except we shall think it a plainer way to render it for evil or to do evil two or both hands viz. are ready or they hunt with both hands but to do good the Prince asketh c. that the meaning may be They are ready with both hands i. e. with all their might to do evil they have two hands for that but must be hired and largely bribed to do good Whereas the Chalde as likewise the Syriack renders and do not do good A learned man thinks that instead of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Leheitiâ— which signifies to do good he read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lo hetib in two words which signifies he hath not done good but there is no necessity to say so but rather that he read it as it is now usually read and took the letter â— L to import as we said some think it to do as much as for or instead of and so gave the meaning of it in equivalent terms for to say they do evil and do not do good is all one with they do evil instead of doing good The Prince asketh and c. Here are three sorts of persons accused of combining together for the perverting of justice described by their several titles the Prince the Iudge the Great one First the Prince i. e. either the King or cheif Ruler or the Magistrate he that should oversee all and look that judgement be impartially done even he looks after bribes and requires presents from those that seek for justice Others by the Prince understand such as are in cheif authority under the King who because it were a shame for him to ask do ask gifts for him Secondly the Iudge he that should determine the cause and pronounce sentence according to right without respect to persons in judgement Deut. I. 17. and not take any gift Deut. XVI 19. he is for a reward or asketh a reward and is swayed by what he hopes to gain or that which shall come to his share of the money given not by the merits of the cause And the great man i. e. say some he that is great in the Kings Court others the Advocate the Pleader or he that is to set things in order for a legal proceeding and to inform the Judges and instruct those that have Suits in Law and order their Plea to the best advantage Others any great potent or rich man He uttereth his mischievous desire or as in the Margin the mischief of his soul i. e. either the mischeif which he hath conceived within himself or as some that which shall be or prove mischeif to himself or as divers ancient Translations the desire of his soul. If the great man be taken in either of the two former significations the meaning will be either that these three one under another jointly conspire to set Justice to sale not as right but as their own gain and advantage shall require and be advanced by though it will end in the destruction of their soules or as some â— though perhaps not so appositly to the place that whatsoever the Prince though never so illegally requires from any both the Judge and the great man do further his desire in it and care not what how contrary to Law Right and Justice soever they say or pronounce in his behalf for effecting his designs out of hope and advantage to themselves too and that they may share in the gain But if it be taken in the third signification then the meaning will be that the great or rich man who hath in his mind or desire to get any thing by wrong from any other poorer or weaker than himself and who hath done wrong in any kind seeing both the Prince and Judge have both their hands open to receive
acknowledge him that he said he was a King Luc. XXIII 2. though it was not he himself but the People that said it and in respect to that common vote did Pilate say bringing him forth to the Iews Behold your King and put for the superscription of his accusation on the Cross The King of the Iews Mar. XV. 26. and the other Evangelists giving him indeed though but in scoffe his just title at which the chief Priests offended desired him to change it and not to write the King of the Iews but that he said I am the King of the Iews Ioh. XIX 21. though he never said it nor challenged to himself any such Kingdom as they pretended contrary to Cesars but only such as he himself told Pilate that was not of this World Ioh. XVIII 36. And that was it indeed which was his crime with them because he challenged only such a Kingdom Had he came in the lower power and splendour of an Earthly King they would the chief of them have been as forward as the common People were to have acknowledged him whose Dominion because he did not so they rejected and for the same reason do their posterity still deny and reject it and so will not acknowledge those Prophecies as this and other like concerning his Kingdom to have been in our Lord Christ fulfilled but still vainly look for another in whom they should be fulfilled to them in a Kingdom that is of this World wherein keeping his seat in an Earthly Ierusalem reedified he should rule over Iudah and Israel by force of Arms subjecting the rest of the World to them But we having learned from himself the nature and manner of his Kingdom wherein he ruleth and which he beginning at Ierusalem so miraculously propagated through the whole World not by carnal Arms and force but by the power of his Spirit and Word do see and cannot but acknowledge the utmost of what by vertue of this Prophecy could be expected made good in and by him and that it plainly belongeth to him After all this may be taken notice of yet another construction of the Words by some followed yet tending still to the same purpose Thou O Tower of Eder or the Flock that is Bethlehem that art obscure to thee shall come the Daughter of Zion and there shall come from thee the first Dominion that is the Kingdom to the Daughter of Ierusalem such a King or Kingdom which shall bear rule in Ierusalem i. e. in thee Messiah the King of Ierusalem shall be born which though some say may be partly applied to Zorobabel yet no otherwise they say then as he was a type of Christ who was to spring of the same race In summ these words however they be interpreted are a Prophecy concerning Christ and his Kingdom which cannot be eluded in him and by him are they in the ampliest manner and in none other Person ever yet were fulfilled he it is that should come and in vain do the Iews look for another to come and bring an Earthly Dominion and Kingdom to them 9 Now why dost thou cry out aloud Is there no King in thee Is thy Counsellour perished for pangs have taken thee as a Woman in travail Now why dost thou cry aloud c. Having in the latter end of the former chapter denounced very heavy judgments against the Inhabitants of Ierusalem and in the foregoing verses of this made very gracious promises of great good things now in what follows he so mingleth a repetition of both threats and promises as to shew that the one do's not hinder nor cross the performance of the other but that both shall in their time have their due accomplishment successively one after the other first the judgments then the promises though by the evills which they should suffer they might seem to have cause to despair of ever seeing good again In the first place to shew the certainty of the evills to come on them he to whom all things to come are present and whatsoever he has determined is as already done speaketh to them as if they were allready befallen them and expostulates with them concerning their behaviour under them as savouring too much of infidelity and distrust Now why c. What is the cause of all thy sad complaints of those expressions of grief like those of a Womans pangs in travail in Child-birth which is in the Scripture an usual expression of great Sorrows Is it because the Enemy hath deprived thee of thy King and Counsellours under whose conduct and government thou formerly enjoyed'st tranquillity and comfort This seems the most litteral and simple sense of the words and in this way they may be compared with what is said Hos. XIII 10. as the words are by many rendred and well bear Where is thy King now that he may save thee or thy judges c. The History of their being bereaved of King and Counsellours is read in the XXIV XXV chap. of the 2 Book of Kings And from the words so expounded may be inferred and will be included that which Others give as the sense of them Is there no King in thee that is Is not God for all this that thou sufferest being deprived of thy Earthly King thy King and thy Counsellour so that thou mightest in him find strength and comfort to support thee and from him counsel to direct thee and by him be at last delivered from all these evills But at present she i. e. Ierusalem or the Church of the Iews deprived of all visible comfort hath no King of her own Nation to protect her no senate nor Counsel to direct her and God her Heavenly King hath for the present withdrawn the wonted signs of his visible and gracious presence and protection from her and therefore may she seem to have just cause of bemoaning her condition in most passionate signs of grief and therefore by way of concession bespeaks he her in the next verse 10 Be in pain and labour to bring forth O Daughter of Zion like a Woman in travail for now shalt thou go forth out of the City and thou shalt dwell in the field and thou shalt go even to Babylon there shalt thou be delivered there the Lord shall redeem thee from the hand of thine Enemies Be in pain and labour to bring forth c. Or as some change the Imperative into the Future by way of ascertaining her that these things she must for a while endure Thou shalt be in pain thou shalt be as in labour or as a Woman in travail in great anguish For thou shalt certainly go forth out of the City she shall be forced to ly abroad broad in the fields without house or home of her own and then led into captivity as far as to Babylon so that indeed she hath visible occasions of great sorrow But those sorrows though great as of a Woman crying out in labour and travail yet shall be as hers
Israel but to Iudah also which thence took the infection What is or as Others think it more properly rendred Who is the transgression i.e. Who is the cause of the transgression of Iacob Is it not Samaria that is the King or inhabitants of Samaria which being the chief City of the Kingdom at that time corrupted all the other places thereof by its ill example So Who is the high places of Iudah that is Who is the cause that in several places of Iudah high places contrary to the law are built for false worship Is it not Ierusalem the Royal City that is the King and inhabitants of Ierusalem who having first built such there the infection thence spread it self through the whole land of Iudah and they also did what they saw done at Ierusalem for looking on that as an holy City they supposed nothing would be done there which they ought not to follow 6 Therefore I will make Samaria as an heap of the field and as plantings of a vineyard and I will poure down the stones thereof into the valley and I will discover the foundations thereof Samaria as an heap of the field Samaria having been first in sin shall be first in punishment which punishment is here described He who for the wickedness of the inhabitants maketh of a City an heap of a defenced City a ruine Isa. XXV 2. will cause her by the Assyrians his instruments to be made as an heap of the field or a wast hillock or heap of rubbish in the field And as plantings of the vineyard such places as are planted with vines which they use to plant on hillocks as best thriving in such places so that the place where Samaria stood shall be as such a field only and for such use as if there never had been there a populous inhabited City This shall be brought to pass by their rowling or throwing down the stones thereof for it stood on an hill into the valley when they shall have rased it to the very foundation and plucked up even the lowest stones that were covered with the Earth so that there be not left one stone standing upon another Mat. XXIV 2. Luc. XIX 44. where the like destruction of the Temple Ierusalem is described The Latin renders it as an heap of stones in the field where a vineyard is planted and so Some expound an heap of the field an heap of stones gathered out of the field that they may not hinder them that work and thrown up together afterwards to be thrown out of the field and dispersed Others somwhat differently but all make the scope to be the expression of utter destruction and desolation Compare cap. III. 12. and Ierem. XXVI 18. where the same thing that here is meant is expressed in terms tending to the same purpose That Samaria was thus ruin'd by the Assyrians seems manifest out of the 2 Kin. XVII 24. c. where the People brought up by the King of Assyria are said to be placed in the Cities of Samaria not in Samaria it self 7 And all the graven Images thereof shall be beaten to pieces and all the hires thereof shall be burnt with the fire and all the Idols thereof will I lay desolate for she gathered it of the hire of an harlot and they shall return to the hire of an Harlot And all the hires thereof That we may know what is meant here by hires compare Hosea II. 12. where the Idolatrous People are taxed for saying of their vines and figtrees These are my rewards or hire for the word is of the same root with this here and differs only in the last letter that my lovers that is my Idols have given me Add out of ver 5. for she said I will go after my Lovers that give me my bread and my water my wool and my flax mine oyl and my drink and what God saith ver 8. she did not know that I gave her Corn and Wine and Oyl and multiplied her Silver and Gold which they prepared for Baal viz. for presents to Baal or wherewith they made Baals as cap. VIII 4. it is said of their Silver and their Gold have they made them Idols These expressions being considered it will appear that by hires may be conveniently understood all their wealth and good things which they looked on as the gifts of their Idols and rewards of their service to them or those pretious things and rich donaries which having receiv'd and gain'd from their own People or others their friends and partners with them in their Idolatry they dedicated to their Idols or made Images of or adorned them and their Temples with And according to this last interpretation Some will have the Idols to be compared to harlots and the Idolaters to their Lovers who bestow gifts on them for their hire and recompence of their lewdness but this is by Others excepted against because otherwhere in Scripture the Idolaters are compared unto Strumpets which prostitute themselves and their Idols to their Lovers or such to whom they prostitute themselves This scruple will be taken out of the way if we consider what is said Ez. XVI 31 34. concerning Ierusalem Thou hast not been as an Harlot in that thou scornest hire And the contrary is in thee from other Women in thy whoredoms in that thou givest a reward or hire and no reward is given thee and again ver 41. I will cause thee to cease from playing the Harlot thou also shalt give no hire any more The same word being in those places used that is here makes manifest that 't is used not only for such gifts and hire as adulterers give to Harlots but for such also as more unsatiable Harlots give to Men to hire them to commit lewdness with them and so if it be here understood of such gifts as Israel gave to not received from her Idols she may still be looked on as the Harlot and the Idols her Lovers and the gifts the hire of an whore not received but given by her These shall be all burnt with fire except such as the enemy shall see fit to carry away And so the meaning of the following words will either be and all the Idols thereof will I lay desolate that is take them out of the way that they be no more worshipped or as Others will have by Idols meant the Temples of their Idols will I destroy for she gathered them of the hire of an harlot all those presents and rich gifts with which she made or adorned her Idols and their Temples she gathered of the hire of an Harlot viz. from such as ran on whoreing after those Idols and prostituted themselves to false Gods and they shall return to the hire of an Harlot shall fall into the hands of those who are given to the like Idolatry and by them namely the Assyrians be employed in the worshipping and adoring of Idols as of the Calf
also in another respect viz. that they shall end in joy Ioh. XVI 21. for there even in Babylon where she might fear utterly to perish and that her name and posterity should utterly be cut off doth the Lord promise to save her and redeem her out of the hand of her Enemies that had done such despite unto her So that here is joined to a certain denunciation of judgment a certain promise of deliverance again from it that they may not despair under what they shall suffer but with patience and comfort expect the joyful issue in Gods good time which is also the scope of the following words But before we proceed to them we may take notice of a different exposition of the ninth verse from what has been given which we then omitted that we might not interrupt the sense it is of Iewish Interpreters of good authority among them fastening another signification on the word rendred cry aloud to wit Why dost thou seek to make friends to thee viz. the Aegyptians and Assyrians that they may save thee from those evills which God for thy rebelling against him hath threatned to send on thee and why do's the approach of the Enemy affright thee Dost thou not consider that he is thy King and Counsellour and that in turning to him would be thy only safety But now forgetting him and seeking to others and finding them not able to save thee paâ—gs have taken hold of thee and thou art greatly distressed and thou hast great cause so to be Be in pain therefore and bow down thy self as fainting under sorrow for now according as he hath determined shalt thou go into captivity but he then that is thy King still when he hath so humbled thee will in the midst of judgment remember mercy and deliver thee c. This according to that rendring would be the nearest meaning but this Interpretation though antient is by few followed But following our Translation with which most others agree there may also be given another exposition somthing different from the former Now why dost thou cry out c. Is there not a King in thee Hast thou not counsellours and directours to save thee These she once asked Give me a King and Princes Hos. XIII 10. and she had them and in them trusted but now doubting that they are not able to save her and fearing the force of her Enemies she in anguish as a Woman in travail deservedly for for all that they can do to help her She shall be driven from her home and led away captive to Babylon Yet that she may not despair she is assured of help from the Lord who when she hath been made to know how vain all other helps are will shew his power in delivering her even then when there seemed no hope to be left to her and so will there be a plain connexion also between these and the following words But the first exposition may seem the plainest 11 ¶ Now also many Nations are gathered against thee that say Let her be defiled and let our eye look upon Zion Now also many Nations c. In these words and the following he gives a father representation to her of what evill shall befall her for a time and then an assurance that she shall in the end overcome all that afflict her and by the might of the Lord prevail over them and bring them under But though this be evidently the Scope of this and the following verses yet for making it plain are some difficulties to be cleared as first who those many Nations were that are spoken of secondly when they here spoken of had these promises of victory made good to them and before some forms of expression in the words are to be explained for the better understanding the ground of these queries and the solving of them Those many Nations that are gathered against Zion shall say Let her be defiled The word signifieth sometimes pollution or defilement by Sin so Ier. III. 1. Shall not the Land be greatly polluted and Numb XXXV 33. Ye shall not pollute the Land wherein ye are for blood it defileth the Land And this signification seem they to respect not only who render it as Ours or they more manifestly who render She shall Sin or be wicked and they again who render shall be condemned or be guilty or be obnoxious but they also who render Let her be stoned viz. as a defiled adulteress and perhaps the Greek also who looking not so much on the signification of the words as their meaning render it Let us insult although they change both number and gender For what will be the intent of all these but as much as to say Let her be looked on as defiled with Sins and made loathsome to her God and so being forsaken by him let her be dealt with as such despitefully used and destroyed that we may insult over her we cannot now doubt of being able so to use her But then defiled here will be referred not only to express her guilt but rather the miserable condition they hope to bring her to in polluting her with bloud and slaughter and contemptuously using her without respect to her former holiness and as much as in them lies abolishing all signs thereof In much like sense seems the word desiling though the word in the Hebrew be differing yet of like signification to be taken for contemptuous using or destroying as it is said Iosiah defiled the high places 2 Kin. XXIII 8. Ez. VII 24. God threatens that their holy places should be defiled by the heathen and Ps. LXXXIX 39. Thou hast profaned his Crown by casting it to the ground In much like sense may the word here be understood It has also another signification of doing hypocritically or being an hypocrite and Some here chuse to take that So the Tigurine version she was an hypocrite The intention must still be Let her have the condemnation or punishment of or be used as a profane hypocrite for the word is not of the Preter-tense but of the Future and is rather after this notion to sound She is or let her be then She was or hath bin In fine it is an expression of their desires that all manner of mischief and shame might befall her to her utter desolation like theirs Psal. CXXXVII 7 and their hopes to see it that they may rejoice at it and insult over her as is farther expressed by the next words and let our Eye look upon Zion let us see our desire upon her as the word is likewise used Psal. LIV. 7. 12 But they know not the thoughts of the Lord neither understand they his Counsel for he shall gather them as the sheaves into the floor 13 Arise and thresh O Daughter of Zion for I will make thine horn Iron and I will make thy hoofs brass and thou shalt beat in pieces many People and I will consecrate their gain unto the Lord