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Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary
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Matthew Henry |
A M O S.
CHAP. V.
The scope of this chapter is to prosecute the exhortation given to
Israel in the close of the foregoing chapter to prepare to meet their
God; the prophet here tells them,
I. What preparation they must make; they must “seek the Lord,” and not
seek any more to idols
(ver. 4-8);
they must seek good, and love it,
II. Why they must make this preparation to meet their God,
1. Because of the present deplorable condition they were in,
2. Because it was by sin that they were brought into such a condition,
3. Because it would be their happiness to seek God, and he was ready to
be found of them,
4. Because he would proceed, in his wrath, to their utter ruin, if they
did not seek him,
5. Because all their confidences would fail them if they did not seek
unto God, and make him their friend.
(1.) Their profane contempt of God’s judgments, and setting them at
defiance, would not secure them,
(2.) Their external services in religion, and the shows of devotion,
would not avail to turn away the wrath of God,
(3.) Their having been long in possession of church-privileges, and in
a course of holy duties, would not be their protection, while all along
they had kept up their idolatrous customs,
They have therefore no way left them to save themselves, but by
repentance and reformation.
| Invitations and Warnings. | B. C. 790. |
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1 Hear ye this word which I take up against you, even a
lamentation, O house of Israel.
2 The virgin of Israel is fallen; she shall no more rise: she
is forsaken upon her land; there is none to raise her up.
3 For thus saith the Lord GOD; The city that went out by a
thousand shall leave a hundred, and that which went forth by
a hundred shall leave ten, to the house of Israel.
This chapter begins, as those two next foregoing began, with, Hear
this word. Where God has a mouth to speak we must have an ear to
hear; it is our duty, it is our interest, yet so stupid are most men
that they need to be again and again called upon to hear the word of
the Lord, to give audience, to give attention. Hear this
word. this convincing awakening word must be heard and heeded, as
well as words of comfort and peace; the word that is taken up against
us, as well as that which makes for us; for, whether we hear or
forbear, the word of God shall take effect, and not a tittle of it
shall fall to the ground. It is the word which I take up–not the
prophet only, but the God that sent him. It is the word that the
Lord has spoken,
ch. iii. 1.
The word to be heard is a lamentation, a lamentable account of
the present calamitous state of the kingdom of Israel, and a lamentable
prediction of its utter destruction. Their condition is sad: The
virgin of Israel has fallen
(v. 2),
has come down from what she was; that state, though not pure and chaste
as a virgin, yet was beautiful and gay, and had its charms; she looked
high herself, and was courted by many as a virgin; but she has
fallen into contempt and poverty, and is universally slighted. Nay,
and their condition is helpless: She shall no more rise, shall
never recover her former dignity again. God had lately begun to cut
Israel short
and, because they repented not, it was not long before he cut Israel
down.
1. Their princes, that should have helped them up, were disabled:
She is forsaken upon her land. Not only those she was in
alliance with abroad failed her, but her friends at home deserted her;
she would not have been carried captive into a strange land if she had
not first been forsaken upon her own land and thrown to the
ground there, and all her true interests abandoned by those that
should have had them at heart. There is none to raise her up,
none that can do it, not that cares to lend her a hand.
2. Their people, that should have helped them up, were diminished,
v. 3.
“The city that had a militia, 1000 strong, and, in the beginning of the
war, had furnished out 1000 effective men, able-bodied and well-armed,
when they come to review their troops after the battle, shall find but
100 left; and, in proportion, the city that sent out 100 shall
have but ten come back, so great a slaughter shall be made, and
so few left to the house of Israel for the public service and safety.”
Scarcely one in ten shall escape of the hands that should relieve this
abject, this dejected, nation. Note, The lessening of the numbers of
God’s spiritual Israel, by death or desertion, is just a matter for
lamentation; for by whom shall Jacob arise, by whom shall the
decays of piety be repaired, when he is thus made small?
| God’s Message to Israel; The Aggravated Sins of Israel; Warnings and Exhortations; Exhortations and Encouragements. | B. C. 790. |
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4 For thus saith the LORD unto the house of Israel, Seek ye me,
and ye shall live:
5 But seek not Bethel, nor enter into Gilgal, and pass not to
Beer-sheba: for Gilgal shall surely go into captivity, and Bethel
shall come to nought.
6 Seek the LORD, and ye shall live; lest he break out like fire
in the house of Joseph, and devour it, and there be none to
quench it in Bethel.
7 Ye who turn judgment to wormwood, and leave off righteousness
in the earth,
8 Seek him that maketh the seven stars and Orion, and turneth
the shadow of death into the morning, and maketh the day dark
with night: that calleth for the waters of the sea, and poureth
them out upon the face of the earth: The LORD is his name:
9 That strengtheneth the spoiled against the strong, so that
the spoiled shall come against the fortress.
10 They hate him that rebuketh in the gate, and they abhor him
that speaketh uprightly.
11 Forasmuch therefore as your treading is upon the poor, and
ye take from him burdens of wheat: ye have built houses of hewn
stone, but ye shall not dwell in them; ye have planted pleasant
vineyards, but ye shall not drink wine of them.
12 For I know your manifold transgressions and your mighty
sins: they afflict the just, they take a bribe, and they turn
aside the poor in the gate from their right.
13 Therefore the prudent shall keep silence in that time; for
it is an evil time.
14 Seek good, and not evil, that ye may live: and so the LORD,
the God of hosts, shall be with you, as ye have spoken.
15 Hate the evil, and love the good, and establish judgment in
the gate: it may be that the LORD God of hosts will be gracious
unto the remnant of Joseph.
This is a message from God to the house of Israel, in which,
I. They are told of their faults, that they might see what occasion
there was for them to repent and reform, and that, when they were
called to return, they might not need to ask, Wherein shall we
return?
1. God tells them, in general
(v. 12),
“I know your manifold transgressions, and your mighty sins; and
you shall be made to know them too.” In our penitent reflections upon
our sins we must consider, as God does in his judicial remarks upon
them, and will do in the great day,
(1.) That they are very numerous; they are our manifold
transgressions, sins of various kinds and often repeated. Oh what a
multitude of vain and vile thoughts lodge within us! What a multitude
of idle, foolish, wicked words have been spoken by us! In what a
multitude of instances have we gratified and indulged our corrupt
appetites and passions! And how many our own omissions of duty and in
duty! Who can understand his errors? Who can tell how often he offends?
God knows how many, just how many, our transgressions are; none of them
pass him unobserved; we know that they are to us innumerable; more
than the hairs of our head; and we have reason to see what danger
we have brought ourselves into, and what abundance of work we have made
for repentance, by our manifold transgressions, by the
numberless number of our sins of daily incursion.
(2.) That some of them are very heinous; they are our mighty
sins; sins that are more exceedingly sinful in their own nature and by
being committed presumptuously and with a high hand, sins against the
light of nature, flagrant crimes, that are mighty to overpower your
convictions and to pull down judgments upon you.
2. He specifies some of these mighty sins.
(1.) They corrupted the worship of God, and turned to idols; this is
implied
v. 5.
They had sought to Bethel, where one of the golden calves was;
they had frequented Gilgal, a place which they chose to set up idols
in, because it had been made famous in the days of Joshua by God’s
wonderful appearances to and for his people. Beer-sheba likewise, a
place that had been famous in the days of the patriarchs, was now
another rendezvous of idols; as we find also,
And thither they passed, though it lay at a distance, in the
land of Judah. Now, having thus shamefully gone a whoring from God, no
doubt they should have felt themselves concerned to return to him.
(2.) They perverted justice among themselves
(v. 7):
“You turn judgment to wormwood, that is, you make your
administrations of justice bitter and nauseous, and highly displeasing
both to God and man.” That fruit has become a weed, a weed in
the garden; as nothing is more venerable, nothing more valuable, than
justice duly administered, so nothing is more hurtful, nothing more
abominable, than designedly doing wrong under colour and pretence of
doing right. Corruptio optimi est pessima—The best, when
corrupted, becomes the worst. “You leave off righteousness in the
earth, as if those that do wrong were accountable to the God of
heaven only, and not to the princes and judges of the earth.”
Thus it was as before the flood, when the earth was filled with
violence.
(3.) They were very oppressive to the poor, and made them poorer; they
trod upon the poor
(v. 11),
trampled upon them, hectored over them, made them their footstool, and
were most imperious and barbarous to those that were most obsequious
and submissive; they care not what shame and slavery they put those to
who were poor and such as they could get nothing by. The judges aimed
at nothing but to enrich themselves; and therefore they took
from the poor burdens of wheat, took it by extortion, either
by way of bribe or by usury. The poor had no other way to save
themselves from being trodden upon, and trodden to dirt, by them, than
by presenting to them horse-loads of that corn which they and their
families should have had to subsist upon, and they forced them to do
it. They took from the poor debts of wheat, so some read it. It
was legally due either for rent or for corn lent, but they exacted it
with rigour from those who were disabled by the providence of God to
pay it, as
In demanding and recovering even a just debt we must take heed left we
act either unjustly or uncharitably. This sin of oppression by are
again charged with
(v. 12):
They afflict the just, by turning the edge of the law and of the
sword of justice against those that are the innocent and quiet in
the land; they hated men because they were more righteous than
themselves, and he that departed from evil thereby made
himself a prey to them. They take a bribe from the rich to
patronize and protect them in oppressing the poor, so that he who has
money in his hand is sure to have the judgment on his side, be his
cause ever so bad. Thus they turn aside the poor in the gate, in
the courts of justice, from their right. If the poor sue for
their right, who cannot bribe them, or are so honest that they will
not, though they have it ever so clear in view and ever so near,
yet they are turned away from it by their unrighteous sentence and
cannot come at it. And therefore the prudent will keep silence,
v. 13.
Men will reckon it their prudence, when they are wronged and injured,
to be silent, and make no complaints to the magistrates, for it will be
to no purpose; they shall not have justice done them.
(4.) They were malicious persecutors of God’s faithful ministers and
people,
Their hearts were so fully set in them to do evil that they could not
bear to be reproved,
[1.] By the ministry of the word, by the reading and expounding of the
law, and the messages which prophets delivered to them in the name of
the Lord. They hate him that rebukes in the gate, in the gate of
the Lord’s house, or in their courts of justice, or in the places of
concourse, where Wisdom is lifting up her voice,
Reprovers in the gate are reprovers by office; these they hated,
counting them their enemies because they told them the truth, as
Ahab hated Micaiah. They not only despised them, but had an enmity to
them, and sought to do them mischief. Those that hate reproof love
ruin.
[2.] By the conversation of their honest neighbours. Though things
were generally very bad, yet there were some among them that spoke
uprightly that made conscience of what they said, and, as it was
their praise, so it was the shame of those that spoke deceitfully, and
condemned them, as Noah’s faith condemned the unbelief of the old
world, and for that reason they abhorred them; they were such
inveterate enemies to the thing called honesty that they could not
endure the sight of an honest man. All that have any sense of the
common interest of mankind will love and value such as speak uprightly,
for veracity is the bond of human society; to what a pitch of folly and
madness then have those arrived who, having banished all notions of
justice out of their own hearts, would have them banished out of the
world too, and so put mankind into a state of war, for the abhor him
that speaks uprightly! And for this reason the prudent shall
keep silence in that time,
v. 13.
Prophets cannot, dare not, keep silence; the impulse they are under
will not allow them to act on prudential considerations; they must
cry aloud, and not spare. But as for other wise and good men
they shall keep silence, and shall reckon it is their prudence to do
so, because it is an evil time. First, They shall think it
dangerous to complain, and therefore shall keep silence; this was one
way in which they afflicted the just, that by false suggestions and
strained innuendos they made men offenders for a word
(Isa. xix. 21);
and therefore the prudent, who were wise as serpents,
because they knew not how what they said might be misinterpreted and
misrepresented, were so cautious as to say nothing, lest they should
run themselves into a premunire, because it was an evil time. Note,
Through the iniquity of the times, as good men are hidden, so good men
are silent, and it is their wisdom to be so; little said soon
amended. But it is their comfort that they may speak freely to God
when they know not to whom else they can speak freely. Secondly,
They shall think if fruitless to reprove. They see what wickedness is
committed, and their spirits are stirred up, as Paul’s at Athens; but
they shall think it prudent not to bear an open testimony against it,
because it is to no purpose. They are joined to their idols; let
them alone. Let no man strive or rebuke another; for it is but
casting pearls before swine. The cautious men will say to a bold
reprover, as Erasmus to Luther, “Abi in cellam, et dic, Miserere
mei, Domine—Away to thy cell, and cry, Have mercy on me, O
Lord!” Let grave lessons and counsels be kept for better men and
better times. And there is a time to keep silence as well as
a time to speak,
Eccl. iii. 7.
Evil times will not bear plain dealing, that is evil men
will not; and the men the prophet here speaks of had reason to think
themselves evil men indeed, when wise and good them thought it in vain
to speak to them and were afraid of having any thing to do with
them.
II. They are told of their danger and what judgments they lay exposed
to for their sins.
1. The places of their idolatry are in danger of being ruined in the
first place,
v. 5.
Gilgal, the head-quarters of idolatry, shall go into
captivity, not only its inhabitants, but its images, and
Bethel, with its golden calf shall come to nought. The
victorious enemy shall make nothing of it, so easily shall it be
spoiled, and shall bring it to nothing, so effectually shall it be
spoiled. Idols were always vanity, and things of nought, and so
they shall prove when God appears to abolish them.
2. The body of the kingdom is in danger of being ruined with them,
v. 6.
There is danger lest, if you seek him not in time, he break out like
a fire in the house of Joseph and devour it; for our God is a
righteous Judge, is a consuming fire, and the men of Israel, as
criminals, are stubble before him; woe to those that make themselves
fuel to the fire of God’s wrath. It follows, And there shall be none
to quench it in Bethel. There their idols were, and their
idolatrous priests; thither they brought their sacrifices, and there
they offered up their prayers. But God tells them that when the fire of
his judgments should kindle upon them all the gods they served at
Bethel should not be able to quench it, should not turn away the
judgment, nor be any relief to them under it. Thus those that make an
idol of the world will find it insufficient to protect them when God
comes to reckon with them for their spiritual idolatry.
3. What they have got by oppression and extortion shall be taken from
them
(v. 11):
“You have built houses of hewn stone, which you thought would be
lasting; but you shall not dwell in them, for your enemies shall
burn them down, or possess them for themselves, or take you into
captivity. You have planted pleasant vineyards, have contrived
how to make them every way agreeable, and have promised yourselves many
a pleasant walk in them; but you shall be forced to walk off, and shall
never drink wine of them.” The law had tenderly provided that if
a man had built a house, or planted a vineyard, he should
be at his liberty to return from the wars,
But now the necessity would be so urgent that it would not be allowed;
all must go to the battle, and many of those who had lately been
building and planting should fall in battle, and never enjoy what they
had been labouring for. What is not honestly got is not likely to be
long enjoyed.
III. They are told their duty, and have great encouragement to set
about it in good earnest, and good reason. The duties here prescribed
to them are godliness and honesty, seriousness in their applications to
God and justice in their dealings with men; and each of these is here
pressed upon them with proper arguments to enforce the exhortation.
1. They are here exhorted to be sincere and devout in their addresses
to God,
v. 4.
God says to the house of Israel, Seek you me, and with good
reason, for should not a people seek unto their God?
Isa. viii. 19.
Whither else should they go but to their protector? Israel was a
prince with God; let his descendants seek the Lord, as he
did, and they shall be so too. Now, in order to their doing this, they
must abandon their idolatries. God is not sought truly if he be not
sought exclusively, for he will endure no rivals: “Seek you the
Lord, and seek not Bethel
(v. 5),
consult not your idol-oracles, nor ask at the mouth of the priests of
Bethel; seek not to the golden calf there for protection, nor bring
your prayers and sacrifices any longer thither, or to Gilgal, for you
forsake your own mercies if you observe those lying
vanities. But seek the Lord
(v. 6, 8);
enquire after him; enquire of him; seek to know his mind as your rule,
to secure his favour as your felicity.” To press this exhortation we
are told to consider,
(1.) What we shall get by seeking God; it will be our life; we
shall find him, and shall be happy in him. So he tells them himself
(v. 4):
Seek you me, and you shall live. Those that seek perishing gods
shall perish with them
(v. 5),
but those that seek the living God shall live with him: “You shall be
delivered from the killing judgments which you are threatened with;
your nation shall live, shall recover from its present languishings;
your souls shall live; you shall be sanctified and comforted, and made
for ever blessed. You shall live.”
(2.) What a God he is whom we are to seek,
v. 8, 9.
[1.] He is a God of almighty power himself. The idols were impotent
things, could do neither good nor evil, and therefore it was folly
either to fear or trust them; but the God of Israel does every thing,
and can do any thing, and therefore we ought to seek him; he challenges
our homage who has all power in his hand, and it is our interest to
have him on our side. Divers proofs and instances are here given of
God’s power, as Creator, in the kingdom of nature, as both founding and
governing that kingdom. Compare
First, The stars are the work of his hands; those stars which
the heathens worshipped
(v. 26),
the stars of your god, those stars are God’s creatures and
servants. He makes the seven stars and Orion, two very
remarkable constellations, which Amos, a herdsman, while he kept his
cattle by night, had particularly observed the motions of. He made them
at the first, he still makes them to be what they are to this earth and
either binds or looses the sweet influences of
Peliades and Orion, the two constellations here mentioned.
See
to which passages Amos seems here to refer, putting them in mind of
those ancient discoveries of the glory of God before he was called the
God of Israel. Secondly, The constant succession of day and
night is under his direction, and is kept up by his power and
providence. It is he that turns the night (which is dark as
the shadow of death) into the morning by the rising of
the sun, and by the setting of the sun makes the day dark with
night; and the same power can, for humble penitents, easily turn
affliction and sorrow into prosperity and joy, but can as easily turn
the prosperity of presumptuous sinners into darkness, into utter
darkness. Thirdly, The rain rises and falls as he appoints. He
calls for the waters of the sea; out of them vapours are drawn
up by the heat of the sun, which gather into clouds, and are poured
out upon the face of the earth, to water it and make it fruitful.
This was the mercy that had been withholden from them of late
(ch. iv. 7);
and therefore to whom should they apply but to him who had power to
give it? For all the vanities of the heathen could not give
rain, nor could the heavens themselves give showers
Jer. xiv. 22.
It is God that has made these things; Jehovah is his name, the
name by which the God of nature, the God of the whole earth, has made
himself known to his people Israel and covenanted with them.
[2.] As he is God of almighty power himself, so he gives strength
and power unto his people that seek him, and renews strength
to those that had lost it, if they wait upon him for it; for
(v. 9)
he strengthens the spoiled against the strong to such a degree
that the spoiled come against the fortress and make bold and
brave attacks upon those that had spoiled them. This is an
encouragement to the people to seek the Lord, that, if they do
so, they shall find him above to retrieve their affairs, when they are
brought to the lowest ebb; though they are the spoiled, and their
enemies are the strong, if they can but engage God for them, they shall
soon recruit so as the next time to be not only the aggressors, but the
conquerors; they come against the fortress, to make reprisals
and become masters of it.
2. They are here exhorted to be honest and just in their dealings with
men,
where observe,
(1.) The duty required: Seek good, and not evil. Hate the evil, and
love the good, and establish judgment in the gate; re-establish it
there, whence it has been banished,
v. 7.
Note, Things are not so bad but that they may be amended if the right
course be taken; we must not despair but that grievances may be
redressed and abuses rectified; justice may yet triumph where injustice
tyrannizes. In order to this, good must be loved and sought, evil must
be hated and no longer sought. We must love good principles and adhere
to them, love to do good and abound in doing it, love good people, and
good converse, and good duties; and, whatever good we do, we must do it
from a principle of love, do it of choice and with delight. Those who
thus love good will seek it, will contrive to do all the
good they can, enquire for opportunities of doing it, and endeavor to
do it to the utmost of their power. They will also hate evil,
will abhor the thought of doing an unjust thing, and abstain from all
appearance of it. In vain do we pretend to seek God in our devotions if
we do not seek good in our whole conversations.
(2.) The reasons annexed.
[1.] This is the sure way to be happy ourselves and to have the
continual presence of God with us: “Seek good, and not evil, that
you may live, may escape the punishment of the evil you have sought
and loved (righteousness delivereth from death), that you may
have the favour of God, which is your life, which is better than life
itself, that you may have comfort in yourselves and may live to some
good purpose. You shall live, for so the Lord God of hosts shall be
with you and be your life.” Note, Those that keep in the way of
duty have the presence of God with them, as the God of hosts, a
God of almighty power. “He will be with you as you have spoken,
that is, as you have gloried; you shall have that really which,
while you went on in unrighteous ways, you only seemed to have and
boasted of as if you had.” Those that truly repent and reform enter
into the enjoyment of that comfort which before they had only flattered
themselves with the imagination of. Or, “As you have prayed when you
sought the Lord. Live up to your prayers, and you shall have what
you pray for.”
[2.] This is the likeliest way to make the nation happy: “If you seek
and love that which is good, you may contribute to the saving of the
land from ruin.” It may be, the Lord God of hosts will be gracious
to the remnant of Joseph; though there is but a remnant left, yet,
if God be gracious to that remnant, it will rise to a great nation
again; and if some among them turn from sin, especially if
judgment be established in the gate, though we cannot be
certain, yet there is a great probability that public affairs will take
a new and happy turn, and every thing will mend if men mend their
lives. Temporary promises are made with an It may be; and our
prayers must be made accordingly.
| Threatenings and Reproofs. | B. C. 790. |
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16 Therefore the LORD, the God of hosts, the Lord, saith thus;
Wailing shall be in all streets; and they shall say in all the
highways, Alas! alas! and they shall call the husbandman to
mourning, and such as are skilful of lamentation to wailing.
17 And in all vineyards shall be wailing: for I will pass
through thee, saith the LORD.
18 Woe unto you that desire the day of the LORD! to what end
is it for you? the day of the LORD is darkness, and not
light.
19 As if a man did flee from a lion, and a bear met him; or
went into the house, and leaned his hand on the wall, and a
serpent bit him.
20 Shall not the day of the LORD be darkness, and not
light? even very dark, and no brightness in it?
Here is,
I. A very terrible threatening of destruction approaching,
Since they would not take the right course to obtain the favour of God,
God would take an effectual course to make them feel the weight of his
displeasure. The threatening is introduced with more than ordinary
solemnity, to strike an awe upon them; it is not the word of the
prophet only (if so, it might be made light of) but it is the Lord
Jehovah, who has an infinite eternal being; it is the God of
hosts, who has a boundless irresistible power, and it is
Adonai–the Lord, who has an absolute incontestable sovereignty,
and a universal dominion; it is he who says it, who can and will make
his words good, and he has said,
1. That the land of Israel shall be put in mourning, true mourning,
that all places shall be filled with lamentation for the calamities
coming upon them. Look into the cities, and wailing shall be in all
streets, in the great streets, in the by-streets. Look into the
country, and they shall say in all the highways, Alas! alas! we
are all undone! The lamentation shall be so great as not to be confined
within doors, nor kept within the bounds of decency, but it shall be
proclaimed in the streets and highways, and shall run wild. The
husbandman shall be called from the plough by the calamities of his
country to the natural expressions of mourning; and, because those who
will come short of the merits of the cause, such as are skilful of
lamentation shall be called to artificial mourning, to put accents upon
the lamentations of the real mourners with their Ahone, ahone.
Even in all vineyards, where there used to be nothing but mirth and
pleasure, there shall be general wailing, when a foreign force invades
the country, lays all waste, and there is no making any head against
it, no weapons left but prayers and tears.
2. That the land of Israel shall be brought to ruin, and the advances
of that ruin are the occasion of all this wailing: I will pass
through thee, as the destroying angel passed through the land of
Egypt to destroy the first-born, but then passed over the houses of the
Israelites. God’s judgments had often passed by them, but now they
shall pass through them, shall run them through.
II. A just and severe reproof to those who made light of these
threatenings, and impudently bade defiance to the justice of God and
his judgments,
Woe unto you that desire the day of the Lord, that really wish
for times of war and confusion, as some do who have restless spirits,
and long for changes, or who choose to fish in troubled waters,
hoping to raise their families, as some had done, upon the ruins of
their country; but the prophet tells them that this should be so great
a desolation that nobody could get by it. Or it is spoken to those
who, in their wailings and lamentations for the calamities they were
in, wished they might die, and be delivered out of their misery, as Job
did, with passion. The prophet shows them the folly of this. Do they
know what death is to those who are unprepared for it, and how much
more terrible it will be than any thing that can befal them in this
life? Or, rather, it is spoken to those who speak jestingly of that day
of the Lord which the prophet spoke so seriously of; they desired it,
that is, they challenged it; they said, Let him do his worst; let
him make speed, and hasten his work,
Isa. v. 19.
Where is the promise of his coming?
2 Pet. iii. 4.
It intimates,
1. That they do not believe it. They say that they wish it would come
because they do not believe it will ever come; nor will they believe it
unless they see it.
2. That they do not fear it; though they may have some belief of it,
yet they had so little consideration of it, and their mind is so intent
upon other things, that they are under no apprehension at all of peril
from it; instead of having the conscience to dread it, they have the
curiosity to desire it. In answer to this,
(1.) He shows the folly of those who impudently wished for any of God’s
judgments, and made a jest of any of the terrors of the Lord: “To
what end is it for you that the day of the Lord should come? You
will find it both certain and sad; not a thing to be bantered, for it
is neither a thing to be questioned whether it will come or no nor a
thing to be turned off with a slight when it does come. The day of
the Lord is darkness, and not light,
v. 18.
Shall it not be so?
v. 20.
Do not your own consciences tell you that it will be so, that it will
be very dark, and no brightness in it?” Note, The day
of the Lord will be a dark, dismal, gloomy day to all impenitent
sinners; the day of judgment will be so; and sometimes the day
of their present trouble. And, when God makes a day dark, all the world
cannot make it light.
(2.) He shows the folly of those who impatiently wished for a change of
God’s judgment, in hopes that the next would be better and more
tolerable. They desire the day of the Lord, in hopes to better
themselves (though their hearts and lives be not amended), or, at
least, to know the worst. But the prophet tells them that they know not
what they ask,
It is as if a man did flee from a lion and a bear met him, a
beast of prey more cruel and ravenous than a lion, or as if a man, to
escape all dangers abroad, went into the house for security, and
leaned his hand on the wall to rest himself, and there a
serpent bit him. Note, Those who are not reformed by the
judgments of God will be pursued by them; and, if they escape one,
another stands ready to seize them; fear and the pit and snare
surround them,
It is madness therefore to defy the day of the Lord.
| Hypocritical Services Rejected; Threatenings against Israel. | B. C. 790. |
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21 I hate, I despise your feast days, and I will not smell in
your solemn assemblies.
22 Though ye offer me burnt offerings and your meat offerings,
I will not accept them: neither will I regard the peace
offerings of your fat beasts.
23 Take thou away from me the noise of thy songs; for I will
not hear the melody of thy viols.
24 But let judgment run down as waters, and righteousness as a
mighty stream.
25 Have ye offered unto me sacrifices and offerings in the
wilderness forty years, O house of Israel?
26 But ye have borne the tabernacle of your Moloch and Chiun
your images, the star of your god, which ye made to yourselves.
27 Therefore will I cause you to go into captivity beyond
Damascus, saith the LORD, whose name is The God of hosts.
The scope of these verses is to show how little God valued their shows
of devotion, nay, how much he detested them, while they went on in
their sins. Observe,
I. How unpleasing, nay, how displeasing, their hypocritical services
were to God. They had their feast-days at Bethel, in imitation
of those at Jerusalem, in which they pretended to rejoice before God.
They had their solemn assemblies for religious worship, in which
they put on the gravity of those who come before God as his people
come, and sit before him as his people sit. They offered to God
burnt-offerings, to the honour of God, together with the
meat-offerings which by the law were to be offered with them;
they offered the peace-offerings, to implore the favour of God,
and they offered them of the fat beasts that they had,
In imitation likewise of the temple-music, they had the noise of
their songs and the melody of their viols
(v. 23),
vocal and instrumental music, with which they praised God. With these
services they hoped to make God amends for the sins they had committed,
and to obtain leave to go on in sin; and therefore they were so far
from being acceptable to God that they were abominable. He
hated, he despised, their feast-days, not only
despised them as no valuable services done to him, but hated them as an
affront and provocation to him, as we hate to see men dissemble with
us, pretend a respect for us when really they have none. Nothing more
hateful, more despicable, than hypocrisy. He that blesseth his
friend with a loud voice, it shall be counted a curse, when it
appears that his heart is not with him. God will not smell in
their solemn assemblies, for there is nothing in them that is
grateful to him, but a great deal that is offensive. Their sacrifices
are not to him of a sweet smelling savour, as Noah’s was,
He will not accept them; he will not regard them, will not take any
notice of them; he will not hear the melody of their viols; for, when
sin is a jar in the harmony, it grates in his ears: “Take it
away,” says God, “I cannot bear it.” Now this intimates,
1. That sacrifice itself is of small account with God in comparison
with moral duties; to love God and our neighbour is better than all
burnt offering and sacrifice.
2. That the sacrifice of the wicked is really an abomination to him,
Dissembled piety is double iniquity, and so it will be found when, if
any place in hell be hotter than another, that will be the hypocrite’s
portion.
II. What it was that he required in order to the acceptableness of
their sacrifices and without which no sacrifice would be acceptable
(v. 24):
Let judgment run down as waters, among you, and righteousness
as a mighty stream, that is
1. “Let there be a general reformation of manners among you; let
religion (God’s judgment) and righteousness have their
due influence upon you; let your land be watered with it, and let it
bear down all the opposition of vice and profaneness; let it run wide
as overflowing waters, and yet run strong as might stream.”
(2.) “In particular, let justice be duly administered by magistrates
and rulers; let not the current of it be stopped by partiality and
bribery, but let it come freely as waters do, in the natural course;
let it be pure as running waters, not muddied with corruption or
whatever may pervert justice; let it run like a might stream,
and not suffer itself to be obstructed, or its course retarded, by the
fear of man; let all have free access to it as a common stream, and
have benefit by it as trees planted by the rivers of waters.”
The great thing laid to Israel’s charge was turning judgment into
wormwood
(v. 7);
in that matter therefore they must reform,
This was what God desired more than sacrifices,
Hos. vi. 6; 1 Sam. xv. 22.
III. What little stress God had laid upon the law of sacrifices, though
it was his own law, in comparison with the moral precepts
(v. 25):
“Did you offer unto me sacrifices in the wilderness forty years?
No, you did not.” For the greatest part of that time sacrifice was very
much neglected, because of the unsettledness of their state; after the
second year, the passover was not kept till they came into Canaan, and
other institutions were in like manner intermitted; and yet, because
God will have mercy and not sacrifice, he never imputed the omission to
them as their fault, but continued his care of them and kindness to
them: it was not that, but their murmuring and unbelief, for which God
was displeased with them. He that so owned his people, though they did
not sacrifice, when in other things they kept close to him, will
certainly disown them, though they do sacrifice, if in other things
they depart from him. But, though ritual sacrifices may thus be
dispensed with, spiritual sacrifices will not; even justice and honesty
will not excuse for the want of prayer and praise, a broken heart and
the love of God. Stephen quotes this passage
(Acts vii. 42),
to show the Jews that they ought not to think it strange that
ceremonial law was repealed when from the beginning it was
comparatively made light of. Compare
IV. What little reason they had to expect that their sacrifices should
be acceptable to God, when they and their fathers had been all along
addicted to the worship of other gods. So some take
“Did you offer to me sacrifices, that is, to me only? No, and
therefore not at all to me acceptably;” for the law of worshipping the
Lord our God is, Him only we must serve. “But you have borne
the tabernacle of your Moloch
(v. 26),
little shrines that you made to carry about with you, pocket-idols for
your private superstition, when you durst not be seen to do it
publicly. You have had the images of your Moloch–your king”
(probably representing the sun, that sits king among the
heavenly bodies), “and Chiun, or Remphan” (as Stephen
calls it,
after the LXX.), which it is supposed, represented Saturn, the highest
of the seven planets. The worship of the sun, moon, and stars, was the
most ancient, most general, and most plausible idolatry. They made
to themselves the star of their God, some particular star
which they took to be their god, or the name of which they gave to
their god. This idolatry Israel was from the beginning prone to
(Deut. iv. 19);
and those that retain an affection for false gods cannot expect the
favour of the true God.
V. What punishment God would inflict upon them for their persisting in
idolatry
(v. 27):
I will cause you to go into captivity beyond Damascus. They were
led captive by Satan into idolatry, and therefore God caused them to go
into captivity among idolaters, and hurried them into a strange land,
since they were so fond of strange gods. They were carried beyond
Damascus. Their captivity by the Assyrians was far beyond that by
the Syrians; for, if less judgments do not work that for which they
were sent, God will send greater. Or the captivity of Israel under
Shalmaneser was far beyond that of Damascus under Tiglath-pileser, and
much more grievous and destructive, which was foretold
For, as the sins of God’s professing people are greater than the sins
of others, so it may be expected that their punishments will be
proportionable. We find the spoil of Damascus and that of Samaria
carried off together by the king of Assyria,
Stephen reads it, I will carry you away beyond Babylon
(Acts vii. 43),
further than Judah shall be carried, so far further as not to return.
And, to make this sentence appear both the more certain and the more
dreadful, he that passes it calls himself the Lord, whose name is,
The God of hosts, and who is therefore able to execute the
sentence, having hosts at command.
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