That they should pull one another to pieces, and every one should help forward the common ruin, and they should be cannibals to themselves and one another; No man shall spare his brother, if he come in the way of his ambition or covetousness, or if he have any colour to be revenged on him; and how can they expect God should spare them, when they show no compassion one to another? Men's passion and cruelty one against another provoke God to be angry with them all, and are an evidence that he is so. Civil wars soon bring a kingdom to desolation; such there were in Israel, when, for the transgression of the land, many were the princes thereof, Prov. xxviii. 2. In these intestine broils, men snatched on the right hand and yet were hungry still, and did eat the flesh of their own arm, preyed upon themselves for hunger, or upon their nearest relations that were as their own flesh, v. 20. This bespeaks, (1.) Great famine and scarcity; when men had pulled all they could to them, it was so little, that they were still hungry, at least God did not bless it to them; so that they eat and have not enough, Haggai i. 6. (2.) Great rapine and plunder; Jusque datum sceleri—Iniquity is established by law. The hedge of property, which is a hedge of protection to men's estates, shall be plucked up, and every man shall think all that his own which he can lay his hands on; Vivitur ex rapto; non hospes ab hospite tutus—They live on the spoil, and the rites of hospitality are all violated. And yet when men thus catch at that which is none of their own, they are not satisfied. Covetous desires are insatiable, and this curse is entailed on that which is ill got, that it will never do well.
These intestine broils should be not only among particular persons and private families, but among the tribes; (v. 21.) Manasseh shall devour Ephraim, and Ephraim, Manasseh, though they be combined against Judah. They that could unite against Judah, could not unite with one another; but that sinful confederacy of theirs against their neighbour that dwelt securely by them, was justly punished by this separation of them one from another. Or, Judah having sinned like Manasseh and Ephraim, shall not only suffer with them, but suffer by them. Note, Mutual enmity and animosity among the tribes of God's Israel, is a sin that ripens them for ruin, and a sad symptom of ruin hastening on apace. If Ephraim be against Manasseh, and Manasseh against Ephraim, and both against Judah, they will all soon become a very easy prey to the common enemy.
6. That though they should be followed with all those judgments, yet God would not let fall his controversy with them. It is the heavy burthen of this song; (v. 12, 17, 21.) For all this, his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still; (1.) They do nothing to turn away his anger; they do not repent and reform, they do not humble themselves and pray; none stand in the gap, none answer God's calls, nor comply with the designs of his providences, but they are hardened and secure. (2.) His anger therefore continues to burn against them, and his hand is stretched out still. The reason why the judgments of God are prolonged, is, because the point is not gained, sinners are not brought to repentance by them; the people turn not to him that smites them, and therefore he continues to smite them; for when God judges, he will overcome; and the proudest, stoutest sinner shall either bend or break.
CHAP. X.
The prophet, in this chapter, is dealing, I. With the proud oppressors of his people at home, that abused their power, to pervert justice, whom he would reckon with for their tyranny, v. 1..4. II. With a threatening invader of his people from abroad, Sennacherib king of Assyria; concerning whom, observe, 1. The commission given him to invade Judah, v. 5, 6. 2. His pride and insolence in the execution of that commission, v. 7..11, 13, 14. 3. A rebuke given to his haughtiness, and a threatening of his full and ruin, when he had served the purposes for which God raised him up, v. 12, 15..19. 4. A promise of grace to the people of God, to enable them to bear up under the affliction, and to get good by it, v. 20..23. 5. Great encouragement given to them not to fear this threatening storm, but to hope that, though for the present all the country was put into a great consternation by it, it would end well, in the destruction of this formidable enemy, v. 24..34. And this is intended to quiet the minds of good people, in reference to all the threatening efforts of the wrath of the church's enemies: if God be for us, who can be against us? None to do us any harm.
1.WO unto them that decree unrighteous decrees, and that write grievousness which they have prescribed: 2. To turn aside the needy from judgment, and to take away the right from the poor of my people, that widows may be their prey, and that they may rob the fatherless! 3. And what will ye do in the day of visitation, and in the desolation which shall come from far? to whom will ye flee for help? and where will ye leave your glory? 4. Without me they shall bow down under the prisoners, and they shall fall under the slain. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.
Whether they were the princes and judges of Israel, or Judah, or both, that this prophet denounced this wo against, is not certain: if those of Israel, these verses are to be joined with the close of the foregoing chapter; which is probable enough, because the burthen of that prophecy (For all this, his anger is not turned away) is repeated here, v. 4. If those of Judah, they then show what was the particular sin for which God brought the Assyrian army upon them—to punish their magistrates for mal-administration, which they could not legally be called to account for. To them he speaks woes, before he speaks comfort to God's own people.
Here is, 1. The indictment drawn up against these oppressors, v. 1, 2. They are charged, (1.) With making wicked laws and edicts: they decree unrighteous decrees, contrary to natural equity and the law of God; and what mischiefs they prescribe, those under them write it, enrol it, and put it into the formality of a law. Wo to the superior powers that devise and decree these decrees! They are not too high to be under the divine check. And wo to the inferior officers that draw them up, and enter them upon record! They are not too mean to be within the divine cognizance; the writers that write the grievousness, principal and accessaries, shall fall under the same wo. Note, It is bad to do hurt, but it is worse to do it with design and deliberation, to do wrong to many, and to involve many in the guilt of doing wrong. (2.) With perverting justice in the execution of the laws that were made: no people had statutes and judgments so righteous as they had; and yet corrupt judges found ways to turn aside the needy from judgment, to hinder them from coming at their right, and recovering what was their due, because they were needy and poor and such as they could get nothing by, nor expect any bribes from. (3.) With enriching themselves by oppressing those that lay at their mercy, whom they ought to have protected: they make widows' houses and estates their prey, and they rob the fatherless of the little that is left them, because they have no friend to appear for them. Not to relieve them if
