at all times to have respect to God, to have our eyes ever toward him, both as our Maker, the Author of our being, and the God of nature, and as the Holy One of Israel, a God in covenant with us, and the God of grace; particularly, when we are in affliction, our eyes must be toward the Lord, to pluck our feet out of the net; (Ps. xxv. 15.) to bring us to this is the design of his providence, as he is our Maker, and the work of his grace, as he is the Holy One of Israel. (2.) They shall look off from their idols, the creatures of their own fancy, shall no longer worship them, and seek to them, and expect relief from them. For God will be alone regarded, or he does not look upon himself as at all regarded. He that looks to his Maker, must not look to the altars, the work of his hands, but disown them and cast them off; must not retain the least respect for that which his fingers have made, but break it to pieces, though it were his own workmanship, the groves and the images; the word signifies images made in honour of the sun, and by which he was worshipped, the most ancient and most plausible idolatry, Deut. iv. 19. Job xxxi. 26. We have reason to account those happy afflictions, which part between us and our sins, and, by sensible convictions of the vanity of the world, that great idol, cool our affections to it, and lower our expectations from it.
9. In that day shall his strong cities be as a forsaken bough, and an uppermost branch, which they left, because of the children of Israel: and there shall be desolation. 10. Because thou hast forgotten the God of thy salvation, and hast not been mindful of the Rock of thy strength; therefore shalt thou plant pleasant plants, and shalt set it with strange slips: 11. In that day shalt thou make thy plant to grow, and in the morning shalt thou make thy seed to flourish; but the harvest shall be a heap in the day of grief and of desperate sorrow.
Here the prophet returns to foretell the woful desolations that should be made in the land of Israel by the army of the Assyrians.
1. That the cities should be deserted; even the strong cities, which should have protected the country, shall not be able to protect themselves; they shall be as a forsaken bough, and an uppermost branch, of an old tree, which is gone to decay, forsaken of its leaves, and appears on the top of the tree, bare, and dry, and dead; so shall their strong cities look, when the inhabitants have deserted them, and the victorious army of the enemy pillaged and defaced them; (v. 9.) they shall be as the cities (so it may be supplied) which the Canaanites left, the old inhabitants of the land, because of the children of Israel, when God brought them in with a high hand, to take possession of that good land, cities which they builded not. As the Canaanites then fled before Israel, so Israel should now fly before the Assyrians. And herein the word of God was fulfilled, that if they committed the, same abominations, the land should spue them out, as it spued out the nations that were before them, (Lev. xviii. 28.) and that as, while they had God on their side, one of them chased a thousand, so, when they had made him their Enemy, a thousand of them should flee at the rebuke of one; so that in the cities , should be desolation, according to the threatenings in the law, Lev. xxvi. 31. Deut. xxviii. 52.
2. That the country should be laid waste, v. 10, 11. Observe here, (1.) The sin that had provoked God to bring so great a destruction upon that pleasant land; it was for the iniquity ofthem that dwelt therein; "It is because thou hast forgotten the God of thy salvation, and all the great salvations he has wrought for thee, hast forgotten thy dependence upon him and obligations to him, and hast not been mindful of the Rock of thy strength, not only who is himself a strong Rock, but has been thy Strength many a time, or thou hadst been sunk and broken long since." Note, The God of our salvation is the Rock of our strength; and our forgetfulness and unmindfulness of him are at the bottom of all sin;" therefore we have perverted our way, because we have forgotten the Lord our God, and so we undo ourselves. (2.) The destruction itself, aggravated by the great care they took to improve their land, and to make it yet more pleasant. [1.] Look upon it at the time of the seedness, and it was all like a garden and a vineyard; that pleasant land was replenished with pleasant plants, the choicest of its own growth; nay, so nice and curious were the inhabitants, that, not content with them, they sent to all the neighbouring countries for strange slips, the more valuable for being strange, uncommon, far-fetched, and dear-bought, though perhaps they had of their own not inferior to them. This was an instance of their pride and vanity, and (that ruining error) their affectation to be like the nations. Wheat, and honey, and oil, were their staple commodities; (Ezek. xxvii. 17.) but not content with these, they must have flowers and greens with strange hames imported from other nations, and a great deal of care and pains must be taken by hot-beds to make these plants to grow, the soil must be forced, and they must be covered with glasses to shelter them, and early in the morning the gardeners must be up to make the seed to flourish, that it may excel those of their neighbours. The ornaments of nature are not to be altogether slighted, but it is a folly to be over-fond of them, and to bestow more time, and cost, and pains, about them than they deserve, as many do. But here this instance seems to be put in general for their great industry in cultivating their ground, and their expectations from it accordingly; they doubt not but their plants will grow and flourish. But, [2.] Look upon the same ground at the time of harvest, and it is all like a wilderness, a dismal melancholy place, even to the spectators, much more to the owners; for the harvest shall be a heap, all in confusion, in the day of grief and of desperate sorrow. The harvest used to be a time of joy, of singing and shouting; (ch. xvi. 10.) but this harvest the hungry eat up, (Job v. 5.) which makes it a day of grief, and the more, because the plants were pleasant and costly, (v. 10.) and their expectations proportionably raised. The harvest had some times been a day of grief, if the crop were thin, and the weather unseasonable; and yet in that case there was hope that the next would be better: but this shall be desperate sorrow, for they shall see not only this year's products carried off, but the property of the ground altered, and their conquerors lords of it. The margin reads it, The harvest shall be removed, (into the enemy's country or cannp, Deut. xxviii. 33.) in the day of inheritance, (when thou thoughtest to inherit it,) and there shall be deadly sorrow. This is a good reason why we should not lay up our treasure in these things which we may so quickly be despoiled of, but in that good part which shall never be taken away from us.
12. Wo to the multitude of many people, which make a noise like the noise of the seas; and to the rushing of nations, that make a rushing like the rushing of mighty waters! 13. The nations shall rush like the rushing of many waters: but God shall re-
