by such terms as were then in use among them and in their mouths set forth those dolorous times which they did talk of and expect so to warn them to prepare for them as now at hand and a certain proof that Messiah of whose being come they were by their own confession to be a sign was now come and they ought to acknowledge it And in expressions so full of dread doth he describe those pangs sorrows or afflictions of that time and day of his coming to the Jews which were accordingly made good in that space of time which we said to be comprehended under the day of his coming and his appearing as that nothing can surpass or equal them but the day of his last coming at the terrible day of Judgement to all People at the end of the World insomuch that it may even seem doubtfull whether that day were not meant by divers of them in those Chapters of Mat. XXIV Mar. XIII and Luc. XXI which we have cited At least this is set forth as a type and figure of that insomuch that as well in respect to this time of such tribulation as had not been from the Creation here spoken of as of that might be said as well concerning even the Elect among the Jews for whose sakes our Saviour saith those daies should be shortened whereas else no flesh should be saved Mat. XXIV 22 to whom the issue should be salutary as concerning the wicked to whom it should be for destruction Who may abide the day of his coming and who shall stand when he appeareth which in S. Luke is expressed by being accounted worthy to escape all those things that should come to pass and to stand before the Son of man What we with most others render who may abide c. is by the Vulgar Latin rendred who shall be able to think of the day of his coming and who shall stand to see him To express emphatically I suppose the terror here intimated For if none can think of it by reason of the power or dreadfulness of his Majesty who shall be able to abide or bear it saies S. Jerom including both significations Not that the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mecalcel or its root doth properly signify to think of it is no where else so found the properer signification being to bear or sustain which it hath Jer. XX. 9 And so farther describing the terror of those times or giving a reason of the terror of them he adds For he is like a Refiners fire and like Fullers Sope. In words taken from things of known and ordinary use he describes the severity of those Judgements which should then come on all in that Country for trial to all and destruction to the wicked He is saies he like a Refiners fire or as the construction will also bear as refining fire though the other seems more proper The use of that fire is to melt metals and try them that so what is pure may be by it self retained the dross being either consumed or so separated as to be taken away from it And then the People being compared to mixt metal that hath in it what is pure and what is dross and the Lord that should come in Judgement being compared to fire which shall throughly try that metal the meaning will be plain as R. Tanchum expresses it that he will consume or take away the transgressors and rebellious amongst them as the Refiners fire consumes or separates the dross of melted metals and cleanseth them from what is false and unsincere and this so as that the good and sincere shall at once be put to severe tryal every one in their own persons as the good metal also the sincere gold or silver endureth the hardship or trial of the fire though preserved and at last coming forth more pure refined and purged So as this may be applied to what concerns them in their particulars also which by those tryals and afflictions shall be made sensible of their sins and what is amiss in them that so purging themselves from them they may become vessels of greater honor sanctified and meet for the Lords use and prepared unto every good work as the Apostles words are 2 Tim. II. 21 But the words seem here more to concern the whole mass or community of the People all calling themselves by the same name of Gods People but many of them being not so whom now by the refining fire of his Judgements he would distinguish from the true Israelites and by the same means prove the one and bring to destruction the other as was actually done by those heavy calamities which ended in the destruction of the Country City of Jerusalem and the Temple by the Romans about the 70 th year of Christ. The same is plainly likewise the meaning of the other similitude added and like Fullers Soap the use of which is to scour wooll or cloth and purge out all spots and stains in it and take them away leaving the wooll or cloth though by the same means fretted and rubbed the more white or brighter colored As that takes away all spots so shall he take away all wicked ones saith R. Salomo The wicked may well be compared to spots in the garment of a People as S. Jude calls them in the Assemblies of the Christians spots in their Feasts of Charity Jude ver 12. The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Borith which ours and others render Soap the vulgar Latin and others also render Fullers herb Concerning the primary signification of the word there is doubt both among the Jews and others but which is all that is to the purpose it is by all agreed on to be somewhat which in those times and places the Fullers or Scowrers of Cloth used to take away spots and stains cleanse and whiten Cloth withall having as Grammarians will for its root 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 barar which signifies to cleanse make white and clean as Dan. XI 35 Now what our Translators and most others supply by he attributing it to the Lord spoken of Kimchi doth it by it attributing it to the time called the day of his coming and when he shall appear and takes refining for an epithet to fire but then maketh the sense the same thus And that day shall be as fire which purgeth the dross from silver so shall that purge or separate the wicked from the good and the wicked shall be destroyed and the just or righteous shall remain and so in the other similitude Here we may not pass unobserved that divers Christian Expositors interpret this not of those visible judgements and afflictions which we have spoken of but of the irresistible force of Christs word and preaching which may be compared indeed to fire as Jer. V. 14 and XXIII 29 and is expressed by things of greatest force and power which nothing can resist as Heb. IV. 12 by a two-edged sword piercing even to the dividing
expressed and beyond which nothing but the inexpressible terror of the conflagration of the whole World at the last day of which therefore it is as we have said usually interpreted can be imagined and nearer to which no terrible judgement in the World ever on any People executed came or can well come then this here spoken of While he saith that the day shall burn as an oven what doth it less then represent the condition of those whom the judgement spoken of shall then seize to be as if they were surrounded with fire without possibility of avoiding the fury and dire effects thereof then which nothing we know is to men more terrible as if the heavens were on fire over their heads and made an hideous noise and the Elements melted with fervent heat about them and the Earth and all the works therein were burning that we may take in and so compare with these those not unlike expressions in II Pet. III. 10 12. by which usually the terror of the day of the last general Judgement is thought to be described but in the opinion of the learned Doctor Hammond this that is here spoken of viz. that of the judgement threatn'd to the obstinate Jewish Nation The words as there so here also are such as no figurative or hyperbolical expressions that can be possibly used for setting forth a most dreadful judgement can surpass yet so great was the judgement according to this prediction executed on them as that we may look on them not as a figurative but real description of what should be What could be said less to express the face of things when their stately City and magnificent Temple were all at once on fire and none could quench it may it not well be said that the day there then burnt like an oven and in words appositely here appliable though spoken to another sense Isa. XXXI 9 that Gods fire was then in Zion and his furnace in Jerusalem To shew how in that day that day of punishment as an ancient Arabick Translator not unfitly for expressing the sense renders it that which he before said concerning a certain discrimination to be made between the righteous and the wicked should be made evident he describes in the following words the effects of it and first as concerning the wicked saying and all the proud yea and all that do wickedly all those that obstinately went on in wicked courses and contemned God and his Laws shall be stubble and the day that cometh shall burn them up saith the Lord of Hosts c. Where is now then any occasion to say as they did c. III. 15 we call the proud happy yea they that work wickedness are set up yea they that tempt God are delivered what shall now become of their happiness and of their glory when they shall be but as stubble before the fire which shall without delay or resistance be certainly consumed where is now that deliverance that they talked of how shall they deliver themselves who shall deliver them no escape shall there be found for them such utter destruction shall that day that cometh in that dreadful manner bring on them as if they were clear burnt up so that it shall leave them neither root nor branch which is apparently contrary to that being set up or built c. III. 15 This also is a proverbial speech to express utter destruction by a similitude taken from a tree destroyed not only by having its boughs and branches cut off but its roots also plucked up The Chalde Paraphrast renders it shall not leave them son nor nephew because saith Kimchi explaining it the first son is as the root and his son is as the branch but we may rather say it shall leave neither them nor their posterity the Father being the root the sons and posterity branches from him That interpretation of the Chalde being by most of the Jewish Expositors followed Abarbinel not seeing how that may be so conveniently applied to the punishment of the wicked at the Resurrection finds out another explication which he thinks more convenient viz. That what is said is concerning the good works of wicked men for which because in this World they receive their reward God will not there leave to them any root or branch of any commandment by them performed or any good work for which they may receive reward in the day of Judgement according to a saying of their Rabbins That he the most of whose works are evil and the least part good he is rewarded for his small righteousness in this World that he may be wholy punished in the World to come This he gives as his own opinion though a very far fetched one not knowing how to adapt otherwise the words of the Text to that punishment of the day of Judgement which he here thinks to be the day spoken of Other opinions he mentions also as of some that by branch is understood the infants of wicked men as if they should not be admitted into the World to come and otherwise that by root is understood the soul and by branch the body with the like neither root in this World nor branch in the World to come Among Christian Expositors also they who expound the Text concerning the day of Judgement are at some difference in applying the expression to the matter or thing signified but to them who go the way that we have chosen of expounding the Text concerning the day of the destruction of the Jews and their City by the Romans there is no difficulty but the proverbial speech may be interpreted as nigh to the letter as may be to denote Fathers and Children the wicked and their posterity Well may that day be said to have burnt them up and consumed them so as to leave them neither root nor branch when at that time Histories testify that in the Siege and taking of the City there perished of them by fire famine and sword no less then eleven hundred thousand to which if we add those vast multitudes and many thousands of others which were immediatly and within the space of few years after by the same enemies destroyed which all we may account as consumed by the time which is called that day having the authority of a Jew Kimchi himself so far to extend the notion of that day and reckon all for one continued day of destruction while he saith although it be said that the day shall burn them up yet their destruction shall not be all in one day but they shall go on in perishing and in a short time be consumed add I say those great multitudes to the former if there be need and what less can be said to express the greatness of the desolation and destruction then that they were cut off root and branch so far that it is no small wonder that there should be any remainder of them These things are manifest out of the Histories of those times especially
a reward of his zeal that that Sacrament should never be administred but that he should oversee it for which cause alwaies at every Circumcision they set a Chair of State for him as being Angel Messenger or President of the Covenant and so here called A pretty story whereby to delude themselves and amuse the people from further enquiry after the truth which if it were found only in trivial fabulous Books might pass as a fancy but that it should be quoted by their serious and grave Authors as a thing pertinent to this place and grounded on it cannot but seem as strange as it is groundless and ridiculous What is added whom ye delight in shews that with great longing they expected of old his coming as a time that should bring much cause of joy and rejoycing to them and what follows as repeated Behold he shall come or cometh saith the Lord of hosts shews the certainty of the thing as sure as if it were already done God engageth both his truth and power in it he saies it and every word of his is truth and he that saies it is the Lord of hosts God of all power and can and will effect whatsoever he saith Behold he cometh not as Abarbinel as we have seen would have it hath or is already come that so he might apply it to the King of Persia who made with them a Covenant of Peace but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yabo shall certainly come 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Bizmano in his time as Kimchi truly explains it And not only so but if we look on the place before named to which he should come viz. his Temple it will give us necessarily to understand as to the time too that he was to come while that Temple was yet standing as Grotiâ—s well observes And here before we proceed it will be covenient to take notice what the same learned man suggests to us on the next verse viz. That Christs coming when spoken to and of the Jews denotes not only his first manifestation in the flesh or the Temple but all the time from his first preaching to the destruction of the City of Jerusalem and of the Temple Otherwise more distinctly the word is applied to a threefold coming of Christ 1. His coming in the flesh to be born among men 2. His coming in Judgement for vengeance to his enemies and deliverance of his Servants in this World as he did come at the destruction of the Jews 3. At the end of the World at the day of Judgement And so understanding it as particularly respecting the Jews we shall easily perceive here a full and satisfactory answer to those murmurers and scoffers of those times who seeing the prosperity of some wicked men as it is in the last verse of the preceding Chapter said every one that doth evil is good in the sight of the Lord and he delighteth in them or where is the God of Judgement Though such who impiously question Gods Justice deserve no other answer then to feel it yet in much condescension he here vouchsafes them such an answer as to let them know that though he doth not presently proceed as they would have him but seem to neglect or wink at the doings of wicked men yet he is not negligent but in his own appointed time will so order things as shall make it manifest to all that he took notice all the while of what was done This time as to them he here expresses to be that coming of Christ which is in these and the following words described in which time was his just judgement signally executed before the whole World as to what concerned their Nation And so the question why God suffers the wicked oft most to florish as to them of that Nation the People then by the Prophet spoken to and of is fully decided by what was in that space of time by him brought to pass so as to stop the mouth of any other who shall in like blasphemous manner question his Justice by warning them to leave to him his own time to execute his just Judgements and rather to prepare themselves for that time which certainly shall come upon them then in any way to doubt of it The things here spoken do more particularly concern the Jews but are to all and to us for examples and are written for our admonition God having several waies of executing his Judgements but proceeding still according to the same rule of Justice They likewise concern rather more general and national impieties and judgements accordingly executed yet so as every particular man may thence take instruction that none who taketh care of his waies seeing such as are openly wicked to prosper and florish should thence take occasion of murmuring and questioning Gods Justice nor any wicked man that prospers in this World should because God suffers him so to do for that justify himself or think himself good in the sight of the Lord or that God delighted in him but be assured that a time will come when God will execute just Judgement on him however for a time he forbear him and so deal with him in particular as he here threatneth to do with the wicked of those times He hath other waies of coming besides that here spoken of to every man at his death and after judgement which though R. Salomo as we have seen doth ill in making the prime and literal meaning of this place as he doth yet so far he is true that certainly God will by it come to every man in particular and then judge and distinguish them according to the things that they have done not the things that they have enjoied in this World His deferring them till then is not a sign of his liking to them but shall make if they by repentance prevent it not for their greater condemnation and misery and so shall it appear that they are out who for what they see them here to enjoy shall account them happy See Luke XVI 25 This may seem a digression as not pertaining to the literal meaning of the words yet may be not impertinent in regard that both the present words and other passages after in this Chapter cannot but suggest such consideration of Gods just Judgement both for private persons and whole Societies of men to us That some Christians anciently should interpret the word come in the first place of Christs first coming and in this second of his coming to Judgement cannot but seem strange Doubtless here is but one and the same coming spoken of and the repetition of the promise of it doth but confirm the certainty of it and that was the first coming of his then when these words were spoken to be expected by the Jews The words will naturally bear no other sense 2 But who may abide the day of his coming and who shall stand when he appeareth for he is like a refiners fire and like fullers sope But who may
abide the day of his coming c. By looking to what precedes in the last verse of the former Chapter and the first of this the connexion of these words with the former seems thus The Jews of those times seeing as they thought all things out of order then amongst them the godly oppressed and the wicked exalted murmured against Gods Justice and having had promises from God of one who should set all things to right as doubting of the truth of those promises seeing them so long deferred ask'd Where is the God of Justice where is the promise of his coming He answereth them therefore that he is not negligent of their affairs nor slack concerning his promise but what they counted slackness was long-suffering towards them that they might be prepared for receiving that Lord whom they sought after that Messenger of his Covenant whose coming they longed to see as expecting that then all things should go according to their desires and they should have great cause of rejoicing in seeing the wicked severely dealt withall and themselves established in worldly prosperity and pleasure mean while not examining themselves how they were fit for such things as they expected He therefore tells them that certainly without any failing on his part that Lord should come at his appointed time but that before him also should come a Messenger to prepare his way before him by calling them that thought best of themselves to prepare for his coming For that it should not be so easy to them as they fancied to themselves without more ado to give them what they expected of wordly enjoiments and without farther trial to give them what they thought themselves worthy of but that it should be with great severity and so as in strict Justice to proceed after trial made of all for good to those who should be found faithful and sincere and for destruction to those that were otherwise so that the righteous should not without difficulty be saved but for the ungodly and sinners they should not be able to appear This is that which he saith but who may abide the day of his coming and who shall stand when he appeareth Who of the wicked say some which as it is most true and the coming of that day shall be to them most terrible and intolerable yet may the question seem more generally put as concerning all even the best as well as the wicked to shew that the time spoken of shall be full of difficulties such as will put all to a hard tryal such as will prove them to the uttermost though the issue thereof shall be indeed for joy and Salvation to those that are found faithful and sincere even they shall be saved but so as by fire For in that day many shall be made white i. e. tryed saith Kimchi in the words of Daniel XII 10 even the righteous shall pass a hard trial that they may be purified and made white though not consumed and destroyed as the wicked so that even to them the day of his coming should be terrible though salutary This that they might expect and yet among those difficulties find comfort Christ himself having taken our sins upon him took on him the Cross that he might enter by it into his Kingdom and shew to his the way that they must also go if they will enter thereinto viz. by taking up their Cross and following him True peace and joy he promiseth to them but not without the preceding trial of troubles and afflictions and so instructeth them that they might know that he came not to send peace on the Earth Mat. X. 34 not such peace as the Jewish Nation generally expected at his coming but that for judgment he came into this World as is here prophesied that he should which if we take his coming in that latitude as before we said we shall see with such severity to have been executed as that in respect thereof we may see there was good grounds for this expression of it by way of question who not only of the wicked but of the best of men may abide the day of his coming or who shall stand when he appeareth Though the generality of the Jews did I suppose then expect nothing but present joy and prosperity at his coming yet we may well think that those that better considered the Prophecies had other notions like those that we have expressed of the day of his coming and appearance by that Tradition which those since report to us as from them of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cheblo shel Mashiach The pangs or dolors of the Messiah such great afflictions as shall be to Israel at the coming of the Messiah spoken of in the Talmud which Abarbinel mentions as here pointed at if the words be expounded as we have shewed they ought to be of the Messiah And certainly such Tradition may be as well founded on these words as any passage in the Prophets although this place be not cited where it is mentioned in the Talmud in the Tract of the Sabbath c. XVI fol. 118. but that which is repeated concerning the same day that is here spoken of Chap. IV. 5 where it is called the coming of the great and dreadfull day of the Lord. The same Abarbinel speaking of the same opinion of theirs in his Comment on Daniel fol. 68. col 2. saith That the Disciples of Jesus received from the wise men of Israel among other things that he there mentions that in the daies of Messiah afflictions should be multiplied which they call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cheble hammeshiach the pangs or dolors of Messiah insomuch that they said Very happy shall he be that shall not see them and in whose time they shall not be And concerning them saies he it is said in their Gospel Wo or alas who shall live with or in the time of those great afflictions which shall be seen in the last daies which are the pangs or dolors of Messias which by Tradition they had heard of The words which he mentions though they are not literally found in the Gospel yet may as the sense thence be collected as a summary Inference out of what our Saviour saith as in Mat. XXIV Mar. XIII and Luk. 21. It is well observed by Buxtorfius that the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by our Savior used in his description of those daies of his coming in Judgement to the Jews that here called likewise The day of his coming and appearance doth properly and particularly answer to the Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chebel or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chabalim or in construction 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cheblo or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cheble as they denote bitter pangs as of a woman in travel and so used for any great pains or afflictions So that if that Tradition among them were ancienter then Christs coming and the Gospel it may not improbably be thought that our Saviour did
of God were purged and purified from their former corruptions and errors and reduced to the acknowledgement of Christ and true worship of God according to the perfect rule of the Gospel as it is said And a great company of the Priests were obedient to the Faith Act. VI. 7 All these may be true and well joined As to the last which understands it of the Sons of Levi properly so called as of that race of such as were won to the obedience of Christ by the word of his Gospell and had their hearts purified by faith in him of them may it be truly verified that they were purified and purged as gold and silver by him sitting as a refiner and purifier of silver and it cannot be doubted but that they had their parts in that sharp trial of afflictions too in those daies And as for them who were all dross and would not be purified but continued in their corruption what became of them the sad story of the destruction of the City and Temple which we take to be deciphered by this day of his coming and the trying and purifying here described shews when so many of them together with the Temple perished by fire as that if the expression here were properly meant of material fire it might be said to have been verified in them although we do not here take it as so meant but only to express the strictness and exactness of the trial It is said that he shall so purify and purge them that they shall offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness In the times when this was spoken that they did not so is shewed in the preceding Chapters Because they were so perverse in their waies so wicked in their doings he tells them that he regarded not the offering by which they thought to satisfy his Law and do to him acceptable service nor received it with good will at their hands As likewise Isa. I. 19 c. he calls the Sacrifices they pretended to do to him while their hands were full of wickedness vain oblations the incense they brought abomination unto him their feast iniquity and trouble to him and that when they make many prayers he will not hear Before they can do any thing that shall be acceptable to him they must wash them and make them clean put away the evil of their doing cease to do evil learn to do good c. The persons must be first made such as he will accept before their offerings can be acceptable or their Sacrifices sweet unto him That therefore among these that are here called Sons of Levi whether be meant all Christians or those that are peculiarly separated to the ministring to God in holy things or such of the Jewish Levites that were converted to Christ there may be such as may offer to him an offering in righteousness rightly lawfully and acceptably not to the farther displeasing of him as those in this Prophet reprehended then did he saith that he will first purify them as silver and purge them as gold and silver from all dross and corruptions that are in them by such means as he sees convenient whether by the powerfull efficacy of his Word Grace and Spirit or farther if he see necessary by the fiery trial of sufferings by the spirit of judgement and of burning to separate the sincere of them from those that are not such and then they being so purged and with sincere hearts and pure hands presenting their offerings in righteousness to him shall be accepted both they and their offerings so saith he in the following words 4 Then shall the offerings of Judah and Jerusalem be pleasant unto the Lord as in the daies of old and as in formeryears Then shall the offerings of Judah and Jerusalem be pleasant unto the Lord. Judah and Jerusalem are named saith Kimchi because there was the Temple or Sanctuary It will be easy to translate the names to the Church of Christ of which that City was a type and which thence was to have its rise and beginning though since spread abroad through the World so that it will be all one to say the offerings of the Church But what offerings are then to be understood not certainly such legal Sacrifices or Mincha's as were then under the Law offered For this is spoken of what was to be after the coming of the Messiah by whose once offering of himself all such legal offerings had an end put to them and were for the future to cease By the offerings the Mincha or offering as it is in the singular number of Judah and Jerusalem therefore must be meant all the spiritual offerings and services of the Church and the faithful Members thereof their Prayers Alms Praises Eucharistical Sacrifices their whole selves offered to God as a living Sacrifice holy acceptable to God Rom. XII 1 all comprehended under that pure Mincha or offering Ch. I. 11 they being all made a holy Priesthood to offer up spiritual Sacrifices acceptable to God I Pet. II. 5 Much of the service under the Law consisting in offering oblations that name is transferred to all Evangelical services It is said they shall be pleasant as in the daies of old and as in former years in the daies of the pious Patriarks say some Others in the time of the first Temple and when the worship of God florished in Judea or the time of the Tabernacle that Moses pitcht But it will not concern particularly to design the time the Text having not so designed it it will be sufficient to understand it that the services in the time here spoken of by such and in such manner as he describes done shall be as acceptable and pleasing to God as any ever heretofore by holy and pious men in due manner performed were and not lothsome and displeasing to him as those offerings of that present Age by wicked men unduly and with neglect and breach of his law offered were But here is observable that from what he saith that the Sons of Levi shall be purified and then offer offerings in righteousness and pleasant unto God as those of holy men of old on and after the coming and appearance of the Lord the Messiah there is an evident proof that by that coming of his here spoken of is not meant his last coming to judgement inasmuch as after that will be no time for such services they are to be performed in this life and this World not in the life and World to come but a coming in this World after which it should yet last in which is a time of purging the other being a time only of remuneration according to what men have in this done They are an argument in this kind looked on not only by some Christian Expositors but by a Jew also Abarbinel makes it as a proof against R. Salomo's interpreting what is here spoken concerning death and the punishments in another World
because saies he that which is here said of offering offerings 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is a thing that doth not belong to Souls after death This is to be observed not only in respect to what hath been already said but in respect of what follows also in the next verse and other passages which are betwixt this and the end of this Prophecy by which taken by themselves the judgement after this life and World may seem deciphered and we ought to be put in mind of it Yet if we consider to whom viz. the Nation of murmuring Jews and on what occasion the words were then spoken and how there is in them as this that which agrees to things in this life and World not so properly to that we shall see that they must have respect to such judgments as God would exercise towards that Nation in this World and taking the time denoted by the day of the Lord the Messiah's coming for that time which as we said was from the first preaching of John Baptist and Christ untill the destruction of the Country City and Temple of Jerusalem and considering what was done in those times we shall easily perceive that all by the Lord in this Prophet spoken was so far fulfilled as that in regard thereof alone not one word of his may be said to have fallen to the ground though as then the words might warn them who were then in the Prophets time living and should die before the execution of such Gods publick judgments on the Community or Nation of a certain account that they should after this life if not before be brought to for their doings so they ought still to warn all whether particular persons or whole Nations to expect in Gods due time to be brought to judgement at least after this life if not in it too what happened to them being for example to all and their concern so to make use thereof that purifying themselves before hand and doing to God acceptable service they be not consumed as dross 5 And I will come near to you in judgement and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers and against the adulterers and against false swearers and against those that oppress the hireling in his wages the widow and the fatherless and that turn aside the stranger from his right and fear not me saith the Lord of hosts And I will come near to you in judgement c. An answer to their former groundless murmurings and questionings in the last verse of the preceding Chapter he hath in the former verses given and in this and the next verse continues it in terms coming close to the question there by them made where is the God of Judgement he here answers I will come near to you to Judgement Before he spake as of a third person The Lord shall come c. and he shall sit c. and he shall purify c. viz. The Lord Christ the second person of the blessed Trinity here in the first person as of God the Father I will come near c. This alters nothing in the sense but only gives us to understand that God will judge by the Messiah God the Father in and by the Son For the Father hath committed all judgement to the Son John V. 22 and hath given him authority to execute judgement ver 27. he coming therefore saith I am come in my Fathers name ver 43. whether therefore this be looked on as spoken in the Fathers name or in the person of the Messiah as Vatablus will it is all one for he and his Father are one Joh. X. 30 He will come near to them in Judgement to exercise judgement which they complained was not executed Will come at the end of the World at the last Judgement saith the same learned man following some others Others expound them of both comings of Christ that already past and that to be at the end of the World as much as to say I will come down in the flesh and enquire into the corrupt manners of men I will come also at my last coming to judgement Or I will come in Judgement first to correct and also as occasion shall serve to punish but will perfectly complete it at the day of the last Judgement But what to say of these see in the note on the former verse as likewise of R. Kimchi's note on the place I will come near viz. in that day which he hath mentioned to you that is to that generation which shall be in that day and the generations that are past if they received not their judgement in this World they shall receive it in the World to come and of what Abarbinel here saith who though he rejects R. Salomo's opinion as to the former verse yet will have it here to take place viz. that by his saying I will come near is meant that before those things so far off to come which Malachi should tell them of he will more speedily come to the particulars of them by death which should send them to Hell making that the import of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I will be or am near to you And I will be a swift witness c. That none of the transgressors may think to avoid his judgement as in human Judicatures many do for want of evident witness against them their crimes having been committed in secret and oft sentence is delaied that so enquiry may be made and witnesses sought for he tells them that here it shall not be so he himself that is the Judge will also be witness And all things being open to him even those things which are done with greatest privacy as well known to him as those that are done in the face of the Sun and before many witnesses he will not delay for making farther search and enquiry as in doubtfull matters and where circumstances may not be plain or mens memories may fail is by men done but will be a swift witness will without more ado convince them of their sins and as speedily execute sentence on them being convicted none being able to stop or hinder his proceeding when once he takes the matter in hand as he here assures that in his appointed time which shall then seem too sudden to them though now they accuse him of delay he will do Against whom he will so proceed he shews by reckoning up divers notorious sins which his specifying shews to have been then common amongst them and besides that he will in like manner proceed against all others guilty in other like kinds of sins contrary to his Law as these expresly are These being named we cannot but think others included Against the Sorcerers Of this sin forbidden Deut. XVIII 10 11 12. is shewed that they were much guilty even under the first Temple in Isa. c. II. 6 Jer. XXVII 9 Micah V. 12 And how under the second and in the later degenerate times they addicted themselves to the
like vain diabolical arts one here named comprehends the rest which in the Law are distinguished by several names is proved by the learned D r Lightfoot by several instances on Mat. XXIV 24 And of the rest of the sins here reckoned up the same will be to be said that as they of former times before the Babylonish captivity and destruction of the former City and Temple were guilty of them and by them pulled on the whole Nation those heavy Judgements besides those which in their particular persons they were for them liable to either in this life or the other so these also after their return from that captivity not taking warning by what had happened to their Ancestors and they had either tasted of or could not but have fresh in memory casting off the fear of God which in the last words of the verse is assigned as the cause of their so doing did again give themselves up to the like so far that God again threatneth them with like national Judgements In rendring the words whereby the last sin here spoken of is described viz. and that turn aside the stranger from his right the words from his right being put in different characters sheweth that they are not expressed in the original Hebrew but are supplied for making clearer and fuller the sense the words literally sounding only that turn aside the stranger So do some of the Jews think a supply for that end necessary and therefore understand 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mishpat Judgement as if it were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vmatte mishpat hager and that turn aside or pervert the judgement of the stranger which is in the text it self put in where a curse is denounced against this sin Deut. XXVII 19 and there is the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 matteh perverteth in the singular number and therefore with the letter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 H in the end whereas it is here in the plural and therefore with ◠i in the end Which I suppose is all that the Masorites or those that took care of the right writing and reading of the Hebrew Text would have here to be observed by that note of theirs which some take notice of viz. that it is not else where read with ' yod in the end not that they would have us think it ought here to have been written with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 H for here it is in the plural as the rest of the Nouns here are as R. Tanchum notes of which yod in the end is a sign and the letter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 H of the singular That among the sins here reckoned up as provoking God to come in judgement is not mentioned Idolatry as great as any and which the former Prophets under the first Temple did oft inveigh against Abarbinel notes the reason to be because that under the second Temple that sin was not found amongst them The same Doctor on the last words and fear not me saith the Lord notes that he intimates that if they should fear him and repent of these sins he would pardon them Saith the Lord of hosts This intimates the certainty of what he saith shall be that they may take due notice of it which is also assured in what follows ver 6. Divers connect the last words with the former thus and against those that do not fear me including with those guilty of the former sins all others who fear not the Lord. 6 For I am the Lord I change not therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed For I am the Lord I change not therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed These words are very differently expounded at least applied by Interpreters especially as to the latter part of them The connexion of the former part of them with the preceding according to the way that we have gone will be easy viz. That although he have so long forborn to take vengeance of the wicked yet they are not to think that it is because he approves of their doings or is grown neglectful of those that take care to serve him but that he will in due time execute his judgements on the one according to what he hath threatned against such as go on in evil waies and shew his care of the other inasmuch as he is still the same God of judgement unchangeably the same a hater and certain avenger of evil and a lover of good and therefore all his threats and promises however seeming to be deferred shall in their due time certainly come to pass and have their due effect But how then doth what he subjoins therefore or and ye sons of Jacob are not consumed follow on these Because as we said Expositors in giving the meaning of these words much differ it will be convenient to take some of their Interpretations distinctly R. Salomo's note on this place is Although I do defer my anger I have not changed my mind or purpose from what it was at first as that I should love the wicked and hate the good And ye Sons of Jacob although some of you are dead or have died in their iniquity and I have not taken punishment of those wicked in this life yet ye are not consumed ye are not consumed or brought to nothing before me I have left your souls to execute my Judgement on them in Hell according to Jonathan's Chalde Paraphrase which is And ye of the house of Jacob think that he who dieth in this World his Judgement ceaseth as much as to say Ye in your opinion say my Judgement is frustrate or ceaseth because there is no farther time to take vengeance on him But our ancient Doctors saith he otherwise expound it I have not changed or returned or done a second time I have not smitten any other Nation and returned or been changed to it or smitten it a second time But you have I preserved or caused to abide after many punishments My arrows are consumed or spent but ye are not consumed R. D. Kimchi's Exposition is thus for I the Lord change not for whatsoever I have spoken though for a long time to come shall certainly so come to pass for I change not neither do my words change and all the things to come which I have spoken to you by my Prophets shall so be or come to pass The Verb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Shaniti hath the signification of changing as if he should say I change not from word to word from purpose to purpose or liking to liking i. e. that I should one while say or like one thing and another while another And ye Sons of Jacob are not consumed as other Nations are consumed of whose name no memory is left and who are destroyed from being a Nation but ye are not consumed neither shall you be consumed for ye shall alwaies be separate among the Nations that ye may be one Nation in the Earth although you be led captive
and dispersed to every corner your name remaineth or shall remain in every place The evil that I have done to you I have done for your iniquities And as I change not so ye also shall not be consumed and in the latter daies ye shall return to your dignity and shall be high above all the Nations of the Earth But Jonathan paraphraseth it thus For I the Lord have not changed my Covenant which is from of old but ye O house of Israel think that he that dieth in this World his Judgement ceaseth Thus Kimchi Abarbinel though he dissent from R. Salomo on the 2 d 3 d and 4 th verses as we have seen yet here agreeing with him as separating what is spoken in the 5 th and this verse from what is spoken in them as belonging to a distinct time and judgement as not seeing in his way how well to joyn them thus here speaks For I the Lord change not i. e. I have alwaies loved judgement and righteousness but if it be not in this World it shall be in the World to come that is it which he saith and ye children of Jacob are not consumed for although you die behold your souls remain to receive the recompence of your doings These words and opinions of these Doctors we recite not as if they conduced to the right meaning of the place for they are far from it as R. Salomo's in that what is spoken of a particular signal day and judgement in this World he expounds of that which continually did befall and still doth befall all men in their times viz. the day of death and of the immortality of the Soul which things being common to all men and before known to all the Jews cannot be the utmost meaning or conclusion of a new Prophecy directed to the Jews and particularly concerning their Nation to shew them some new thing that should betide them and satisfy that question then in their mouths Where is the God of Judgement with some new answer However that which he saith be in it self true it is not here by it self to the purpose and it seems to proceed on his former wrong supposal that ver 1. by the Lords Messenger is meant the Angell of death and by the Lord here spoken of the God of Judgement without respect to the Messiah and not to come home at all to the taking away the murmuring of the People of which he complains and shews it to be causeless and through ignorance of what he now declares to them This objection against him Abarbinel suggests to us in what he saith on the first and second verses but here where he falls in with him it stands firm against himself for here we are not as he doth to look on these words as spoken of a distinct time or persons or judgement from those that are in those former words spoken of but as concerning still the same day or time as Kimchi as we have seen well notes and all directing to some visible judgement whereby God in that appointed time should clear his Justice which they now looking on the prosperity of the wicked called in question and make manifest his immutability in his hatred of the wicked though he do not presently execute sentence on them and his love to the godly whom though he suffer to endure for a while perhaps hard trial yet he still takes care of their final preservation and will in his due time make it apparent by what shall be then visibly done by some distinguishing judgement which to the particular day of mens dying and the judgment that they shall then be brought to invisible and unknown to others so that thereby Gods love and hatred to the one or the other are not easily discerned one thing as far as man can discern befalling them and one dying as the other dieth is not so kindly appliable As for David Kimchi neither can his Exposition here take place it running as to the latter part on a false supposition which may not be granted viz. that the Lord and his Messenger who were as is evident ver 1. to come to the Temple then standing which is long since destroyed and by whom the judgement spoken was to be brought near unto them v. 5. are not yet come nor that judgment yet executed but are yet no man knows when to be expected and that the judgement with which that Nation is here particularly threatned was to be executed only on other Nations there remaining for the Jews only a triumphant return to their ancient dignity and a flourishing estate in this World which certainly are no way intimated in the words but on the contrary a destruction of all the sinners among them by a national Judgement though the godly among them were not to be thereby consumed All which hath been already so fully compleated in the destruction of that People within few years after Christs coming that to pass by what hath been done and look after things to be done not at all by God here or else where promised is to delude and not to give a true Exposition of this Prophecy From none of these Expositions therefore as we said have we certainly the right meaning of these words as to the scope of them all that we may gain by them to our purpose is a justification of the signification of some of the words as they are by our Translators rendred and particularly of the two Verbs the first in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lo shaniti I change not the other in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lo celitem ye are not consumed in the giving of the meaning of which R. Ab. Ezra and R. Tanchum agree with those already named only that the latter of them thinks that both of them though in the form of the preterperfect tense ought to be rendred in the signification of the future I will not change and ye shall not be consumed making the former to include a reason of the returning of Gods Providence to them as it was of old and giving for the meaning These promises shall certainly come to pass although they be deferred for a long while for no change or failing shall happen to me and likewise ye shall remain by the remaining of my Law among you neither shall you be consumed or cease to be Into which meaning we shall not further enquire he not fully expressing of it If he mean the same that Kimchi doth the same answer will serve That which we take notice of is that according to these the meaning of the first word is given by saying that God doth not or will not alter his purpose and Decree concerning his hatred of the wicked and in his appointed time bringing to condign punishment obstinate sinners or his love to the good and care of them so that however he delay the time of his evidencing these things by open judgements his Justice is not to be questioned as if he now liked or
and the day that cometh shall burn them up saith the Lord of hosts that it shall leave them neither root nor branch FOR behold the day cometh c. The connexion and necessary coherence of these words with the former as being as we said a declaration of the certainty of the coming of that day in them spoken of and a description of it is so apparent as that it may seem no reason why they should be severed from them and made the beginning of a new Chapter and therefore by some are continued with them But we need not much insist on this the distinction of Chapters not interrupting the sense As to the scope of them it is well given by a learned man viz. that they are a description of the final Judgement on the Jews in their destruction and an image of representation of the last general Judgement on all Mankind That was certainly then to come on the Jews if not prevented by their repentance as it was not when the Prophet then spake this but is long since come this is yet still to come but shall in Gods appointed time as certainly come as if it were already present Of both therefore it might then be said Behold the day cometh i. e. shall certainly come and the description is so full of terror as that it may well be applied both to the one and to the other yet certainly was it that former which the primary intention of the Prophet was here to describe and to the latter are the words appliable only by way of accommodation For to the Nation of the Jews did he then speak as a Messenger peculiarly sent to them to reprove them for their sins and declare to them such things as concerned them and not immediatly such things as were common to the whole World though what things happened to them were ensamples to all other People and like judgements on like behavior they may justly expect in this World also besides that last general Judgement which shall involve all both Jews and other Nations which viz. to what People the Prophet was peculiarly sent and spake and when they did not seem to consider who passing over what befell the Jews according to this Prophecy expound these words as primarily and properly belonging to that last general Judgement and taking in too the particular judgement of particular men at their death as some will as many do 'T is the consent saith one of Jews and Christians that it should be so expounded of the day of Judgement Why the Jews must in their own defence and maintainance of their other opinions so expound it or else of some other time yet to come hath been already shewed but why Christians should therein consent with them there is no reason yea much to the contrary that they may not thereby confirm them in their error as if Christ were not yet come Yet what might move some Christians so to do we shall perhaps have occasion to see when we come to the 5 th verse Mean while we take that which we have given viz. that this concerns primarily that national judgement on the Jews not many years after Christs coming about 40. after his death executed by the Romans the instruments of Gods wrath on them in that terrible destruction of their City and People to be the truest and most proper way of expounding the words and according to that shall proceed However by way of accommodation allowing them to be applied either to the particular or general Judgement to be expected by all other men And though we cannot consent with the Jews in their opinion yet may we take notice of some things that they say for illustrating our own or for shewing the incongruity of their opinion or for enquiry into the signification and literal meaning of some of the words And by the way we say that what is said that the Jews all consent in this that the peculiar day here designed is the day of the last general Judgement is spoken but at large For indeed they do not agree in it as Abarbinel who doth himself say that it is meant of the time of the Resurrection and the day of Judgement plainly sheweth in his Commentary on this place and seeketh to prove that some do agree with him in it but confesseth that others of their Doctors do not who refer it to the punishment that seizeth on the soules of the wicked immediatly after death and that others speak so obscurely that it cannot be positively said of what time they understood it whether of the restauration of Israel which they look for or of the resurrection of the Dead So that all that can be said that they consent in is that they do not expound it of that day which we do as their interest leads them as we have said to do though among themselves not agreeing in one opinion and all erring from the right Nor do all Christians neither agree among themselves in the matter Some of good note and learning going the way that we take with whom we may rank others also who interpret the place not of Christs second coming at the end of the World but of his first coming though they perhaps extend not that name of his coming so far as we do but in their explications of it expound it rather of his preaching while he was on Earth by which he convinced those hypocrites of their impiety not sparing their sins while they do not expresly mention his terrible Judgements executed on the Jews in the destruction of Jerusalem Those also dissent from that opinion which take this day to include all the time from that wherein this was spoken to the first coming of Christ and they also who understand it that this day began with the first day of Christs Incarnation and is to last untill he shall again appear in the Clouds to the last Judgement which certainly allow too large a time to that day which is so described by the Prophet as to shew it to belong to a peculiar and particular day a great and notable day of the Lord wherein he shall execute the signal judgement here threatned called again v. 5. the great and dreadful day of the Lord. To proceed therefore to the explication of the words and expressions which to the way that according to what hath been said we take are plainly agreeable and according to it and no other run in an equal tenor he saith Behold the day cometh that shall burn as an oven c. We had before an expression to the same purpose c. III. v. 2. especially according to their explication who there read it i. e. the day of the Lords coming the day here again spoken of shall be as a refiners fire as we said Kimchi doth The words as here set down with behold for ushering in the strangeness of the thing prefixed sound out the greatest horror that can possibly be
at best I cannot perceive sure it is such as hath no ground at all from Scripture nor agrees with it in any meaning To prove that the Sun is in a sheath or cafe because it is said In them hath he set a Tabernacle for the Sun Psal. XIX 4 and that in the last day it shall be unsheathed because it is here said the day cometh that shall burn as an oven are waies of proof that will have certainly no force with any but those of the Jews that must think all that their ancient Rabbins have said to be true how absurd and groundless soever yea though both contrary to Scripture and reason What proof mean while for the Pool of water in which the Sun is cooled I should have passed this by without taking notice of it in this place as thinking it only a conceipt of their Doctors given in strange terms to amuse their Disciples when they would not speak plainly to them with some hidden meaning in them as many in that kind they have and in particular that which also may seem to refer to this place that Abraham had a precious stone hanging about his neck which when any sick People looked on they were healed and when he dyed God fastned it in the Sun by which means the Sun hath healing vertue in him by which Abarbinel interprets to be meant that Abraham while he lived convinced men of the unity truth and power of God by solid arguments but after his death they being deprived of such an orall Teacher they had a visible one in the Sun by his wonderful motion undeniablely demonstrating the same but that by the gravest and most serious of them I see this cited as litterally to be expounded and to give the true meaning of this place from which and from being true in any kind it is certainly most wide and in it self very ridiculous As so therefore leaving it we pass on to the following words in which he farther describes the happy condition that those that fear his Name shall be in And ye shall go forth and grow up as Calves of the stall Ye shall go forth i. e. say some of the Christian Expositors who understand the time here spoken of of the day of the last general Judgement out of this World in which ye have hitherto been detained as in a prison Others to much the same purpose out of your graves and so enjoy that happiness and joyfull estate in the next words described But this though applied to that time undoubtedly true and such as may well mind us of that day yet will not well agree to that way which we follow taking the day spoken of for that particular day of Judgement wherein God proceeded to the punishment of the Jews by bringing destruction both on the City and People In respect to that the explication of a learned man comes closer which is God shall as with his hand bring you out of the City ready to be destroyed according to that way of taking care for the preservation of his faithfull servants when destruction is sent on the wicked among whom they are of which we have many examples Our Saviour gives us two Luk. XVII 27 the one of Noah at the general Deluge whom he taught first to make an Ark for his preservation and brought not the Flood on the ungodly till he was first by that secured but as soon as Noah entred into the Ark the Flood came and destroyed them all The other of Lot v. 29. to whom God purposing to destroy Sodom sent Angels to lead him by the hand out of the City by them telling him that he could not do any thing till he was escaped Gen. XIX 22 But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from Heaven and destroyed them all And a Vision there is presented to the Prophet Ezekiel c. IX 4 c. to the same purpose where by Gods command a mark was set on the foreheads of such as feared the Lord that they might not perish in the common destruction of Jerusalem and those that were to destroy the Inhabitants thereof old and young women and children without sparing any were yet charg'd not to come near any man upon whom was Gods mark Not to look after more examples this promise of deliverance to those here to whom he saith Ye shall go forth was manifestly made good to the Christians that were in Jerusalem when it was destroyed by Gods miraculous warning them to go out of the City affording them occasion so to do by which means they went forth and were preserved as hath been above said on c. III. 6 Calvins words also for explaining this word will well fit the same purpose though not fully by him directed to the same but to the renovation of the Church more generally that the word going forth is opposed to the hard straits they had been before in but should now have liberty of going forth and find open matter of joy But there may be other waies of expounding this word without looking on it as denoting properly a going forth out of the place where they were but being joyned to the next word and grow to denote that they shall proceed to grow c. i. e. having received that healing and salutary influence of the Sun of righteousness shall go on in prospering according to what the next words declare Or as a learned Jew saith it may be expounded ye shall go forth to or in or by the light of that Sun of righteousness arising to you and in this sense may it be well enough applied to that warning of them to go out of the City which before we mentioned or as another Wheresoever ye go ye shall grow c. Which of these notions it will be best to take if it be not indifferent to take either as to this word it will be better discerned when we shall have considered those joyned to it and grow up as Calves of the stall In rendring the first of which words viz. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vpishtem which ours render and grow up there is some difference among Interpreters some rendring it and ye shall leap so the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 using here the same word which is Luk. VI. 23 where he bids his rejoyce when they are persecuted and leap for joy And so the Latin and the Syriack the printed Arabick to the same purpose ye shall move your selves or leap for joy the Chalde Paraphrase also ye shall do or go wantonly the same signification doth the Greek give to it Jer. L.11 likewise the Syriack and the Chalde more plainly then here So doth R. Tanchum say that it signifies here playing and leaping for alacrity and joy which he thinks also may most conveniently agree to that other forecited place of Jeremy that it may be there rendred because ye skip or leap And not
main matter of timing things yet what he saith applied to the right time will illustrate and confirm what we look on as the truest way of expounding them viz. that literally and primarily they describe to us a day wherein God would proceed in judgement against the Nation of the Jews for making a discrimination betwixt the righteous and the wicked which because it was at that present when this Prophet lived and spake to them not so discernible they took thence occasion to question his Justice and spake stout words against him saying It is vain to serve God c. and where is the God of Judgement That day it appears c. III. 1 2. should be at or by the coming of Christ and by his coming is meant as we have shewed his coming in Judgement to them at the destruction of Jerusalem In that our forecited Author is out that he thinks Christ not yet come and so that day not yet come whereas we as the truth is look on both as already come and that being granted then we say that in that he is right that here is described a day of discrimination to be made in this World as there was then made by the terrible destruction of the wicked among the unbelieving Jews and gracious rescue and deliverance of those that believed in Christ but withal that by the wonderfull wisdom of God that coming of Christ to judge them then is so described as to set before our eies another coming of his to judge all the World at the last day wherein shall be made a perfect separation between the righteous and the unrighteous those being received into joy and glory and perfect happiness in the presence of God and the Sun of righteousness the Lamb that shall be their light the other adjuged to perpetual burnings worse then of an oven or furnace to everlasting shame and contempt and misery however in this World they thought themselves happy set up and delivered The first of these daies is here properly described in such figurative expressions as necessarily suggest to us the condition of the second and cannot but put us in mind of it To either of them is appliable what is said in the next words In the day that I shall do this or according to the letter and as the Interlineary Latin here renders as likewise some others in the day that I make or shall make The same expression which we had before c. III. 17 and is an expression also elsewhere used This is the day which the Lord hath made 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and that title may well be applied to such a peculiar signal day wherein God hath done some extraordinary thing either for good or bad for punishment to his enemies or Salvation and deliverance to his Though he made all daies yet such a day might seem of a new make or singular creation and be singularly attributed to him as its Maker And such may well be called the daies of Christs Incarnation his preaching the Gospell his Resurrection his coming to Judgement against the Jews of that generation which all may be according to what we have before said looked as on one day the day here spoken of especially the last act mentioned and here peculiarly pointed out wherein was brought a terrible destruction on his enemies and wonderfull deliverance to his friends and for the same reason may the day of the last Judgement be so likewise called which as we said may well be looked on as here pointed out though not primarily meant as some seem to take it with omission of the other In this day that they might know what he had said should certainly come to pass he adds his solemn confirmation Saith the Lord of Hosts He who hath all power in his hand at whose beck are all Creatures in Heaven and Earth as ready Ministers to execute his pleasure and therefore can make good whatsoever he saith and who is true in his sayings and will not alter the thing that is gone out of his mouth he hath said it the mighty the faithfull God hath spoken and who shall disannul it he hath said it and it is therefore as certain as if it were already done According therefore to what he said did that day come on the Jews the People here spoken to in the time appointed and all those things here foretold come to pass And as certainly shall that other day here as we said typified or intimated come on all the World in the time appointed for it because the Lord of Hosts hath though not expresly here said it yet not obscurely intimated and elsewhere more plainly said it so that all must expect that as certainly to come on them all as they have seen the former already to have come on the Jews They deny it indeed to have been yet come on them and would have it to signify some thing to come not on themselves but on their enemies but it is because they wilfully shut their eies against that which all the World besides hath seen and with amazement acknowledge it A strange thing that that terrible destruction of their Country and Nation such as was never yet parallel'd by any thing that happened to any Nation besides nor can be out-done by any thing imaginable but the day of general Judgement and conflagration of all the World which it not obscurely represented should work no more on them Our prayer for them therefore must not be in their own words that God would hasten the coming of that first day that so they might with better preparations expect the second but that he would open their eies to see and incline their wills to acknowledge that to have come upon them which God here threatned and so be turned and brought near to Christ for rejecting whom was all that came on their Ancestors and themselves ever since that so what shall come to pass of that last coming of his may not be so terrible to them but he then may appear to them as the Sun of righteousness with healing in his wings to their Salvation who before came in flaming fire as a burning oven to destroy them who would not receive and obey his Gospel So shall they prevent by their repentance the evil of that day though their Ancestors would not though by God warned seek to prevent the evil of the other would not I say for though God here shews the certainty of the coming of that day by saying saith the Lord of Hosts and he knew what they would do yet that it implied a condition of their persisting to do as they did and that by their repentance and change of their waies it might have been prevented appears by what he adds not certainly to no purpose to move them to it by bidding them to remember the Law of Moses c. and promising to send Eliah to seek to convert them lest he should come c. to whom if they would not
the Prophecy on what occasion or for what reason I know not One saith it was done in imitation of the superstition of the Jews and to conclude the whole 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that all might end in good words or words of a good sound The superstition of the Jews w ch he mentions is this that whereas the last words here and smite the Earth with a curse sound harsh in their ears and seem to bode evil that they might conclude with something more pleasing they repeat the words going before again after them viz. Behold I will send you Eliah the Prophet before the coming of the great and dreadfull day of the Lord and he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children and the heart of the children to the fathers or at least some of them so as still to leave out the last harsh words which conclude with a curse The like do they do in some other Books for the same reason as at the end of Isaiah and of Ecclesiastes and the Lamentations in which after the last verse they repeat again the verse going before it And for warning thereof casting the initial letters of the names of these Books viz. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I T K K into an artificial word so as to be a signal or memorial of them I standing for Isaiah T for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tereasher i. e. the twelve minor Prophets of which Malachi is the last and the first K for Kinoth i. e. Lamentations the second for Koheleth i. e. Ecclesiastes they usually write or print that signal together with the words w ch they would have to be repeated all or some of them How ancient this custom was among them I know not it savors of the humor of those of ancient times among them who said to Gods Prophets prophecy not unto us right things speak unto us smooth things Isaiah XXX 10 They seem to think that the putting away from them the mention of the evil day that they might go on in their sins in security should secure them from it so inverting and frustrating to themselves Gods gracious method who that they might not perish in their security caused those words in the last place to be inculcated to them that so they might sink deep into them and work in them repentance whereby alone the evil mentioned might be prevented whereas their refusing to give that attention to them would pull it on them to their unavoidable destruction as in the example of these here spoken to it manifestly came to pass so as to be for caution to all in like kind As for the present place some are of opinion that the Jews do here repeat those words Behold I send you Eliah e. to strengthen themselves in their opinion and hope that the Messiah is not yet come but is to come If so or out of what respect soever they do it we have from the Messiah himself what to oppose to them and adde to what they would conclude with viz. But I say unto you Elias is come already and they knew him not but did unto him whatsoever they listed The Messiah also is already come and they would not know him neither but rejected him and despitefully used him for which their obstinacy that great and terrible day of the Lord is also come upon them and he hath smitten the Earth i. e. them and their Land with such a curse so terrible a destruction as makes good all that is here spoken and shews that not one word of this Prophecy is fallen to the ground but hath had its full accomplishment on them so that now they remain an ensample to all others that shall despise or neglect the means of grace offered to them as they did and putting far away the evil day will not whiles God gives them space know the things which belong unto their peace nor think of the time of their visitation For how shall any that reject the counsel of God against themselves as they did any People or Nation but expect to be smitten with the like curse as they were even in this World how shall the just God which spared not that his chosen Nation his once peculiar People the Seed of Abraham his friend spare others guilty in the like kind So that though these words were fulfilled in that destruction of Jerusalem and the Jewish Nation the People then peculiarly spoken to and intended yet may all others see in them what may concern them also even in this World But if it should so please God that any obstinately wicked and impenitent People should escape the like judgement in this World yet besides that prime and literal meaning of the words already as we said fulfilled on them we cannot but by them be put in mind of that more great and terrible day of the Lord and look on it as by this typified the judgement of which none either whole Nations or particular persons that ever lived shall escape and which shall unawares seize not on any one Land only but on the whole Earth and all therein yea and the Heavens too with greater terror then that by which this concerning the Jews is here v. 1. or elsewhere described or can by any words be expressed Wherefore seeing what God hath done and being thereby warned and by his word certainly assured what he will do what manner of persons ought we to be in all holy conversation and godliness as S. Peter will teach us to infer looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God All those admonitions to the Jews and all Gods methods toward them for preparing them for that day of his coming here mentioned equally concern us in respect of that other day of his coming by it typified and it will be necessary for us to apply them to our own concerns and to make use of them to our selves without expecting of another Elias to be sent to forewarn and convert us We have not promise of any and it would be to no purpose to have any We have Moses and the Prophets we have the admonitions of John Baptist and Christ himself and the example of the miscarriage of the Jews for not hearkning to them and if we will not hear and be warned by these neither will we be perswaded if Elias or John Baptist should rise from the dead or Christ should come again in the flesh among us to convert us Sufficient to us to make us to prepare our selves for what we are certainly to expect or leave us without excuse are those admonitions of his extending to all Generations Watch therefore for you know not what hour your Lord doth come Matt. XXIV 42 and again v. 44. Therefore be ye also ready for in such an hour as you think not the Son of Man cometh There is no generation which can assure themselves but that in it may be made good as to that other day
both to their duty and to the examples of their Predecessors which he describes in the next words 8 But ye are departed out of the way ye have caused many to stumble at the Law ye have corrupted the covenant of Levi saith the Lord of hosts But ye are departed out of the way c. But ye contrary both to your duty and to the examples of your pious Ancestors are departed out of the way which the Law prescribed for you as well as it did for them to walk in and they did diligently keep to and observe They by their instructions directed and by their good examples led men in the right way of Gods Commandments and turned them from iniquity but ye have caused many to stumble at the Law or as in the margin to fall in the Law Ye have been occasion of ruine to them in things concerning the Law either by teaching them what is not agreeable to the Law or not teaching them the right meaning of it or by your example contrary to it ye have caused them who thought they might safely be guided by your instructions and do as they saw you do to transgress the Law and run on in false and evil waies to their destruction or which will be agreeable to the words in the Text of our Translation which others also give give occasion to them by your wickedness to disdain Gods service agreeable to that expression Rom. II. 24 The Name of God is blasphemed through you and I Sam. II. 17 That through the sin of Eli's Sons men abhorred the Sacrifice of the Lord. The words spoken indefinitly give to under-several or many things they went aside from stand that in or contrary to the Law of God and were a cause of scandal or offence to the People But if we enquire after particulars the foregoing Chapter shews that they did so in what concerned Gods Offerings and Sacrifices and the verses following in this Chapter viz. 11 c. that they did so also in matters concerning Marriage And some therefore for explication of this place refer to Nehemiah 13. from the 4 th verse forward where are several offences against the Law taxed which seem by the fault of the Priests to have been occasioned as the introducing Strangers into the places belonging to the Temple and the profanation of the Sabbath and marrying strange Wives Ye have corrupted the Covenant of Levi c. Agreeable to this expression is said Neh. XIII 29 They have defiled the Priesthood and the Covenant of the Priesthood and of Levi. In vers 4 5. God mentioneth his Covenant with Levi. This Covenant required that they should sanctify and honor God by a due observance of his Ordinances and teaching and causing others to observe them By violating the conditions on their parts they have corrupted and made void that Covenant and must not therefore expect from him that life and peace v. 5. and all those benefits which he had on his part promised on keeping Covenant They belong not to such Covenant-breakers and thence are those evils which have befallen and shall befall them contrary to what they vainly without redressing their errors and breach of Covenant did expect So he had before threatned them vers 2 and 3. and in the next verse farther declares 9 Therefore have I also made you contemptible and base before all the people according as ye have not kept my waies but have been partial in the Law Therefore have I also made you contemptible and base before all the People c. Therefore because they have thus corrupted the Covenant of Levi c. and by their ill administration of their office had shewed contempt of God and despised his Name ch I. 6 therefore saith he have I also made you contemptible or as some render will I make you contemptible c. It will be to the same pass in such speeches to speak in the same Language of what is past and of what is to come that which hath not been yet done being as certain when God hath said it as if it were already past According as ye have not kept my waies So rendring to them according to their own dealings and measure for measure It is that which God of old had declared as the rule by which he would go in judging and dealing with those who ought to take care of honouring him in looking to the due observance of his Commandments I Sam. II. 30 Them that honor me will I honor and they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed The Priests by virtue of Gods Covenant with them were to be highly honoured and respected by the People and how zealously be would vindicate their honour appears in that Story of Corah Dathan and Abiram But upon breach of Covenant with him if they find on the contrary disrespect and contempt it is by his just judgment and by his just judgment they shall so find therefore have I also made or will I make you contemptible c. according as ye have not kept my waies but have been partial in the Law That contempt which they cast on him and on his Law by wresting it out of respect to persons that so they might gain favour and respect from them so honouring them more then him and seeking to please them more then him hath he or will he cast back on them by making them contemptible even in the eies of them from whom they thought to find by that means respect yea made or will make them base before all the People To this purpose a learned Jew expounds the words and others agree with him that by being partial in the Law is for mens sakes to approve of that which the Law approved not of and not to reprove men when they did contrary to it as in particular in that out of respect to those great men that brought them they did accept of and offer illegal Sacrifices as in the former Chapter is shewed and not reject and reprove them for bringing such things contrary to the Law whereas perhaps as some add from a poor man they would not have accepted them But the words seem more general and to comprehend any wresting of the law either out of favor to themselves or others when in declaring the meaning thereof or determining any thing according to it they did not deliver the truth but respect the persons in whose case they were to deliver their judgment and so accordingly interpreted it in favor or hatred unto them and as some think more particularly in case of extortion and usury they favoring the oppressors and this in any kind was contrary to what the Law commands Lev. XIX 15 Thou shalt not respect the person of the poor nor honor the person of the mighty but in righteousness shalt thou judge thy neighbour And Deut. I. 17 Ye shall not respect persons And Deut. XVI 19 Thou shalt not
have wearied the Lord with your words yet ye say Wherein have we wearied him when ye say Every one that doth evil is good in the sight of the Lord and he delighteth in them or where is the God of judgment Ye have wearied the Lord with your words c. A Jewish Doctor notes this to be another Section and the things therein spoken to belong to the time to come and so some others make it the beginning of a new Chapter as not having dependance on the preceding words but referring rather to what follows in the next Chapter in which is an answer to the doubts they raise and a vindication of Gods justice which they seem here to call in question yet may there well enough be a connexion made between them and the preceding words too if we look on them as a defence of their obstinacy in not hearkning to God or the Prophet in his Name reproving them for such faults as have been hitherto mentioned for that there seemed to them no such care taken by God of what men did when they saw those that did otherwise then he commanded yea more plainly wicked and disobedient to prosper as much or more then others that made more conscience of their waies and therefore there was no necessity to them of amending their waies or ceasing to do what they did Or as Abarbinel makes the transition from the former words to these that after he had reproved them for their evil deeds both Priests and People he here proceeds to reprove them for their words and thoughts which were even worse and more wicked then their deeds in that the wicked ones of that generation did return in answer to the reproofs of the Prophet There is neither judgement nor Judge God hath left the Earth His reproof of them therefore for this he gives saying Ye have wearied the Lord with your words Here is by several of the Jews noted as well as by others that this is spoken figuratively according to the language of men or in such as is passable among men but cannot be properly said of God who cannot be wearied It denotes that their words were such as would weary any man in autority and provoke him to anger and so did provoke God to deal so with them as that by the effects they might judge him to be weary of hearing from them such words and could no longer endure them which is that which the Greek expresses by rendring it who have provoked the Lord to wrath Rabbi Tanchum thus expounds it Ye have caused a restraint of his care and providence or caused him to withhold his providence from ordering your affairs by doing such things as he cannot bear according to what is said I cannot away with it c. Isa. I. 13 and again I am weary to bear them v. 14. Abarbinel thinks there is no necessity of making any Metaphor or figure in this speech but that it may be understood not that God was wearied by their words but that they in saying what they did did ascribe to him weariness and impotency and defect in his power and providence for if he did not know what wicked men did or did not regard it or would not or could not hinder or punish it this would argue him weary impotent and deficient Which of the two waies of expounding this word we take will not be much material nor make any difference in the sense or coherence with the following words But there is no reason to depart from the first and more followed way The Prophet thus reproving them as faulty in this kind they are represented as impudently denying themselves so to be or to have spoken any words that should be so offensive Yet ye say wherein have we wearied him or according to the other way whereby have we attributed to him weariness or impotency Or if we interpret the words as others to include a supposition of what he knowing their evil thoughts saw they would be apt to say If ye shall say Wherein c. He gives them an answer in which he declares what it was they said or thought to the affronting of God and highly provoking him when ye say Every one that doth evil is good in the sight of the Lord and he delighteth in them or where is the God of Judgement It is easily supposed though not exprest that they seeing the prosperous condition of some openly wicked men not only of the idolatrous Nations as some would have it but among themselves also they being preferred in dignity above others and florishing more then themselves who in their own conceits were much better deserving took thence occasion of uttering these blasphemous words contrary to what the Prophets affirmed concerning God's Justice and Judgments on sinners thus retorting and contradicting them It is not certainly as you say but on the contrary such as do evil are good in the sight of the Lord and he delighteth in them it so appears by their prospering and where then is the judgement of that just Judge that you tell us of which yet R. Tanchum thinks not to imply that they utterly denied the being of such a Judge for then it would not have been added And where is c. but spoke by way of contradiction to what they heard from the Prophets as a proof of God's slow proceeding in his ordering and disposing of things And in giving this sense he takes the particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 O or to be as if it were the Copulative 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ve and. By others he saith the meaning is thus given as if they did say thus or thus sometimes every one that doth evil is good in the sight of God and he delighteth in them at other times where is the God of Judgement and by others If it be not so as we say where then is the God of Judgment In these waies of exposition by him given is comprehended most of what is said by other Expositors ancient and modern they following the same way in construction of the words But a late learned man thinketh it more convenient and agreeable to the nice rules of Grammar to render the former words when ye say every one that maketh evil or the evil to be good i. e. with him that saith of evil or of him that is evil that it or he is good in the sight of God God is delighted or he that so saith is acceptable to God But this doth not make much difference as to the scope or intent of what blasphemy they are charged with viz. that they should make God a favorer of wicked persons He differs from others likewise in his opinion concerning the rendring of that particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 O which is rendred or and R. Tanchum would have rendred And as he saith it elsewhere signifies viz. Lev. IV. 24 and and 28. and would have it to be taken
for a particle of exclamation O and so that and the following words to be the words of the Prophet admiring the patience of God who so patiently bears with so great impiety and doth not punish this their blasphemy But though in his Notes on Isa. XXVII 4 he make it probable that this particle may sometimes so signify yet whether it ought here so to be used especially making as he doth the following words where is the God of Judgement to be the Prophets words may seem questionable inasmuch as then the Prophet would seem guilty in the same kind that those whom he reproves were viz. in questioning Gods justice as shewing favor to wicked men they did it because God seemed in their eies to favor others more wicked than themselves more than he did them he should do but much the same because God so much favored or bare with them But if any will have it so rendred I should rather think the following words should still be the words of those wicked men as others take them to be and then the sense will be but the same as if it were rendred or or and only with a little more vehemency and either a denying or complaining of the slowness of Gods Justice They thus probably as we said in defence of their own obstinacy in persevering in those evil waies for which the Prophets reproved them arguing What need we fear though we go on in such courses as you reprove us for do we not see those that do that which you call evil prosper so that we may well conclude either that their doings are well liked of by God or else if it be not so where is the God of Judgment sure either there is no such as Abarbinel notes this way of speaking to denote the not-being of a thing or else he is very negligent and slow in his executing judgement else why doth he suffer so long such things and not punish them so those scoffers II Pet. III. 4 where is the Promise of his coming so intimating that from the ill ordering of things in distributing of justice they thought either that God saw the evil things that were done and was not displeased with them or else did not see them nor regarded them and so was not a God of judgement Such impious sayings of theirs he shews that God was highly offended at for their undertaking to be judges of the Seasons and circumstances which he hath reserved the judgement of to his own knowledge and power and to subject the depths of his judgments to their own shallow reason and with this reproof of them is this Chapter concluded But out of his great condescension in the next Chapter he returns such an answer to these their causeless objections as may teach them to discern between the righteous and the wicked between him that serveth God and him that serveth him not as he speaks is the 18 th verse of that Chapter Grotius interprets what is rendred ye have wearied c. by ye will weary c. and when ye say by in that ye will say c. viz. so as to be a foretelling of their behavior in that interval that they should now be without Prophets and Miracles for many years between the time that this was spoken and the coming of that Messenger and Lord in the next Chap. vers 1. spoken of And it is but reason and agreeable to the words that we should take in together with what the Jews had done since their return into their Country and with what at present they did all that they should do in that time God foresaw what they would say or do as already said or done But to pass by all that was in that time done and to look on the words as reporting by way of Prophecy what is now by them done in their present dispersion after the real completion of these Prophecies as some Jews do according to what R. Tanchum thinks convenient both here and Chap. III. 14 is wholly to elude this Prophecy as then spoken and to make void all that we beleive and all that the history of the times testifies of the completion of it by the coming of Christ and the destruction of the Jews in the following words threatned and to perswade us to look after that which they vainly do as if Christ were not yet come but we were to look for another to shut our eies against what hath been and to look for what shall never be to take off the Prophets words from the times that they concerned and apply them to such as began not till all that he spake was manifestly fulfilled so making by a perverse method the end to be the beginning Though they be now guilty of the same sin that the men of that generation then were yet are not they the men then particularly spoken of and designed CHAP. III. VERS 1. Behold I will send my messenger and he shall prepare the way before me and the Lord whom ye seek shall suddenly come to his temple even the messenger of the covenant whom ye delight in behold he shall come saith the Lord of hosts BEHOLD I will send my Messenger and he shall prepare the way before me c. How these words depend on those foregoing with which the former Chapter is concluded hath been already intimated viz. that here is an answer given to that blasphemous question of those perverse ones of that time who from what they saw of the prosperity and florishing condition of such whom they looked on as deserving other usage took thence occasion of questioning Gods Justice God assuring that there should come a time wherein they should perceive that he was no favorer of wicked men or their practises a time wherein he would by his executing his just judgement on them shew that he took due notice all along of what was done by them though he might seem for a while to connive at it and that time should be at the coming of a righteous King whom he should raise up to set things in order viz. the King Messiah as I choose to utter in the words of a Jewish Expositor that so it may appear even by confession of his Enemies That the words are a most illustrious Prophecy of Christ by which this last of Prophets before Christs coming assured them of and warned them to expect his coming for which to prepare them they should have no more Prophets sent them till a Messenger which should immediatly before his coming appear to prepare his way before him How this Prophecy was in its due time fulfilled the History of the Gospel clearly and fully shews so that there is nothing in the cavils of the Jews or any other that acknowledge not the truth thereof that can raise to us any doubt as to the scope and true meaning of the whole though in the explaining of the particular words may be some difference which as far as may
seem convenient we shall take notice of in going them over as they lie in order Behold saith God I will send Others translate I do send as more agreeable to the letter and so also is it recited in the New Testament as Matth. XI 10 Mar. I. 2 Luk. VII 27 Because the thing though not done or in present doing when these words were spoken yet was assuredly to be done and was therefore spoken of in the present tense But ours in regard that it was after a time to be fulfilled express it not unfitly in the future I will send as agreeable to the sense and not disagreeable to the letter which will well enough bear either seeing the Participle as is here 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sholeach sending Behold I sending i. e. am sending or will send is frequently used to denote the present Tense but somtimes the future also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Malachi Which signifies either my Angel or my Messenger the word signifying both an Angel and a Messenger an Angel because a Messenger agreeable to the root of the word of which see Ch. I. 1 and II. 7 from which our Prophet had his name Malachi it is here rightly rendred my Messenger My Messenger Who is designed by this title we Christians cannot doubt it being in those forecited places in the Gospel expresly attributed to John the Baptist and he in two of them viz. Matth. and Luke is plainly said by Christ himself to be him of whom this was written But the unbeleiving Jews denying Christ whose Messenger this was to be are at a loss likewise concerning this Messenger and by disagreeing among themselves so far as they do and by the absurdity of what they affirm shew that they are either all ignorant of the truth or will none of them confess it as by a brief view of them we may see R. Salomo Jarchi interprets it if Abarbinel give us the meaning aright of the Angel of death who shall take the wicked out of this life to be sent into Hell torments In the copies of him that we have are no such words expressed but only My Messenger to take out of the way or cut off the wicked 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and so accordingly interprets the Angel of the Covenant an Angel that shall revenge the breach of the Covenant Which Exposition of his so understood the same Abarbinel thinks though true in the general that however the wicked here may prosper yet after death vengeance shall certainly be taken on them yet not to agree to this place where is a Prophecy of a signal particular day and not that which is continually and necessarily seen and alwaies was and will be so without any new remark to be ushered in with a Behold as of a new notorious thing as is likewise intimated to be pointed out here in what follows But who may abide the day of his coming c. And he shall purify the Sons of Levi c. which are not things properly and peculiarly denoting the state of Souls after death Aben Ezra saith that it is probable that by this Messenger is meant Messiah the son of Joseph But it is so far from being probable so to be that it is most certain it is not so For what is that Messiah the Son of Joseph but a mere figment of their own brain whom they suppose to be of the Tribe of Ephraim on whom they may fasten those Prophecies which foretell of the sufferings of Christ that so they may take them off from Messiah the Son of David to whom they will have none but glorious and triumphant things to pertain as if they could not belong to one person who through sufferings should enter into his glory And this they do without any ground or warrant from Scripture only that they may deny our Christ to be the true and only Messiah by the Prophets spoken of so that to us who believe the Gospell this signifies nothing nor hath in it any thing that may make it probable so far as in this place to be embraced by others of their own profession R. D. Kimchi thinks that by this Messenger is meant an Angel from Heaven If saith he ye ask concerning the judgement of the wicked in this World there shall come a time that you shall see and then he will draw near to you for judgement to consume the wicked that are among you and that shall be the day when I will send my Angel and he shall prepare or clear the way before me and he shall be an Angel from Heaven as it is written Behold I send my Angell before thee to keep thee in the way c. Exod. XXIII 20 and he shall clear the way before me this shall be in the gathering or restoring the captivity so as that they shall not find in their way any adversary or evil occurrent This Exposition of his appears not to have pleased Abarbinel by his taking no notice of it when yet of his Exposition of the other words he doth and by that he himself gives another far different from that or the others that have been mentioned w ch is That by this Messenger is meant the Prophet himself that here utters these words from God whose name is the same word here used viz. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Malachi and being interpreted signifies my Angell or my Messenger which cannot but seem strange to any that the Prophet speaking of things to come should be thought to prophesy of himself But to put the best color he can upon his opinion he would perswade men that Interpreters are out in interpreting these words wholly of the time to come but that they are to be understood partly of what was at present partly of what was to come partly of what was past of what was present Behold I send Malachi my Prophet of what was to come The Lord whom ye seek shall suddenly come viz. the Shecinah or majestatick glorious presence of what was past And the Messenger of the Covenant whom ye delight in viz. the King of Persia hath already come as if to stop their murmurings by reason of the prosperity of the wicked he had now sent the Prophet Malachi to tell them what punishment is determined for those wicked hereafter as in the following part of the Chapter he will shew and so to clear the way before him by solving their question Where is the God of Judgement And seeing they murmured because the Shecinah or glorious presence did not appear in the Temple they had now built in which were wanting the Shecinah and glory and fire from Heaven and answer by Vrim and Thummim which were in the former Temple and objected that Gods Providence was removed from them and all things were ill ordered therefore to assure them that the Shecinah should assuredly come again into the Temple that should hereafter be built he saith And the Lord whom ye seek shall suddenly come into
approved of such things or persons which he had formerly declared his dislike unto This while with them we look on as the import of the word here we cannot but wonder at the impudence and folly of that railing Jew Lipman who saith that Christians go contrary to the meaning of what is here said in affirming that God who before had not flesh and blood was changed to be flesh and blood or as another Copy hath it who was before only the Father and the Holy Spirit was afterward changed to be the Son In which objection of his is only much malice and impertinency inasmuch as by nothing that the Christians say nor by any consequence that can be drawn from what they say can it be concluded that they affirm any change or alteration in God or the Godhead with whom they profess to be no variableness neither shadow of changing either in his nature or any of his attributes all things remaining in him the eternal Trinity one God in three Persons as they were from eternity nor by Christs taking the Manhood into God was there any change of God into Man nor confusion of substance or alteration of person Again inasmuch as that he might pick a cavil against Christians he takes the word which here denotes Gods immutability in his Will Word Decree and purpose which with the Jews the Christians absolutely affirm as if it imported here immutability of nature or substance though that be most true also so that it is a cavil sought not offered to him either by the word as here used nor any thing by the Christians affirmed He had no occasion to say this but he having said it it was convenient to take some notice of it lest others of his Sect might applaud him in it and think to be true what he feigneth But of the concurrence of the other Jews in rendring the latter Verb in the same notion that our Translators do who render it are not consumed we take more notice because some learned Christians take it in another signification and would have it rendred And ye sons of Jacob do not desist or leave off to do evil so in Munster and the Tigurin Translations more lately And the Septuaginâ— of old seems so to have taken the word to signify reading this word with the two first of the following verse And ye sons of Jacob have not râ—câ—ded from the unjust dealings or wickedness of your Fathers as likewise the printed Arabick Version following that and the Syriack also And from the word in that notion rendred would flow a very convenient sense taking the whole verse as a confirmation of what is before said and that they certainly must expect that judgement denounced to come in its appointed time inasmuch as the Lord is unchangeable in his purpose of punishing incorrigible unrepenting sinners and they would not leave off their evil courses nor repent them of their sins nor desist from them But others and they the major part viz. all that follow the vulgar Latin and diverse others also of modern Interpreters prefer with the forementioned Jewish Writers the other notion of being consumed as more usual to the Verb in the Conjugation or form here used according to which our Translators render are not consumed but then in giving the meaning and connexion of the whole verse there is among those who embrace this signification of this word some difference Some taking it as speaking of the time past or present make the coherence with what goes before and the meaning to this purpose as may be collected out of them put together that doubtless it shall be so as he said he will come in judgement to those sinners For he the Lord who hath determined and pronounced that he will not leave impenitent sinners unpunished doth not change his will and purpose But how then is it that the Sons of Jacob whose Fathers and themselves have been great and obstinate sinners have not long since been or are not yet consumed It is from the same unchangeableness in God who as he is just so is likewise merciful and long suffering not willing the death of sinners but rather that they should come to repentance and therefore determined as to execute justice so not to be hasty in executing it but to give space for repentance that so the necessity and equity of his judgements executed on such as would not lay hold on his mercy by repentance while they had time allowed for it may appear and besides that he might shew how just he was in keeping promise and his Covenant made with their Forefathers Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in so long sparing for their sakes their rebellious posterity who would make no end of sinning So that it was not through any change in him that they have not yet been consumed but shall now be severely punished but from his mercy and their obstinacy opposing and rejecting it So that they cannot but say if they will rightly consider the matter it is of the Lords mercy that we are not consumed because his compassions fail not Great is thy faithfulness Lam. III. 22 23. This however they differ in expressions seems to be the scope that the most of Expositors will have these words to aim at There are that read them by way of interrogation or admiration For I the Lord change not and are not ye O Sons of Jacob consumed how wonderful a thing is it that the Lord being immutable in his judgement against refractory sinners they should not yet be consumed how hath mercy prevailed against judgement This falls in with what hath been already said and requires the same answer There may be proposed another way thus Expect certainly the execution of the judgement spoken of and that I will in due time call to an account sinners for I the Lord change not Of which that you may not doubt you have from a contrary effect and evidence of my immutability a proof for therefore ye Sons of Jacob are not consumed though the wicked have hitherto domineer'd and wickedness reigned yet you true Sons of Jacob that fear me as Jacob did have been preserv'd by virtue of my promise and mercy they have not been able to root you out But as we saw before that by a learned Jew it is noted that this Verb is to be rendred rather in the signification of the future and with respect to what was to come not to what was past or present so it is by some of good judgement and learning among Christians also taken that the words may be rendred Therefore or and ye Sons of Jacob shall not be consumed as part of the Prophecy of what should be to the godly when the Lord should come to execute his Judgement spoken of on the wicked and for making out the meaning to this purpose they understand by the Sons of Jacob the godly amongst the Jews they who being of the Faith of Jacob
place be understood the thing is known and manifest and therefore both Munster and the Tigurin Latin Version instead of what ours render neither shall your Vine cast her fruit before the time in the Field c. translate it neither shall he i. e. the devourer make your Vine barren or unfruitful to you in the Field and to that doth that Exposition of Abarbinel which we have seen seem to encline The Verb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Teshaccel is of that form as that it signifies sometimes to cause to make abortive to deprive of and the like in an active sense as Deut. XXXII 25 The sword c. shall destroy or bereave and Ezek XIV 15 If I cause noisom beasts to pass through the Land 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Veshiccelattah and they spoil it or bereave it And in the same sense Hos. IX 12 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Shiccaltim I will bereave them to omit other examples And sometimes again in an absolute sense viz. to be abortive to be deprived of or cast fruit before it be perfect as Gen. XXXI 31 Thy Ewes and thy she-Goats 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lo shiccelu have not cast their young or been abortive and Job XXI 10 Their Cow calveth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Velo teshaccel and casteth not her Calf Those therefore mentioned take the Verb in the former signification ours and most others both Jewish and Christian Expositors in the latter to which we the more incline because otherwise here will be a change of the Gender in the Verb speaking of the same thing for that in the word destroy is masculine but here is feminine so that they seem one to agree with the first Noun Locust which is of the masculine Gender and the other with Vine in the feminine however such change of Genders may be admitted and seeing though the Locusts destroy not the Vines yet there may be other means as Blasts or Blights and hurtfull Winds and like causes whether from within or without which may make them loose or cast their fruit before it comes to maturity even after a great shew and likelyhood of plenty from hurt by all such causes whether from such devouring creatures or any other means God here promiseth to secure them upon their turning to him and to give them both the encrease of the Earth and fruit of the Vine and so all necessary things in such plenty and perfection that all Nations seeing Gods great goodness shewed unto them shall call them blessed For ye saith he shall be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Erets chephets a delightsome Land or Land of delight or desire worthy to be desired saith the Vulgar i. e. as some will a Land that men would desire to live in So R. Tanchum a Land to be desired and chosen for its pleasantness and excellency to the same sense that it is said which is the glory of all Lands Ezek. XX. 6 15. Others with Abarbinel understand it a Land of desire or well pleasing to God i. e. such as he takes delight in and shews extraordinary respect and favour to both to the People and the Land as Aben Ezra as he saith elsewhere of Zion that she should be called Hephzibah Isa. LXII 4 i. e. my delight is in her because saith he the Lord delighteth in thee and the comparing that place with this seems to make for this Exposition and it will be well illustrated by what is said Deut. XI 12 a Land which the Lord thy God careth for or seeketh the eyes of the Lord thy God are alwaies upon it from the beginning of the year even unto the end of the year viz. to give it its rain in due season the first rain to make it spring up and the latter rain to bring it to perfection and so to preserve the fruits of the Earth that they might gather in their corn and their wine and their oyl v. 14. which is the same care and the same blessing that is here promised This Exposition the Syriack follows rendring it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ar'o detzebyoni A Land of my delight good will or pleasure i. e. to which I bear good will or have good liking to The Chalde likewise taketh it in rendring And all Nations shall praise you because you dwell in the Land of the House of my Majestatick presence and do therein my pleasure He suggests therein a double meaning or respect to the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chephets as first that they or their Land should be called a Land of delight or good will because God delighted to dwell in it and secondly because the Inhabitants thereof did the good pleasure of God and delighted to do his will and therefore he delighted in them and to do good to them as appeared by his extraordinary blessings poured out upon them more then on other People which they should all acknowledge and call them blessed for it so saith the Lord of Hosts of all the Hosts of Heaven and Earth who hath power and command of all and therefore so shall it certainly be as he saith 13 ¶ Your words have been stout against me saith the Lord yet ye say What have we spoken so much against thee 14 Ye have said It is vain to serve God and what profit is it that we have kept his ordinance and that we have walked mournfully before the Lord of hosts 15 And now we call the proud happy yea they that work wickedness are set up yea they that tempt God are even delivered 16 ¶ Then they that feared the Lord spake often one to another and the Lord hearkened and heard it and a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the Lord and that thought upon his Name Your words have been stout against me saith the Lord. These words may be coupled with the former as if they were a complaint of the Jews stubbornness that though God had reproved them for their sins such as have been expressed and by some judgements warned them of his displeasure for them and likewise had invited them to repentance and promised upon their repentance to remove those judgements and turn the curse with which he had cursed them into a blessing yet this was so far from working in them repentance that they grew more and more insolent and instead of acknowledging their faults and ill deserts proceeded in speaking against him and his justice as if he inflicted on them worse then they deserved not accepting of any service from them and mean while seemed to favor those that were notoriously wicked and tempted him and despised him and so set at nought what by the Prophets was spoken to them for their good Wherefore he proceeds farther to reprove them and mind them of the ill consequents of such their ill behavior which shall be occasion of more heavy judgements and final destruction as between this and the end of the Chapter he shews Or we need not
be sollicitous of the coherence of these words with those immediately preceding but may look upon them as a new reproof or at least a fresh resumed and on what follows as a beginning or continuation of a Prophecy for the time to come and of the terrible day of the Lord after the former words inserted for shewing them what was the cause of that judgement of famine at present upon them and by what means they might remove it for the fault here objected to them is much the same with that mentioned in the last verse of the foregoing Chapter However we make or judge of the coherence the meaning of the words in themselves will be the same your words have been stout against me stout and great or insolent words have ye spoken against me saith Abarbinel and that will be the sense however there be some little difference between Translators in expressing it For all look upon it to denote that their words were such as would be irksome grievous and burthensome to any man and overcome his patience by casting hard and odious things on him undeservedly and so God speaking in the language of men looks on them as to himself or that their words were more and more insolent against him Yet ye say wherein have we spoken so much against thee The words so much are supplied or added above what is in the letter of the Hebrew Text I suppose to express what some as namely Kimchi observe that the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nidbarnu being in a passive form though active signification implies more then in a simple active form so as to denote not only speaking but a continual reiterated or much and frequent speaking and so here doth the Chalde render wherein have we multiplyed speaking or spoken much against thee which way ours therefore take others seem not to lay any such weight upon it but simply render it what have we spoken against thee But generally they render it actively as it is elsewhere used as Ps. CXIX 23 Princes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Binidbaru spake against me and Ezek. XXXIII 30 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hannidbarim which ours render still talking against Yet here Abarbinel thinks it may be more conveniently taken for a Verb passive as well in signification as in form and be rendred what are we spoken of to thee what is said of us to thee or what are we reported by false accusers to have said aganst thee as men use to do when they are accused of some ill that they have spoken in secret to say to him that tells them of it what false report is this that hath been brought to you concerning us This way also Montanus commends though not mentioning whom he follows in it The words either way taken include a denial of the fact and shew their folly in thinking that God did not know what they thought and said in secret even in their hearts except they spake it openly and lowdly in the ears of all or else some to whom they spake it should report it to God He therefore to shew that he knew both what was in their mouths and hearts and to convince them of their guiltiness in that which he accuseth them of answers them by a particular declaration of what they said If ye say what have we spoken against thee it is this ye have said it is vain to serve God c. Ye have said so at least thought in your hearts which is all one with speaking in the ears of God It is vain to serve God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Shav abod Elohim The Greek and ancient Latin He is vain that serveth God as if they had read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Obed he that serveth for Abod to serve but I do not suppose them to have read so but only to have given the meaning as they thought convenient for it is all one to say It is in vain to do such a thing or He is vain that doth such a thing the meaning of both being It is to no purpose that he doth such a thing or he looseth his labor that doth it he gets nothing by it as the Chalde here paraphraseth it He gains nothing which serves the Lord. It is vain to wit to him that so doth though it may as some think be referred to him to whom it is done i. e. no profit to God if we serve him according to what is said Job XXXV 7 If thou be righteous what givest thou him or what receiveth he of thine hand but the former is the plainer The expression gives to suppose that they served God and this supposition the Syriack taking in renders In vain have we served God and so it well agrees with what follows and what profit is it that we have kept his Ordinance what Mammon or wealth have we gained saith the Chalde as if it were for Mammons sake only that they served God and so indeed not God at all but Mammon His Ordinance or as in the Margin his observation i. e. that we have observed those things that he hath commanded us to observe What advantage have we gained by it yea though we have walked mournfully or as the Margin hath it in black which is the habit of Mourners or as others with bowing down or the like submiss gesture before the Lord of Hosts and shewed in our behaviour all signs of penitence and awfull fear of him by mourning fasting and humbling our selves in contrition of spirit as the Chalde hath it before him and the like Which last words Abarbinel seems to expound otherwise viz. We have not only not gained any thing but withall have been forced to walk mournfully and afflictedly before the Lord i. e. because we have kept his Commandments But the former construction seems plainer in that the particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ci that or because with which the last foregoing member of the sentence is joyned with what goes before is here again repeated with a copulative conjunction that we have done that and that we have done this Their complaint according to him was that there was no profit in serving God either on Gods part or their own no advantage to either and therefore that it was a vain labour they were happier that saved themselves that trouble so it follows And now or now therefore we call the proud happy Proud insolent presumptuous men who will not be kept in by any bounds nor observe Gods Ordinances as we do nor walk humbly before him but transgress all Laws of Religion and Justice The same word used Psal. XIX 13 substantively is rendered prides or presumptuous sins but here adjectively presumptuous sinners Such we look upon to be in a condition more to be envied and desired then pityed or feared for inasmuch as they enjoy all worldly pleasures and prosperity nor are overtaken or as far as we can perceive like to be overtaken with
any punishment or mischief in their persons or any belonging to them yea so far is it from that that they that work wickedness set themselves purposely to do it are set up or built as the Margin hath it for so the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nibnu literally signifies i. e. are firmly established like a new building saith one not likely quickly to fall or decay They flourish in their offspring say others alluding to the name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ben son in respect to which the Verb that signifies building is used for to obtain children and so by ours rendred Gen. XVI 2 and XXX 3 i. e. they raise their houses and families as one paraphrases it here they are not cut off but leave a numerous posterity to keep up their name or generally they flourish and prosper more and more all things thrive and prosper with them yea farther yet they that set themselves so impudently to sin as to tempt God as if they did it on purpose to try and prove him whether he could or would punish sinners and to provoke and dare him to do his worst to execute judgement if he be a God of judgement even these are delivered and escape without any of those punishments in the Law or by the Prophets threatned against obstinate impenitent sinners These are the words or thoughts of those unsound ones in their Religion and unsincere in their practise who looking on what they saw at present and not on what should certainly in due time be made manifest for clearing Gods Justice and his perpetual love to good and hatred of evil did hence take occasion of questioning whether there were any just Judge or judgement and of repining and murmuring against Gods ordering of the affairs of men and so of contemning and setting at nought what was by the Prophets reprooving them for their sins and calling them to repentance for removing such judgements as were on them or preventing of others said unto them Who they were that said these words and when they said them and concerning whom is not particularly expressed R. Tanchum therefore as he did also c. 2.17 looks upon them as representing words which should in time to come be spoken by Israel in captivity such at least as if they did not speak or profess yet might seem to have occasion to do it And that they are here recited for reproof to them that should be impatient under the length of their captivity and forsake their Religion and speak thus in respect to what they should perceive of the prosperity of heathenish Nations notwithstanding their impiety to which is added in the following words a declaration that those that endure patiently and stick to the truth shall in the end be rewarded in the best manner as in the two following verses Then they that feared the Lord c. and then is added a mention likewise of the punishment of those that are not so affected and the punishment of the wicked injurious Nations also as he saith v. 18. and c. 4.1 then shall ye return and discern between the righteous and the wicked c. Behold the day cometh that shall burn as an oven c. But as to the former part of his words it cannot be made out of what is here spoken as neither out of the last verse of the second Chapter but is destructive to the right meaning of them The words being directed to them that were returned from the Babylonish captivity manifestly concern the behaviour of them now again settled in their Country which was not such as it ought to have been and therefore they are reproved for it that which is here objected to them appears to have been a sin of impatience and blasphemy against God and his Providence and Justice of which too many or most of them were guilty yet not all for while the discontented ones among them spake thus impiously of God and his Justice there were others that feared the Lord and spake among themselves otherwise as is manifest by the next words But he seems to mean it of the time of the captivity that they are now under and a future Judgement yet to come wherein he is manifestly wide of the matter and passing over the times of the Prophet and the present People of which he spake transfers the words to such times as they do not properly concern times now present and yet to come and taking no notice of that day of the Lord which was here prophesied of as then indeed to come but which is long since come would have another yet on earth to be expected if the Lord the Messiah whose coming was that day were not yet come which is the common error of the Jews which hath been already discovered and will in considering the following words be farther discovered if God permit As for what therefore is spoken by way of reproof and comfort it must be applyed to the right persons concerned therein which doubtless were in the first place those of that present time and then such as should succeed them betwixt that and the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans the completion of that day of the Lords coming both before ver 2. and after c. IV. 1 spoken of Those at that present for the most part of them murmured against Gods Justice in the manner here described yet then mean while as it follows in the next verse they that feared the Lord hearing what the Prophet said spake often one to another The word often is not expressed in the Hebrew and therefore the words are by others rendred only spake one to another But our Translators thought good to supply it as being included in the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nidbaru according to what we have seen to be observed by some of the force of the Verb in this form on ver 13. What they spake is not here expressed except we render it otherwise as some do spake one to another saying certainly God hearkneth and heareth c. as if the words following were those that they spake But this seems somewhat harsh in regard that the copulative and which is in the original in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vayaksheb and the Lord hearkned is wrested to another signification It is more easy to understand it thus to be meant that as the wicked spake much among themselves so these also did but contrary things they against Gods Justice these in vindication of it believing what the Prophet said and expecting the completion of it And what they said was not in vain to them for the Lord hearkned and heard it But before we proceed to those words we may here take notice that as Abarbinel as we shewed differs in the understanding of this word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nidbar in the 13. verse so here he goes much more wide from them taking it in clean another signification from that which he himself gave it
there and others both here and there give it For here he would have the words rendred as continued with the former and part of what those blasphemers before mentioned said viz. that then they that feared the Lord were destroyed from another signification that the same root hath and is used in as in other places according to him and some others So in II Chron. XXII 10 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vattedabber and she destroyed all the Seed Royal and from it is the Noun 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Deber which signifies the plague or such destructive sickness so that according to him the sense is that when the presumptuous sinners that work wickedness are set up and though they tempt God by exposing themselves to the greatest dangers are yet delivered then at that very time they that fear the Lord perish are cut off and destroyed one together with another 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 el to being here the same that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Im with or are by evil accidents intangling them made destructive and causes of perdition one to another as if the hand of God were upon them to confound and destroy them Thus far he would have the words of those that spake against Gods Justice to reach and then the following words the Lord hearkned c. to be an answer from the Prophet to them as if he should say to them Know and consider that to all this that you say God hearkneth and heareth it and that both the righteousness of the righteous and the wickedness of the wicked are as manifest before him as if all were written in a book of remembrance that it might remain many daies till the time of due recompence and reward c. And the same way of Exposition with him doth Arias Montanus follow and gives it as his own conjecture or opinion probably having seen Abarbinel else he would scarce have fallen in so fully with him here as he doth in many other places without mentioning him in Expositions singular to them and this he commends as most agreeable to the words but I see no reason to be of his opinion but choose rather to follow that interpretation which our Translation with the most both of Jews and Christians gives not making these first words a part of those stout words which the wicked spake against God but a declaration of the behaviour of those that feared God and the following of the good consequence thereon So R. D. Kimchi perspicuously expounds them and the following The former words were the saying of those who did not understand the waies of the Lord and his Judgements and when those that feared the Lord heard those words from those men who denyed the Providence of God over these things below they spake one with another and multiplyed or often repeated those words and argued the matter till they found by their understanding that all his waies are judgement that he is a God of truth and without iniquity And the Lord hearkned i. e. God blessed for ever attended to their words and gave them their reward for this And a book of remembrance was written before him a proverbial expression according to the language of men among whom Kings write a book of memorials for there is no forgetfulness with God according to what is said blot me out of thy Book Exod. XXXII 32 and every one that shall be found written in the book Dan. XII 2 These words of his we have set down at large because they give exactly that notion concerning the distinction of the words from the former and the signification of the Verb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nidbaru which our Translators choose to follow And it is that wherein most both Jewish and Christian Expositors do well agree as likewise in what is meant by what he saith and the Lord hearkned and heard it and a book of remembrance was written viz. that the Lord took due notice of what was said both by bad and good say some which though it be true that he doth so yet here more particularly it seems to be referred to the good and kept it in perpetual remembrance in the register of his memory if we may so speak as certainly as if it were written in a book according to the custome of men who note down in writing or cause to be registred such things as they would not forget but be sure to call to mind and shew that they took due notice of as meet occasion and opportunity should serve to reward those that had done them any service or deserved well or whom they had a mind to do good to Of Gods book and things being written in it there is we know often mention in the Scriptures besides those places which Kimchi recites both in the Old and New Testament and every where is much alike to be understood viz. that the things spoken of are as surely known and had in remembrance with him as if they were written down before him And so where the books are said to be opened it is the making manifest his knowledge of those things by his passing sentence on men accordingly for good or bad see Dan. VII 10 and Revel XX. 12 and Isa. LXV 6 The book of remembrance is here said to be written for them that feared the Lord and that thought upon his name viz. to give them assurance that their faithfulness to him however he did not presently reward them openly for it yet was duly taken notice of by him and in due time he would make it known by his distinguishing them from the wicked and his great care of them to preserve them from those heavy judgements and that destruction which should seize on the others as will appear in the following words But before we pass to them we may take notice of what is by some observed concerning the signification or force of that word which is rendred and that thought upon his Name viz. that it imports not a bare thinking of but a due esteem and awful regard of so as with all care to avoid all things that may tend to the dishonor of it constantly to endeavor so to walk as beseems such who profess to know God and to serve him as alwaies in his presence and with respect to him and fear of him Those saith Kimchi are meant who alwaies think of or meditate in the waies of the Lord and the knowledge of his God-head for his Name is himself and he himself is his Name Aben Ezra understands it of the wise in heart who know the secret or the mystery of the glorious awfull Name He seems to allude to what is said Psal. XXV 14 the secret of the Lord is with them that fear him R. Tanchum saith that the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Choshebe rendred that thought on imports or includes honoring and magnifying according to the use of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chashub for one in dignity and high
being pure and zealous of good works by being an holy Nation and so shewing forth the praises of him who hath called them out of darkness into his marvellous light By having these conditions in them must they approve themselves his special treasure Ordinary stones will not pass for Jewels with him nor rubbish and dirt for treasure in the day of tryal though till then they may not be perhaps discovered This distinction between the Jews here spoken to is said should be in the day which he should make or bring on them or the day wherein he should do what he determined to do or said he would do for both these senses are the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Asher ani Oseh capable of and so are by some in the one by others in the other way rendred all much to the same purpose In the day which I shall make or bring to pass so R. Tanchum and some in Vatablus and so the Greek In the day of Judgement wherein I shall execute judgement on the wicked saith Kimchi They shall be to me in the day wherein I do or make for a peculiar saith the Vulgar Latin not as the Doway Version renders in the day that I do to my peculiar The same way others take and that so those words should be rendred by themselves indefinitely viz. in the day which I make or shall make or wherein I do i. e. will certainly do And the word peculiar not governed of that just in place before it viz. do or make but be referred to the foregoing viz. they shall be to me may be confirmed by their coming again in the same manner c. IV. 3 in the day that I shall do or make without any thing added after it Yet doth the ancient Syriack Version make the last word to be governed of that immediatly preceding it as ours do though rendring that otherwise then ours viz. a congregation they shall be mine in the day when I shall make a congregation So the Latin Translator points it although possibly by otherwise distinguishing the words it might be rendred they shall be to me in the day which I make a congregation R. Salomo Jarchi seems to give an Exposition different from all these to this purpose In the day which I make a reserved treasure i. e. which I have treasured and laid up with me therein to perform or pay my recompence And if it were so understood the expression would agree with that Act. I. 7 wherein speaking of those times in which they expected that Christ should restore the Kingdom to Israel he calleth them times and seasons which God had put in his own power But whatever differences may be betwixt Expositors as to the rendring the words the day in them spoken of is still the same viz. the day of the Lords coming mentioned before in this Chapter in the second third and fifth verses and again in the following Chapter in the first second and third verses namely the day wherein God should execute his Judgements on the Nation of the Jews for working revenge upon his enemies and redemption to those that fear him and revere his Name Though such discrimination shall be fully made between all the godly and the wicked at Christs second coming the general day of Judgement to which therefore what is here spoken is by divers referred yet certainly here what is said respects more particularly the Nation of the Jews and the time of that nationall judgement denounced against them What hath been before said and what is here said and what shall be after said in this Prophecy will not be so properly applied and clearly understood by applying it to any other mean while may the words well be accommodated to any other People with whom it shall be so at any time as it was then with the Jews and whom God shall in like kind visit with a national judgement or excision what to them happened being to others for example and likewise to that great day of discrimination the day of the general judgement yea likewise to the day of death as for what concerns particular men but still those whom the words seem properly to concern as here spoken to and of are the Nation of the Jews then in being in their own Country a Nation separate from others and bearing then the name of the Lords People In that day when the Lord shall do such things he will shew by making a manifest difference who are his and who are not his his shall be separated from the rest as his own peculiar from such as he will not own nor regard and when he executeth judgement in fury on others he will spare them and keep them that those evils which destroy the wicked shall not touch them as a man spareth his own son that serveth him These words are a farther declaration of Gods exceeding great favor and compassion to those whom he would own and look on as his peculiar in terms of greatest elegance and height of expression The compassionate affection of a Father is great to any child though he be unprofitable to him yea hurtful to him how much more when he is profitable to him and honoreth him so notes R. Tanchum and to the same purpose Kimchi and other Expositors also There is another thing also here by some taken notice of in the expression which may well be added as making for the amplification of Gods goodness and the consolation of those that fear and honor him viz. that he saith he will spare them which imports that though there be found in them defects and they have done and spoken things that they ought not and which in rigor of Justice might deserve punishment yet as long as their hearts are right with him and they sincerely honour and obey him and have reverent thoughts of him he will forgive their transgressions and in great mercy save them when he will shew no mercy to the wicked but according to their deserts in severity deal with them 18 Then shall ye return and discern between the righteous and the wicked between him that serveth God and him that serveth him not Then shall ye return and discern between c. Then when that day shall come such an alteration of things shall there be that though you now think all things go alike to all or rather for the worse to those that most serve God yet then you shall change your minds and discern that God did alwaies observe the actions of men and put a difference between the righteous and the wicked those that served him and those that served him not though till now he did not make it so apparent to men of corrupt judgements Some difference here is betwixt Interpreters in rendring and expounding these words some following a reading that is in some Copies of the Vulgar Latin viz. convertimini and be converted or return give us to take it as an exhortation to
these wicked ones who spake blasphemously of Gods Justice to return and repent and then they should discern that distinction between the righteous and the wicked which they would not now perceive And with this reading the Tigurin Version also agrees so it will sound now therefore return c. to which will be reduced also that Exposition of Pelican If ye shall repent ye shall discern Others following another reading which some observe to be more correct and indeed comes closer to the Letter in the Original though that admit of both viz. convertemini and ye shall return or be converted understand it of the late and bootless repentance of those blasphemers or a conversion which they shall be forced to by what they shall then nill they will they necessarily discern and acknowledge of the different condition of those that serve God and those that serve him not With this rendring agree ours and they also who render then being converted or returning you shall discern A late very learned man would have it rendred and ye shall again see that the meaning may be Heretofore when I blessed my Church with prosperity then did appear a manifest difference betwixt the righteous and the unrighteous now because my whole Church is under affliction you deny that difference but I will make or bring againe a day wherein ye shall again perceive that difference Now all these look on the words as directed to the wicked who thought it vain to serve God as if he took no notice of what was done by men spoken to vers 13 14 15. There are who think they may be taken as directed to those that feared the Lord next before spoken of as if the meaning were that such a change of things should be that though now they could not perceive any difference betwixt themselves and the wicked yet then looking on what was come to pass they should evidently discern it and perceive Gods especial care over them and that so here is a change of the person which is not unfrequent in the Scriptures for whereas before they were spoken of in the third person they are here spoken to in the second But without nicer enquiry into the persons spoken to and the nature of the conversion or returning here mentioned of whom or whether true or false it may suffice as to the meaning to take the scope of the words to be as at first we intimated That such a conversion turning or change shall then in that day be in the face of things that all both the godly and the ungodly looking thereon shall necessarily see that there is no place for doubting of Gods Justice in his ordering of things for the punishment of the wicked and preservation of the righteous and that he alwaies doth put a distinction between them though to men judging by the present outward appearance of things it is not alwaies so apparent It shall be made beyond all doubt apparent in that day By this saith Vatablus he points out the future Resurrection and so think others as well Christians as Jews as expresly Abarbinel who therefore interprets this returning of the souls of men returning to their bodies at that day which the thing in it self is true as to a general distinction between all the righteous and all the wicked that ever were or shall be in this World At the resurrection of the dead and the general Judgement there shall be an apparent difference made between them and the one separated from the other though before in this World mingled one with another as when a Shepheard divideth his Sheep from the Goats Mat. XXV 32 and we willingly grant that the words point at that day so as to put us in mind of it and warn us to think thereon But we do not look on that as the primary and proper scope of this Prophecy but that it describes to us in the first place and as its main intent that national judgement which God threatned to the Jews and accordingly executed on them in this World shortly after the first coming of Christ or at his coming that word including all that time from his first preaching to the destruction of Jerusalem That was the day in which the distinction here spoken of was to be made and accordingly was signally made as hath been already said and will be in looking into the next Chapter wherein is both the certainty of the coming of that day and the nature or manner of it more fully declared and described in Prophetical expressions in finding the true meaning of which as well as of the present words as to the words and signification of them we may still make use of the Jewish Expositors but not as to the sense and intent For that day to be meant which we say agreeably to the words and history of the times also is meant they must by no means grant That those things belong to the time yet to come and are to be fulfilled either at a restauration of Israel and subduing their enemies at the coming of their fancied Messias which with much earnestness they long for or at the day of Judgement or to particulars at the day of death they will tell us but that they were fulfilled as manifestly they were at that long since past destruction of their Nation and holy City and Temple they must obstinatly deny or else they must grant and acknowledge as we do that Christ is already come in opposing and denying which the whole of their Religion now consists This therefore in their expounding this Prophecy are they silent of as if no such thing had been This here spoken saith Aben Ezra was spoken to the men of that generation because this is the end of all the Prophecies So say we too for after Malachi was no other Prophet sent to the Jews till John Baptist Christs forerunner and what is said therefore concerned them the People of the Jews then being and all their posterity till that time that this Prophecy was fulfilled as by succession still one People to warn them by repentance to prevent the judgement threatned and declared for that end to them by the great mercy and long suffering of God not willing that any should perish but all should come to repentance But seeing the generality of them would not be brought to repentance nor know the things belonging to their peace in that their day as Christ complains of them Luc. XIX 42 44. the judgment was so as here described then in Gods appointed time executed and such a distinction and discrimination as is here spoken of visibly to all the World made in the preservation of such among that People who feared God and beleived in Christ and the destruction of his enemies CHAP. IV. VERS 1. For behold the day cometh that shall burn as an oven and all the proud yea and all that do wickedly shall be stubble
out of Josephus's History of the Jewish War in the sixth Book according to the Greek division the seventh according to the Latin and Eusebius lib. 3. c. 5. as to the main and first part concerning the destruction of the City and those multitudes that were then there gathered together and perished and as to the gleanings of that day as we may call the following destructions of the Jews out of such other Historians as relate the great variety of miseries and calamities which one on the back of another befell them by their pride as it is here called and obstinate behaviour towards the Lord pulled on them If any have not opportunity of consulting those Histories he may without farther trouble find enough collected out of them by D r Hammond in his Annotations on the New Testament in which he applies several things which by reason of the dreadfull expressions in which they are set down or denounced are usually by Interpreters applied to the last general Judgement and destruction of the whole World particularly to this day of Jerusalem which we look on as here meant to shew that if what is here said in the highest language that a scene of horror may be represented by be applied to what was then really done there will be found no great hyperbole or figurative exceeding in it but rather a plain draught or description before hand according to which things were afterward acted By what hath been said appears what little reason there was to account the proud happy and those that work wickedness set up and that God delighted in them because at that time they were suffered to prosper but whether there were any profit in serving God and keeping his Ordinances and what should be done for them by which any might discern betwixt the righteous and the wicked that part of the question remains yet unanswered for if they perish with the wicked be involved in one common judgement with them what is their case yet better then theirs To this therefore a full answer follows in the next words 2 ¶ But unto you that fear my Name shall the sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings and ye shall go forth and grow up as calves of the stall But unto you that fear my Name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings c. In these words is safety and happiness assured to the righteous in the day that the wicked shall be miserably destroyed so that there shall be a manifest discrimination between them What S. Peter saith The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptation and to reserve the unjust unto the day of Judgement to be punished II Pet. II. 9 which he infers from two examples before given viz. his saving Noah when he brought in the Floud upon the World of the ungodly And his delivering just Lot when he turned the Cities of Sodom and Gomorrha into ashes and brought them to utter destruction by fire from Heaven ver 5 6 7. is here manifestly asserted in that the same day which shall come as a burning oven to the proud wicked ones to burn them up and destroy them shall be to those that fear the Name of the Lord as a glorious day wherein the benigne Sun shall arise with his best influences of comfort to them to cherish and refresh their drooping spirits It is well known that the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tsedakah here rendred righteousness is used to signify both justice or righteousness and also benignity or mercy and both significations will to this place well agree for that Salvation and comfort then to be reached forth to the righteous is a demonstration both of justice and mercy by it shall be declared the righteousness of God whose justice those wicked ones questioned saying where is the God of Judgement c. II. 17 in that he now rewardeth them for their obedience when he punisheth those that would not obey and by it also his mercy in sparing them though perhaps having many defects in them in that day of Judgment as a man spareth his own son that serveth him as he promiseth c. III. 17 And this would be a clear sense if we should no farther press the letter of the words then so by way of similitude to denote that the same time which should be to the wicked a day of utter destruction consuming them as fire should be by the justice and mercy of God to the godly as a fair day wherein the Sun doth kindly arise and benignly and largely impart his light as Drusius explains the expression for the comfort of men and other creatures a gracious and comfortable day a day of saving health to them so Kimchi not unaptly notes that the words import that they should be delivered from all evil and rejoyce with a good or glad heart But Interpreters think it not enough to stop here but farther enquire who is meant by this Sun and Christians generally agree that Christ who is Luke I. 78 called the day-spring or rising Sun is by this title meant and this day here spoken of being the day of his coming as it is c. III. 2 called he being entitled a Sun his coming in it may be well called his rising Why Christ may be so called many reasons may be and are brought by Interpreters But among them to our purpose in this place and according to our understanding of the time here spoken of the most agreeable will be because as by the Suns rising those things which before were covered in darkness are discovered and made apparent so by his coming in this manner both Gods justice and his mercy to them that feared his Name which before was not so discernible while he suffered them to be mixed with the wicked yea insulted over by them as if he did not own them more then others nor take any peculiar care of them so that they sate as it were in the shadow of death should now be made conspicuous to all in his freeing them from their oppressions delivering them from those judgements by which the wicked were destroyed and signally rewarding them for their obedience so that they that sate before in darkness now should see a great light and joyfully walk in it Such a difference should be in their condition from what it was before as that it might well be said The Sun of righteousness of justice and mercy was risen to them and that with healing in his wings i. e. his comfortable raies or beams as all agree by wings here to be meant The ordinary Sun kindly arising in the morning may at any time be said to bring healing in his wings to diffuse and communicate health by his raies both to men and other creatures which after his setting and in his absence all the night seem to droop languish to be sick and out of order and those that are so otherwise in that while to be more so Whence the
of the stall regarding more the sense then the word And however the words be here rendred according to any of those Interpretations that we have mentioned the scope will still be the same whether we follow those that render ye shall leap or those that render ye shall grow up be lusty or fat and strong like fatted Calves The scope will I say be still the same viz. to be a promise of great happiness and prosperity and security and occasion of joy and exultation to those spoken to that they shall not only find healing by the arising of the Sun of righteousness but also find occasion of delight and joy as a Talmudical Doctor expresses it And this prosperity and exultation so comparatively described do they that by the day here spoken of understand the day of Judgement and to concern all apply to the joy and happy condition which then the Saints shall be made partakers of but certainly that is such as neither eye hath seen nor ear hath heard nor can by the heart of man be conceived nor by any similitude taken from earthly enjoyments or any expressions of joy or alacrity in any Creature in this World be set forth This comparison may seem more to agree to something that shall in this life be enjoyed and so therefore do we apply it to denote the secure and happy condition which in that dreadful day of Jerusalem's destruction which by this day here we understand God would of his mercy place those that feared his Name and sincerely embraced Christs Doctrine in There is no doubt a promise to them of safety and deliverance in that dreadful day and that were great kindness from God to them and an evident sign of his love to them and providencial care over them if it were only so and they needed not any thing more for proof of it then their deliverance from so great and unavoidable destruction according to what he saith to Baruch Jerem. XLV 4 5. That which I have built will I break down and that which I have planted will I pluck up even this whole Land And seekest thou great things for thy self seek them not for behold I will bring evil upon all flesh saith the Lord but thy life will I give unto thee for a prey in all places whither thou goest as likewise to Ebed-melech he saith c. XXXIX 16 17 18. And had his promise now to those that feared his Name been only so far as that he would secure them and save their lives when so many perished this had been we say evidence enough of his peculiar love and fatherly compassion to them by which they might sufficiently discern between the righteous and the wicked between whom there appeared hitherto no difference in the common opinion but here is withall an evident promise of greater things of joy and prosperity and well being as well as being set out in this comparative expression But though righteousness hath the promise of the good things which respect this life as well as those which respect that which is to come of outward as well as inward good things yet considering the nature of Christs Kingdom and his promises we cannot but think respect to be had here also to that joy and comfort of spirit and peace of conscience which in the inward man they should find through the presence and assistance of the holy spirit the comforter by which they should have occasion according to our Saviors Precept to rejoyce and leap for joy whatever outward trouble they should find this inward joy should be so great as to express it self in vigor and alacrity of the outward man also as it seems here by this comparative expression intimated and what they now felt could not but be to them a pledge and certain token of finding the like deliverance in that last general Judgement also when they shall not be as Calves of the stall but as Angels their bodies being made like Christs glorious body and they by seeing God as he is be made like unto him and instated in all fulness of joy for ever without any mixture of sorrow though we do not with many look on that as the thing primarily here meant though put in mind of and given to look up to it but that liberty or happy condition which in and by that fearfull doom of the Jews w ch hitherto persecuted them they should be brought to And this is not only described by telling them in what happy plight and condition they shall be in themselves but amplified by declaring how it shall be with them in respect to the wicked who before Lorded it over them so as that now there shall be an evident discrimination between them compared one with the other That follows in the next verse 3 And ye shall tread down the wicked for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I shall do this saith the Lord of hosts And ye shall tread down the wicked for they shall be as ashes under the soles of your feet c. In the foregoing Chapter ver 15. the wicked are looked on by men judging according to the present face of things as happy men men set up and delivered to do all those abominations whereby they tempted God so that they thought it in vain to serve God no profit to keep his Ordinances or to walk mournfully before him but see in that day appointed by God for a discrimination between them what a strange alteration shall be They which before were kept under shall now tread down those that were so high and the proud ones being by that burning day brought to destruction be as ashes or dust under the soles of their feet whom they thought to trample on By this expression is manifestly set forth the difference which should then be made by God betwixt the wicked and the godly so as that the one should appear to be owned by him and by that means not only in a safe but in an happy and honorable condition the other rejected by him and given up to destruction and so in the vilest and lowest condition that any can be brought to which is expressed by comparing them to dust and ashes under the feet of others And it were sufficient thus much to understand by the phrase as a figurative expression concerning the difference of their conditions by which should be made good what is said c. III. v. 18. Then shall ye return and discern between the righteous and the wicked c. This is all that they who look on these words as describing the day of the last Judgement and what shall then be done when the just shall awake to everlasting life and the wicked to shame and everlasting contempt can require for the making good of the expression and as much also as understanding it of the day of his proceeding in judgment against the Jews at the destruction of Jerusalem we need
hearken they should inevitably pull on themselves destruction 4 ¶ Remember ye the law of Moses my servant which I commanded unto him in Horeb for all Israel with the statutes and judgements Remember ye the Law of Moses my servant c. Aben Ezra's Gloss on these words is not amiss Remember the Law of Moses c. i. e. saith he keep or observe it for it will teach you the way of the fear of the Lord and so when the mentioned day shall come ye shall be delivered But the other Jews go wider as by considering their words we shall perceive Abarbinel thus gives the coherence of these words with the former Forasmuch as the worship or service of God which should bring them to that last true reward at the Resurrection was the worship according to the Law and Commandments and that great rebellion which should bring to that punishment which he mentions is the omission or rejection of the Law therefore he subjoyns to this which he hath said Remember the Law of Moses my servant to declare to them that by means of that they should attain to the reward and true prosperity That in which he errs in this Exposition is in that he refers what is here spoken to the day of the Resurrection which belongs to that day of Jerusalems Visitation the evil of which that they might prevent or in it find deliverance he commends to them the remembrance and observance in the mean while of the Law of Moses as a faithful rule seeing they should after this have no more Prophets to direct them till his sending to them Elias at the approach of that day Much in like kind errs R. Tanchum viz. in mis-timing the things spoken of saying That this was given as a Precept to those of the Captivity he commanding it to Israel by the hand of this Prophet because after him Prophecy should cease from among them by reason of the obscurity of the Captivity and the meaning saith he is that he that would attain to the happiness spoken of and deliverance from punishment ought necessarily to obey the commands of the Law continued or delivered down among them In which Exposition he passeth over the time to which properly belonged what is spoken viz. that between this Prophecy and the coming of the Eliah here meant wherein Prophecy as he observes should and did cease among them and so the coming of that day of Judgement and discrimination to fasten it on times w ch did not begin till after the completion of this Prophecy according to its proper and primary meaning viz. since the destruction of Jerusalem David Kimchi is not content to run on in the like error but strives to justify it by accusing Christians of error in misinterpreting the words his Exposition runs thus He saith untill the day of Judgement come remember ye in every generation the Law of Moses my Servant to do all or according to all that is written in it Which I commanded unto him in Horeb i. e. as I commanded him in Horeb not according to the words of the Christians which say that it was given for a time according to the literal sense but an Interpreter Jesus came and interpreted it spiritually this Text is an answer to them His meaning seems this That here is a command that till the last day of Judgement they should precisely keep the Law of Moses according to all that was written in it and according to the letter of what was written just as it was given to him and from him to them and that therefore the words refute the Christians who say that the Law was to endure but for a time according to the literal meaning of it but that the literall meaning was to yeild to a spiritual meaning according to which Christ interpreted it But we say that this man frames an argument on false grounds and that the text makes not against us as he would have it and hath in it an answer to and refutation of them not of us who embrace them both according to the letter from which he departs and the true meaning of them which he perverts First in that he saith that here is a command that they should remember the Law of Moses in every generation untill the day of the last Judgement If he mean as manifestly he doth the day of the last Judgement it is manifest that what is spoken hath not primarily respect to that but to that day of Gods National Judgement to be executed on the Jews continuing in obstinate rebellion against him that was the day of the Lord in this Chapter of this Prophecy and the foregoing properly spoken of as we have shewed though so described as to represent to us and necessarily to put us in mind of the last general Judgement too Besides the words are indefinitly spoken without referring to any set time if we will enquire till what time they may seem to bind that will most conveniently be answered to from the next following words viz. till he send Eliah the Prophet before the coming of the day of the Lord warning that till his coming they should look to the Law of Moses as their Director So that hence is no evident ground from which to conclude the perpetuity of the Law against such as should deny it That it should last in force till that day is as much as can from these words be concluded and that which our Saviour saith The Law and the Prophets were untill John since that time the Kingdome of God is preached Luke XVI 16 Farther in that he saith according to all that is written in it and as I commanded him in Horeb meaning that every thing in the Law was just as it is written in it and every thing punctually in that manner and according to the letter as it was commanded is his gloss whereas in the Text it is only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which I commanded and not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as which though in it self it may seem to make no great difference yet according to his meaning it manifestly doth according to what he adds not according to what the Christians say that it i. e. the Law was given for a time only to be observed according to the letter as it sounds but that Jesus came and interpreted it spiritually and so hereafter it were to be observed or understood according to that spiritual and not its literal meaning For answer to all this we might bid him only to clear himself by answering to what is said Jer. XXXI 31 32. Behold the daies come saith the Lord that I will make a new Covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah not according to the Covenant which I made with their Fathers c. whence we may conclude with the Apostle Heb. VIII 8 that in that he saith a new Covenant it is manifest that the first was to be made old that the new might take place
But to deal more distinctly with him in that he finds fault with the words of the Christians let him take from Christ himself what they say think not that I am come to destroy the Law and the Prophets I am not come to destroy but to fulfill For verily I say unto you till Heaven and Earth pass one jot or one title shall in no wise pass from the Law till all be fulfilled Mat. V. 17 18. What is here spoken any way derogatoty to the Law of Moses is not here the perpetuity of the Law as plainly asserted as the Rabbin himself could assert it but then his gloss 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all just as it is written is not to be admitted as if every thing were still so to be observed as at first it was and just as it was given to Moses as if all things in it were of like moment and equally essential for in it were diverse things which were to be fulfilled and being fulfilled could require no farther observance such were those ceremonious parts of it which were types and shadows and could not but by the coming of the substance which was Christ have an end put to them and necessarily be done away not by being mean while violated but completed The other more substantial parts viz. the moral precepts are so far from being abrogated by him as that being purged from all those corrupt glosses and Traditions of the Jews by which they were almost made void and of none effect they have not only their true meaning and extent given them but are backt and confirmed anew by his authority and commended to the perpetual observance of all his followers And for what he looks on as a fault to be objected that we affirm that Christ interpreted the Law spiritually as if it were no more literally to be understood I know not what he would make to be the force of his objection but to conclude against themselves that they are carnal and so would not have any thing of the Law so understood as to cross their carnal minds or to require any more then the carnal performances of the outward man which to think appears to have been from of old their error and such as they are willing still to continue in For the Law is spiritual Rom. VII 14 and alwaies so was that which made it not to be so understood and not to have answerable effects was the carnality of men not the fault of the Law If Christ vindicated it from the wrong by them done to it by their gross and false understandings and require the obedience of the inward as well as outward man shall that be accounted an injury to it or a destroying of it if he mean that we say that the former types and shadows directed to more then was by them outwardly performed and that what was by them really meant was by and in him completed and fulfilled in a more excellent manner when he appeared to put away sin by the Sacrifice of Himself and so to make all other Sacrifices useless and by the sprinkling of his Blood to put an end to such other carnal ordinances as were imposed on them till the time of reformation only if I say by what he calls interpreting the law spiritually he means any of these things he speaks of that which was a restoring the Law to its true meaning and a perfecting not a violating of it so that in these words is no answer as he tells us it is against any thing that Christians say but they shew of him and those of his Religion that they themselves do not duly remember the Law of Moses which God commanded by him nor consider or understand aright what that commanded them If they would duly look into it and apply the Prophecies thereof to what they concerned and the types thereof to what was signified by them they could not but perceive that by them they were directed to Christ and belief in him against whom they now urge them This were sufficient for answer to him even the bare setting down the words of Christ and his Apostles which shew that they taught nothing derogatory to the Law of Moses or by which they might be thought to violate any command given either here or elsewhere for due observance of it if there were here any occasion given to him of cavilling in that kind against them but we look on this which by occasion of his objection we have hitherto said as a mere digression there being however he hath sought occasion no occasion as we have already intimated by the words rightly understood given to him as will appear by the scope of them duly considered which we may in brief thus summe up The Lord having by this Prophet reprooved the Jews for many sins both by the Priests and People committed wherein they shewed great contempt or neglect of the Law by Moses given unto them for which he delayed yet to punish them or did but lightly punish them giving them time to repent and for that they for the generality or most of them took thence occasion rather to applaud themselves in their wicked courses then to repent of them and to speak stout words against him as if he delighted in sinners and their waies and were not a God of Judgement nor had respect to them that served him and therefore it were in vain to serve him and having told them that he would in due time make it manifest that he took all the while due notice of what they wickedly did and said and would for that end send both his Messenger to prepare the way before him and the Lord the Messenger of the Covenant who should bring all their doings to an exact trial and so he would come near to them in Judgement and bring on them such a day of discrimination betwixt the righteous and the wicked wherein the wicked among them should be utterly destroyed and the godly who hitherto seemed to be neglected find Salvation and deliverance and to move them therefore to repentance having described the terror of that day doth here as it were warn them that if this would not move them they should not as they had hitherto had have any more Prophets to call on them but be left only to that Law which they had hitherto so much neglected for their Director which was indeed a sufficient Director to them and had they duly hearkned to it as they ought they had not hitherto had such need of other Prophets to call upon them and mind them of their duty But now seeing he hath resolved to send them no more in that kind till he send his Messenger whom he calls Eliah to prepare the way before him at the approach of that great day of discrimination which he hath threatned he urgeth on them a due remembrance of that Law and serious heed and observance of all commanded in it as the only way whereby to prepare them for
may be added to what hath been said that which Simeon said unto Mary when she presented Jesus in the Temple concerning him Behold this Child is set for the fall and rising againe of many in Israel Luke II. 34 that is as it is well and appositly to our purpose paraphrased by the learned D r Hammond is appointed by God to be a means of bringing punishment and ruine upon all obdurate impenitents and on the other side to redeem restore and recover those that will be wrought upon by him He that was a chief corner stone elect and precious precious indeed to those that believed was at once unto the disobedient a stone of stumbling and a rock of offence I Pet. II. 6 7 8. such a stone as whosoever should fall on should be broken but on whomsoever it should fall it should grind him to powder Mat. XXI 44 and whereas they urge in confirmation of their opinion that Christ at his first coming came not to judge but to be judged not to destroy but to save we may oppose what he saith Joh. IX 39 for judgement am I come into this World so as to shew that that cannot be so understood as to contradict this And that place of Joh. XII 47 where he saith he came not to judge the World may as D r Hammond observes be well understood that he came not to accuse but certain it is that the Father committed all Judgement to the Son and gave him authority to execute Judgement Joh. V. 22 27. and that as he came for Judgement into the World so he did execute it being come both by his preaching while he was among men laying the axe to the root of the tree and severely putting home the blow at the signal destruction of the unbelieving obstinate Jews in few years after his departure out of the World when they who before refused to be judged by him and to be convinced by his preaching of their evil waies and to repent of them that so judging themselves they might have prevented the farther judgement of the Lord and thought to prevent that by judging him and crucifying him did by their obstinacy pull it on themselves and felt the sad effects in so dreadful a manner in that particular Judgement on that Nation that nothing but that fearful perdition of the whole World expected at the last day can be imagined more terrible so that that destruction of theirs being comprehended under the day of his first coming in the way that we have said makes it deservedly called the great and dreadfull day of the Lord as well as the last day of his coming to the generall Judgement may be so called And whereas as they say that the day of his first coming is called an acceptable day a day of Salvation it is to be considered to whom it was so viz. to such as received him with good will as a Savior believed in him and obeyed him but to others it was far otherwise a day burning as an oven to destroy them In like manner also may that day of the future Judgement be termed and shall be to the righteous a day of Salvation a welcome day a day longed for by them and in respect to the certain expectation of which they hold up their heads against all the pressures and persecutions which from ungodly men they suffer before hand and are by the Apostle bid to comfort one another with those words I Thessal IV. 18 so that in these Epithetes here put to the day here spoken of there is nothing which maketh why it may not be attributed as well to the one as to the other to that of Christs first coming as that of his second and the other circumstances make it evident that it ought to be understood primarily here of the first however appliable to the second In the Prophet Joel c. II. 31 we read of a day of the Lord described in the very same terms and concerning the day designed thereby is much the like difference of opinions as here But S. Peter in Acts II. 20 manifestly interprets that also of the day of Christs first coming and so from all which hath been said we conclude that by the great and dreadfull day before the coming of which the Lord bids them here take notice that he will send Elijah the Prophet is to be understood the day of Christs first coming which includes his coming in Judgement particularly against the Nation of the Jews and ended in the destruction of the unbelievers amongst them and of their City before which John the Baptist designed here by the name and title of Elijah the Prophet was according to this Prophecy sent and not of his coming to execute the general Judgement on the whole World at the day of doom which shall end in the destruction of the whole farther then as this was a type of that before which that he will send an harbinger as he did before this is but the conjecture of those that affirm it and that for which there is not from these words any evident proof That which hath made me so long to insist on the clearing of this Exposition even to tediousness is because the expounding the words otherwise and as of a thing yet to come would be to give up to the Jews an argument which ought not to be given up to them For if it be granted to them that Elijah in person be to be expected before the coming of Christ here spoken of and that the day here spoken of be not yet come they will think they have reason to say as they obstinately do that the true Messiah is not yet come and yet to expect another Christ as well as another Messenger whereas if it be made evident as we suppose it is that that Elijah here foretold of is already come and the day here meant also come they can have nothing more but mere obstinacy to pretend why they should not believe in Christ and forsake that error received from their Fathers Farther arguments for confirming what we have said the following words also afford as we shall see in taking them in their order before we pass to which we may take notice of the Greek rendring the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hannora which other Translations render terrible dreadfull or awfull by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as likewise in Joel II. 11 38 illustrious or notable as ours translate Act. II. 20 where that second place of Joel is cited which hath made some to think that they read in the Copy that they followed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hannirâ—ah from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to see whereas 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yare to fear but another learned man is so far from their opinion as that he thinks that the Greek word mentioned is not there to be taken in its ordinary signification of illustrious or notable but rather for terrible
so far as that we cannot but look on him as the person here designed and have not reason to expect any other for making good as we have before said this here spoken What this last Rabbin adds They that will not be warned by his admonition shall be consumed and perish in the wilderness of the People or at the day of Judgement in the Land of Israel doth only shew that he knew not well what to say as to the curse or destruction here spoken of when or how it should be not willing to understand it of that destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans on their rejecting both John's and Christs admonitions which it is as we have before shewed evidently meant of He knows not on what to fix and so speaks at random that which signifies nothing and leaves the Reader in a maze But if it be applied to that all will run clear not so if to any other For against that which as we have seen many concurre in that it should be meant of the day of doome at Christs last coming to judge the World the form of the expression as is by some observed affords an evident argument lest I come saith the Lord and smite c. that shews that this judgement might by their repentance and conversion be prevented which is confirmed by what our Saviour saith Matt. XXIII 37 38. and Luke XIII 34 35. that therefore their house was left unto them desolate because they would not be gathered when he would have gathered them nor be brought to repentance by his call and that all those evils and a terrible destruction came upon them because they would not know the things that belonged to their peace nor the day of their visitation when they were told of them both by John and himself Luke XIX 42 and 44. But that general Judgement is a day that cannot by any means be prevented but shall in Gods appointed time certainly come so that lest I come cannot be applied to that For certainly he will come without any peradventure As for the explication of the word earth viz. that by it is here meant the Land of Judea the People spoken to and of and not the whole Earth in general is evident That it is in that restrained signification for the Land of Israel and Judea peculiarly often used both in the Old and New Testament is a thing so confessed as that there is no need farther to insist on it Abarbinel seeming to take it more generally thence infers That the destruction that is here spoken of should be of things generable and corruptible such as are on the Earth not of the Heavens and the Hosts thereof or things therein so as it was at the universal Deluge when God destroyed every living substance In summe all only that was in this lower World What he aims at in this inference he doth not farther explain if he would have it that at the end of the World only the Earth and the things that are therein should be destroyed we have to oppose against him that constantly professed truth that as well the Heavens as the Earth are reserved unto fire against the day of Judgement as S. Peter speaks II Pet. III. 7 and shall be dissolved therewith but otherwise if there be weight in his way of argument it will make for our purpose viz. that the day here spoken of is not that day of the last Judgement because it is a day of such destruction as was to be executed on Earth only and therefore in this World viz. as we have all along said the destruction of Jerusalem By the earth or land will easily be understood by a most usual notion Ahlol ardi the People of the Earth or inhabitants of the Land as an Arabick Translation done by a Jew hath it together with the Land it self They that expound it earthly minded men such as follow earthly things and will not make use of the time of grace and embrace Gods Salvation offered to them say what is true but seem not to give the full latitude of the word Such of the People only were destroyed and those that turned to God were saved yet for the sake of the many obstinate rebels was the Land together destroyed and made desolate As for the last word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cherem which is rendred a curse it may be likewise as it is by several rendred destruction or utter destruction So R. Tanchum saith he means an universal destruction according to the sense of the verb in that place Num. XXI 2 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 veheeharamti then I will utterly destroy their Cities and so do our Translators in Zacch XIV 11 render the same word that they render here a curse by utter destruction and the same verbe that Num. XXI 2 they render I will utterly destroy do they render Micah IV. 13 I will consecrate and Levit. XXVII 28 29. the nown the same that is here used is rendred a devoted thing and Deut. VII 26 a cursed thing So that looking into the Scriptures we shall find the root of this word to have these significations of cutting off or destroying and cursing and consecrating to omit another notion in which it signifieth a net The prime signification seems to be that of cutting off or destroying which appears in the other two in that of cursing which is a devoting to destruction manifestly and not obscurely in that other of devoting or consecrating inasmuch as that is a cutting off as it were and taking out of the way from common use that which is so devoted In this place it is manifest that they that render it curse mean the same with those that render it destruction not such a lighter curse for correction as is spoken of ch III. 9 but a curse ending in a final excision and utter destruction For what is here meant by what is threatned the event and manner in which it was fulfilled on them to whom it was spoken makes evident The generality of the Jews having rejected the admonitions of John Baptist who was sent to warn them to flee from the wrath to come by embracing Christ and his doctrine whom they not only refused but procured to be crucified and pulled on themselves a curse by saying his blood be on us and on our childhen God seconded it with his curse and sent on them that curse which ended in that fearfull destruction of them and their Land from which they could never recover and which makes undeniably manifest to all the World that this Prophecy had its full accomplishment in them and in vain do they seek to elude it Thus here ends this Prophecy in the Hebrew Bibles and all that follow them but in many Copies of the Greek the verses are so transplaced as that the fourth verse being taken out of its place is put after this viz. Remember the Law of Moses c. and so made to conclude
yet of another of like signification in matter of wedlock that which according to the simplest exposition of the words is by Abimelech said Gen. XX. 16 That Abraham was to Sarah his wife a covering of the eies i. e. saith the Chalde a covering of honor And by like reason that the husband may be said to be to the wife a covering of the eies to keep her from looking after others or others from looking after her may the wife be said to be to the husband a covering of the eies to keep him from looking after any woman but her If this be not enough to prove such accommodation to man and wife of words signifying covering or garment in the language of those times yet if one Eastern language may serve for illustrating and giving testimony to the expressions of another of so nigh affinity to it that they may be accounted almost one and one but a dialect of the other as the Arabick is to the Hebrew so esteemed by the Jewish Writers and therefore usually had recourse to for finding out the use and signification of Hebrew words where any doubt or difficulty occurs then here will the Arabick Tongue help us and teach us to pronounce boldly of such words as signify a garment or covering that they are applied to signify man or wife respectively So saith a learned Grammarian that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hollah which signifies an upper garment or robe is used to denote a wife and so likewise 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lebas which answers to the Hebrew word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lebush here used to denote either the husband or wife respectively and he cites a testimony out of the Alcoran it self wherein he that compiled it endeavors very often to imitate Scripture expressions as if God should say to the men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Honna lebas lacom waantom lebas lahonna they i. e. your wives are a garment to you and you are a garment to them And why might not this figurative signification also be allowed anciently to this and like words in the Hebrew Tongue from which the Arabick might borrow it And if by his garment here be understood his wife 't will easily be thought that by violence or wrong may be denoted another strange wife with open injury taken in with or above her The name proper for such a superinducted wife is in the same Arabick language of nigh signification to it which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Darrah which as other Nouns from the same root signifies hurt affliction oppression force and the like as also in the Hebrew Tongue in which such a wife is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tsarah one that afflicteth is enemy to or doth injure and oppress the other Whence in the Law is forbidden to take one wife to another 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Litzror to vex her Levit. XVIII 18 Now that the Noun signifying violence or wrong or oppression should in the abstract be taken for one that doth violence or wrong is no marvel it being very usual to put Nouns signifying goodness or badness or the like in the abstract for such as are eminent in those kinds good or bad profitable or hurtfull and so violence for a wife that will certainly do wrong or violence or by taking of which violence or wrong is necessarily done to the former wife with more reason I suppose though much the like then some by violence take to be meant the former wife violently retained and not dismissed that she might be married by another And if garment may be used for a wife then the Verb signifying to cover or put on a garment as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cissah here may by the same reason be well used for the taking a wife And these things being allowed as I know not why they should not be as to the signification of the words then will the meaning which we have given be plain as to the reading of the foregoing words which is the Text of our Translation For the Lord saith he hateth putting away and for a man to take a strange a wrongfull injurious wife above or with his lawfull former wife For the Particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Al is noted to signify as well 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 im i. e. with as over or above the sense will be all one and as to the marginal reading it will well agree with that also thus If he hate her let him put her away he may have some color from the permission of the Law so to do but he doth not that but retaining her though he hates her takes over her or together with her another strange idolatrous injurious wife which is a greater wrong and violence offered to her or but by him another wrongfull wife is taken with or above his former legal wife to fit it to that construction violence covereth c. Another meaning might be according to the same notion given agreeable to that construction let him put her away and cover the wrong towards or against his wife called his garment viz. by a Bill of Divorce so that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Al may signify towards or against The same meaning will be easily applied to such other rendrings as are given and warranted by the scope of the place as coming fully home to it which from the 10t h verse to these inclusively is a reproof of the Jews of that time for their injury done to their lawfull Israelitish wives by either illegally putting them away that they might take the daughters of a strange God or else if they did retain them yet secretly hating them and taking in above them such strange idolatrous wives whom with manifest injury to their former they did shew more affection to and make as it were Mistresses over them And this the Jews think to be all that is meant accounting both divorce and taking more Israelitish wives not to be for all that is said any way prohibited or displeasing to God But to us learning from Christ the true import of the Scriptures it will be more absolutely a prohibition from God both of the one and the other viz. both Divorce and Polygamy which having shewed how hatefull it is to him he concludes with a repetition of his injunction or Caveat given in the foregoing verse Therefore take heed to your spirit that you deal not treacherously take heed to your selves as you love your souls and the preservation of your spirits that ye offend not by indulging to your unbridled lusts in either of these kinds and prevaricate against the sacred tie of Wedlock by God instituted for the joining one to one in an indissoluble knot of affection in legal manner And this till some plainer way be shewn we embrace as the fullest and properest meaning of this verse it being agreeable both to the construction and signification of the words and manifest scope of the place 17 ¶ Ye