31 fury and pleafure, as a lion devours his prey. O generation, fee ye the word of the LORD; confider it and apply your hearts to it. Have I been a wilderness unto Ifrael? a land of darknefs? wherefore fay my people, We are lords; we are an independent people; we will come no more unto thee; we can fave ourselves, we have no need 32 of thee. Can a maid forget her ornaments, [or] a bride her attire? yet my people have forgotten me days without number; they have renounced their relation 33 to me, which was their greatest glory. Why trimmeft thou thy way to feek love, like a lewd woman, who by gay drefs and artful looks endeavours to inveigle others? therefore haft thou alfo taught the wicked ones thy ways, and been an example of heinous wickedness to others. 34 Alfo in thy fkirts is found the blood of the fouls of the poor innocents: I have not found it by secret search, but upon all thefe; in every part of the land the murder of your children is as plain, as if your garments were fprinkled with their blood; by which means murder is fometimes difcovered. 35 Yet thou fayeft, Because I am innocent, furely his anger shall turn from me. Behold, I will plead with thee, because thou fayeft, I have not finned, and prove. 36 the contrary. Why gaddeft thou about fo much to change thy way, flying from one alliance to another? a plain proof that you have forfaken me: thou alfo fhalt be afhamed of Egypt, as thou waft afhamed of Affyria. 37 Yea, thou shalt go forth from him, or from hence, that is, from thy own country, and thine hands upon thine head, as mourners, and in token of thy extreme grief: for the LORD hath rejected thy confidences, and thou fhalt not prosper in them. CHAP. III. They fay, it is a known, adjudged cafe, If a man put away his wife, and fhe go from him, and become another man's, fhall he return unto her again? fhall not that land be greatly polluted by fuch deteftable practices? but thou haft played the harlot with many lovers, by thine alliances with idolaters; yet return again to me, faith the LORD, and I will receive thee into favour. 2 Lift up thine eyes unto the high places, and fee where thou haft not been lien with. In the ways haft thou fat for them, them, as the Arabian in the wilderness, that waits for the caravans to buy goods; thou hast been no more afhamed to fit by the way fide as a prostitute, than a merchant is to deal with his customers; and thou haft polluted the land 3 with thy whoredoms and with thy wickedness. Therefore the fhowers have been withholden, and there hath been no latter rain; and thou hadft a whore's forehead, thou refufedft to be ashamed. Wilt thou not from this time cry unto me, My father, thou [art] the guide of my youth? and return to God, as thy husband, before thou are quite ruined? wilt thou not from this time do it, when thou art fo graciously invited, and there are so many threat5 enings of fad judgments if thou continueft obftinate? Will he reserve [his anger] for ever? will he keep [it] to the end? Behold, thou haft fpoken and done evil things as thou couldft. 4 1. REFLECTION S. O W vain are all the attempts of finners to justify themselves in an evil way! They, like Ifrael, are fond of doing it; they deny the fact, plead innocence, and fay they are not polluted. Yet all their iniquity is marked before God; their fecret fins are in the light of his countenance; and when he comes to plead with them, and fet his law and their fins in order before them, they will be overwhelmed with fhame and confufion. May we learn to guard against felf-deceit. We cannot plead innocence nor vindicate our conduct; therefore we should humbly and thankfully fubmit to the terms of the gospel. 2. They who forfake the fervice of God, change for the worfe; change their God, for those which are no gods; their glory, for that which is their fhame and reproach; like an untractable beaft, that forfaking a good master, is exposed to want and ruin. But men do not confider what their fins will bring them to at laft. God is not a wildernefs to his people; his fervice is both pleasant and profitable; Thefe are words put into their mouth wherewith to approach God; yet there was little hope of their ufing them, because they had shown all hatred to God and goodness. able, but if we defert it, we run into fhame, mifery, and ruin; and their cafe will be the worst of all, who do this after they have promised that they will not tranfgrefs. 3. The vanity and infufficiency of earthly things will abundantly appear in the day of trouble. Men will not hearken in the day of profperity; but when fickness and death come upon them, their spirits will be tamed. They now reject reproof, and scorn advice; but when distress and anguifh come upon them, where are their gods, their honours, and gay friends and companions? let them arife, and fave them, if they can, in times of trouble; but here they will find disappointment. The Lord hath rejected fuch confidences, and men can never profper in them. But if we make God our hope and portion, and his fervice our business, we may cheerfully fay to him, in our time of trouble, Arife, and fave us; and he will be our refuge and ftrength. 4. How kind is God to invite finners to return, and put proper words and encouragements into their mouths. Tho' a man will not receive an adulterous wife, yet God invites finners to return to him. He will not referve his anger for ever, because he delighteth in mercy. Let rebellious children return to him as their father from this time, when he again invites them; and he will have compaffion upon them, will fubdue their iniquities, and cast all their fins into the depth of the fea. CHAP. III. 6, to the end. CHAP, IV. 1-3. In order to understand this part of the prophecy, we must remember, that it refers to the time of Jofiah, a very zealous reformer: the people were not hearty in his reformation; they only complied with it externally, and after his death relapsed into idolatry. 6 T HE LORD faid also unto me in the days of Jofiah the king, Haft thou feen [that] which backfliding Ifrael hath done? fhe is gone up upon every high mountain and under every green tree, and there hath 7 hath played the harlot. And I faid by the prophets, after she had done all thefe [things,] Turn thou unto me. But fhe returned not. And her treacherous fifter Judah 8 faw [it.] And I saw, when for all the caufes whereby backfliding Ifrael committed adultery I had put her away, and given her a bill of divorce, that is, diffolved the fpiritual relation between us; and he was carried captive; yet her treacherous fifter Judah feared not, but 9 went and played the harlot alfo. And it came to pass through the lightness of her whoredom, that fhe defiled the land, and committed adultery with ftones and with 10 ftocks. And yet for all this, her treacherous fifter Judah hath not turned unto me with her whole heart, 11 but feignedly, faith the LORD. And the LORD faid unto me, The backfliding Ifrael hath juftified herself more than treacherous Judah; Ifrael is lefs guilty than Judah, because Judah did not take warning. 12 Go and proclaim these words toward the north, where the ten tribes were carried captive, and fay, Return, thou backfliding Ifrael, faith the LORD; [and] I will not cause mine anger to fall, or continue, upon you: for I [am] merciful, faith the LORD, [and] I will not keep 13 [anger] for ever. Only acknowledge thine iniquity, confefs it, and be truly penitent for it, that thou haft tranfgreffed against the LORD thy God, and haft fcattered thy ways to the ftrangers under every green tree, run up and down to the gods of neighbouring nations, and 14 ye have not obeyed my voice, faith the LORD. Turn, O backfliding children, faith the LORD; for I am married unto you: and I will take you one of a city, and two of a family, and I will bring you to Zion; ye fhall be reftored again; and tho' but few fhall come, yet those 15 shall not be overlooked: And I will give you pastors according to mine heart, which fhall feed you with knowledge and understanding, and no more entice you to idolatry. 16 And it fhall come to pafs, when ye be multiplied and increased in the land, in those days, faith the Lord, they shall fay no more, The ark of the covenant of the LORD: neither fhall it come to mind: neither shall they remember it; neither fhall they vifit [it;] neither fhall 17 fhall [that]-be done any more. At that time they fhall call Jerufalem, The throne of the LORD; God will give them evident proofs of his fpiritual refidence among them, and his regard to them as their king; and all the nations fhall be gathered unto it, to the name of the LORD, to Jerufalem: neither shall they walk any more after the 18 imagination of their evil heart. In thofe days the houfe of Judah fhall walk with the house of Ifrael, and they shall come together out of the land of the north to the land that I have given for an inheritance unto your fathers; many of the Ifraelites fhall return with the 19 jews to Canaan. But I faid, How fhall I put thee among the children, there must be a great change in you before I can do this, and give thee a pleasant land, a goodly heritage of the hofts of nations; or, a land which the nations defire, for they envy you this land, and defire to poffefs it? and I faid, Thou shalt call me, My father; and shalt not turn away from me; I will bestow upon thee a filial frame of heart toward me; thou shalt return to me as thy father, and continue faithful to me; then I will bestow these favours upon you. 20 Surely [as] a wife treacherously departeth from her hufband; fo have ye dealt treacherously with me, O 21 houfe of Ifrael, faith the LORD. A voice was heard upon the high places, weeping [and] fupplications of the children of Ifrael, repenting and afking mercy: for, or because, they have perverted their way, [and] they 22 have forgotten the LORD their God. Return, ye backfliding children, [and] I will heal your backflidings. This is God's invitation: to which they reply, Behold, we come unto thee, for thou [art] the LORD our God, and wilt heal and comfort our hearts, which are wounded with 23 grief and forrow. Truly in vain [is falvation hoped for] from the hills, (and from] the multitude of mountains; from idols, or any foreign alliances; it is in vain to go up to the mountains to look if they are coming: truly in the LORD f This seems to refer to the gospel, and to intimate the abolition of jewish ceremonies, tho' perhaps the ark never was in the fecond temple, at least there was no Shekinah, and fome fuppofe there is a reference to that. |