they had wanted, not to right them if they were wronged, had been crime enough in men that had wealth and power; but to rob them because on the side of the oppressors there was power, and the oppressed had no comforter, (Eccl. iv. 1.) is such a piece of barbarity, as one would think, none could ever be guilty of, that had either the nature of a man, or the name of an Israelite.
2. A challenge given them with all their pride and power to outface the judgments of God; (v. 3.) "What will ye do! To whom will ye flee? You can trample upon the widows and fatherless; but what will ye do wlien God riseth up?" Job xxxi. 14. Great men, who tyrannize over the poor, think they shall never be called to account for it, shall never hear of it again, or fare the worse for it; but shall not God visit for these things? Jer. v. 29. Will there not come a desolation upon those that have made others desolate? Perhaps it may come from far, and therefore may be long in coming; but it will come at last; reprieves are not pardons; and, coming from far, from a quarter whence it was least expected, it will be the greater surprise, and the more terrible. Now what will then become of these unrighteous judges? Now they see their help in the gate, Job xxxi. 21. But to whom will they then flee for help? Note, (1.) There is a day of visitation coming, a day of inquiry and discovery, a searching day, which will bring to light, to a true light, every man, and every man's work. (2.) The day of visitation will be a day of desolation to all wicked people, when all their comforts and hopes will be lost and gone, and buried in ruin, and themselves left desolate. (3.) Impenitent sinners will be utterly at a loss, and will not know what to do in the day of visitation and desolation. They cannot fly and hide themselves, cannot fight it out and defend themselves; they have no refuge in which either to shelter themselves from the present evil, (To whom will ye flee for help?) or to secure to themselves better times hereafter; "Where will you leave your glory, to find it again when the storm is over?" The wealth they had got was their glory, and they had no place of safety in which to deposit that, but they should certainly see it flee away. If our souls be our glory, as they ought to be, and we make them our chief care, we know where to leave them, and into whose hands to commit them, even those of a faithful Creator. (4.) It concerns us all seriously to consider what we shall do in the day of visitation, in a day of affliction, in the day of death and judgment, and to provide that we may do well.
3. Sentence passed upon them, by which they are doomed, some to imprisonment and captivity; They shall bow down among the prisoners, or under them: those that were most highly elevated in sin, shall be most heavily loaded, and most deeply sunk in trouble; others to death, they shall fall first, and so shall fall under the rest of the slain; they that had trampled upon the widows and fatherless, shall themselves be trodden down: (v. 4.) "This it will come to," says God, "without me; because you have deserted me, and driven me away from you." Nothing but utter ruin can be expected by those that live without God in the world; that cast him behind their back, and so cast themselves out of his protection.
And yet, for all this, his anger is not turned away; which intimates not only that God will proceed in his controversy with them, but that they shall be in a continual dread of it; they shall, to their unspeakable terror, see his hand still stretched out against them, and there shall remain nothing but a fearful looking-for of judgment.
5. O Assyrian, the rod of mine anger, and the staff in their hand is mine indignation. 6. I will send him against a hypocritical nation, and against the people of my wrath will I give him a charge, to take the spoil, and to take the prey, and to tread them down like the mire of the streets. 7. Howbeit he meaneth not so, neither doth his heart think so; but it is in his heart to destroy and cut off nations not a few. 8. For he saith, Are not my princes altogether kings? 9. Is not Calno as Carchemish? is not Hamath as Arpad? is not Samaria as Damascus? 10. As my hand hath found the kingdoms of the idols, and whose graven images did excel them of Jerusalem and of Samaria; 11. Shall I not, as I have done unto Samaria and her idols, so do to Jerusalem and her idols? 12. Wherefore it shall come to pass, that, when the Lord hath performed his whole work upon mount Zion and on Jerusalem, I will punish the fruit of the stout heart of the king of Assyria, and the glory of his high looks. 13. For he saith, By the strength of my hand I have done it, and by my wisdom; for I am prudent: and I have removed the bounds of the people, and have robbed their treasures, and I have put down the inhabitants like a valiant man: 14. And my hand hath found, as a nest, the riches of the people: and as one gathereth eggs that are left, have I gathered all the earth; and there was none that moved the wing, or opened the mouth, or peeped. 15. Shall the axe boast itself against him that heweth therewith? or shall the saw magnify itself against him that shaketh it? as if the rod should shake itself against them that lift it up, or as if the staff should lift up itself, as if it were no wood. 16. Therefore shall the Lord, the Lord of hosts, send among his fat ones leanness; and under his glory he shall kindle a burning like the burning of a fire. 17. And the light of Israel shall be for a fire, and his Holy One for a flame: and it shall burn and devour his thorns and his briers in one day; 18. And shall consume the glory of his forest, and of his fruitful field, both soul and body: and they shall be as when a standard-bearer fainteth. 19. And the rest of the trees of his forest shall be few, that a child may write them.
The destruction of the kingdom of Israel by Shalmaneser, king of Assyria, was foretold in the foregoing chapter, and it had its accomplishment in the sixth year of Hezekiah, 2 Kings xviii. 10. It was total and final, head and tail were all cut off. Now the correction of the kingdom of Judah by Sennacherib, king of Assyria, is foretold in this chapter; and this prediction was fulfilled in the fourteenth year of Hezekiah, when that potent prince, encouraged by the successes of his predecessor against the ten tribes, came up against all the fenced cities of Judah, and took them, and
