In
this chapter, I. The prophet complains to God of the violence done by the
abuse of the sword of justice among his own people and the hardships thereby
put upon many good people, ver. 1-4. II. God by him foretels the punishment
of that abuse of power by the sword of war, and the desolations which the
army of the Chaldeans should make upon them, ver. 5-11. III. Then the
prophet complains of that too, and is grieved that the Chaldeans prevail so
far (ver. 12-17), so that he scarcely knows which is more to be lamented,
the sin or the punishment of it, for in both many harmless good people are
very great sufferers. It is well that there is a day of judgment, and a
future state, before us, in which it shall be eternally well with all the
righteous, and with them only, and ill with all the wicked, and them only;
so the present seeming disorders of Providence shall be set to rights, and
there will remain no matter of complaint whatsoever.
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The
Sins of the People.
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B.
C. 600.
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1 The burden which Habakkuk the prophet did
see. 2 O LORD,
how long shall I cry, and thou wilt not hear! even cry out unto thee of
violence, and thou wilt not save! 3 Why dost thou shew me
iniquity, and cause me to behold grievance? for spoiling and violence
are before me: and there are that raise up strife and
contention. 4 Therefore the law is slacked, and judgment doth
never go forth: for the wicked doth compass about the righteous; therefore
wrong judgment proceedeth.
We are told no more in the title of this book (which we have, v. 1)
than that the penman was a prophet, a man divinely inspired and
commissioned, which is enough (if that be so, we need not ask concerning his
tribe or family, or the place of his birth), and that the book itself is the
burden which he saw; he was as sure of the truth of it as if he
had seen it with his bodily eyes already accomplished. Here, in these
verses, the prophet sadly laments the iniquity of the times, as one sensibly
touched with grief for the lamentable decay of religion and righteousness.
It is a very melancholy complaint which he here makes to God, 1. That no man
could call what he had his own; but, in defiance of the most sacred laws of
property and equity, he that had power on his side had what he had a mind
to, though he had no right on his side: The land was full of violence,
as the old world was, Gen. vi. 11. The prophet cries out of violence
(v. 2), iniquity and grievance, spoil and violence.
In families and among relations, in neighbour-hoods and among friends, in
commerce and in courts of law, every thing was carried with a high hand, and
no man made any scruple of doing wrong to his neighbour, so that he could
but make a good hand of it for himself. It does not appear that the prophet
himself had any great wrong done him (in losing times it fared best with
those that had nothing to lose), but it grieved him to see other people
wronged, and he could not but mingle his tears with those of the oppressed.
Note, Doing wrong to harmless people, as it is an iniquity in itself, so it
is a great grievance to all that are concerned for God's Jerusalem, who sigh
and cry for abominations of this kind. He complains (v. 4) that the
wicked doth compass about the righteous. One honest man, one honest
cause, shall have enemies besetting it on every side; many wicked men, in
confederacy against it, run it down; nay, one wicked man (for it is
singular) with so many various arts of mischief sets upon a righteous man,
that he perfectly besets him. 2. That the kingdom was broken into parties
and factions that were continually biting and devouring one another. This is
a lamentation to all the sons of peace: There are that raise up strife
and contention (v. 3), that foment divisions, widen breaches,
incense men against one another, and sow discord among brethren, by doing
the work of him that is the accuser of the brethren. Strifes and contentions
that have been laid asleep, and begun to be forgotten, they awake, and
industriously raise up again, and blow up the sparks that were hidden under
the embers. And, if blessed are the peace-makers, cursed are such
peace-breakers, that make parties, and so make mischief that spreads
further, and lasts longer, than they can imagine. It is sad to see bad men
warming their hands at those flames which are devouring all that is good in
a nation, and stirring up the fire too. 3. That the torrent of violence and
strife ran so strongly as to bid defiance to the restraints and regulations
of laws and the administration of justice, v. 4. Because God did not
appear against them, nobody else would; therefore the law is slacked,
is silent; it breathes not; its pulse beats not (so, it is said, the
word signifies); it intermits, and judgment does not go forth as it
should; no cognizance is taken of those crimes, no justice done upon the
criminals; nay, wrong judgment proceeds; if appeals be made to the
courts of equity, the righteous shall be condemned and the wicked justified,
so that the remedy proves the worst disease. The legislative power takes no
care to supply the deficiencies of the law for the obviating of those
growing threatening mischiefs; the executive power takes no care to answer
the good intentions of the laws that are made; the stream of justice is
dried up by violence, and has not its free course. 4. That all this was open
and public, and impudently avowed; it was barefaced. The prophet complains
that this iniquity was shown him; he beheld it which way soever he
turned his eyes, nor could he look off it: Spoiling and violence are
before me. Note, The abounding of wickedness in a nation is a very great
eye-sore to good people, and, if they did not see it, they could not believe
it to be so bad as it is. Solomon often complains of the vexation of this
kind which he saw under the sun; and the prophet would therefore
gladly turn hermit, that he might not see it, Jer. ix. 2. But then we
must needs go out of the world, which there-fore we should long
to do, that we may remove to that world where holiness and love reign
eternally, and no spoiling and violence shall be before us. 5. That he
complained of this to God, but could not obtain a redress of those
grievances: "Lord," says he, "why dost thou show me
iniquity? Why hast thou cast my lot in a time and place when and where
it is to be seen, and why do I continue to sojourn in Mesech and Kedar?
I cry to thee of this violence; I cry aloud; I have cried long; but thou
wilt not hear, thou wilt not save; thou dost not take vengeance on the
oppressors, nor do justice to the oppressed, as if thy arm were shortened or
thy ear heavy." When God seems to connive at the wickedness of the
wicked, nay, and to countenance it, by suffering them to prosper in their
wickedness, it shocks the faith of good men, and proves a sore temptation to
them to say, We have cleansed our hearts in vain (Ps. lxxiii. 13),
and hardens those in their impiety who say, God has forsaken the earth.
We must not think it strange if wickedness be suffered to prevail far and
prosper long. God has reasons, and we are sure they are good reasons, both
for the reprieves of bad men and the rebukes of good men; and therefore,
though we plead with him, and humbly expostulate concerning his judgments,
yet we must say, "He is wise, and righteous, and good, in all,"
and must believe the day will come, though it may be long deferred, when the
cry of sin will be heard against those that do wrong and the cry of prayer
for those that suffer it.
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Judgment
Predicted.
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B.
C. 600.
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5 Behold ye among the heathen, and regard,
and wonder marvellously: for I will work a work in your days, which
ye will not believe, though it be told you. 6 For, lo, I
raise up the Chaldeans, that bitter and hasty nation, which shall
march through the breadth of the land, to possess the dwelling-places that
are not theirs. 7 They are terrible and dreadful:
their judgment and their dignity shall proceed of themselves. 8
Their horses also are swifter than the leopards, and are more fierce than
the evening wolves: and their horsemen shall spread themselves, and their
horsemen shall come from far; they shall fly as the eagle that
hasteth to eat. 9 They shall come all for violence: their faces
shall sup up as the east wind, and they shall gather the captivity as
the sand. 10 And they shall scoff at the kings, and the princes
shall be a scorn unto them: they shall deride every strong hold; for they
shall heap dust, and take it. 11 Then shall his mind
change, and he shall pass over, and offend, imputing this his power
unto his god.
We have here an answer to the prophet's complaint, giving him assurance
that, though God bore long, he would not bear always with this provoking
people; for the day of vengeance was in his heart, and he must tell them so,
that they might by repentance and reformation turn away the judgment they
were threatened with.
I. The preamble to the sentence is very awful (v. 5): Behold, you
among the heathen, and regard. Since they will not be brought to
repentance by the long-suffering of God, he will take another course with
them. No resentments are so keen, so deep, as those of abused patience. The
Lord will inflict upon them, 1. A public punishment, which shall be beheld
and regarded among the heathen, which the neighbouring nations shall take
notice of and stand amazed at; see Deut. xxix. 24, 25. This will aggravate
the desolations of Israel, that they will thereby be made a spectacle to the
world. 2. An amazing punishment, so strange and surprising, and so much out
of the common road of Providence, that it shall not be paralleled among the
heathen, shall be sorer and heavier than what God has usually inflicted upon
the nations that know him not; nay, it shall not be credited even by those
that had the prediction of it from God before it comes, or the report of it
from those that were eye-witnesses of it when it comes: You will not
believe it, though it be told you; it will be thought incredible that so
many judgments should combine in one, and every circumstance so strangely
concur to enforce and aggravate it, that so great and potent a nation should
be so reduced and broken, and that God should deal so severely with a people
that had been taken into the bond of the covenant and that he had done so
much for. The punishment of God's professing people cannot but be the
astonishment of all about them. 3. A speedy punishment: "I will work
a work in your days, now quickly; this generation shall not pass till
the judgment threatened be accomplished. The sins of former days shall be
reckoned for in your days; for now the measure of the iniquity is
full," Mt. xxiii. 36. 4. It shall be a punishment in which much of the
hand of God shall appear; it shall be a work of his own working, so that all
who see it shall say, This is the Lord's doing; and it will be found
a fearful thing to fall into his hands; woe to those whom he takes to task!
5. It shall be such a punishment as will typify the destruction to be
brought upon the despisers of Christ and his gospel, for to that these words
are applied Acts xiii. 41, Behold, you despisers, and wonder, and perish.
The ruin of Jerusalem by the Chaldeans for their idolatry was a figure of
their ruin by the Romans for rejecting Christ and his gospel, and it is a
very marvellous thing, and almost incredible. Is there not a strange
punishment to the workers of iniquity?
II. The sentence itself is very dreadful and particular (v. 6): Lo,
I raise up the Chaldeans. There were those that raised up a great deal
of strife and contention among them, which was their sin; and now God will
raise up the Chaldeans against them, who shall strive and contend with them,
which shall be their punishment. Note, When God's professing people quarrel
among themselves, snarl at, and devour one another, it is just with God to
bring the common enemy upon them, that shall make peace by making a
universal devastation. The contending parties in Jerusalem were inveterate
one against another, when the Romans came and took away their place and
nation. The Chaldeans shall be the instruments of the destruction
threatened, and, though themselves acting unrighteously, they shall execute
the righteousness of the Lord and punish the unrighteousness of Israel.
Now, here we have,
1. A description of the people that shall be raised up against Israel, to be
a scourge to them. (1.) They are a bitter and hasty nation, cruel and
fierce, and what they do is done with violence and fury; they are
precipitate in their counsels, vehement in their passions, and push on with
resolution in their enterprises; they show no mercy and they spare no pains.
Miserable is the case of those that are given up into the hand of these
cruel ones. (2.) They are strong, and therefore formidable, and such as
there is no standing before, and yet no fleeing from (v. 7): They
are terrible and dreadful, famed for the gallant troops they bring into
the field (v. 8); their horses are swifter than leopards to
charge and pursue, and more fierce than the evening wolves;
and wolves are observed to be the most ravenous towards the evening, after
they have been kept hungry all day, waiting for that darkness under the
protection of which all the beasts of the forest creep forth, Ps. civ.
20. Their squadrons of horse shall be very numerous: "Their
horse-men shall spread themselves a great way, for they shall come
from far, from all parts of their own country, and shall be dispersed
into all parts of the country they invade, to plunder it, and enrich
themselves with the spoil of it. And, in making speed to spoil, they
shall hasten to the prey (as those, Isa. viii. 1, margin), for
they shall fly as the eagle towards the earth when she hastens to
eat and strikes at the prey she has an eye upon." (3.) Their own
will is a law to them, and, in the fierceness of their pursuits, they will
not be governed by any laws of humanity, equity, or honour: Their
judgment and their dignity shall proceed of themselves, v. 7.
Appetite and passion rule them, and not reason nor conscience. Their
principle is, Quicquid libet, licet--My will is my law. And, Sic
volo, sic jubeo; stat pro ratione voluntas--This is my wish, this is my
command; it shall be done because I choose it. What favour can be hoped
for from such an enemy? Note, Those who have been unjust and unmerciful,
among whom the law is slacked, and judgment doth not go forth, will
justly be paid in their own coin and fall into the hands of those who will
deal unjustly and unmercifully with them.
2. A prophecy of the terrible execution that shall be made by this terrible
nation: They shall march through the breadth of the earth (so it may
be read); for in a little time the Chaldean forces subdued all the nations
in those parts, so that they seemed to have conquered the world; they
overran Asia and part of Africa. Or, through the breadth of the land
of Israel, which was wholly laid waste by them. It is here foretold, (1.)
That they shall seize all as their own that they can lay their hands on.
They shall come to possess the dwelling-places that are not theirs,
which they have no right to, but that which their sword gives them. (2.)
That they shall push on the war with all possible vigour: They shall all
come for violence (v. 9), not to determine any disputed right by
the sword, but, right or wrong, to enrich themselves with the spoil. Their
faces shall sup up as the east wind; their very countenances shall be so
fierce and frightful that a look will serve to make them masters of all they
have a mind to; so that they shall swallow up all, as the east wind
nips and blasts the buds and flowers. Their faces shall look towards the
east (so some read it); they shall still have an eye to their own
country, which lay eastward from Judea, and all the spoil they seize they
shall remit thither. (3.) That they shall take a vast number of prisoners,
and send them into Babylon: They shall gather the captivity as the sand
for multitude, and shall never know when they have enough, as long as there
are any more to be had. (4.) That they shall make nothing of the opposition
that is given to them, v. 10. Do the distressed Jews depend upon
their great men to make a stand, and with their wisdom and courage to give
check to the victorious arms of the Chaldeans? Alas! they will make nothing
of them. They shall scoff (he shall, so it is in the original,
meaning Nebuchadnezzar, who being puffed up with his successes, shall scoff)
at the kings and commanders of the forces that think to make head
against him; and the princes shall be a scorn to them, so unequal a
match shall they appear to be. Do they depend upon their garrisons and
fortified towns? He shall deride every stronghold, for to him it
shall be weak, and he shall heap dust, and take it; a little soil,
thrown up for ramparts, shall serve to give him all the advantage against
them that he can desire; he shall make but a jest of them, and a sport of
taking them. (5.) By all this he shall be puffed up with an intolerable
pride, which shall be his destruction (v. 11): Then shall his mind
change for the worse. The spirit both of the people and of the king
shall grow more haughty and insolent. Those that will not be content with
their own rights will not be content when they have made themselves masters
of other people's rights too; but as the condition rises the mind rises too.
This victorious king shall pass over all the bounds of reason,
equity, and modesty, and break through all their bonds, and thereby he
shall offend, shall make God his enemy, and so prepare ruin for himself
by imputing this his power to his god, whereas he had it from the God
of Israel. Bel and Nebo were the gods of the Chaldeans, and to
them they gave the glory of their successes; they were hardened in their
idolatry, and blasphemously argued that because they had conquered Israel
their gods were too strong for the God of Israel. Note, It is a great
offence (and the common offence of proud people) to take that glory to
ourselves, or to give it to gods of our own making, which is due to the
living and true God only. These closing words of the sentence give a glimpse
of comfort to the afflicted people of God; it is to be hoped that they will
change their minds, and grow better, and ripen for deliverance; and they did
so. However, their enemies will change their minds, and grow worse, and
ripen for destruction, which will inevitably come in God's due time; for a
haughty spirit, lifted up against God, goes before a fall.
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The
Prophet's Plea; The Prophet's Complaint.
B. C. 600.
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12 Art thou not from everlasting, O LORD
my God, mine Holy One? we shall not die. O LORD,
thou hast ordained them for judgment; and, O mighty God, thou hast
established them for correction. 13 Thou art of purer
eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity: wherefore lookest
thou upon them that deal treacherously, and holdest thy tongue when
the wicked devoureth the man that is more righteous than he?
14 And makest men as the fishes of the sea, as the creeping things, that
have no ruler over them? 15 They take up all of them with
the angle, they catch them in their net, and gather them in their drag:
therefore they rejoice and are glad. 16 Therefore they sacrifice
unto their net, and burn incense unto their drag; because by them their
portion is fat, and their meat plenteous. 17 Shall they
therefore empty their net, and not spare continually to slay the nations?
The prophet, having received of the Lord that which he was to deliver to the
people, now turns to God, and again addresses himself to him for the ease of
his own mind under the burden which he saw. And still he is full of
complaints. If he look about him, he sees nothing but violence done by
Israel; if he look before him, he sees nothing but violence done against
Israel; and it is hard to say which is the more melancholy sight. His
thoughts of both he pours out before the Lord. It is our duty to be affected
both with the iniquities and with the calamities of the church of God and of
the times and places wherein we live; but we must take heed lest we grow
peevish in our resentments, and carry them too far, so as to entertain any
hard thoughts of God, or lose the comfort of our communion with him. The
world is bad, and always was so, and will be so; it is out of our power to
mend it; but we are sure that God governs the world, and will bring glory to
himself out of all, and therefore we must resolve to make the best of it,
must be ourselves better, and long for the better world. The prospect of the
prevalence of the Chaldeans drives the prophet to his knees, and he takes
the liberty to plead with God concerning it. In his plea we may observe,
I. The truths which he lays down, which he resolves to abide by, and with
which he endeavours to comfort himself and his friends, under the growing
threatening power of the Chaldeans; and they will furnish us with pleasing
considerations for our support in the like case.
1. However it be, yet God is the Lord our God, and our Holy One.
The victorious Chaldeans impute their power to their idols, but we are
taught to tell them that the God of Israel is the true God, the living
God, Jer. x. 10, 11. (1.) He is Jehovah, the fountain of all
being, power, and perfection. Our rock is not as theirs. (2.)
"He is my God." He speaks in the people's name; every
Israelite may say, "He is mine. Though we are thus sore broken,
and all this has come upon us, yet have we not forgotten the name of our
God, nor quitted our relation to him, yet have we not disowned him, nor
hath he disowned us, Ps. xliv. 17. We are an offending people; he is an
offended God; yet he is ours, and we will not entertain any hard thoughts of
him, nor of his service, for all this." (3.) "He is my Holy
One." This intimates that the prophet loved God as a holy God,
loved him for the sake of his holiness. "He is mine because he
is a Holy One; and therefore he will be my sanctifier and my
Saviour, because he is my Holy One. Men are unholy, but my God is
holy."
2. Our God is from everlasting. This he pleads with him: Art thou not
from everlasting, O Lord my God? It is matter of great and continual
comfort to God's people, under the troubles of this present life, that their
God is from everlasting. This intimates, (1.) The eternity of his nature; if
he is from everlasting, he will be to everlasting, and we must have recourse
to this first principle, when things seen, which are temporal, are
discouraging, that we have hope and help sufficient in a god that is not
seen, that is eternal. "Art thou not from everlasting, and then wilt
thou not make bare thy everlasting arm, in pursuance of thy everlasting
counsels, to make unto thyself an everlasting name?" (2.) The antiquity
of his covenant: "Art thou not from of old, a God in covenant
with thy people" (so some understand it), "and hast thou not done
great things for them in the days of old, which we have heard with
our ears, and which our fathers have told us of; and art thou not the same
God still that thou ever wast? Thou art God, and changest not."
3. While the world stands God will have a church in it. Thou art from
everlasting, and then we shall not die. The Israel of God shall not
be extirpated, nor the name of Israel blotted out, though it may sometimes
seem to be very near it; like the apostles (2 Cor. vi. 9), chastened, and
not killed; chastened sorely, but not delivered over to death, Ps.
cxviii. 18. See how the prophet infers the perpetuity of the church from the
eternity of God; for Christ has said, Because I live, and therefore
as long as I live, you shall live also, John xiv. 19. He is the rock
on which the church is so firmly built that the gates of hell shall not,
cannot, prevail against it. We shall not die.
4. Whatever the enemies of the church may do against her, it is according to
the counsel of God, and is designed and directed for wise and holy ends: Thou
hast ordained them; thou hast established them. It was God that gave the
Chaldeans their power, made them a formidable people, and in his counsel
determined what they should do, nor had they any power against his Israel
but what was given them from above. He gave them their commission to
take the spoil and to take the prey, Isa. x. 6. Herein God appears a
mighty God, that the power of mighty men is derived from him, depends upon
him, and is under his check; he says concerning it, Hitherto shall it
come, and no further. Those whom God ordains shall do no more than what
God has ordained, which is a great comfort to God's suffering people. Men
are God's hand, the rod in his hand, Ps. xvii. 14. And he has ordained
them for judgment, and for correction. God's people need
correction, and deserve it; they must expect it; they shall have it; when
wicked men are let loose against them, it is not for their destruction, that
they may be ruined, but for their correction, that they may be reformed;
they are not intended for a sword, to cut them off, but for a rod, to drive
out the foolishness that is found in their hearts, though they mean not
so, neither does their heart think so, Isa. x. 7. Note, It is matter of
great comfort to us, in reference to the troubles and afflictions of the
church, that, whatever mischief men design to them, God designs to bring
good out of them, and we are sure that his counsel shall stand.
5. Though the wickedness of the wicked may prosper for a while, yet God is a
holy God, and does not approve of that wickedness (v. 13): Thou
art of purer eyes than to behold evil. The prophet, observing how very
vicious and impious the Chaldeans were, and yet what great success they had
against God's Israel, found a temptation arising from it to say that it was
vain to serve God, and that it was indifferent to him what men were. But he
soon suppresses the thought, by having recourse to his first principle, That
God is not, that he cannot be, the author or patron of sin; as he cannot do
iniquity himself, so he is of purer eyes than to behold it with any
allowance or approbation; no, it is that abominable thing which the Lord
hates. He sees all the sin that is committed in the world, and it is an
offence to him, it is odious in his eyes, and those that commit it are
thereby made obnoxious to his justice. There is in the nature of God an
antipathy to those dispositions and practices that are contrary to his holy
law; and, though an expedient is happily found out for his being reconciled
to sinners, yet he never will, nor can, be reconciled to sin. And this
principle we must resolve to abide by, though the dispensations of his
providence may for a time, and in some instances, seem to be inconsistent
with it. Note, God's connivance at sin must never be interpreted into a
giving countenance to it; for he is not a God that has pleasure in
wickedness, Ps. v. 4, 5. The iniquity which, it is here said, God does
not look upon, may be meant especially of the mischief done to God's people
by their persecutors; though God sees cause to permit it, yet he does not
approve of it; so it agrees with that of Balaam (Num. xxiii. 21), He has
not be held iniquity against Jacob, nor seen, with allowance, perverseness
against Israel, which is very comfortable to the people of God, in their
afflictions by the rage of men, that they cannot infer God's anger from it;
though the instruments of their trouble hate them, it does not therefore
follow that God does; nay, he loves them, and it is in love that he corrects
them.
II. The grievances he complains of, and finds hard to reconcile with these
truths: "Since we are sure that thou art a holy God, why have atheists
temptation given them to question whether thou art so or no? Wherefore
lookest thou upon the Chaldeans that deal treacherously with thy
people, and givest them success in their attempts upon us? Why dost thou
suffer thy sworn enemies, who blaspheme thy name, to deal thus cruelly, thus
perfidiously, with thy sworn subjects, who desire to fear thy name? What
shall we say to this?" This was a temptation to Job (ch. xxi. 7;
xxiv. 1), to David (Ps. lxxiii. 2, 3), to Jeremiah, ch. xii. 1, 2. 1.
That God permitted sin, and was patient with the sinners. He looked upon
them; he saw all their wicked doings and designs, and did not restrain
nor punish them, but suffered them to speed in their purposes, to go on and
prosper, and to carry all before them. Nay, his looking upon them intimates
that he not only gave them no check or rebuke, but that he gave them
encouragement and assistance, as if he smiled upon them and favoured them.
He held his tongue when they went on in their wicked courses, said
nothing against them, gave no orders to stop them. These things thou hast
done, and I kept silence. 2. That his patience was abused, and, because
sentence against these evil works and workers was not executed
speedily, therefore their hearts were the more fully set in
them to do evil. (1.) They were false and deceitful, and there was no
credit to be given them, nor any confidence to be put in them. They deal treacherously;
under colour of peace and friendship, they prosecute and execute the most
mischievous designs, and make no conscience of their word in any thing. (2.)
They hated and persecuted men because they were better than themselves, as
Cain hated Abel because his own works were evil and his brother's
righteous. The wicked devours the man that is more righteous than he,
for that very reason, because he shames him; they have an ill will to the
image of God, and therefore devour good men, because they bear that
image. Though many of the Jews were as bad as the Chaldeans themselves, and
worse, yet there were those among them that were much more righteous, and
yet were devoured by them. (3.) They made no more of killing men that of
catching fish. The prophet complains that, Providence having delivered up
the weaker to be prey to the stronger, they were, in effect, made as the
fishes of the sea, v. 14. So they had been among themselves,
preying upon one another as the greater fishes do upon the less (v.
3), and they were made so to the common enemy. They were as the creeping
things, or swimming things (for the word is used for fish,
Gen. i. 20), that have no ruler over them, either to restrain them
from devouring one another or to protect them from being devoured by their
enemies. They are given up to the Chaldeans as fish to the fishermen. Those
proud oppressors make no conscience of killing them, any more than men do of
pulling fish out of the water, so small account do they make of human lives.
They make no difficulty of killing them, but do it with as much ease as men
catch fish, that make no resistance, but are unguarded and unarmed, and it
is rather a pastime than any pains to take them. They make no distinction
among them, but all is fish that comes to their net; and they reckon every
thing their own that they can lay their hands on. They have various ways of
spoiling and destroying, as men have of taking fish. Some they take up
with the angle (v. 15), one by one; others they catch in
shoals, and by wholesale, in their net, and gather them in their
drag, their enclosing net. Such variety of methods have they to destroy
those by whom they hope to enrich themselves. (4.) They gloried in what they
got, and pleased themselves with it, though it was got dishonestly: Their
portion is fat, and their meat plenteous; they prosper in their
oppression and fraud; they have a great deal, and it is of the best; their
land is good, and they have abundance of it. And therefore, [1.] They have
great complacency in themselves, and are very pleasant; they live merrily (v.
15): Therefore they rejoice and are glad, because their wealth is
great, and their projects succeed for the increase of it, Job xxxi. 25. Soul,
take thy ease, Luke xii. 19. [2.] They have a great conceit of
themselves, and are great admirers of their own ingenuity and management:
They sacrifice to their own net, and burn incense to their own drag;
they applaud themselves for having got so much money, though ever so
dishonestly. Note, There is a proneness in us to take the glory of our
outward prosperity to ourselves, and to say, My might, and the power of
my hands, have gotten me this wealth, Deut. viii. 17. This is idolizing
ourselves, sacrificing to the dragnet, because it is our own, which is as
absurd a piece of idolatry as sacrificing to Neptune or Dagon. That which
makes them adore their net thus is because by it their portion is fat.
Those that make a god of their money will make a god of their drag-net, if
they can but get money by it.
III. The prophet, in the close, humbly expresses his hope that God will not
suffer these destroyers of mankind always to go on and prosper thus, and
expostulates with God concerning it (v. 17): "Shall they
therefore empty their net? Shall they enrich themselves, and fill their
own vessels, with that which they have by violence and oppression taken away
from their neighbours? Shall they empty their net of what they have caught,
that they may cast it into the sea again, to catch more? And wilt thou
suffer them to proceed in this wicked course? Shall they not spare
continually to slay the nations? Must the numbers and wealth of nations
be sacrificed to their net? As if it were a small thing to rob men of their
estates, shall they rob God of his glory? Is not God the king of nations,
and will he not assert their injured rights? Is he not jealous for his own
honour, and will he not maintain that?" The prophet lodges the matter
in God's hand, and leaves it with him, as the psalmist does. Ps. lxxiv. 22, Arise,
O God! Plead thy own cause.
