See no more vanity - They shall see all their predictions vanish, which shall so confound them, that they shall pretend no more to visions.
Elders - Men of note, that were in office and power among the Jews, who were come from Jerusalem.
Set up - Are resolved idolaters. The stumbling block - Their idols which were both the object of their sin, and occasion of their ruin.
According - According to his desert, I will give answer, but in just judgment.
Take - That I may lay open what is in their heart, and discover their hypocrisy, and impiety. Through their idols - It is always through some idol or other, that the hearts of men are estranged from God: some creature has gained that place in the heart, which belongs to none but God.
The stranger - Every proselyte. I the Lord - He shall find by the answer, 'twas not the prophet, but God that answered: so dreadful, searching, and astonishing shall my answer be.
A sign - Of divine vengeance.
The prophet - The false prophet, who speaks all serene, and quiet, in hope of reward. Have deceived - Permitted him to err, or justly left him in his blindness.
When - At what time soever.
Noah - Who 'tis probable prevailed with God to spare the world for some years, and saved his near relations when the flood came. Daniel - Who prevailed for the life of the wise men of Chaldea. Job - Who daily offered sacrifice for his children, and at last reconciled God to those that had offended.
That land - What land soever it be.
In blood - In death and destruction, not by the sword.
How much more - If they could not be able to keep off one of the four, how much less would they be able to keep off all four, when I commission them all to go at once.
Their way - Their sin and their punishment. Comforted - In this proof of the truth of God.
Comfort you - That is, you will be comforted, when you compare their case with your own: when they tell you how righteous God was, in bringing these judgments upon them. This will reconcile you to the justice of God, in thus punishing his own people, and to the goodness of God, who now appeared to have had kind intentions in all.
The vine - tree - Israel is here compared to a vine, which, when fruitless, is utterly unprofitable. This the prophet minds them of to humble them, and awaken them to fruitfulness. A branch - One branch of a tree in the forest is of more use than the whole vine - tree is, except for its fruit.
A pin - Will it afford even a pin to drive into a wall or post, on which you may safely fasten any weight.
For fuel - When for its barrenness it is cut down, it is fit only to burn.
Given - Doomed for food to the fire.
Because - They have been so perpetually trespassing, that it seems a continued act.
Jerusalem - The whole race of the Jews. Thy birth - Thy root whence thou didst spring. Thy father - Abraham, before God called him, (as his father and kindred) worshipped strange gods beyond the river, Josh 24:14. An Amorite - This comprehended all the rest of the cursed nations.
In the day - In the day I called Abraham to leave his idolatry. Salted - Salt was used to purge, dry, and strengthen the new - born child. Nor swaddled - So forlorn was the state of the Jews in their birth, without beauty, without strength, without friend.
To the loathing - In contempt of thee as unlovely and worthless; and in abhorrence of thee as loathsome to the beholder. This seems to have reference to the exposing of the male children of the Israelites in Egypt. And it is an apt illustration of the Natural State of all the children of men. In the day that we were born, we were shapen in iniquity: our understandings darkened, our minds alienated from the life of God: all polluted with sin, which rendered us loathsome in the eyes of God.
When I passed by - God here speaks after the manner of men. Live - This is such a command as sends forth a power to effect what is commanded; he gave that life: he spake, and it was done.
Thou art come - Thou wast adorned with the choicest blessings of Divine Providence. Thy breasts - Grown up and fashioned under God's own hand in order to be solemnly affianced to God.
When I passed - This second passing by, may be understood of God's visiting and calling them out of Egypt. Thy time - The time of thy misery was the time of love in me towards thee. I spread my skirt - Espoused thee, as Ruth 3:9. Entered into a covenant - This was done at mount Sinai, when the covenant between God and Israel was sealed and ratified. Those to whom God gives spiritual life, he takes into covenant with himself. By this covenant they become his, his subjects and servants; that speaks their duty: and at the same time his portion, his treasure; that speaks their privilege.
Washed - It was a very ancient custom among the eastern people, to purify virgins who were to be espoused. And I anointed - They were anointed that were to be married, as Ruth 3:3.
Broidered - Rich and beautiful needle - work. Badgers skin - The eastern people had an art of curiously dressing and colouring the skins of those beasts, of which they made their neatest shoes, for the richest and greatest personages.
A chain - Of gold, in token of honour and authority.
My comeliness - "That is, thro' the beauty of their holiness, as they were a people devoted to God. This was it that put a lustre upon all their other honours, and was indeed the perfection of their beauty. Sanctified souls are truly beautiful in God's sight, and they themselves may take the comfort of it. But God must have all the glory for whatever comeliness they have, it is that which God has put upon them."
Playedst the harlot - Thou didst go a whoring after idols. Thy renown - Her renown abroad drew to her idolatrous strangers, who brought their idols with them. Pouredst out - Didst readily prostitute thyself to them; every stranger, who passed thro' thee, might find room for his idol, and idolatry. He it was - Thy person was at the command of every adulterer.
Thy garments - Those costly, royal robes, the very wedding clothes. High places - Where the idol was. With divers colours - With those beautiful clothes I put upon thee. The like things - As there was none before her that had done thus, so shall there be none to follow her in these things.
Images - Statues, molten and graven images. Commit whoredom - Idolatry, spiritual adultery. And possibly here is an allusion to the rites of Adonis, or the images of Priapus.
Coveredst - Didst clothe the images thou hadst made. Set mine oil - In lamps to burn before them.
For a sweet savour - To gain the favour of the idol. Thus it was - All which is undeniable.
And those - These very children of mine hast thou destroyed. Sacrificed - Not only consecrating them to be priests to dumb idols; but even burning them in sacrifice to Molech. Devoured - Consumed to ashes. Is this - Were thy whoredoms a small matter, that thou hast proceeded to this unnatural cruelty?
For them - For the idols.
In every street - Idol temples were in every street; both in Jerusalem and her cities.
At every head of the way - Not content with what was done in the city, she built her idol temples in the country, wherever it was likely passengers would come.
Great of flesh - Naturally of a big, make, and men of great stature.
How weak - Unstable, like water. An imperious woman - A woman, that knows no superior, nor will be neither guided nor governed.
Not as an harlot - Common harlots make gain of their looseness, and live by that gain; thou dost worse, thou lavishest out thy credit, wealth, and all, to maintain thine adulterers.
Contrary - Here we may see, what the nature of men is, when God leaves them to themselves: yea, tho' they have the greatest advantage, to be better, and to do better.
Blood - Thou gavest the blood of thy children to idols in sacrifice; I will give thee thine own blood to drink.
My jealousy - The jealousy whereto you have provoked me, will never cease, 'till these judgments have utterly destroyed you, as the anger of an abused husband ceases in the publick punishment of the adulteress. No more angry - I will no more concern myself about thee.