By a plumb - line - Strongly and beautifully built.
Set a plumb - line - I will exactly measure the whole ten tribes. Pass by them - I will no more forbear, but will pull down all that is faulty.
The high places - The temples on high mountains built to idols. Of Isaac - The seed of Isaac.
In the midst - Openly, and publickly, endeavouring to stir up Israel to sedition or rebellion. The land - The people cannot bear all his harsh predictions.
Jeroboam shall die - He nowhere said so, but spake of his house distinguished from his person, as ver.9.
The king's court - To which therefore thou oughtest to shew more respect, and not thus to affront the king in his own house.
No prophet - Not originally, or by study, or by any human designation. An herdman - By breeding and occupation I was and still am, an herdman. Sycamore fruit - This fruit was good food for man, or cattle.
The house of Isaac - The posterity of Isaac.
In a polluted land - Among the Heathen. Israel - The ten tribes.
The end - Of God's patience towards Israel, the end of their ripening, they are now fully ripe, fit to be gathered. Pass by them - God had with admirable patience spared, but now he will no more pardon or spare.
With silence - So great will be the cruelty of the enemy, that they dare not bury them, or if they do, it must be undiscerned.
To fail - Either to root them out, or to enslave them.
When - Ye that could wish there were nothing to interrupt your marketing, that look on solemn times of worship as burdensome, such was the first day of every month, and the weekly sabbath. Small - So the ephah being too little, the poor buyer had not his due. The shekel great - They weighed the money which they received, and had no more justice, than to make their shekel weight greater than the standard; so the poor were twice oppressed, had less than was their right, and paid more than they ought to pay.
That we may buy - They would have new moons and sabbaths over, that they might go to market to buy the poor. And when these poor owed but for a very little commodity, as suppose a pair of shoes, these merciless men would take the advantage against them, and make them sell themselves to pay the debt. The refuse - This was another kind of oppression, corrupted wares, sold to those that were necessitous.
Hath sworn - By himself. Forget - Suffer to pass unpunished.
The land - The people of it. For this - This that you have done, and this that God will do. And it - The judgment, the displeasure of God, shall rise and grow like a mighty wasting flood. It - The land. Drowned - As Egypt by the overflowing of the Nile.
At noon - So Israel's sun did as at noon set under the dark cloud of conspiracies and civil wars by Shallum, Menahem, Pekah, and Hosea, 'till the midnight darkness drew on by Pul, Tiglath - Pilneser, and Salmaneser. Darken - Bring a thick cloud of troubles and afflictions. In the clear day - When they think all is safe, sure, and well settled.
Upon all loins - All sorts of persons shall put on mourning. Baldness - Shaving the head and beard was a sign of the greatest sadness. A bitter day - A bitter day, which you shall wish you had never seen, shall succeed your dark night.
Shall wander - Search all places for a prophet or preacher, from the Mid - land sea to the dead sea, they shall search all corners for a prophet.
They - Who sacrifice to and swear by the calves at Dan and Beth - el. By the sin - Who say the idol at Dan is the true and living God. The manner - The idol which is worshipped at Beersheba.
The altar - Of burnt - offering before the temple at Jerusalem, this altar and temple Israel had forsaken, and set up others against it; and here God in his jealousy appears prepared to take vengeance. Possibly it may intimate his future departure from Judah too. There Ezekiel, Eze 9:2, saw the slaughter - men stand. The door - The door of the gate that led into the priests court. And cut them - Wound deep, the people who were visionally represented as standing in the court of the temple.
Hell - The center of the earth, or the depth of hell.
The serpent - The crocodile or shark.
Set my eyes - I will perpetually watch over them.
Toucheth - He needs not take great pains therein, a touch of his finger will do this. Shall melt - As snow before the sun.
His stories - The celestial orbs one over another, as so many stories in an high and stately palace. And he hath founded his troop in the earth: all the creatures, which are one army, one body; so closely are they connected, and so harmoniously do they all act for the accomplishing of their creator's purposes. Calleth for the waters - Either in judgment to drown, or in mercy to give rain.
The Arabians - A wild, thievish, and servile nation. Have not I brought - And whereas you boast my kindness to you, bringing you out of Egypt, and thereupon conclude, God cannot leave you whom he hath so redeemed; you argue amiss, for this aggravates your sin. From Kir - Conquered by some potent enemies, and sent away to Kir, a country of Media, yet at last delivered. Should these nations, argue themselves to be out of danger of divine justice, because I had done this for them.
The sinful kingdom - Every sinful kingdom.
The least grain - Though tumbled and tossed with the great violence, yet the smallest, good grain, shall not be lost or destroyed.
All the sinners - The great, notorious sinners. The evil - Is far off, we shall die first, and be safe in the grave.
In that day - In the set time which I have fixt. Raise up - Bring back out of captivity, and re - establish in their own land, the house of David, and those that adhere to his family. Fallen - By the revolt of the ten tribes. The breaches - Which are in it by that long division.
They - Literally the Jews. Possess - Both the lands of Edom, and some of the posterity of Edom; these as servants, the other as their propriety. The remnant - Left by Nebuchadnezzar. All the heathen - That is, round about. That doth this - But this is also a prophecy of setting up the kingdom of the Messiah, and bringing in the Gentiles.
Behold the days come - Here is another promise literally of abundant plenty to the returned captives, and mystically of abundant grace poured forth in gospel - days. The plowman - Who breaks up the ground, and prepares it for sowing, shall be ready to tread on the heels of the reaper who shall have a harvest so large, that before he can gather it all in, it shall be time to plow the ground again. The treader of grapes - So great shall their vintage be that e'er the treaders of grapes can have finished their work, the seeds - man shall be sowing his seed against the next season. Shall drop - The vineyards shall be so fruitful, and new wine so plentiful as if it ran down from the mountains. Shall melt - Or, as if whole hills were melted into such liquors. If any object, it never was so: I answer, the sins of the returned captives prevented these blessings, which are promised under a tacit condition.
Pulled up - On condition that they seek the Lord. This was on God's part with admirable constancy performed through six hundred years, perhaps the longest time of freedom from captivity they ever knew.