Bible Commentaries

The wicked flee when no man pursueth: but the righteous are bold as a lion.

The wicked fly when none pursueth. — None but their own consciences. Facti sunt a corde suo fugitivi, as Tertullian hath it. Such a fearful fugitive was bloody Cain, who cried out, when there were yet few or none to pursue him, "Every man that meets me shall kill me." Genesis 4:14 Such were those cursed Canaanites that were chased by God’s hornet sent among them - that is, by the blood hounds of their own consciences. Joshua 24:12 Such were those Syrians that, struck with a panic terror, fled for their lives, and left their rich camp for a booty to the Israelites. 2 Kings 7:7 The shadow of the mountains seemed armed men to guilty Gaal. Judges 9:36 The Burgundians, expecting a battle, thought long thistles were lances. God sends a faintness into the hearts of the wicked, and the sound of a shaken leaf frightens them. In arithmetic, of nothing comes nothing, yet they fear where no fear is. As Cardinal Crescentius feared a fancied devil walking in his chamber like a great mastiff A large, powerful dog with a large head, drooping ears and pendulous lips, valuable as a watch dog. , and couching under his table as he was writing letters to Rome against the Protestants. Acts and Mon. As Richard III thought he saw in his sleep various images like terrible devils, pulling and hauling at him, after he had, Joab-like, slain two men more righteous than him, his two innocent nephews. Polyd. Virgil. As Charles IX of France, after the cruel massacre, could neither sleep nor wake without music to divert his self-accusing thoughts, so hotly was he haunted and followed with the furies of his own conscience. Thuan. As the Spanish fleet, in 1588, Venit, vidit, fugit, as the Zealanders thereupon stamped their new coin. Carlton’s Remembrancer. The Hollanders also stamped new money with this invincible armada, as the Spaniards in their pride had styled it, having this motto Impius fugit, nemine sequente, Speed., 1206. The wicked fly when no man pursueth. I pity the loss of their souls, saith a reverend man, Mr Sam. Ward. that serve themselves as the Jesuit in Lancashire, followed by one that found his glove with a desire to restore it him, but pursued inwardly with a guilty conscience, leaps over a hedge, plunges into a gravel pit behind it unseen and unthought of, wherein he was drowned.

But the righteous is bold as a lion. — Conscientia pura semper secura, A good conscience hath sure confidence; and he that hath it sits, Noah-like, mediis tranquillus in undis, quiet in the greatest combustions, freed, if not from the common destruction, yet from the common distraction; for he knows whom he hath trusted, and is sure that neither life nor death, nor things present, nor things to come, can ever sunder him from God’s love in Christ. Romans 8:38 He is bold as a lion, saith the text; yea, as a young lion, that is in his hot blood, and therefore fears no other creature; yea, when he is fiercely pursued he will never once alter his gait, though he die for it. No more will the righteous man his resolution against sin, such is his Christian courage. Daniel chose rather to be cast to the lions, than to bear a lion in his own bosom, to violate his conscience. The primitive Christians chose rather to be abandoned, ad leones quam ad lenones, they preferred affliction before sin. And this their persecutors counted not courage and magnanimity, but wilfulness and obstinace. Tertul. in Apolog. But they knew not the power of the Spirit, nor the private armour of proof that the righteous have about their hearts; that insuperable faith whereby some have "stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire," …, Hebrews 11:33-34 and whereby they do all daily encounter and conquer that roaring lion, the devil, "quenching his fiery darts," … Ephesians 6:16

return to '

For the transgression of a land many [are] the princes thereof: but by a man of understanding [and] knowledge the state [thereof] shall be prolonged.

For the transgression of a land, many are the princes. — Either many at once, or many ejecting and succeeding one another, to the great calamity and utter undoing of the people, as may be seen in the books of Judges and Kings, as in the Roman state after Nero’s death, by the succession of Galba, Otho, and Vitellius. What a deal of trouble was here in the time of the heptarchy! A government by seven rulers and in the dissensions of the two houses of York and Lancaster! causing the death of twice as many natives of England as were lost in the two conquests of France, besides eighty princes of the blood-royal slain. Daniel’s History, 249. And all this is said to be "for the transgression of a land," thus chastised by the Lord. Elihu tells Job that the hypocrite is set to reign for the people’s sin; Job 34:30 Leviticus 26:17 it is threatened as a heavy curse: "If ye still trespass against me, I will set princes over you that shall hate you"; mischievous, odious princes, odious to God, malignant to the people. And, Isaiah 3:4 "I will give children to be their princes, and babes shall rule over them." How many kings had the ten tribes after their defection from the house of David, and not one good one among them all! And what got most of the Roman Caesars by their hasty honours nisi ut citius interficerentur, saith one, but to be slain the sooner! Very few of them till Constantine but died unnatural deaths. "If ye do wickedly, ye shall perish, both you and your king." 1 Samuel 12:25

But by a man of understanding and knowledge. — As "one sinner may destroy much good," Ecclesiastes 9:18 so by one excellently wise man - called here a man of understanding knowledge; there is no copulative in the original - the state may be prolonged; there may be a lengthening of its tranquillity; it may be "delivered by the pureness of thine hands." Job 22:30 2 Samuel 20:16-22 Ecclesiastes 9:13-16 Jeremiah 5:1 Religious and prudent princes especially may do much in this case. 2 Kings 22:20

return to '

poor man that oppresseth the poor [is like] a sweeping rain which leaveth no food.

A poor man that oppresseth the poor, … — Such an oppressor bites hard (as a lean louse doth), makes clean work, plunders to the life, as they say, Omnia corradit et converret. Poor men should pity poor men, as knowing the misery of poverty; but to oppress or defraud their comrades is greatest inhumanity, as that merciless fellow servant did. Matthew 18:28 , … A weasel is a ravenous beast, as well as a lion; a sparrow hawk as greedy as an eagle; and more mercy is to be expected from those more noble creatures than from the base and abject.

return to '

They that forsake the law praise the wicked: but such as keep the law contend with them.

They that forsake the law praise the wicked. — As Machiavel doth Caesar Borgia, that bipedum nequissimum, proposing him for a pattern to all Christian princes; as Onuphrius (the Pope’s biographer), doth Hildebrand or Gregory VII, in five books written of his noble acts and great virtues; whom Cardinal Benno truly describeth to have been a murderer, an adulterer, a conjurer, a schismatic, a heretic, and every way as bad as might be. Epiphanius Epiphan., Haeret., 38. tells us that there were a sort of brain sick heretics that extolled Cain, and were therefore called Cainites. They also commended the Sodomites, Korah, Judas the traitor, … In the book of Judith, the act of Simeon and Levi upon the Shechemites is extolled; and there was one Bruno that wrote an oration in commendation of the devil.

But they that keep the law contend with them. — Moved with a zeal of God, they cannot be silent. As Croesus’s dumb son, they cry out, Wilt thou kill my father, dishonour nay God, …? Good blood will never belie itself; good metal will appear. How did young David bristle against blackmouthed Goliath, and enter the lists with him! "Do not I hate thmn that hate thee?" saith he, "yea, I hate them with a perfect hatred." Psalms 139:21-22 I cast down the gauntlet of defiance against them; I count them mine enemies. Asa cannot bear with idolatry, no, not in his own mother. Our Edward VI would by no means yield to a toleration for his sister Mary, though solicited thereunto by Cranmer and Ridley, for political respects. Mihi quidem Auxentius non alius erit quam diabolus, quamdiu Arianus, said Hilary; I shall look upon Auxentius as a devil, so long as he is an Arian. It was the speech of blessed Luther, who though he was very earnest to have the communion administered in both kinds, contrary to the doctrine and custom of Rome, yet if the Pope, saith he, as pope, commanded me to receive it in both kinds, I would but receive it in one kind; since to obey what he commands as pope, is a receiving of the mark of the beast.

return to '

Evil men understand not judgment: but they that seek the LORD understand all [things].

Evil men understand not judgment. — They are wise to do evil, but to do good they have no knowledge: their wits work not that way; they are bard and brutish as "horse and mule." Psalms 32:9 Yea, they fall beneath the stirrup of reason, and know not their owner, which yet the ox and ass doth; Isaiah 1:3 no wiser at seventy years old than at seven. Ut liberius peccent, libenter ignorant, not willing to know what they are not minded to practise.

But they that seek the Lord understand all things. — Not all that is possible to be known, as Averroes saith Aristotle did; as the Civilians say their Baldus did; De Baldo dicere solebant nihil unquam eum ignorasse. as the Papists say Tostatus did; but they understand all things needful to salvation, and they often meditate on the last judgment.

return to '

Better [is] the poor that walketh in his uprightness, than [he that is] perverse [in his] ways, though he [be] rich.

Better is the poor, … — See Proverbs 19:1 .

return to '

Whoso keepeth the law [is] a wise son: but he that is a companion of riotous [men] shameth his father.

He that keepeth the law is a wise son. — It is neither good nature, nor good nurture or breeding, that can prove a man to be truly wise, but obedience to God’s statutes. Deuteronomy 4:6 Aiphonsus, king of Spain, surnamed the Wise, was a rank fool and an arrant atheist; so are all the world’s wizards.

But he that is a companion to riotous men. — Or, That feedeth gluttons, whose belly hath no bottom.

‘Ingluvies et tempestas, barathrumque macelli.’

They say the locust is all belly, which is joined to his mouth, and endeth at his tail: such are riotous belly gods. To feed such is to cast away all, and bring an indelible infamy upon the family.

return to '

He that by usury and unjust gain increaseth his substance, he shall gather it for him that will pity the poor.

He that by usury and unjust gain, … — Usury is condemned by the very heathens (Aristot. Ethic., lib. iv. cap. 1). The ancient law of the Romans make the usurer a thief and worse; the Hebrews make him a biting thief, who gnaweth the debtor to the very bones; yea, the most toothless usury, that usual plea, hath sharp gums, which bite as sore as an old dog or a hungry fly; and under show of licking whole, sucks out the heart blood. Let those who plead for it consider that God dispenseth with no usury, Ezekiel 18:8 whether neshec or tarbith, biting or toothless; that the lender deals not as he would be dealt with it; that the gospel makes these sinners worse than other sinners when it saith, "Sinners lend to sinners to receive the like," Luke 6:34 but these to receive more; that at Rome this day all usurers are excommunicated monthly; that the canon law drives them from the sacrament, denies them burial, makes their will no will, as though their goods were not their own; that no man of note in all antiquity - Jews and Manichees excepted - for 1500 years after Christ, hath ever undertaken the defence of usury; that Chrysostom is very fierce against it, comparing it to the stinging of an asp, which casts a man into a sleep, whereof he dies, …

He shall gather it for him that will pity the poor. — God will provide him an executor never mentioned in his will; or his heir, being a better man, shall freely distribute what he hath wrongfully raked together. Ecclesiastes 2:21 Job 27:16

return to '