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Ask ye of the LORD rain in the time of the latter rain; [so] the LORD shall make bright clouds, and give them showers of rain, to every one grass in the field.

Ask you of the Lord rain — Ask it and have it; open your mouths wide, and he will fill them. "Seek ye the Lord, till he come and rain righteousness upon you," Hosea 10:12 . Surely as the sun draws up vapours from the earth and sea, not to retain them, but to return them; and as thin vapours come down again in thick showers of rain; so God calls for our prayers, for out profit; and does for us "exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think," Ephesians 3:20 . Ask we must, Ezekiel 36:37 . Prayer is an indispensable duty. Our Saviour taught his disciples to pray. He himself was to ask of his Father, and then he should have the heathen for his inheritance and the uttermost parts of the earth for his possession, Psalms 2:8 . He could have had presently twelve legions of angels to rescue him; but then he was to send to heaven for them by prayer, Matthew 26:53 "I came for thy words," that is, for thy prayers’ sake, saith the angel to Daniel. As well as God loved him, he looked to hear from him, Daniel 10:11-12 for he will grace his own ordinances, and make his people know both their distance and dependence.

Rain in the time of the latter rain — Rain is the flux of a moist cloud; which, being dissolved by little and little by the heat of the sun, lets down rain by drops out of the middle region of the air. This, if it come right in due time and measure, it maketh much for the fattening of the earth, Psalms 65:11 , allaying the heat, nourishing the herb and tree, Isaiah 44:14 , refreshing all creatures, grass, fruits, Leviticus 26:4 James 5:18 Isaiah 30:23 . So, if otherwise, it proves a great punishment, Joel 1:10-11 ; Joel 1:17 ; Joel 1:19 . Great expectation there was in Judaea and those Eastern parts of the former and the latter rain. That fell in the seedtime about autumn; this in the spring time, causing the grain to ear, and kernel before harvest. Both were to be sought of God alone. For are there any among the vanities of the Gentiles that can cause rain? or can the heaven give showers? No, no; these come by a devine decree, Job 28:26 . God prepares rain, Psalms 147:8 , he dispenseth it in number weight, and measure, Job 28:25 , not a drop falls in vain, or in a wrong place: he also withholds it when and where he thinks good, Amos 4:7 . The Egyptians used, in a profane mockery, to tell other nations that if God should forget to rain they might all chance to starve for it. The rain they thought was of God, but not their river; which therefore God threateneth to dry up, Ezekiel 29:3 ; Ezekiel 29:9 Isaiah 19:5-6 , as also he did, as both Seneca and Ovid testify, in the reign of Cleopatra. The creatures at best are but broken cisterns, Jeremiah 2:13 . Not fountains, but cisterns only; and those broken too; there is no trusting to them; they were never true to those that trusted them.

So the Lord shall make bright clouds — Nubes cursitantes, thin clouds, that fly swiftly in the air, most commonly before and after very rainy weather. R. Solomon interprets the word here used not lightnings, which yet are signs and forerunners of rain, Psalms 135:7 Jeremiah 10:13 , but clouds bringing rain. Clouds are nothing else but vapours thickened in the middle region of the air, by the cold environing and driving them together; that they may be as so many heavenly bottles holding water, to be seasonably distilled. How they are upheld, and why they fall here, and now, and by drops, not by spouts (since they are vessels as thin as the liquor contained in them) we know not, and wonder.

And give them showers of rain — Heb. Rain, rain, that is, plentiful rain upon his inheritance: the clouds shall return after the rain, Ecclesiastes 12:2 , and as one shower is unburdened another shall be brewed. God scorns to say to the seed of Jacob, "Seek ye me in vain," Isaiah 45:19 , or that any of his suitors should go sad away for want of an answer. David asked him for life; and God gave him more, even length of days for ever and ever, Psalms 21:4 . Many came to Christ for cure of their bodies, he cured them on both sides; and was better to them than their prayers. Gehazi asked Naaman for a talent of silver. Nay, take two, said he; and he pressed it upon him. So saith God to his, Ask and spare not, that your joy may be full. Ye are not straitened in me, but ye are straitened in your own bowels. Ye have not because ye ask not; and he is worthy to want it that may have it for asking only.

To every one grass — Grass for the cattle, and corn for the food of man, as the Chaldee expounds it.

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For the idols have spoken vanity, and the diviners have seen a lie, and have told false dreams; they comfort in vain: therefore they went their way as a flock, they were troubled, because [there was] no shepherd.

For the idols have spoken vanity — q.d. Therefore ask good things at God’s hands, as rain, food, and all necessary provision; because idols and soothsayers cannot help you to these things. If they promise you (as they will), believe them not; for they lie as fast as once Rabshakeh did for his master, when he promised the people a land of corn and wine, a land of bread and vineyards, Isaiah 36:17 . And they will finally serve you as Absalom’s mule served her master; whom she left at his greatest need, to hang between heaven and earth, as rejected of both. Lo such are all creaturecomforts, golden delusions, lying vanities, apples of Sodom, nec vera, nec vestra, neither true nor yours, the fashion of this world, saith Paul, 1 Corinthians 7:31 ; the fantasies of men’s brain, saith Luke, Acts 25:23 , the semblances and empty shows of good, without any reality or solid consistency, saith Solomon often. They are, saith our prophet here, a wicked deceit and fraudulence. An arrant lie, a false dream, a vain or empty comfort, that utterly deceiveth a man’s confidence, and maketh him, in the fulness of his conceited sufficience, to be in straits. These here for instance; viz. the Jews that had been carried captives as a flock without a guide, sheep without a shepherd, and yet had not (till after some while at least) renounced their idols, Jeremiah 44:22 Ezekiel 8:10

Therefore they went their way as a flock — Driven by the butcher to the slaughter house. Idolatry is a land desolating sin; as besides these Jews (the more ingenuous of them at this day confess that in all their punishments there is still an ounce of the golden calf made by them in the wilderness) the Greek Church was undone by it. The worshipping of images they defended with tooth and nail (as they say), and established it in the second Council of Nice; not long before the Turk took Nice, and made it the seat of his empire, in opposition to Constantinople, which at length he took also; and brought in Mahometanism, that foul impiety, which quickly overspread the whole East and South, like as Popish idolatry did the West and North. But this iniquity will be their ruin. Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen ( επεσεν, επεσεν ). She hath fallen culpably, she shall therefore fall penally. And why? She is become the habitation of devils, that is, of idols. See Revelation 9:20 1 Corinthians 10:20 .

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Mine anger was kindled against the shepherds, and I punished the goats: for the LORD of hosts hath visited his flock the house of Judah, and hath made them as his goodly horse in the battle.

Mine anger was kindled against the shepherds — Pastores Impostores; the greedy priests and false prophets, main causes of the captivity; because through their default there was no knowledge nor fear of God in the land, Isaiah 5:13 Hosea 4:6-7 Jeremiah 23:1 Ezekiel 34:1 .

And I punished the goats — The grandees and governors, temporal and ecclesiastical, see Ezekiel 34:17 . They should have been as the he goats before the flock, Jeremiah 50:8 , worthy guides to God. But they were goats in another sense, unruly, and nasty, and lascivious (as those two filthy fellows, for instance, whom for their adultery the King of Babylon roasted in the fire, Jeremiah 29:22 ), and such as begat kids of their own kind, men of their own make, and went before them in wickedness, as the goats lead the flocks.

For the Lord of hosts — Better to read it, but the Lord of hosts, … And this is spoken for the comfort of those that called upon God, and abhorred idols, and idol shepherds, that were in special covenant with him, and therefore owned by him, as his flock, or peculiar charge. Now to such he promiseth to feed them as his sheep, and to furnish them as his horse for service, his goodly war horse, mainly respected by his master, as Bucephalus was by Alexander. This may in part be understood of the Maccabees’ victories; but principally of the apostles, those white horses, upon which they rode through the world, conquering and to conquer, Revelation 6:2 . St Paul is fitly compared to that war horse in Job 39:20 , whose neck is clothed with thunder, and the glory of his nostrils is terrible. He mocketh at fear, and turneth not back from the sword. He goeth on to meet the armed man, and swalloweth the ground with fierceness and rage.

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Out of him came forth the corner, out of him the nail, out of him the battle bow, out of him every oppressor together.

Out of him came forth the corner — Angulus, not Angelus, as some Vulgate Latin translations have it: and a Lapide justly finds fault with it. A like fault Surius and Caranza (his fellow popelings) are content to wink at, nay, to defend in the Laodicean Council, because it makes for their angel worship. For whereas the Council truly saith, ου δει χριστιανους αγγελους ονομαζειν , Christians must not pray to angels. They make the words to be Non oportet Christianos ad angulos congregationes facere. Christians ought not to hold their meetings in corners; and they make the title say the same thing. But is this fair dealing thus to falsify antiquity for their own ends, and to maintain their own errors? As for the text,

Out of him came forth, … — That is, Out of Judah shall be had all things necessary, both at home (and here the prophet proceeds from the foundation to the nails, or fastening of the house together) and abroad; both for the mastering of the enemy by the battle bow, …, and the making of him tributary: for

Out of him shall come every exactor — sc. Of homage and tribute, as the fruit of their victory. Danaeus senseth it thus. Out of Judah shall go every oppressor which did vex his people before, God driving him forth.

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And they shall be as mighty [men], which tread down [their enemies] in the mire of the streets in the battle: and they shall fight, because the LORD [is] with them, and the riders on horses shall be confounded.

And they shall be as mighty men — Or, as giants, as Gabriels, they shall be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might, they shall do worthily in Ephratas, and be famous in Bethlehem, Ruth 4:11 "their bow shall abide in strength, and the arms of their hands be made strong, by the hands of the mighty God of Jacob: from thence is the shepherd, the stone of Israel," Genesis 49:24 . If it could be said of Mithridates, a mere atheist, that he never wanted any courage nor counsel; how much more of God’s warriors, such as Judas Maccabeus, especially Messiah, the Prince, who treads down his enemies as the mire of the streets, setting his feet in their necks and making them to be found liars unto him, that is, to yield him at least a forced and feigned subjection.

And they shall fight because the Lord is with them — This is enough to make them fight up to the knees in blood, that they have God to stand by them; not only as a spectator, or Agonotheta (though that is somewhat; dogs and other baser creatures will fight lustily when their masters are by, and do set them on), but as a Captain of the Lord’s hosts, as Christ is called, and a coadjutor, a champion, man of war, Exodus 15:3 . Yea, he alone is whole army of men, he is Van and Rear both Isaiah 52:12 . The shields of the earth belong to him, the militia of the world is his, Psalms 47:9 , he hath magnleh cheloth and matteh cheloth as the Rabbis well observe, armies both above and beneath, as his horse and foot to fight for his people.

And the riders on horses shall be confounded — As they were in the conquest of Canaan, where the enemies had horses and chariots, when the Israelites had neither, as Origen observeth and as they were all in David’s wars, and the rest of the victorious kings of Israel, who, according to the law, Deuteronomy 17:16 , made no use of horses (but said, A horse is but a vain thing for battle, … God takes no delight in the strength of a horse), and ever fought on foot with singular success. So did the Maccabees, Zisca, and after him the Bohemians, the English in France at the battle of Spurs (so the battle of Terwin was called in Henry VIII’s time, from the French fleeing away to save their lives).

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And I will strengthen the house of Judah, and I will save the house of Joseph, and I will bring them again to place them; for I have mercy upon them: and they shall be as though I had not cast them off: for I [am] the LORD their God, and will hear them.

And I will strengthen the house of Judah — Robustos, ac quasi Gabrieles efficiam (a Lapide). See Zechariah 12:8 Isaiah 10:34 Zechariah 10:5 . The saints shall be strengthened with all might according to his glorious power, Colossians 1:11 , at the resurrection especially when Christ shall change their vile bodies, and make them like unto his glorious body, in strength, agility, beauty. The bodies of the saints, saith Luther, shall have that power as to toss the greatest mountains in the world like a ball. Anselm saith, such as they shall be able to shake the whole earth at their pleasure Our Saviour saith that they shall be as the angels of God, Luke 20:36 , more like spirits, than bodies, while they are here. In quiet and confidence is their strength, Isaiah 30:15 ; and again in the same chapter, Zechariah 10:7 , their strength is to sit still. They expected much strength from Egypt; but the prophet tells them that by sitting still and waiting for the salvation of God by faith they shall have an Egypt; and better, out of weakness they should be made strong, wax valiant in fight, turn to flight the armies of the aliens, Hebrews 11:34 , as the Maccabees did, and as Michael and his angels, Revelation 12:7-9 , the noble army of the apostles, who were more than conquerors; and martyrs, who tired their tormentors and laughed at their cruelty the valour of the patients, the savageness of the persecutors strove together; till both exceeding nature and belief, bred wonder and astonishment in beholders and readers. These were those lion-like men of the tribe of Judah that took the kingdom by violence. Judah, which signifieth the confessor, had the kingdom, as Levi had the priesthood, both forfeited by Reuben, who was weak as water, Genesis 49:4 .

And I will save the house of Joseph — That is, Ephraim, put for the ten tribes, whom God here promiseth to save, not to bring back, See Geneva on " Zechariah 10:9 " But others there are that gather from these words and those that follow that God will not only preserve them, but reduce and re-settle them in their own country, yea, and multiply them so abundantly, as that their country shall not be able to hold them, Zechariah 10:10 . Whence cometh Asshur’s and Egypt’s subjection to Christ; that is, all the tract of the east and of the south, Zechariah 10:11 , and their perpetual establishment in the faith.

And I will bring them again to place them — I will place them in their houses, as Hosea 11:11 . The Sept. render it, I will cause them to dwell. The Chaldee, I will gather together their captivity. Some special mercy is assured them by this special word of a mixed conjugation, compos, שׁåá et äåשׁëçéí éשׁá .

For I have mercy upon them — Here is a double cause alleged, of these so great and gracious promises; and both excluding works. First, God’s mere mercy. Secondly, his election of grace, for "I am the Lord their God." This latter is the cause of the former; for God chose his people for his love, and then loveth them for his choice. The effects of which love are here set down: 1. That he heareth their prayers, "I will hear them." 2. That he re-accepteth and restoreth them in Christ, as if they had never offended against him, "They shall be as though I had not cast them off." That was a cutting speech, and far worse than their captivity, Jeremiah 16:13 , when God not only threateneth to cast them out of their country into a strange land, but that there "he would show them no favour." Here he promiseth to pity them; and then they must needs think deliverance was at next door by.

And they shall be as though I had not cast them off — And this the sooner and the rather because they called them outcasts, saying, "This is Zion, whom no man seeketh after," Jeremiah 30:17 . The Jewish nation, saith Cicero, show how God regards them that have been so often overcome, viz. by Nebuchadnezzar, Pompey, … God therefore promiseth to provide for his own great name, by being fully reconciled to his poor people, whom the world looked upon as abjects.

For I am the Lord their God — And if I should not see to their safety, it would much reflect upon me. This David well knew; and therefore prays thus, "I am thine, Lord, save me," Psalms 119:94 .

And will hear them, or, I will speak with them — Speak to their hearts. It is no more, saith one, than if a man were in a fair dining room with much good company, and there is some special friend whom he loveth dearly that calleth him aside to speak in private of business that nearly concerneth him; and though he go into a worse room, yet he is well enough pleased. So if God, in loss of friends, houses, country, comforts whatsoever, will speak with us, will answer us, the loss will be easily made up. Philip, Landgrave of Hesse, being a long time prisoner under Charles V, was demanded what upheld him all that time? He answered, that he had felt the favour of God, and the Divine consolations of the martyrs. There are Divine comforts that are felt only under the cross. I will bring her into the wilderness, and there speak to her heart, Hosea 2:14 . Israel was never so royally provided for with manna, quails, and other cares as when they were in the wilderness. The cross is anointed with comfort, which makes it not only light, but sweet; not only not troublesome and importable, but desirable and delightful, saith Bernard. Thy presence, O Lord, made the very gridiron sweet to Laurence, saith another. How easily can God make up our losses and breaches?

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And [they of] Ephraim shall be like a mighty [man], and their heart shall rejoice as through wine: yea, their children shall see [it], and be glad; their heart shall rejoice in the LORD.

And they of Ephraim shall be as a mighty man — The same again, and in the same words, for more assurance; because the return of the ten tribes might seem a thing more incredible, Erant enim quasi putridum cadaver, saith Calvin here: they were as rotten carcases, and they had obiter in passing only heard of these promises; as if some grain of seed should be dropped by the highwayside: for they were now as aliens from the commonwealth of Israel.

And their heart shall rejoice as through wine — Which naturally exhilarateth, Psalms 104:15 , and is called by Plato one of the mitigators. ( μαλακτικα ) of human misery. See Proverbs 31:6 . See Trapp on " Proverbs 31:6 " Some nations use to drink wine freely before they enter the battle, to make them undaunted. Some think here may be an allusion to such a custom. I should rather understand it of that generous wine of the Spirit, Ephesians 5:18 .

Yea, their children shall see it — Therefore they were not to antedate the promises, but to wait the accomplishment which should certainly be, if not to them, yet to theirs after them, even a full restoration in due season.

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I will hiss for them, and gather them; for I have redeemed them: and they shall increase as they have increased.

I will hiss for them and gather them — As a shepherd hisseth or whistleth for his flock. See Judges 5:16 , where it should not be translated the bleatings of the flocks, but the hissings or whistlings of the shepherds to their flocks, when they would get them together. God, who hath all creatures at his beck and call, can easily bring back his banished, gather together his dispersed with a turn of a hand, Zechariah 13:7 , with a blast of his mouth, as here; as if any offer to oppose him herein, he can blow them to destruction, Job 4:9 . He can frown them to death, Psalms 80:16 . He can crush them between his fingers, as men do a moth, Psalms 39:11 , and crumble them to crattle, Psalms 146:4 "Like sheep they are laid in the grave; death shall feed on them; and the upright shall have dominion over them in the morning; and their beauty shall consume in the grave from their dwelling," Psalms 49:14 .

For I have redeemed them — I have in part, and that is a pledge of the whole; my hands also shall finish it, as Zechariah 4:9 . God doth not his work to the halves, neither must we; but if he shall be All in All unto us, we must be altogether his, Song of Solomon 2:16 . His is a covenant of mercy, ours of obedience; which must be therefore full and final, as Christ hath obtained for us an entire and everlasting redemption, Hebrews 9:12 .

And they shall increase as they have increased — By virtue of that promise to Abraham, Genesis 13:16 . I will multiply thy seed as the dust of the earth, and Genesis 15:5 , as the stars of heaven. This promise was not presently fulfilled; for when they came into Egypt they were but seventy souls of them. But under the Egyptian servitude they increased abundantly, Exodus 1:7 , they spawned (as the word signifies), and bred swiftly; so that they went thence 600,000 strong, Exodus 12:37 ; so that they soon became a mighty and populous nation, Deuteronomy 26:5 . Judea was not moer than 200 miles long and 50 miles broad, not near the half of England by much; yet what huge armies had they, when the two tribes and the other ten met in the field, one against another! And even at this day (whatever is become of the ten tribes, whether they are in China or America) the Jews are a very great and numerous people. It is thought that there is not any one nation under heaven so great in number as that is, if the dispersed Jews might all be gathered together into one place. And who knows what we may (some of us) yet live to see? The late Clavis Apocalyptica promiseth great matters to occur within these three or four years.

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