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The burden of the word of the LORD for Israel, saith the LORD, which stretcheth forth the heavens, and layeth the foundation of the earth, and formeth the spirit of man within him.

The burden of the word of the Lord — That is, a declaration of his mind and counsel for Israel’s comfort and his enemies’ confusion. To the Israel of God it is onus sine onere, such a burden as the wings are to the bird, a burdenless burden. To the enemies, a burdensome stone, Zechariah 12:3 , heavier than the sand of the sea, Job 6:3 .

For Israel — Not against Israel, though Calvin so taketh it; and by Israel understandeth the ten tribes, and those other captives that, loth to leave those houses they had built and those gardens they had planted in Babylon, Jeremiah 29:5 , neglected to return to Jerusalem for fear of the Samaritans and other ill neighbours; whose ruin is therefore here foretold by three excellent similitudes, after a stately preamble, drawn, 1. From the power of God, whereby he stretcheth forth the heavens, Job 37:18 ; Job 26:7 , that huge expanse, as a curtain, or as a molten looking glass. 2. From the wisdom of God, in laying the foundation of the earth, and hanging it, by geometry, as we say, in the midst of heaven, like Archimedes’ pigeon, equally poised with its own weight.

“ Terra pilae similis, nullo fulcimine nixa,

Acre subiecto tam grave pendet onus. ”

(Ovid. Fast. l. 6.)

From the goodness of God,

who formeth the spirit of man within him — Who hath made us these souls, Isaiah 57:16 , which he doth daily create and infuse into men’s bodies; yea, and that alone, without any help of their parents: hence he is called "the Father of spirits," Hebrews 12:9 , and the spirit of a dying man is said to return to God that gave it, Ecclesiastes 12:7 . This last text convinced Augustine (who held sometime, with Origen, that the soul as well as the body was begotten by the parents) far more than the peremptory rashness of Vincentius Victor; who censured boldly the father’s unresolvedness (when he doubted concerning the original of a rational soul), and vaunted that he would prove by demonstration that souls are created de novo, by God. Aristotle, Nature’s chief secretary, was much puzzled about this point of the soul; which, indeed, cannot fully be conceived of nor defined by man. Only this we can say, that the soul, as it comes from God, so it is like him; viz. one immaterial, immortal, understanding spirit; distinguished into three powers, which all make up one spirit.

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Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling unto all the people round about, when they shall be in the siege both against Judah [and] against Jerusalem.

Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling — Or, slumber, or poison. A metaphor taken from a cup of generous wine, but empoisoned; so that those that drink of it do presently tremble, grow giddy, sleepy, sick as hear can hold. Poison in wine works more furiously. Thou hast made us to drink the wine of giddiness, saith the Church, Psalms 60:3 . In the hand of the Lord is a cup, and the wine is red, it is full mixed, … The prophet here seems to allude to Jeremiah 25:15 Isaiah 29:8 Jeremiah 51:7 . Ovid saith of the river Gallus, that whoso drinketh of it runneth mad immediately. Jerome telleth of a lake, near Naples, whereinto, if a dog be thrown, he presently dieth. The like is reported, by Josephus, of the Lake Asphaltites. Jerusalem shall be a murdering morsel to those that swallow it. His meat in his bowels is turned, it is the gall of asps within him. He hath swallowed down her spoil, and he shall vomit it up again: God shall rake it out of his belly, Job 20:14-15: he shall have as little joy of his tid bits, of his sweet draughts, as Jonathan had of his honey; whereof he had no sooner tasted but his head was forfeited. Pliny speaketh of a kind of honey that poisoneth; because it is sucked out of poisonous flowers. Our chronicler telleth us that at Alvelana, three miles from Lisbon, many of our English soldiers, under the Earl of Essex, perished by eating of honey, purposely left in the houses, and spiced with poison. The enemies of the Church make a dangerous adventure, they are even ambitious of destruction; they run to meet their bane, as did those Philistines at Mizpeh, 1 Samuel 7:7 . And had they but so much wit as Pilate’s wife, in a dream, they would take heed of having anything to do with those just men, of eating up God’s people as they eat bread, Psalms 14:4 , of boozing in the bowls of the sanctuary with Belshazzar, who fell thereupon into a trembling, so that his loins were loosed, and his knees knocked one against another, Daniel 5:6 .

When they shall be in the siege — And so about to do their last and worst against the Church. The people of Rome was saepe praelio victus, nunquam bello, saith Florus; they lost many battles, but were never overcome in a set war; at the last, at the long run, as they say, they crushed all their enemies; so doth the Church. See Psalms 129:1-8 , throughout; and the story of the Maccabees.

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And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people: all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it.

I will make Jerusalem a burdensome stone — Such a stone as that wherewith the woman brake Abimelech’s brain pan, at the tower of Thebez, Judges 9:53 . He had slain all his brethren upon one stone, Judges 9:5 , he receives, therefore, his death’s wound by a stone; and that by the hand of a woman, which was his greatest grief. The like death befell Pyrrhus, King of Epirotes, slain at the siege of Argos, with a tile thrown by a woman from the wall. So was Earl Simon Mountfort, that bloody persecutor of the Albigenses in France. A woman discharged an engine at him from the walls of Toulouse, and by a stone parted his head from his shoulders. The virgin daughter of Zion shall do as much as all this comes to for her besiegers, though all the people of the earth be gathered together against her. For what reason? she hath a strong champion; that, in maintaining her quarrel, will dash them to pieces, and grind them to powder, Luke 20:18 . They are no more able to stand before him than a glass bottle before a cannon shot. Hence her confidence, her laughing and shaking her head by way of derision at her stoutest enemies, Isaiah 37:22 . She knows that all that burden themselves with her shall be cut in pieces. Haman’s wife could tell so much. If Mordecai, said she, be of the seed of the Jews, before whom thou hast begun to fall, thou shalt not prevail against him, but shalt surely fall before him, Esther 6:13 . A Jew may fall before a Persian, and get up and prevail; but if a Persian, or whosoever of the Gentiles, begin to fall before a Jew, he can neither stay nor rise. There is an invisible hand of omnipotence that strikes in for his own, and confounds their opposites. That little stone, cut out without hands (Christ’s human nature is called a tabernacle not made with hands, not of this building, Hebrews 9:11 , that is, not by an ordinary course of generation), smiteth the four mighty monarchies, and crumbleth them to crattle, Daniel 2:34 . Jerome upon this text (and after him other interpreters, both ancient and modern) tell us that the Holy Ghost here alludeth to a certain exercise or game used much among the Jews, namely, to take up a great round stone for the trial of a man’s strength; lifting it up from the ground, sometimes to the knees, sometimes to their navels, sometimes to their breasts, and sometimes as high as their heads, or above their heads. At which sport many times they did grievously hurt themselves, or, at least, make cuts and scars in their flesh. See Leviticus 21:5 , where the same word is used. The Church’s enemies shall strive, and try who shall do her most harm; but the stoutest of them all shall be fooled and foiled in the end. The irreparable ruin of Rome is graphically described and even set forth to the eye Revelation 18:21 by a notable gradation. An angel, a mighty angel, taketh a stone, a great stone, which he not only casteth, but thrusteth into the bottom of the sea, whence it cannot be buoyed up. This angel might well be Luther (with his book de Captivitate Babylonica; confer Jeremiah 51:63 ), whom God strangely preserved from the rage of Rome and hell; like as he did from that deadly danger by the fall of a stone, whereof Mr Fox writeth thus: "Upon a time," saith he, "when Luther was sitting in a certain place upon a stool studying, a great stone there was in the vault over his head where he sat; which being staid miraculously so long as he was sitting, as soon as he was up immediately fell upon the place where he sat, able to have crushed him in pieces, if it had lit upon him." But no malice of man or devil could antedate his end a minute, while his Master had work for him to do; as the two witnesses could not be killed till their business was despatched, Revelation 11:7 .

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In that day, saith the LORD, I will smite every horse with astonishment, and his rider with madness: and I will open mine eyes upon the house of Judah, and will smite every horse of the people with blindness.

I will smite every horse with astonishment — Great is the strength of the horse and the rage of his rider: Jehu marched furiously; Bajazet, the Great Turk, of his fierce and furious riding was surnamed Gilderun, or Lightning; but God can make the Egyptians to appear men, and not gods, and their horses flesh, and not spirit; "When the Lord shall but stretch out his hand" (and that is no hard matter of motion), "both he that helpeth shall fall and he that is helped shall fall down, and they shall all fail together," Isaiah 31:8 . See Psalms 76:5-6 "An horse is a vain thing for safety," Psalms 33:17 , though a warlike creature full of terror; but safety or victory is of the Lord, Proverbs 21:31 "In nothing be terrified," saith the apostle, Philippians 1:28 . The Greek word is a metaphor from horses when they tremble and are sore frightened; as it happened in the Philistines’ army, when the angels made a bustle among the mulberry trees, 2 Samuel 5:24 ; in the Syrians’ army, when the angels likewise made a hurrying noise in the air, of chariots, of horses, and of a great host, 2 Kings 7:6 ; in the army of Sennacherib, when at God’s sole rebuke "both the chariot and horse were cast into a dead sleep," Psalms 76:6 . Lastly, in the German wars against Zisca and the Hussites in Bohemia, where God smote every horse with astonishment, and his rider with madness; such a panic terror seized upon the enemies of the truth, though they came in with three potent armies at once, that they fled before ever they looked the enemy in the face. How this prophecy was literally fulfilled to the Maccabees, see 2 Maccabees 10:30 .

And I will open mine eyes upon the house of Judah — Who before seemed to wink, or to be asleep. Now will I awake, saith the Lord, Now will I arise, now will I lift up myself, Isaiah 33:10 , for the relief and rescue of my poor people; and that because they called them outcasts, saying, "This is Zion, whom no man looketh after," Jeremiah 33:17 .

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And the governors of Judah shall say in their heart, The inhabitants of Jerusalem [shall be] my strength in the LORD of hosts their God.

And the governors of Judah — The dukes or chieftains ( àìôé ); meaning the Maccabees, who wear not any kingly crown, but were only governors, rulers, commanders-in-chief, such as went before others; like as in the alphabet Aleph is the first letter; so,

“ Omega nostrorum Mors est, Mars Alpha malorum, ”

saith the poet wittily.

Shall say in their hearts — i.e. Shall say heartily, from the root of the heart, and not from the roof of the mouth only. Profession of the truth and prayer (for so some make this verse to be) are not a labour of the lips, but a travail of the heart. The voice which is made in the mouth is nothing so sweet as that which comes from the depth of the breast. As in instrument music, the deeper and hollower the belly of the lute or viol, the pleasanter is the sound; the fleeter, the more grating and harsh in our ears.

The inhabitants of Jerusalem shall be my strength — Though now there be few found in it; yet it shall be much repeopled and fortified; so that, under God, it shall be a fortress to the whole country; and the governors shall so take it to be: or thus,

There is strength to me and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem in the Lord of hosts their God — Every governor shall say so for his own particular (and this seems to me to be the better reading). The Maccabees did so, as appeared by their posy (whereof before), their prayers, and their singular success, as appears by their history and by Josephus. Deo confisi, nunquam confusi, They that trust in God shall never be confounded. "Our fathers trusted in thee, and they were delivered. O trust ye in the Lord for ever; for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength." Look not down on the rushing and roaring streams, lest ye grow giddy; but look up to the heavens from whence comes your help, and fasten by faith on God’s power and promises. Faith unfeigned breeds hope unfailable, such as never miscarrieth. "O trust in him at all times, ye people," Psalms 62:8 , for with God is wisdom and strength, Job 12:13 . Plutarch saith of the Scythians that they have neither wine nor music; but they have gods. Say that the saints have neither power nor policy as their enemies, yet they have all in God, who is more than all.

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In that day will I make the governors of Judah like an hearth of fire among the wood, and like a torch of fire in a sheaf; and they shall devour all the people round about, on the right hand and on the left: and Jerusalem shall be inhabited again in her own place, [even] in Jerusalem.

In that day will I make the governors, … — This is the third similitude, whereof the Scripture is full; according to that, I will open my mouth in parables. These are of excellent use to adorn and explain; and yet they are evermore inferior to the matter in hand. They are borrowed from things well known and easy to be conceived; as here from a hearth of fire among wood; now we can all tell how great a matter (or wood) a little fire kindleth, James 3:5 . When Nero, for his pleasure’s sake, set Rome on fire, among other stately buildings that were quickly burnt down, the circus or race yard was one, being about half a mile in length, of an oval form, with rows of seats one above another, capable of at least 150,000 spectators, without uncivil shoulderings. "As the fire burneth a wood; and as the flame setteth the mountains on fire; so persecute them with thy tempest, and make them afraid with thy storm," saith the Church, Psalms 83:14-15 . Thus they prayed, and thus it is here promised; and was accordingly performed in those first wars of the Maccabees; as appeareth in the first book of their story, and in Josephus. Diodati and others understand this text to be the apostles and evangelists, who should fill the world with wars and dissensions by preaching the gospel, Luke 12:49 , whereby the enemies should be ruined and the Church re-established, Obadiah 1:18 , through the spirit of judgment and of burning, Isaiah 4:4 . To which purpose Chrysostem saith, that Peter was a man made of fire walking among stubble. Basil was compared to a pillar of fire. John Baptist is by our Saviour said to be a burning and a shining lamp. And Elijah (in whose spirit the Baptist came) was a man of that transcendent zeal, that to heighten the expression thereof some have legended of him, that when he drew his mother’s breasts he was seen to suck in fire.

And Jerusalem shall be inhabited again in her own place — sc. Where she was built at first, and not in another near place, as Tyre was; and Rome is at this day quite off her old seven hills; so that a man may look for Rome in Rome. And Jerusalem that now is hath Mount Calvary in the very midst of it (which was anciently without the city), and not one hundred families of Jews are therein to be found. That they shall one day cast out therehence Gog and Magog, inhabit it in the old place, and have excellent strength and valour ministered by God to them, all equally for their common defence, none lifting up themselves above another, but all alike ascribing the glory unto God, is concluded by some and those not inconsiderable divines out of this and the following verses.

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The LORD also shall save the tents of Judah first, that the glory of the house of David and the glory of the inhabitants of Jerusalem do not magnify [themselves] against Judah.

The Lord also shall save the tents of Judah first — Or, as at first, sc. when they came out of Egypt, and had no strongholds to take to for their defence. "Lord" (saith Moses), "thou hast been our dwelling-place in all generations," Psalms 90:1 . He was so of old, and ever will be; the faith whereof made the fathers well content to dwell in tents, Hebrews 11:13 , and those holy Rochabites, Jeremiah 35:7-8 , till Nebuchadnezzar came up into the land, Zechariah 12:11 . But here God promiseth to deliver those Jews that dwelt in the open fields, without the city; and then afterwards to deliver Jerusalem itself from the rage of the Antiochi: and so he did (1 Maccab.) in a wonderful manner; they were helped indeed with a little help, Daniel 11:34 , to take away boasting; as it followeth.

That the glory of the house of David, … — That is, the glorious house of David, and the glorious inhabitants of Jerusalem, by an hypallage. A figure of speech in which there is an interchange of two elements of a proposition, the natural relations of these being reversed. ŒD Non est gloriosior populus sub caelo, quam Iudaicus. There is not a more vain glorious people under heaven than the Jews are, saith Alsted. They were so of old, John 8:33 Matthew 3:9 . Spaniards are said to be impudent braggers, and extremely proud in the lowest ebb of fortune; so are the Jews. But God will teach them better things, and make him that glorieth glory in the Lord, 1 Corinthians 1:31 .

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In that day shall the LORD defend the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and he that is feeble among them at that day shall be as David; and the house of David [shall be] as God, as the angel of the LORD before them.

In that day shall the Lord defend, … — Prosequitur eandem sententiam, saith Calvin. He proceeds in the former argument to assure the feeble Jews (as Sanballat, that proud haughty scorner, called them, Nehemiah 4:2 Proverbs 21:24 ) of safety and protection. God will bless the righteous; with favour will he compass them as with a shield, Psalms 5:12 . Now there is no coming at the body but through the shield, if well handled; no coming at the saints but through God’s own sides, as I may say. He beareth his people as on eagles’ wings, Exodus 19:4 Deuteronomy 32:11 . Now the eagle carries her young upon her wings (and not between her talons, as other birds do), so that they cannot be shot but through the body of the old one. Oh the dignity and safety of a saint! Well might Moses sing, "Happy art thou, O Israel: who is like unto thee, O people saved by the Lord, the shield of thy help, and who is the sword of thy excellency! and thine enemies shall be found liars unto thee; and thou shalt tread upon their high places," Deuteronomy 33:29 . Let all that would be safe indeed, as in a tower of brass or town of war, labour to be found written among the living in Jerusalem, Isaiah 4:3 , to be of the Church of the firstborn which are enrolled in heaven, Hebrews 12:23 , like as in Jerusalem were records kept of the names of all the citizens, Psalms 48:3 . Get under God’s wing, and nothing can annoy thee. As if he be angry, where shall a man shelter? Brass and iron can fence him against a bullet or a sword; but if he be cast into a furnace of fire, it would help to torment him; if into a pit of water, to sink him. Now "our God is a consuming fire," Hebrews 12:29 , and his breath a stream of brimstone, Isaiah 30:33 . To run from him to other refuge is but for a man to run his head into a barrel of gunpowder for a shelter against the force of a fire kindled over him.

And he that is feeble among them — So that he cannot stand, but stagger (as the word importeth), as did Miles Cobelite, a Christian soldier, sore wounded, so that he reeled like a drunken man, and fell down many times, for want of strength. This man, drawing nigh to Amurath, the third King of the Turks, as he was viewing the dead bodies after a bloody fight, making as if he would have craved his life of him, suddenly stabbed him in the bottom of his belly with a short dagger which he had under his soldier’s coat; of which wound that great king and conqueror presently died.

Shall be as David — Who was a mighty man of valour (as Hushai told Absalom, and bid him beware, 2 Samuel 17:8 ), and had such a band of worthies about him as were not to be matched, 2 Samuel 23:8 . These had a house by themselves to dwell and exercise feats of arms; as Lyra gathereth out of Nehemiah 3:16 , where mention is made of the house of the mighty. The Maccabees, slighted as abjects, did greater exploits and got greater victories than David had done; and the condition of this poor people was to be shortly after ( sc. under the preaching of Christ’s gospel) far better and happier than ever it had been under the rich and flourishing kingdom of David; for then they should be able to say, God’s grace is sufficient for me; his strength is made perfect in my weakness. I will glory in mine infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me; for when I am weak, then I am strong. I can do all things, suffer all things, through Christ, that strengtheneth me. The weak shall say, I am strong, Joel 3:10 . And, indeed, how can they be otherwise, that have a mighty strong God, Isaiah 9:6 ; a strong word, the Lord’s own arm, the power of God to salvation, Romans 1:16 Acts 20:32 ; a strong spirit, 2 Timothy 1:7 ; strong consolations, Hebrews 6:18 ; strong armour, both offensive and defensive, Ephesians 6:18 ; and the name of the Lord as a strong tower, whereunto the righteous run and are safe, and where, waiting upon the Lord, they renew their strength, they mount up with wings as eagles, or rather as angels, Proverbs 18:10 Isaiah 40:31 .

For the house of David shall be as God, as the angel of the Lord before them — i.e. As Christ, the angel of God’s presence, and that went before the people in the wilderness. Such were those of the blood royal, and that succeeded David in the government; but especially such were the apostles, Christ’s mighties, who should be endued with so many graces in majesty, authority, strength, and truth, that men should receive them, Cornelius-like, as so many angels of God, yea, even as Christ Jesus, Galatians 4:14 .

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