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Woe to the bloody city! it [is] all full of lies [and] robbery; the prey departeth not;

Woe to the bloody city — Nineveh, that delighteth in war, which one well calleth the slaughter house of mankind and hell of this present world, Isaiah 9:5: the Greek word πολεβμος , war, signifieth much blood ( πολυ αιμα ). besides that, many murders were committed in her, and connived at, if not countenanced, by a pretence of justice. Such a sanguinary city is Rome; not only drunk with the blood of saints, but also of her own children. Brazutus, set on by Hildebrand, was the death of six popes successively within the time of thirteen years. Pope John XXII (who sat A.D. 1316) flayed a bishop, who had some way offended him, and afterwards burned him. Pope Paul III poisoned two cardinals Fulgosus and Contarenus, a bishop also, and Johannes Baptists Vergerus, because he suspected them of Lutheranism. The Italians generally, as they blaspheme oftener than they swear, so they murder more than they revile or slander. Such another city of bloods is Paris, in France; witness that barbarous massacre, wherein they poisoned the Queen of Navarre, murdered the most part of the peerless nobility of France, with their wives and children, with a great sort of the common people, 100,000 in one year, in various parts of the realm, besides 6000 gentlemen, slain there in private quarrels, within the time of ten years, as it appears by the king’s pardons. Now if the blood of one Abel had so many tongues as drops Genesis 4:10 , "the voice of thy brother’s blood’s crieth unto me," what shall we think will be the woe of such bloody cities and states? Luther rendereth this text, Woe to the murderous state! Austin interpreteth it of all heinous offences wherewith Nineveh was polluted. But surely if other sins have a woe hanging at their heels, according to that of Job 10:15 , "If I be wicked, woe unto me," bloody men shall have a woe with a witness, as those that walk in the way of Cain, Judges 1:11: see Ezekiel 24:6 Habakkuk 3:12 , and remember that it was the ruin of that great city Nineveh.

It is all full of lies — Oλη ψευδης , so the Seventy render it ( universa mendacium ), she is wholly made up of fraud and falsehood, mendaciorum loquacissima; no truth in her private contracts, no trust in her public transactions and capitulations with other nations; be they never so strongly concluded or never so solemnly confirmed, yet had they no longer force with them than stood with their own profit. This was fides Ninevetica, as it was afterwards Punica, and is now Turcica; which will at length prove their downfal; as it befell Nineveh and Carthage.

And robbery — Or ravage ( laceratio ); such as lions exercise, Psalms 7:2 . Liars are commonly thieves; fraudulence is no better than robbery. If I have beguiled any man, saith Zaccheus, I restore him fourfold, Luke 19:8 , as having wronged him no less than if I had robbed him. Hence they go here coupled. Violence is seldom sundered from cunning contrivance; in those especially that hunt after monarchy, as Nimrod, Julius Caesar, Lysander (whose counsel and practice was to eke out the lion’s hide with the fox’s skin, if need were, pellem vulpinam leoninae assuere ), Jeroboam, Jehu, Herod, that fox, Julian, Caesar Borgia, whom Machiavel propounds for a pattern to princes; telling them that justice itself should not be sought after, but only the appearance; because the credit is a help, the use a cumber. That great elixir, called reason of state (though falsely so called, unless it be seasoned with justice and truth), hath so transmutative a faculty as to make copper seem gold, right wrong, and wrong right; yea, when all pleas fail, it will stand for good while there are forces to support it.

The prey departeth not — They fetch in booty continually, they spoil and prey upon others without end or measure. Once they seemed to repent of their luxury and cruelty at the preaching of Jonah; but now they are as bad again, or worse than ever. They tear in pieces (our English seems to be made of the Hebrew here), and greedily feed upon those murdering morsels of sin which they must digest in hell, without better repentance than they were ever yet acquainted with.

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The noise of a whip, and the noise of the rattling of the wheels, and of the pransing horses, and of the jumping chariots.

The noise of a whip, and the noise of the rattling of the wheels — A most elegant and lively hypotyposis, or description, of the Chaldeans coming to take Nineveh; Tam pulchra, saith Jerome, et picturae similis, ut omnis meus sermo sit vilior; So gallant and picture like a representation of an advancing army, that no words of mine can come near it. Virgil is commended for his excellent expressions suitable to the matter he treateth of; as when he sets forth the cutting down of trees, by - Sonat icta securibus ilex; the ferryman’s trade, by - fremit ictibus aerea puppis; the gliding of his boat, by - Labitur uncta vadis abies, … But all this is but dull stuff to the divine rhetoric here to be read. Let those that refuse to hear God’s sweet words fear lest they be forced to hear the noise of the whip, the rattling of the wheels, …, Psalms 7:12-13 Luke 19:42 ; Luke 19:44 Proverbs 1:24 . The enemy is sent to revenge the quarrel of God’s covenant; the red horse is at the heels of the white, Revelation 6:4 .

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The horseman lifteth up both the bright sword and the glittering spear: and [there is] a multitude of slain, and a great number of carcases; and [there is] none end of [their] corpses; they stumble upon their corpses:

The horseman lifteth up both the bright sword — Heb. The flame of the sword, brandished against the sun, which maketh it seem flaming. Such a sword is man’s tongue, thin, broad, long, and of a red fiery colour. See Psalms 42:10 ; Psalms 44:3 Proverbs 12:18 . David cries out of this murdering weapon in his bones, whereby they killed him alive, as with a tuck, or rapier, and buried him in their throats, those gaping graves, open sepulchres.

And the glittering spear — Heb. The lightning of the spear, because of its bright and swift motion. Thus the prophet, perpetuis metaphoris et periphrasibus luxuriat (as one saith of Apuleius), aboundeth with rhetorical expressions and continued metaphors. Bajazet, the Great Turk, for his valour and skill in handling his arms was surnamed Gilderum, or lightning.

And there is a multitude of slain — So that it is not fulgur ex vitro, an empty terror, a bare fright only, as a fool’s dagger, that rattleth and snappeth, but without an edge. Vide bis effectum. See here the sad effect, lo, the tragedy represented, behold a multitude of slain, and a great number of caresses. This the prophet spake, not with any delight, further than made for the glory of God and the Church’s deliverance; but that he may set forth by this example what they must look for that imitate Ninevites in their practices; for sin ever ends tragically; and God is still the same, as he is set forth Nahum 1:2 . I wonder, saith Cicero to Verres, that thou shunnest not their vices whose fearful ends thou art much afraid of: Miror te quorum mores imitaris eorum exitus non perhorrescere (Cic.). And St Ambrose, closing up the sad story of Ahab and Jezebel, whom God destroyed for their wickedness, Fuge ergo dives eiusmodi exitum, saith he, Tremble at such dismal ends, and be careful to avoid them. Such ends ye shall avoid if ye carefully flee from such flagitious practices.

And a great number of caresses — Heb. The heaviness of dead caresses, which lie so thick that the earth seemeth to groan under the burden of them.

There is none end of their corpses — That lie on heaps like so many mountains; as they did after the fight between Amarath, King of Turks, and Lazarus, Despot of Servia, which, while Amurath took a view of, he was suddenly stabbed to death by a half-dead soldier, starting up from among the carcases.

They stumble upon their corpses — And afterwards, perhaps, use them instead of stools and tables, as the Swissers did the Thuricenses, their adversaries, A.D. 1443, banqueting in the place where they won the victory.

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Because of the multitude of the whoredoms of the wellfavoured harlot, the mistress of witchcrafts, that selleth nations through her whoredoms, and families through her witchcrafts.

Because of the multitude of the whoredoms of the wellfavoured harlot — Specious, and therefore gracious with her paramours; of a fair countenance, but foul condition; like Aurelia Orestilla, that had beauty, but no good property, Cuius prater formam nihil unquam bonus laudavit (Sallust.). Chrysippus called beauty the flower of virtue; but that is not generally true. Diogenes saw cause to say to some fair women in his time, O quam bona domus, sed malus hospes, Here is a fair house, but an ill inhabitant. Nineveh is the well favoured harlot here spoken of; her very name signifieth a fair habitation. Jerome and others interpret it, she was indeed urbs formosa et famosa, fair and famous, but foolish and filthy. Meretrix meretricissima; she multiplied her whoredoms, both corporal and spiritual; for these are seldom sundered; as we see in that once well favoured, but now withered, whore of Rome, Revelation 17:1 . Roma inverted is amor ; preposterous love, unnatural filthiness, is there as commonly practised as idolatry. And as a common harlot paints and decks herseff to please her lovers, so did Nineveh, so doth Rome in her pompous and men-pleasing worships. I have read of a lady in Paris, that when she saw the bravery of a procession to a saint she cried out, Oh, how fine is our religion beyond that of the Huguenots! And Sir Walter Raleigh was wont to say, that were he to choose a religion for fleshly liberty and lasciviousness, he would choose Popery, which is indeed an alluring, tempting, bewitching religion, none like it.

The mistress of witchcrafts — Harlots are many of them enchantresses; and have their philtra, their love potions, wherewith to ensnare men, and to draw them on to lewdness, and to take away their hearts, Hosea 4:11 . Athenaeus brings in Plato bewailing himself, that he was taken so much with a filthy harlot. And Aelian tells of a whore that boasted to Socrates that she could easily get followers from him, not he from her. Of Samson and Hercules (whom some think to have been the same) those two verses verified,

“ Nam potuit lenam, potuit superare leaenam:

Quem fera non potuit vincere; vicit hera. ”

Think the same of idolatry also, and of those sorceries, whereby the purple whore hath deceived all nations, as St John (in allusion to this place) saith of her, Revelation 18:23 ; for in that book of the Revelation the Holy Ghost borrows all the elegance and flowers in the story of the Old Testament, thereby to set out the story of the New in succeeding ages.

That selleth nations through her whoredoms — Maketh prize of them, as those impostors did, 2 Timothy 3:6 , and then make sale of them as her slaves, 2 Peter 2:3 , or otherwise use them at her pleasure, as homely as the whore of Babylon now doth those her slaves and souls of men, Revelation 18:13 , whom she sits upon, even upon peoples, nations, multitudes, and tongues, Revelation 17:15 , tyrannizing over their consciences, and appointing them to very mean offices, as that posture of hers, in sitting upon them, seemeth to import.

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Behold, I [am] against thee, saith the LORD of hosts; and I will discover thy skirts upon thy face, and I will shew the nations thy nakedness, and the kingdoms thy shame.

Behold, I am against thee, saith the Lord — And I need say no more, wert thou but sensible of thy misery herein. Be not thou a terror to me, O Lord, saith Jeremiah, and then let what will else befall me, I shall the better bear it. Do not you fall upon me yourselves, said Samson to his countrymen that came to bind him; and then for the Philistines I shall order them well enough, Judges 15:12: so saith the good soul, Let not God set against me. Tyrants and oppressors shall be sure to have him their enemy; and this he tells them here again and again, to beat down their vain confidence in their greatness, whereby they think to bear down all before them.

And I will discover thy skirts upon thy face — i.e. I will turn up thy clothes about thy ears, and so show to all thine utter disgrace, a fit punishment for so filthy a harlot, Isaiah 47:3 Jeremiah 13:22 Ezekiel 16:37 .

And I will show the nations thy nakedness — Which nature teacheth to cover; therefore when a man hath committed a sin he blusheth, the blood, as it were, would cover the sin, that mother of shame: Revelation 3:18 , that the shame of thy nakedness may not appear. The whore of Babylon is, and more and more shall be, served on this sort, Revelation 17:16 . Before God ye are all bare souled, said Mr Philpot, martyr, to the Popish synod, before whom he was convented. The kings of the earth shall make Rome desolate and naked. Luther and many other Protestant writers have done it already by laying her open in her colours to the world, taking the same boldness and liberty to discover her lewdness that she did to commit it.

And the kingdoms thy shame — Who shall therehence slight thee and hate thee, together with all thy policies and superstitions, whereby thou hast enslaved them.

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And I will cast abominable filth upon thee, and make thee vile, and will set thee as a gazingstock.

And I will cast abominable filth upon thee — As they do chamber pots and worse upon harlots that are carted. I have read of a heathen people that put the adulterers’ and adulteresses’ heads into the paunch of a beast, where all the filth lieth, and so stifled them to death.

And make thee vile — Conspurcabo, deturpabo te, I will bespattle thee and make thee stink above ground, as loathsome carrion doth: so the word signifieth. It was long since complained of by one of her own sons, that the stench of the Church of Rome was gone up to heaven. And by another, that of gold she was become silver, of silver iron, of iron earth, superesse ut in stercus abiret, and now there remained no more, but that she should be looked upon as dung. Accordingly it followeth:

And I will set thee as a gazingstock — The Septuagint render it, for an example ( εις παραδειγμα ), others, a lookingglass, but Calvin (after R. Salomon and Aben Ezra), ponam te quasi stercus, I will set thee as dung, which men gladly look beside. Luther rendereth it Ponam te in terriculamentum, I will make thee a bugbear. All this was done to Nineveh, that great city, and all was done by God, not by fate or fortune, or any necessity of nature, that states and kingdoms must have their times and their turns, their rise and their ruin, as politicians dote.

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And it shall come to pass, [that] all they that look upon thee shall flee from thee, and say, Nineveh is laid waste: who will bemoan her? whence shall I seek comforters for thee?

And it shall come to pass that all they that look upon thee shall flee from thee — Thou shalt be a very Magormissabib, a terror to all that are round about thee, so that they shall decline thee and stand aloof off. Resilient a te, they shall leap back from thee (saith the Vulgate translation), as if they had trod upon a snake. Ubi simul hominum mores exprimit, saith Gualther. This is the manner of most people: they measure friendship by profit, and shamefully forsake those in adversity whom they were wont to follow and fawn upon in prosperity. David complains of such dealing, and Ovid, and many others, Tempora si fuerint nubila solus eris. Cum fortuna petit nullus amicus erit.

And say, Nineveh is laid waste — Which most men held impossible, and never looked to have seen such a day. So Rome was called Aurea golden and Aeterna eternal, and the Romans once thought (as it is said Dionysius did) that the monarchy of the world had been tied unto them with chains of adamant. But God confuted their golden dreams by breaking their empire, and giving up their city six different times in one hundred and thirty-nine years into the hands of the barbarians, who exercised therein all kinds of cruelty. Besides that, it is observed that Rome since it became Papal was never besieged by any enemy, but it was taken. The final ruin of it is daily expected, according to that prophecy of St John, "Babylon is fallen, is fallen," Revelation 18:2 , and that other of Sibylla before recited,

“ Tota eris in cineres; quasi nunquam Roma fuisses. ”

Who will bemoan her? — Heb. Who will move (his lips) for her. Some perhaps will shake his head or shoot his bolt at her; but none open his mouth to bemoan her. It was the just hand of God to set off all hearts and shut up all mouths from her, that had been so unreasonably merciless and hard hearted, Lamentations 2:13 .

Whence shall I seek comforters for thee? — q.d. So odious thou art that none will do thee that good office; or if they would, so calamitous thou art that no comfort will fasten. For as to sore eyes the gentlest medicine is troublesome, so is comfort ministered to such as are in a hopeless condition. The ear that tasteth words as the mouth doth meat is at such a time embittered and out of taste.

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Art thou better than populous No, that was situate among the rivers, [that had] the waters round about it, whose rampart [was] the sea, [and] her wall [was] from the sea?

Art thou better than populous No — Heb. No Amon, a great grain country, and therefore populous; for where victual and good trading is to be had thither people will repair apace. No (that is Alexandria) was the nursing mother of Egypt (Amon, i.e. Nutritia Alma mater ), and Egypt was called the world’s barn or storehouse, horreum unde hauriatur, Genesis 42:1 . It is called, Jeremiah 46:25 , Amon de No; Ezekiel 30:13 , Hamon No; and Ezekiel 30:14 ; Ezekiel 30:16 , No, without any addition. This was the old name of this city before it was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar, to whom God had given Egypt as his pay for his pains in taking Tyre. It was rebuilt by Alexander the Great, and he called it, after his own name, Alexandria. Amon it was called for the reasons above given. Though there be those who fetch that name of it from Ham, the son of Noah, Theodoret will have it so called from Jupiter Hammon, whose son Alexander desired to be held, and from whom the Egyptian husbandmen were called Ammonii, and their arable Ammonia, as Herodotus writes. Plutarch also telleth us that the Africans worship an unknown God by the name of Amon, that is (in their language) Heus, tu quis es? This city, therefore, is called No Amon, probably to distinguish it from other cities of the same name, as Alexandria of Egypt, Caesarea of Philippi, Augusta Vindclicorum, … Josephus saith that it abounded in people and wealth; being little less than Jerusalem in size (Lib. 2, de Bell. Jud., cap. 16). Thinkest thou now, O Nineveh (saith God here), that thou art in a better or safer condition than this city once was? but

“ Iam magnum infelix nil nisi nomen habet. ”

Let Nineveh go to Jerusalem, to Shiloh, Jeremiah 7:12 , and do as Scipio did when, beholding the downfall of Carthage, he foresaw and bewailed the like future destiny of Rome, his own country, Succurrat illud, mutato nomine de to fabula narratur.

That was situate among the rivers — Which is held the best situation for profit, pleasure, and strength.

That had the waters round about it — The river Nile surrounded it (saith Strabo), but could not mote it up from God’s fire. See Psalms 33:17 Proverbs 21:30 . See Trapp on " Psalms 33:17 " See Trapp on " Proverbs 21:30 "

Whose rampart was the sea, and her wall was from the sea? — She had the Egyptian sea on one side and the lake of Mareotis on the other, which the Hebrews called the sea.

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