성경 주석서

When I would have healed Israel, then the iniquity of Ephraim was discovered, and the wickedness of Samaria: for they commit falsehood; and the thief cometh in, [and] the troop of robbers spoileth without.

When I would have healed Israel, … — Whereas Israel, hearing of a happy harvest promised to Judah, Hosea 6:11 , and themselves excluded, might complain of hard dealing; God shows them here, that crudelem medicum intemperans aeger facit, the fault was merely in themselves. God came with his healing medicines to have cured them, but they hated to be healed, and, like madmen, railed and raged against the physician, spilt the portions, would have none of those slibber-sauces, A compound or concoction of a messy, repulsive, or nauseous character, used esp. for medicinal purposes. ŒD as they accounted them; yea, as if on purpose to cross God,

then the iniquity of Ephraim was discovered, and the wickedness ( malitia multiplex ) of Samaria — Of so perverse a spirit were they; and therefore (in Solomen’s judgment, Proverbs 12:8 ) worthy to have been despised and let alone to perish in their corruptions. In Hippocrates’ time the physicians were bound by oath to leave such under their wounds to perish by them as were unruly, and would not be ordered. "We would have healed Babylon," (saith the Church), "but she would not be healed; forsake her therefore," saith God, Jeremiah 51:9 . "Let them alone," saith Christ, Matthew 15:14 . That which will die, let it die: a fearful sentence. Let them swelter and pine away in their iniquities, Leviticus 26:39 . In their filthiness is lewdness, their disease is complicated, it is the leprosy in the head, it breaketh forth in their forehead, and my people love to have it so; but "what will they do in the end thereof?" Jeremiah 5:31 . Ephraim here discovereth a headstrong wilfulness that was uncounsellable, incurable. He runs away after conviction, with a bit between his teeth, as it were; he runs, I say, upon the rock, Amos 6:12 , where he first breaketh his hoofs, and then his neck. Some grow desperately sinful, like those Italian senators, that despairing of their lives (when upon submission they had been promised their lives, yet), being conscious of their villany, made a curious banquet; and at the end thereof every man drank up his glass of poison: and killed himself. So men, feeling such horrible hard hearts, and privy to such notorious sins they cast away souls and all for lust; and perish woefully, because they lived desperately, and so securely. It is a fearful sign of reprobation when God’s means and medicines do men no good, but hurt rather; when medicine, which should remove the disease, doth co-operate with it, then death comes with the more pain and speed. The stronger the conviction of sin is the deeper will be the wrath against it, if it be not by repentance avoided.

For they commit falsehood — They do not the truth, 1 John 1:6 , but deal falsely, Jeremiah 6:13 , every one of them, from the prophet even to the priest; they work a deceitful work, Proverbs 11:18 , their bellies prepare deceit, Job 15:35 , they have an art in lying, in stitching one lie to another, as the word signifieth, Psalms 119:69 , Assuunt mendacium mendacio. Idolatry is a real lie, as she in the Book of Martyrs answered the doctor, that asked her, Dost thou believe that the body of Christ is in the sacrament of the altar really and substantially? I believe, said she, that so to hold is a real lie, and a substantial lie. These idolaters having played false with God, and treacherously dealt with him, what wonder though they lie, deceive, rob, spoil, both within doors and without, in private negotiations and public transactions? but especially forge lies against those that withstood their superstitious vanities, and prey upon their goods, as Hebrews 10:34 . Sublata pietate tollitur fides, is a truth irrefutable. Take away piety, and fidelity is gone; as we see in that unrighteous judge, Luke 18:2 , and as Abraham concluded of the men of Gerar, Genesis 20:11 , and lastly, as Constantinus Chlorus, the father of Constantine the Great, experimented in his own councillors and courtiers; whence that famous maxim of his, recorded by Eusebius: He cannot be faithful to me who is unfaithful to God; religion being the ground of all true fidelity and loyalty.

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And they consider not in their hearts [that] I remember all their wickedness: now their own doings have beset them about; they are before my face.

And they consider not in their hearts — Heb. They say not in their hearts; that is, they set not down themselves with this consideration, they commune not with their consciences upon this most needful, but much neglected matter. A good man’s work lieth much within doors; he loves to be dealing with himself, and working good and wholesome considerations upon his own affections. He is never less alone than when he is alone; for still he hath God and himself to talk to.

That I remember all their wickedness — i.e. Record and register them, as in a book, with a pen of iron and point of a diamond, Jeremiah 17:1 ; that I seal them up in a bag, Job 14:17 , as the clerk of assizes seals up indictments, and at the assizes brings his bag, and produceth them. "Is not this laid up in store with me, and sealed up among my treasures?" Deuteronomy 32:34 . So little reason is there that wicked men should please themselves in hope of impunity. And yet they do, Psalms 94:7 , they strive to persuade themselves that the Lord doth not see, neither doth the God of Jacob remember: they hide God from themselves, and then think they have hid themselves from him. Herein they are alike foolish as the ostrich, a bird as big as a camel, and taller than a man (Plin. lib. x., cap. 1). When this bustard A genus of birds ( Otis) presenting affinities both to the Cursores and the Grallatores or waders; remarkable for their great size and running powers. The great bustard ( Otis tarda) is the largest European bird, and was formerly common in England, though now extinct, or found only as a rare visitant. ŒD would hide herself she thrusts her head into a thicket, as conceiving that nobody seeth her because she seeth nobody, and so becomes a prey to the hunter. Caveatur carnalis securitas. Let us walk evermore in the sense of God’s presence, unless we had rather be carnally secured than soundly comforted.

Now their own doings have beset them about — Their studied wickedness, studia eorum (Tigurin), their contrived iniquities, so Luther expounds the word doings; for wicked men are great students, and break many a night’s sleep in pernicious ploddings, Proverbs 4:16 . But as the blackbird is taken by birdlime made of his own excrements, so is the wicked beset by his own devices; as by so many sergents set on by God. Some think (and not without probable reason) that the prophet in this phrase of besetting them about alludeth to the future siege of Samaria; wherein these sinners against their own souls were so straitly beset by the enemy, that they could not flee or stir without danger. And this he saith shall befall them. Now, that is, shortly, and sooner than they think for. Indeed, how should it be otherwise, whereas their doings

are before my face — E regione et velut adversa ac detestata, Together and in full view, as a continual eye sore to me, Psalms 59:5 ; Psalms 90:8 ; so that though I could or would forget them, yet they will not suffer me to do so; such is their impudence, and importunace for vengeance. Lyra makes it a metaphor, from a thief taken in the act, with his back burden of stolen goods, and, as it were, beset with them, and so brought before the judge. "His own iniquities shall take the wicked," saith Solomon, Proverbs 5:22 . For how can he escape the multitude of his sins within him, and the variety of God’s heavy judgments without him?

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They make the king glad with their wickedness, and the princes with their lies.

They make the king glad with their wickedness — A sad commentary surely of king and people, exhilarating themselves and each other in wickedness. Their kings were well paid of their people’s compliances with their unlawful edicts; and the people no less well pleased to gratify and flatter their kings, as the Romans did Tiberius and other tyrants, who therefore said of them, that they were servum pecus, servile souls, et homines ad servitutem parati, men-made slaves. Tyrants care not how wicked their subjects are; for then they know they will swallow down any command, though never so impious, without scrupling or conscience-making. They like to have such about them as will down with anything, digest iron for a need, with the ostrich; and say, as that wretched man said (when one complained he could not do such a thing for his conscience), "I am master of my conscience, I can do anything for all that." Thus Balaam resolved to curse, whatever came of it; he went not aside as at other times, neither built he any more altars, but set his face towards the wilderness, as fully bent to do it, and nothing should hinder him now, Numbers 24:1-2 cf. Luke 9:51 . He also gave wicked counsel to King Balak (and so made him glad at parting, though before he had angered him) to lay a stumblingblock before the children of Israel, viz. to set fair women to tempt them to corporal and spiritual fornication, that God might see sin flagrant in Jacob, some transgression in Israel, and so fall foul upon them with his plagues, Numbers 23:21 . Parasites propound to kings suavia potius quam sana consilia, pleasing, but pestilent counsel; they also act for them, and under them, as Doeg did for Saul, and so gratify them, letify them, as here, make them glad; but it proves to be no better than risus Sardonius, such a mirth as brings bitterness in the end. Woe to such mirthmongers and mirth makers, for if they shall do thus wickedly, they shall be consumed, both they and their king, 1 Samuel 12:25 .

And the princes with their lies — With calumnies and false accusations, wherewith they load God’s innocent servants, and that against their own consciences. Thus Doeg dealt by David, the priests and prophets by Jeremiah, the Persian courtiers by Daniel and his companions, Amaziah by Amos, Haman by the whole nation of the Jews, Tertullus by Paul, the heathen idolaters by the primitive Christians, which caused those many apologies made for them by Tertullian, Athenagoras, and others. If a ruler hearken to lies (and that is a common fault among them, as David tells Saul, 1 Samuel 24:9 ) all his servants will be wicked, Proverbs 29:12 ; he shall have his Aiones and Negones that will say as he says, and fit his humour to a hair; he shall have plenty of such as will slander the saints and cast an odium upon the conscientious. I once saw (saith Melancthon) an old coin, on the one side whereof was Zopyrus, on the other Zoilus; he adds, fuit imago aulae, comitantur calumniae bene merentes, It was a picture of princes’ courts, where are store of such as, by flattery, daub white upon black, and, by calumny, sprinkle black upon white.

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They [are] all adulterers, as an oven heated by the baker, [who] ceaseth from raising after he hath kneaded the dough, until it be leavened.

They are all adulterers — εξεκαυσθησαν , adulterio caleseunt, so Paguine, scalded in their base lusts, as those in Romans 1:27 , all (for the most part) were such; but especially the courtiers and clawback informers, as Hosea 7:3 , God, in his just judgment, giving them up to those vile affections or passions of dishonour, and punishing their impieties with impurities, as he did also in those heathens, Romans 1:23 .

As an oven heated by the baker — An apt similitude setting forth the intense heat of filthy lust (better marry than burn, 1 Corinthians 7:9 ), and of long continuance as the heat of an oven; yea, of Nebuchadnezzar’s oven, yea, of hell itself, whence it was enkindled, and where it shall be perpetually punished. The holy angels at the last day will be most active against such, to bring them to condign punishment: 2 Peter 2:10 , "But chiefly them that walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleanness." Note the word chiefly, and consider the example of the Sodomites, and God most severe against them, Hebrews 13:4 . How much they have lived deliciously, and drenched themselves in fleshly delights, so much torments and sorrow shall they have proportionably, Revelation 18:7 . As their hearts have been as a hot oven or furnace, so they shall be bound up in bundles, and cast into a furnace of fire, where shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth, Matthew 13:42 .

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In the day of our king the princes have made [him] sick with bottles of wine; he stretched out his hand with scorners.

In the day of our king — Our good king, on whom they so much doted, that they forgot God and his sincerer service. Quaecunque a regibus dicuntur aut fiunt, Gallis mirifice solet placere. It is reported of the French by their own chronicles, that they are wonderfully well pleased with whatsoever is said or done by their king (Epit. Hist. Gallor. 134); so that they affect to speak like him, to be arrayed like him, and to imitate him in everything. Their song is, Mihi placet quicquid Regi placet. But is not this to idolize the creature? and have not many (otherwise well minded men) among us been by this means miscarried to their cost in our late combustions? This day of their king was either his birthday (so Pagnine rendereth it here, die natalis eius ), or his coronation day (so the Chaldee paraphrast carrieth it), which also is the birthday of a king as he is king, 1 Samuel 13:1 , unless haply he have the happiness to be crowned (not in his cradle only, as Europus, king of Macedon, and the late King James were, but) in his mother’s womb, as Misdaetus, king of Persia, was, the crown being set upon his mother’s great belly before he was born. Now in this solemn day of the king (when they should have been better busied), the princes have made him sick, or the princes were sick, they drank themselves sick, drowning their bodies and souls (as Richard III did his brother Clarence) in a butt of Malmsey. How many importunate and impudent drinkers are there, that by drinking other men’s health destroy their own! See Master Prinne’s Health’s-sickness, and accord him that said,

“ Una salus sanis, nullam potare salutem,

Non est in pota vera salute salus. ”

But what beastly bedlams, or rather incarnate devils, were those three drunkards mentioned by Jo. Manlius in his Common Places, who drank so long till one of them fell down stark dead; and yet the other two, nothing terrified with such a dreadful example of divine vengeance, went on to drink, and poured the dead man’s part into him as he lay by them? Oh horrible! Drunkenness is a detestable vice in any, but especially in men of place and power, Proverbs 31:4 . Woe be to those drunken vice-gods (as I may in the worst sense best call them), woe to the very crown of their pride, in drinking down many, Isaiah 28:1 , as Mark Antony wrote, or rather spued out, a book concerning his own abilities to bear strong drink! Darius also boasted of the same faculty in his very epitaph: a poor praise. Drunkenness in a king is a capital sin, and makes the land reel; witness Belshazzar carousing in the bowels of the sanctuary to the honour of Shar, his drunken god; Alexander the Great drinking himself to death, and killing forty-one more with excessive drinking, to get that crown of one hundred and eighty pounds weight, which he had provided for him that drank most (hence those feast days were called σακεαι ημεραι , they were like the Roman Saturnalia); Bonosus the emperor, that beastly drunkard, called therefore a tankard, ( Hic pendet Amphora ); and Tiberius, surnamed Biberius, for his tippling; like as Erasmus, called Eccius Ieccius, for the same cause: and well he might; for as he lived a shameful drunkard, so being nonplust at Ratisbon by Melancthon in a public disputation, and drinking more tban was fit that night at the Bishop of Mundina’s lodgings (who had among the best Italian wines), he fell into a fever, whereof he died. Drunkenness is a flattering evil, a sweet poison, a cunning Circe, that besots the soul, destroys the body, dolores gignit in capite, in stomacho, in tote corpore acerrimos, grievous diseases and dolours in the head, stomach, whole man. At the last "it biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder," Proverbs 23:32 . The drunkard saith, as the vine in Jotham’s parable, Non possum relinquere vinum meum, Take away my liquor, you take away my life. But it proves to him in the issue like that wine mentioned by Moses, Deuteronomy 32:33: their wine is the poison of dragons, and cruel venom of asps, which makes the spirits warm, and the body sick to death.

With bottles of wine — Or, with heat through wine, as Isaiah 5:11 , and so Jarchi expoundeth it. The same word signifieth the poison of a serpent, Psalms 58:4 , which inflameth and killeth: confer Proverbs 23:32 , and think of that cup of fire and brimstone, Psalms 11:6 , to be one day turned down the wide gullets of intemperate drinkers; which will be much worse to them than was that ladle full of boiling lead, which the Turkish bashaw caused to be poured down the throat of a drunken wretch, without giving him any respite for the recovery of his lost wits.

He stretched out his hand with scorners — He, that is, the king, forgetting his kingly dignity, authority, and gravity (for there is a decorum, το πρεπον , to be observed in every calling, but by great ones especially), stretched out his hand, as a companion and comrade, as a hail-fellow-well-met (as they say), prostituting his regal authority to every scoundrel that would pledge him; or at least, giving them his hand to kiss, which Job saith God will not do, Job 8:20 .

With scorners — Those worst of men, Psalms 1:1 , those pests, ακολαστοι λοιμοι , as the Septuagint here render it, those incorrigible persons, as they translate the word, Proverbs 20:1 , where also it is fitly said, that wine is a mocker, because it maketh men mockers. Hence that of David, "with hypocritical mockers at feasts they gnashed upon me with their teeth," Psalms 35:16 . And that holy jealousy of Job for his children, lest (while they were feasting and merry-making) they should curse God, or mock at men. Tales enim evadunt qui strenue helluantur (Tarnov.). It is ordinary with such as are full-gorged with good cheer, and throughly heated with wine, to set their mouths against heaven, and to license their tongues to walk through the earth, Psalms 73:9 ; they have a flout to fling, and a fool’s bolt to shoot at their betters by many degrees; yea, though they be kings that do it (as here), they stretch out their hands with scorners, and jeer at the power and profession of godliness; they are no better than base fellows, as great Antiochus is called, Daniel 11:21 , and as Kimchi upon this text noteth from his Father, that those that at the beginning of the feast or compotation were here called princes, are afterwards, when they fell to quafflngand flouting, called (in contempt) scoffers and scorners. Polanus and others, by stretching out the hand, understand, ad aequales haustus potare, …, a drinking share and share alike with every base companion, till drunk; they became despicable. Nempe ubi, neque mens, neque pes suum facit officium. The Greeks, when they meet at feasts or banquets, drink small draughts at first, which by degrees they increase, till they come to the height of intemperance. Hence Graecari, and as merry as a Greek. How much better those Spartans, of whom the poet,

“ Quinetiam Spartae mos est laudabilis ille,

Ut bibat arbitrio pocula quisque suo? ”

How much better the Persians in Esther’s time, Esther 1:8 , "the drinking was according to the law, none did compel," … And what a drunken beast was Domitius, the father of Nero, who slew Liberius, an honest Roman, because he refused to take up his cups, as he commanded him! (Sueton.). The Carthaginians made a law, that none of their magistrates during their office should drink any wine. Romulus being invited to a feast, would not drink much, quia postridie negotium haberet, because he had public business to despatch on the morrow. Ahasuerus, drinking more freely on the first day of the feast, became so frolic, that in his mirth he forgot what was convenient; and guided by his passions, sent for Vashti, Esther 1:5 ; Esther 1:10 .

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For they have made ready their heart like an oven, whiles they lie in wait: their baker sleepeth all the night; in the morning it burneth as a flaming fire.

For they have made ready their hearts like an oven — As an oven red-hot is ready to bake whatsoever is cast into it, so are wicked men’s hearts, heated from hell, prepared for any evil purpose or practice that the devil shall suggest ( ad male cogitandum, Pagnin., ad pessima facinora, Tigur.); but especially to lie in wait for blood, and to hunt every man his brother with a net, Micah 7:2 . David complains of some that lay in wait for his soul, Psalms 59:8 , that Satanically hated him, Psalms 38:20 ; Psalms 7:13 ; Psalms 109:4 ; Psalms 109:6 ; Psalms 109:20 ; Psalms 109:29 ; that sought his soul to destroy it; not his life only, but his soul too; as that monster of Milan did, that made his adversary first forswear Christ in hope of life, and then, stabbing him to the heart, said, Now go thy ways soul and body to the devil; and as the Papists dealt by John Huss and Jerome of Prague, to whom they denied a confessor, which he required, after the manner of those times, to fit him for heaven; and for John Huss, after they had burnt him, how despitefully did they beat his heart (which was left untouched by the fire) with their staves! Besides that the bishops, when they put the triple crown of paper (painted with ugly devils on it) on his head, they said, Now we commit thy soul to the devil. Did not these men’s hearts burn like an oven with hellish rage and cruelty?

Their baker sleepeth all the night — Concoquens illa, scilicet corda, so Vatabius. He that concocteth or worketh their hearts, that is, the devil, as some interpret it, or evil concupiscence, as others; tota nocte protrahitur furor eorum, so the Chaldee; their rage is deferred, or drawn out to the length all night long, till in the morning, i.e. at a convenient season, it break out and bestir itself. A metaphor from a baker, who casting fire into the oven with good store of lasting fuel, lets it burn all night and sleeps securely; as knowing that he shall find it thoroughly hot in the morning. Those scorners in the former verse, by being overly familiar with their drunken king, came not only to fight him for his base behaviours, but also to conspire against him, and to plot his death; wherein their heart is the oven, ambition the fire, treason the flame of that fire, Satan, that old manslayer, the baker; who, though he make as if he slept all night, yet by the morning he hath set his agents, the traitors, to work (either by secret treacheries or open seditions) to do as in the next verse, and as is to be seen, 2 Kings 15:10 ; 2 Kings 15:14 ; 2 Kings 15:25 ; 2 Kings 15:30 .

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They are all hot as an oven, and have devoured their judges; all their kings are fallen: [there is] none among them that calleth unto me.

They are all hot as an oven — That none might post it off to others, all are accused of this mad desire to do mischief; as all the Sodomites, full and whole, young and old, came clattering about Lot’s house, Genesis 19:4 . ( Dedit haec contagio labem, Et dabit in plures. Juven. Sat. 2.)

And have devoured their judges; all their kings are fallen, … — sc. being slain with the sword of those that succeeded them in the throne, as may be read, 2 Kings 15:8-9 , …, and as it was in the Roman state, where all or most of the Caesars, till Constantine, died unnatural deaths. Neither was it much better here in England during the difference between the two houses of York and Lancaster; wherein were slain fourscore princes of royal blood, and twice as many natives of England as were lost in the two conquests of France. This is the fruit of sin: Proverbs 28:2 , "For the transgression of a land many are the princes thereof"; either many at once (as once here in the heptarchy), or many ejecting and succeeding one another, to the great calamity and utter undoing of the people by their new lords, new laws.

There is none among them that calleth unto me — Though in so great a confusion, and under so heavy calamities: a strange stupor, that there should be none to set to his shoulder to shore up the falling state. None there were (to speak of) in a considerable number of praying people to stand in the gap, and to divert the Divine displeasure. Their sins cried loud for vengeance, their blood guiltiness especially. But had there been but a few voices more of praying saints, their prayers had haply out cried them. A few birds of song are shriller than many crocitating birds of prey; stir up yourselves, therefore, ye that are God’s remembrancers, to take hold of him, and give him no rest. Lie night and day at the gate of his grace, knocking thereat by the hand of faith, and praying for the peace of our Jerusalem. If England’s fears were greater, thy prayers might preserve it, Jeremiah 5:1 ; as, if our hopes were greater, thy sin and security aright undo it, Ecclesiastes 9:18 .

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Ephraim, he hath mixed himself among the people; Ephraim is a cake not turned.

Ephraim, he hath mixed himself among the people — viz. in confederacies, marriages, manners, superstitions. They were conformed to those nations from whom God had separated them with a wonderful separation, Exodus 33:16 , and put them up by themselves from all the world in the promised land, as it were in an island, Isaiah 20:6 . And this they had done not once, but often, as the conjugation importeth; and that wilfully, without any necessity; yea and that constantly and of custom, or desperate obstinace (Heb. éúáìì he will mingle himself). so that there was little difference to be discerned between Ephraim, the professed people of God: and profane heathens. Hence that, Amos 9:7 . "Are ye not as children of the Ethiopians unto me, O children of Israel? saith the Lord." Hence Saul is called Cush, or an Ethiopian, fox his black and ill conditions, Psal. vii., title, as the Chaldee interpreteth it. Cast we may be upon bad company, but we must not mingle with them. The rivers of Peru, after they have run into the main sea, yea, some write twenty or thirty miles, they keep themselves unmixed with the salt water; so that a very great way within the sea men may take up as fresh water as if they were near the land. At Belgrad, in Hungary, where the Danube and Sava (two great rivers) meet, their waters mingle no more than water and oil (Abbat’s Geog.); not that either float above other: but join unmixed: so that near the middle of the river I have gone in a boat (saith mine author, Sir Henry Blount), and tasted of the Danube as clear and pure as a well; then putting mine hand not an inch farther, I have taken of the Sava as troubled as a street-channel, tasting the gravel in my teeth. Thus they run 60 miles together, and for a day’s journey I have been an eyewitness of it. To come nearer home, the river Dee, in Merionethshire, running through Pemblemere, remains entire, and mingleth not her streams with the water of the lake. Let not Ephraim mix himself among the people, but cry with David, "Gather not my soul with sinners," Psalms 26:9 , and Hosea 7:5 , "I have hated the congregration of evildoers, and will not sit with the wicked,"

Ephraim is a cake not turned — And so but half-baked, or dough-baked; neque crudus, neque coctus, neither hot nor cold, as Laodicea, Revelation 3:15 , halting between two, as 1 Kings 18:21 . Mongrels, as those 2 Kings 17:33 Zephaniah 1:5 . Barnacles, that are neither fish nor flesh; Amphibians, that will conform to the world, and yet seem to be for the Lord. But he likes no such retainers, no such holy day servants; he requireth to be served truly, that there be no halting; and totally, that there be no halving; he cannot away with dough baked duties. Men must be "fervent in spirit, serving the Lord," they must he "zealous of good works," if they look to be accepted, 1 Timothy 2:14; 1 Timothy 2:141 Timothy 2:14; 1 Timothy 2:14 . The "effectual fervent prayer," or the thorough wrought prayer, "of a righteous man availeth much," James 5:16 , ενεργουμενη . A cake that is half baked, half burnt pleaseth not the palate; no more do customary, formal, bedulling performances please the Lord. It is Gualther’s note upon this text; As a cake, saith he, that is raw on the one side and scorched on the other is cast away; so hypocrites that are hot in their superstitions, but cold in their devotions, are rejected of God;

“ Introrsum turpes, speciosi pelle decora. ”

I know the words are otherwise interpreted by Luther, Mercer, Polanus, and others, with reference to the following words, thus: that Ephraim’s adversaries, even those strangers with whom he hath mixed himself, shall be so greedy to devour him, that they shall not stay till he be baked on both sides, but shall eat him raw. But I like the former better.

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