Ver. 1. I saw the Lord] This seer, Amos 7:12, saw the Lord in a vision; for otherwise God is too subtile for sinew or sight to seize upon him. We cannot look upon the body of the sun, neither can we see at all without the beams of it; so here. Standing upon the altar] Or, firmly set, sc. to do execution upon that altar, sc. that idolatrous altar at Bethel mentioned before, and formerly threatened by another prophet, 1 Kings 13:1,2. The Rabbis say, God was seen standing upon that altar, as ready to sacrifice and slay the men of that age, whose idolatries and other impieties he could no longer bear with. And hence it is haply, that he is brought in standing; like as Acts 7:55, Jesus, at Stephen’s death, was seen standing at the right hand of God, where he is usually said to sit. Stat ut vindex, sedet ut iudex. He stood as his defender and sat as his judge. And he said] sc. to the angel that stood by, Zechariah 3:7, or to the enemy commissioned by him, or to some other creature, for they are all his servants, Psalms 119:91, neither can he want a weapon to tame his rebels with. Smite the lintel of the door, that the posts may shake] Smite with a courage, as Ezekiel 9:5. Angels give no light blows. “Behold, the Lord, the Lord of hosts, shall lop the bough with terror: and the high ones of stature shall be hewn down, and the haughty shall be humbled. And he shall cut down the thickets of the forests with iron, and Lebanon shall fall by a mighty one,” Isaiah 10:33,34; that is, by an angel shall he smite to the ground that mighty army which was like a thick wood. See Isaiah 37:36 Ps 78:25 89:6. So at our Saviour’s resurrection, an angel, in despite of the soldiers set to watch, rolled away the grave stone, and sat upon it. And as a mighty man, when he sitteth down, shaketh the bench under him, so did he shake the earth; “and for fear of him the keepers did shake, and became as dead men,” Matthew 28:2,4. Down with this idol temple, down with it, saith God here, even to the ground. And cut them in the head, all of them] Cleave them down the middle, so that every post may be sure to fall, being divided from the top to the bottom; and let this act be a sign to them all of what I intend to do to their persons, as many of them as by this gate have entered into this idol temple and altar. A deep cut in the head is dangerous and deadly, Genesis 3:15 Ps 68:21. And I will slay the last of them] I, by mine agents and instruments, as before: for it is but one hand and many executioners that God slays men with. Job could discern God’s arrows in Satan’s hand, and God’s hand on the arms of the Sabean robbers. The sword is bathed in heaven before it is imbrued in men’s blood, Isaiah 34:5. “The Lord killeth and maketh alive,” saith holy Hannah, 1 Samuel 2:6. He that fleeth of them shall not flee away] See Amos 2:14. [See Trapp on “Am 2:14”] and say, Behold the severity of God, Romans 11:12.
Ver. 2. Though they dig into hell, &c.] No starting hole shall secure them from the wrath of God and rage of the creature, set at work by him. “Hell and destruction are before the Lord,” Proverbs 15:11, yea, hell is naked before him, and destruction hath no covering, Job 26:6. He hath a sharp eye, and a long hand, to pull men out of their lurking holes; as he did Adam out of the thicket, Manasseh from among the thorns, 2 Chronicles 33:11, Jonah from the sides of the ship, the Duke of Buckingham in Richard III’s time, &c. “Be sure,” saith Moses, “your sin will find you out,” Numbers 32:23, and God’s hand will hale you to punishment. Though they climb up to heaven] That is (by a hyperbole), to high and strong places; as the Babel builders, the Benjamites that fled to the rock Rimmon, and there abode four months, Judges 20:47, the gibing Jebusites, that were so confident of their stronghold of Zion that they flouted David and his forces, 2 Samuel 5:8, the proud prince of Tyre, and others. Thence will I bring them down] From their loftiest tops of pride and creature confidence, which God loves to confute and defeat: as I might instance in Nebuchadnezzar, Xerxes, Haman, Sejanus, Bajazet, that terror of the world, and (as he thought) superior to fortune, yet in an instant, with his state, in one battle overthrown into the bottom of misery and despair; and that in the midst of his great strength. The same end awaits the Pope and his hierarchyruet alto a culmine Roma, that Jupiter Capitolinus shall be one day unroosted by him, who casteth the wicked down to the ground, Psalms 147:6.
Ver. 3. And though they hide themselves in the top of Carmel] In densis silvis, inter spelaea ferarum. In the thick woods among the dens of the wild beasts. Lawful enough it is in some cases to hide, as David did often and Elias, and Christ, and Paul, 2 Corinthians 11:32,33, and Athanasius, and various other saints. Tertullian was too rigid in condemning all kind of hiding in evil times. But to hide from God, who searcheth Jerusalem with lights, and to whom the darkness and the light are both alike, Psalms 139:12, to whom obscura clarent, muta respondent, silentium confitetur, this is base and bootless. Carmel shall not cover them, nor any other startinghole secure them from Divine justice. The poor Jews were pulled by the Romans out of privies and other underground places, where they had hid themselves, as Josephus writeth; and so were those Samaritans served by the Assyrians, who ferreted them out, and slaughtered them. And though they be hid from my sight] As they think, but that cannot be; for he (like the optic virtue in the eye) sees all and is seen of none. In the bottom of the sea] Which, how deep and troublesome soever, is to God a sea of glass like unto crystal, Revelation 4:6: corpus diaphanum, a pervious, clear, transparent body such as he sees through, and hath the sole command of. Thence will I command the serpent] For therre is that crooked serpent leviathan, Isaiah 27:1, there are also creeping things innumerable Psalms 104:26, to arrest wicked men as rebels and traitors to the highest majesty, and to drag them down to the bottom of bell. All elements and creatures shall draw upon them, as servants will do upon such as assault their lord Rebellisque facta est, quia homo numini, creatura homini, as Austin truly and trimly avoucheth.