Ver. 1. Thou shalt not raise.] Neither raise nor receive it; neither be the tale bearer nor talehearer: the one carries the devil in his tongue, the other in his ear. Not only those that “make a lie,” but those that “love” it when it is made to their hands, are shut out of heaven. (Revelation 22:15) Solomon makes it an ill sign of a graceless man to be apt to believe scandalous reports of godly persons. (Proverbs 17:4)
Ver. 2. Thou shalt not follow a multitude.] The way to hell is broad and well beaten. Per viam publicam ne ingredere, was one of Pythagoras’s precepts. Do not as the most do, lest thou be undone for ever. Argumentum turpissimum est turba, saith Seneca. To live “according to the course of the world” is to be acted by the devil. (Ephesians 2:2)
Ver. 3. Neither shalt thou countenance.] Spare not the great for their might, nor the mean for their misery.
Ver. 4. Ox or his ass going astray.] How much more his soul. [See Trapp on “Jas 5:20”] [See Trapp on “Jude 1:22”] [See Trapp on “Jude 1:23”]
Ver. 5. Thou shalt surely help with him.] So the Spirit helps with us; or lifts over against us. [ουναντιλαμβανεται, Romans 8:26] He looks ut acti agamus.
Ver. 6. The judgment of thy poor.] I have seen, saith one, the king of Persia many times to alight from his horse, only to do justice to a poor body. Causes are to be heard, and not persons: the Athenian judges passed sentence in the dark. The Preacher’s Travels, by J. Cartwright.
Ver. 7. Keep thee far from a false matter.] Stand aloof off; keep at a distance. See Isaiah 33:15. A public man should be above all price or sale: and every man should carefully keep himself from the occasions of sin. A good man dare not come near the train, though he be far off the blow.
Ver. 8. And thou shalt take no gift.] Rain is good, and ground is good; yet Ex eorum coniunctione fit lutum, saith Stapleton. So giving is kind, and taking is courteous, yet the mixing of them makes the smooth paths of justice foul and uneven.
Ver. 9. Thou shalt not oppress, &c.] [See Trapp on “Ex 22:21”]
Ver. 10. Thou shalt sow thy land.] Here the wise man’s counsel would be remembered, Laudato ingentia rura, exiguum colito. To be called a good husbandman, was of old a high praise.
Ver. 11. But the seventh year.] That they might learn to live by faith, and be at good leisure to wait upon God. (Deuteronomy 31:10-12) Let every one of us keep a spiritual Sabbath, saith Ignatius, Μελετη νομου χαιρων, ου σωματος ανεσει, Better apaid of the meditation of the law, than of the relaxation and rest from labour. Ep, iii. ad Magnes.
Ver. 12. Six days.] [See Trapp on “Ex 20:8”]
Ver. 13. Be circumspect.] Or wary; keep you close to the rule, and up to your principles. [See Trapp on “Eph 5:15”] Of the name of other gods,] sc., Without dislike. The primitive Christians would not call their days of the week, Dies Martis, Mercurii, &c., as Mercurius Trismegistus had named them; but the first, second, third, &c., day of the week, Deastrorum nomina ne nota quidem esse voluerunt inter Christi cultores, saith one. They desired that Christians should spit out of their mouths those dunghill deities with utmost contempt; as David did. (Psalms 16:4)
Ver. 14. Three times.] See Deuteronomy 16:16. The Hebrew hath it three feet, because the most went up to those three feasts every year afoot, saith Aben Ezra.
Ver. 15. Thou shalt keep the feast.] Let us also keep the feast, or holy day. (1 Corinthians 5:8) [See Trapp on “1Co 5:8”]
Ver. 16. And the feast of harvest.] Pentecost, when their wheat harvest came in. In the end of the year.] See the reason of this law in Deuteronomy 11:12. It was “a land which the Lord cared for: the eyes of the Lord were always upon it from the beginning of the year even unto the end of the year.”
Ver. 17. All thy males.] The females are not required to appear, because they were weak, and not so fit for travel. They were also the housekeepers, and sanctified in their husbands. Howbeit many of them came up to these feasts, as Hannah, (1 Samuel 2:19) and the Virgin Mary. (Luke 2:41) And this was well accepted as a freewill offering.
Ver. 18. Of my sacrifice.] Especially of the passover. See Exodus 34:25 Le 2:1-3.
Ver. 19. The first of the firstfruits.] The best of the best is not to be held too good for God. His “soul hath desired the first ripe fruits.” (Micah 7:1) Thou shalt not seethe a kid.] Hereby seemeth to be forbidden either cruelty, or curiosity to please the palate. See my “Commonplace of Abstinence.” The Jews at this day, in reference to this law, may not eat flesh and cheese or milk meats together.
Ver. 20. Behold, I send an Angel,] i.e., Christ. Immediately after God had given the law, -by the rule and threats whereof God the Father in his government was to proceed, saith a divine, -and after they had transgressed it, (Exodus 33:2-4) he could not go along with them, for he should destroy them: but his Angel, that is, his Son, he would send with them; who also would destroy them, if they turned not, nor repented according to the rules of his law, the gospel. Mr Thomas Goodwin.
Ver. 21. My name is in him,] i.e., He is of the same nature with myself. See Philippians 2:6 Heb 1:3. [See Trapp on “Php 2:6”] [See Trapp on “Heb 1:3”]
Ver. 22. An enemy unto thine enemies.] There is a covenant offensive and defensive betwixt God and his people. Tua causa erit mea causa, said that emperor to his wronged friend: so saith God to his.
Ver. 23. For mine angel.] Heb., Malachi; which is by transposition of letters Michael, as some Rabbis have observed.
Ver. 24. Thou shalt utterly overthrow them.] As Henry VIII began here to do in demolishing the monasteries, and saying, Corvorum nidos esse penitus disturbandos ne iterum ad habitandum convolent. This Saunders relates and discusses. Schism. Angl., lib. i.
Ver. 25. Bless thy bread.] God’s blessing is the staff of bread, and strength of water. [See Trapp on “Mt 4:4”]
Ver. 26. The number of thy days.] Thou shalt die, as Abraham did, with a good hoary head; be satur dierum, as Job; fall as a full ripe apple into the hands of God, the gatherer.
Ver. 27. My fear before thee.] Strike a panic fear into the hearts of thine enemies, so that they shall flee at the noise of a driven leaf; they shall be made & corde suo fugitivi, as Tertullian hath it.
Ver. 28. Hornets before thee.] Understand it either literally, as in Joshua 24:12; or figuratively, of the stinging terrors of their self-condemning consciences.
Ver. 29. In one year.] God’s time is best: and to prescribe to him is to set the sun by our dial. His help seems long, because we are short. Wait upon him, who waits to show us mercy. (Isaiah 30:18)
Ver. 30. By little and little] God crumbles his mercies to us; we have his blessings by retail. So the cloud empties not itself at a sudden burst, but dissolves upon the earth drop after drop.
Ver. 31. The sea of the Philistines,] i.e., The Mediterranean.
Ver. 32. No covenant with them.] Because devoted to destruction; and they will be drawing thee to idolatry, as it also happened in Judges 1 Jud 2.
Ver. 33. A snare.] See Deuteronomy 7:16 Jos 23:13 Jud 2:3.