Ver. 1. Prophesy to the mountains of Israel.] Better things than thou didst to Mount Seir in the foregoing chapter. See Isaiah 3:10,11. [See Trapp on “Isa 3:10”] [See Trapp on “Isa 3:11”] Ye mountains.] That is, ye mountaineers, qui sere asperi atque inculti. Sed “ Nemo adeo ferus est qui non mitescere possit, Si modo culturae patientem accommodet aurem.” - Horace
Ver. 2. Because the enemy hath said.] The Church fareth the better for her enemies petulancies and insolencies against her. Even the ancient high places.] Or, The everlasting altitudes. Judea lay high; the Church is much higher. Are ours in possession.] Thus the Edomites triumphed before the victory. So did the Spaniards in 1588, and God heard them, [as Ezekiel 35:13] for he is all-ear, all-eye, &c. He is jealous for his people, (Zechariah 1:14) and jealousy is quick sighted, quick conceited.
Ver. 3. Because they have.] Heb., Because and because; importing earnestness and heat of indignation. So Leviticus 26:43. And ye are taken up in the lips of talkers.] Heb., Ye are made to ascend upon the lip of the tongue, and upon the evil fame of the people. God takes it extreme ill that his people should be traduced and defamed; which yet hath been their lot in all ages; but he will not fail to vindicate them, and to avenge them.
Ver. 4. Therefore thus saith the Lord God to the mountains.] For men there were hardly any left, or not very fit to be dealt with. See Ezekiel 36:1. Which became a prey.] To those man eaters, (Ezekiel 36:3) qui diruerunt et devoraverunt, who did eat up God’s people as they ate bread, (Psalms 14:4) making themselves merry with their misery.
Ver. 5. Surely in the fire of my jealousy.] Jealousy is hot as hell; (Song of Solomon 8:6) it is implacable, (Proverbs 6:34,35) and very vindictive. See Zechariah 1:14. [See Trapp on “Zec 1:14”] Here God swears he will be even with these Edomites. Which have appointed my land.] This the Lord hath never done with, so ill be took it.
Ver. 6. Say unto the mountains and to the hills.] To those lifeless creatures he directeth his speech, to show that every creature groaneth and waiteth for the redemption of our bodies. It fareth the better also in this life present, for the elect’s sake, as it was once cursed for man’s sin, and hath lain bedridden, as it were, ever since. Because ye have borne the shame of the heathen.] This the Lord could not bear with any patience.
Ver. 7. I have lifted up mine hand.] Sworn solemnly. Men, when they swear, do so as taking God to witness. Three fingers they do often lift up, and hold down two, to signify, saith Lavater, that God, who is three in one, hath prepared a place in heaven for such as swear rightly, but will thrust down to hell those that forswear themselves. They shall bear their shame.] They shall be paid home in their own coin, be overshot in their own bow, be covered with their own confusion.
Ver. 8. Ye shall shoot forth your branches.] Reflourish and fructify; the Christian churches (those spiritual mountains) shall especially. (Revelation 22:2) For they are at hand to come.] To come home out of captivity, or to return to God by repentance. The fall of Antichrist cannot be far off.
Ver. 9. For, behold, I am for you.] Or, I come to you, and I come with a cornucopia in mine hand.
Ver. 10. All the house of Israel, even all of it.] The Israel of God in the kingdom of the Messiah, totum totum, quantum quantum, not one of them shall be missing.
Ver. 11. And will do better unto you.] This must necessarily be understood of spiritual blessings by Christ; for temporals, they never had the like to those in the days of Joshua, David, Solomon, Hezekiah, &c.
Ver. 12. Thou shalt be their inheritance.] Yea, a type and pledge of that heavenly inheritance. (1 Peter 1:4 Revelation 21:1-10,22-27 22:1-5) And thou shalt no more henceforth bereave them.] Provoke God to bereave them.
Ver. 13. Thou land devourest up men,] scil., By pestilence, famine, sword, evil beasts: thou art an unlucky land, an unblest country, feral and fatal to thine inhabitants. Hesiod saith the like of his country Ascre; and another of St David’s in Wales, that it is a place neither pleasant, fertile, nor safe. Strabo saith the like of Judea, but with a despiteful mind. [as Ezekiel 36:5] Those malevolent spies said no less. (Numbers 13:32) Terra abortiens populos. Girald., Cambrens.
Ver. 14. Neither bereave thy nations any more.] Either by consuming them, or spuing them out. [as Leviticus 18:28,20:22 26:20,22] See what is said of heaven, Revelation 22:3-5.
Ver. 15. Neither will I cause men to hear.] I will cut off all occasions, and remove all such stumblingblocks as whereat the nations dash and split themselves.
Ver. 16. Moreover the word.] See Ezekiel 18:1
Ver. 17. When the house of Israel.] Ubique Scriptura vindicat gloriam Dei, maxime autem hoc loco. This place of Scripture doth singularly set forth the glory of God’s grace, while it showeth that man’s destruction is wholly of himself, his help only of God. As the uncleanness.] As a menstruous clout, abhorred by all. Oecolamp.
Ver. 18. For the blood which they had shed.] These two gross sins are instanced, viz., murder and idolatry, lest they should plead, as in Jeremiah 2:35, “I have not sinned”; or as in Hosea 12:8, “In all my works they shall find none iniquity in me; that were sin.”
Ver. 19. And I scattered them among the heathen.] Whose idols they had worshipped, and whose manners they had imitated.
Ver. 20. These are the people of the Lord.] And these are the fruits of their religion. Are these the holy people? &c. Lactantius complaineth of his times, that God’s truth was evil spoken of by the heathen, because Christians lived loosely and lewdly. Whereupon Erasmus crieth out, O rem miseram! Oh, lamentable! Even in those purer times the piety of Christians was so much abated, that the gospel was therefore evil spoken of, for the evil lives of many that professed it. What marvel then, saith he, that Turks cry out upon us? that the banks of blasphemy are broken down in persons disaffected to the power of godliness? Lactant., de Opific. Dei; Proaem. Erasm. in Lactant.
Ver. 21. But I had pity for my holy name.] So he hath still, or else it would be wide enough with us. Some render it, I spared, or tendered, mine holy name; and, to free it from those imputations, I freely forgave my people, and re-established them.
Ver. 22. I do not this for your sakes.] To do good without respect of desert is royal, yea, it is divine. But for mine own holy name’s sake.] God maketh our utter unworthiness a foil to set forth the freeness of his love, in making us worthy whom he found not so.
Ver. 23. And I will sanctify my great name.] I will recover my reputation among the heathen, by declaring my justice in your punishment, and my mercy in your restoration. God, as he is moved by his own grace to do his people good, so he aimeth therein at his own glory.
Ver. 24. For I will take you, &c.] I will effectually call you out of darkness into my marvellous light, and cull you out from this wicked world. And this is the first thing that God here promiseth to his covenanters. More than this, he promiseth them in the following verses justification, sanctification, and preservation, or provision of temporal blessings, that nothing may be wanting to them that may make them happy. We should be often counting of this coin, telling of this treasure.
Ver. 25. Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you.] He alludeth to the legal purifications, especially that made by the ashes of a red cow mixed with running water, wherewith the people were sprinkled, and so cleansed from legal defilement. (Numbers 19:17-19) Semblably the saints, sprinkled with Christ’s blood from an evil conscience by the hyssop bunch of faith, and so washed with clean water (Hebrews 10:22) in baptism, the saving virtue whereof is permanent, (1 Peter 3:21) are justified and sanctified. (1 Corinthians 6:11) This blessed sprinkling David prayeth for. (Psalms 51:2) The Baptist also, and others, sprinkled those whom they baptized, both to answer the types of the law and this prediction of the prophet, understood by Jerome of baptism, which is a visible sign and seal of our being washed from the filth of sin by the merit and Spirit of Jesus Christ. (Titus 3:5) Epist. 83.
Ver. 26. A new heart also will I give you.] For the old heart will never hold out the hardship of holiness; the old fabric must be taken down, and a new set up. See Ezekiel 11:19. A “new man” both in constitution and conversation one must be, or else he is no man in Christ. (2 Corinthians 5:17) And I will taks away the stony heart.] The natural heart, which is hard and refractory, “to every good work reprobate.” Hard is that which resisteth the touch. The old heart is inflexible to God’s Spirit, insensible of his word and judgments, and impenetrable to his grace. Where, then, is man’s freewill? Garriant illi, nos credamus; there is no such thing, believe it. Nature is wholly stony: it is God alone that “of these stones raiseth up children to Abraham.” And I will give you an heart of flesh,] i.e., Tractable, and capable of divine impressions, ready to every good work. (Titus 3:1) Augustine.
Ver. 27. And I will put my Spirit within you.] Qui mulcendo et molliendo. Who, by melting and mollifying your hard hearts, shall bring you to a better obedience. And cause you to walk in my statutes.] Lex iubet, gratia iuvat. God undertaketh for himself and his people too, viz., to work in them what he requireth of them. Therefore it is an “everlasting covenant, ordered in all things”; and the fruits of it are “sure mercies,” “compassions that fail not,” &c. See on Ezekiel 11:20.
Ver. 28. And ye shall dwell in the land,] i.e., In Judea, or rather in the Church, which began in Judea, saith the Jesuit well The Church of Rome, then, is not the mother Church; no, though we take it in its primitive purity. A Lapide.
Ver. 29. I will also save you from all your uncleannesses.] This is often promised, because not easily believed. No article of our creed is so much opposed by Satan, as that of the forgiveness of sin by Christ’s merits, which is the very life and soul of a Church. All the former articles of the creed are perfected in this, and all the following articles are effects thereof: hold it fast, therefore. And I will call for the corn.] I have it at my call, and a mandamus from me will do it at any time. See Hosea 2:21,22. [See Trapp on “Ho 2:21”] [See Trapp on “Ho 2:22”] And lay no famine.] Which comes also at God Almighty’s call. (Psalms 105:16)
Ver. 30. That ye shall receive no more reproach.] The heathen were often twitting God’s people with their outward wants and crosses, as if caused by their religion. So the persecutors did by the primitive Christians, and so the Papists still deal with the New Gospellers, as they scornfully call the Reformed Churches.
Ver. 31. Then shall ye remember.] The goodness of God shall lead you to repentance; so many mercies heaped upon so undeserving, nay, so illdeserving creatures, shall bring you to a deep detestation of your iniquities. Your own evil ways, and your doings that were not good.] There are some things, saith one, that we can hardly forget, viz., our sorrows and our pleasures, as Esau; some things we can hardly remember, as our faults and our friends, as Joseph’s butler. Augustine was famous, saith another for two of his works: his Retractions, which are the confessions of his errors; and his Confessions, which are the retractions of his life. See Ezekiel 20:43. And shall loathe yourselves.] Or, Ye shall look upon yourselves as worthy to be destroyed. Or, Ye shall scold within yourselves against your iniquities. Litigabitis intra vos contra flagitia vestra.
Ver. 32. Not for your sakes.] See on Ezekiel 36:22. Be ashamed.] Abashed and abased, as was Ezra, (Ezra 9:6) Ephraim, (Jeremiah 31:19) the publican. (Luke 18:13)
Ver. 33. I shall have cleansed you.] See on Ezekiel 36:29. I will also cause you to dwell.] See Ezekiel 36:28.
Ver. 34. And the desolate land shall be tilled.] As now, blessed be God, it is in the Palatinate and other parts of Germany, though now is no small danger of a new war, quod Dominus avertat. because she turned away from God.
Ver. 35. This land.] Such a change can God soon make for worse or better. Fear him therefore; fear the Lord and his goodness. (Hosea 3:5)
Ver. 36. Then the heathen.] Haec iam ex parte fata sunt, saith Oecolampadius. This day is this scripture fulfilled in our eyes: the ruined churches are rebuilt, and the matter well amended by this blessed Reformation, and Rome knows it.
Ver. 37. I will yet for this be inquired of,] i.e., Though I have promised my people all these boons, yet I look they should put my promises in suite, by praying them over. Prayer is an indispensable duty, and must not on any pretence whatsoever be neglected. I will increase them with men like a flock.] Plenty of men and store of children is a great blessing of God. Yet some are ready to say of them, as that rustic did of his afflictions, when he was told they were God’s love tokens, Ah quam velim alios amare, non me. Oh how I wish to love others, not myself. Luther.
Ver. 38. As the holy flock.] The sheep that come up for sacrifice, at the passover especially; so will I multiply the sheep of Christ, the true shepherd.