Ver. 1. Gather yourselves together.] This is Jacob’s swan-like song, his last bequeath, his farewell to the world; and it is a most heavenly one. The wine of God’s Spirit is usually strongest and best at last in the hearts of his people: his motions, quickest when natural motions are slowest; most sensible when the body begins to be senseless most lively when holy men are dying. Look how the sun shines most amiably toward the descent and rivers, the nearer they draw to the sea, the sooner they are met by the tide: so it is with the saints when nigh to death; when grace is changing into glory, they deliver themselves usually to the standers-by most sweetly. So, besides Jacob, did Moses, Joshua, Paul, and he in whose one example is a globe of precepts, our Lord Jesus Christ, in that last heavenly sermon and prayer of his, John 14:1-17:26 Whereunto let me add that faithful martyr, John Diazius, who was cruelly butchered by his own brother Alphonsus Diazius, and that merely for his religion. [See Trapp on “Ge 4:8”] I remember, saith Senarclaeus, his friend and bedfellow, who wrote the history of his death, when he and I were at Newburg, the very night before he was murdered, he prayed before he went to bed more ardently than ordinary, and for a longer time together. After which he spent a good part of the night in discoursing of the great works of God, and exhorting me to the practice of true piety. And truly I felt myself so inflamed and quickened by his words, that when I heard him discoursing, I thought I heard the Spirit of God speaking unto me. This, and much more, Senarclaeus writes to Bucer, who at that time had employed Diazius to overlook the correct printing of a book of his that was then in the press. That I may tell you that which shall befall you.] But how knew Moses this last speech of Jacob, being born so long after? Partly by revelation, and partly also by tradition. For the words of dying men are living oracles, and their last speeches are long remembered. And the accomplishment of all these prophecies in their due time, as the following scriptures show, adds much to the authority of Moses’s writings, and confirms them to be “faithful and true,” as he saith, John 21:24. Sic ubi fata vocant, udis abiectus in herbis, Ad vada Maeandri concinit albus olor. -Ovid., Epist. Ego vero illius oratione sic incendebar, ut cum eum disserentem audirem, Spiritus sancti verba me audire existimarem. -Ibid.
Ver. 2. Hear, ye sons of Jacob; and hearken.] Draw up the ears of your souls to the ears of your bodies, that one sound may pierce both at once. “Let him that hath an ear to hear, hear”: not only with that outward gristle that grows upon his head, but with his utmost intention of mind, attention of body, and retention of memory, and of practice also, He that hears the word of God, must hear as ff he did, for so he doth, hear for life and death; he must, as Jacob bids his sons, “hear and hearken.”
Ver. 3. My might, and beginning of my strength.] Nate meae vires… The word here used signifieth the straining of the body forcibly to effect a thing much desired: such as was that of St Paul, [επεκτεινομενος, Philippians 3:14] and that of Elijah, (1 Kings 18:42) when he prayed and prayed, as St James hath it, that is, with utmost intention of affection (προσευχη προσνυξατο, James 5:17). The excellency of dignity, and the excellency of power.] That is, saith the Chaldee Paraphrast, Excellens principatu et sacerdotio. Both these he forfeited and fell from; so cannot Christians. (Revelation 1:6)
Ver. 4. Unstable as water.] Easily drawn to sin, and suddenly down from his dignity. Reuben, for a short sinful pleasure, lost great privileges and blessings. So do all epicures that lose heaven for a base lust, their souls for their sin. As Ambrose reports of one Theotinus, that having a diseased body, and told by the physician that unless he lived temperately he would lose his eyes; Vale lumen amicum, said he; if my eyes will not away with my lusts, they are no eyes for me. So here; men will have their swing in sin, whatever come of it. They may so, and for a time, hear no more of it; as Reuben did not for almost forty years after his incest was committed. But, quod defertur non statim aufertur. The heathen historian could see, and say, That, sooner or later, great sins will have great punishments from God. Deus horrenda peccata horrendis poenis immutabiliter vindicat, saith Pareus on this text. He went up to my couch.] The fact was so odious to Jacob, that, “abhorring” (Romans 12:9, αποστυγουντες) the very thought of it, he turneth his speech from Reuben to the rest. Hate as hell that which is evil, saith Paul. And, as for “fornication, and all uncleanness, let it not be once named amongst you.” (Ephesians 5:3) Spit it out of your mouths, as the devil’s drivel. των μεγαλων αδικηματων μεγαλαι εισι και αι τιμωριαι παρα τους Θεους.