Ver. 1. Run to and fro.] Spatiamini, scrutamini. Go as many of you as ye please; the verbs are plural. In the streets of Jerusalem.] Where it was strange there should be such a rarity of righteous ones. But “the faithful city was now become a harlot.” (Isaiah 1:21) Like as Rome is at this day. “ Tota est iam Roma lupanar. ” “Now all Rome isa brothel.” She had a Mancinel, a Savonarola, and some few other Jeremiahs, to tell her her own; but she soon took an order with them. The primitive Christians called heathens pagans; because country people, living in pagis -that is, in hamlets and villages—were heathenish for most part, after that cities were converted, and had many good people in them; but Jerusalem here afforded not any one hardly. If you can find a man,] i.e., A godly, a zealous man. For homines permulti, viri perpauci, saith Herodotus: there is a great paucity of good people. Diogenes is said to have sought for a good man in Athens with a lantern and candle at noonday. And once, when he had made an O yes in the market place, crying out, ‘ Ακουσατε ανδρες, Hear, O ye men; and thereupon company came about him to hear what the matter was, he rated them away again with this speech, Ανδρας εκαλεσα, ου καθαρματα, I called for men, and not for varlets. Job was a man, every inch of him. [See Trapp on “Job 1:1”] So was Moses, that “man of God”; Daniel, that “man of desires”; John Baptist, “than whom there arose not a greater among all that were born of woman”; Paul, that little man but who did great exploits; Athanasius and Luther who stood out against all the world, and prevailed. But “not many” such; blessed be God that any such. Cicero observeth that scarce in an age was born a good poet. And Seneca saith, such as Clodius was, we have enough: but such as Cato are hard to be found. The host of Nola being bid to summon the good men of the town to appear before the Roman censor, got him to the churchyard, and there called at the graves of the dead: for he knew not where to call for a good man alive. God himself sought for a man that might stand up in the gap, but met not with any such one. (Ezekiel 22:30) And I will pardon it.] Sodom’s sins cried loud to God for vengeance; so did now Jerusalem’s. But had there been but a voice or two more of righteous and religious persons there, their prayers had outcried them. A few birds of song are shriller than many crocitating birds of prey. In Polyh. Calvinus erat vir admirabilis. Ipsa a quo posset virtutem discere virtus. Guevara.
Ver. 2. And though they say, The Lord liveth,] i.e., Albeit they talk religiously, as those pretenders also did, (Isaiah 66:5) and make a great flaunt, as if some great matter, with Simon Magus, (Acts 8:9) yet they are arrant hypocrites, and therefore odious to me who desire “truth in the inward parts.” (Psalms 51:6) These neither “say the truth,” nor “do” it. (1 John 3:10)
Ver. 3. O Lord, are not thine eyes upon the truth?] And can these painted hypocrites hope ever to please thee? how much are they mistaken? Thou hast stricken them, but they have not grieved.] As being “past feeling,” of a dead and dedolent disposition; like naughty boys, which are the worse for a whipping; or Solomon’s drunkard, who is beaten, but never the better. (Proverbs 23:35) There is no surer sign of a carnal Israelite, of a profligate professor, than to be senseless or incorrigible under public judgments.
Ver. 4. Therefore I said,] i.e., I thought with myself. Surely these,] scil., That swear falsely, and refuse to be reformed, &c. Are poor.] Of the rascality, under law, base and beggarly, who neither know God’s will, nor hold themselves much bound to do it. Of the poorer sort in Swethland it is reported, that they do always break the Sabbath, saying that it is for gentlemen only to keep that day.
Ver. 5. I will get me unto the great men.] Who have been better bred, and abound with leisure, and other helps to holy living. But these have altogether broken the yoke.] Of God, of the law, and of discipline. These are lawless and awless, and think they may lay the reins in the neck, and run riot.
Ver. 6. Therefore a lion of the forest shall slay them.] So Nebuchadnezzar is called for his cruelty, a wolf for his voracity, and a leopard for his slyness and swiftness. All the malignities of other creatures meet in the Church’s enemies.
Ver. 7. How shall I pardon thee for this?] How with the safety of mine honour and justice? Swearing then by creatures (us by our Lady, by St Anne, by this light, &c.), or by idols, (as by the mass, by the rood, &c.), or by qualities (as by faith, troth, &c.), is not so small a sin as many deem it, since God maketh here a great question how he can pardon it. For why? it is a forsaking of him, a giving away his honour to another, a disgrace done to a man’s self—since we always “swear by the greater,” (Hebrews 6:16) and a means to procure his utter ruin, without God’s greater mercy. (Amos 6:14 Zephaniah 1:3-5) Men sport themselves with oaths, as the Philistines did with Samson, which will at last pull the house about their ears. (Zechariah 5:4) When I fed them to the full, they then committed adultery.] Fulness in good men oft breeds forgetfulness, and in bad men, filthiness. Gula vestibulum luxuriae; gluttony is the gallery that incontinence walketh through. The Israelites ate and drank, and rose up to play— scil., with their Midianitish mistresses—to the provoking of God’s fierce wrath. Fulness of bread made way to Sodom’s sin. Lunatics, when the moon is declining and in the wane are sober enough; but when full, more wild and exorbitant. Ceres and Bacchus are great friends to Venus, &c. Watch therefore, and feed with fear. And assembled themselves by troops.] Heb., They trooped themselves; such was their impudence.