They make great complaint, Isaiah 58:3, that God took no notice of their services, which complaint God seems now to satisfy: q.d. These conditions observed, call upon me, and thou shalt see I will regard, Psalms 34:15. See Isaiah 1:18. The Lord shall answer; he will give an effectual demonstration, that he hears thee, by the real answer that he will give to thy request, Psalms 34:17, Psalms 99:6 118:5. Here I am; a phrase that notes a person to be ready at hand for work, as Isa 6 8; or for help, as God here, and Psalms 46:1; or both, Psalms 145:18,19. From the midst; not a geometrical middle or centre, but having a place among others; the meaning is, from among you. The yoke, i.e. all those pressures and grievances before mentioned, Isaiah 58:6; all that barbarous slavery they brought their brethren into; the particulars expressed by that one Hebrew word motah, three times used in this chapter. The putting forth of the finger: there being often an indication of a man's mind by the postures of several parts of the body, as of lust, malice, scorn, revenge, &c., Proverbs 6:12-14, this putting forth of the finger may point at divers things all springing from two roots; either the secret malice of the heart, or just and open violence. It is used,
1. Sometimes by way of scoff, reproof, or disdainful insulting, as the Pharisee seems to point at the publican, Luke 18:11; pointing with the finger, like winking with the eye, seeming to indicate something that may cause shame in another; and this is reckoned among great afflictions, Hebrews 11:36. See 2 Chronicles 36:16 Jeremiah 20:7 2. Sometimes for beating, or other injurious treating men, seizing either their persons or estates: such a putting forth of the hand you have mentioned 1 Samuel 22:17; and this agrees well to the fist of wickedness, Isaiah 58:4; and so the finger may be put by a synecdoche for the hand, and that which before was called the fist may be here called the finger.
3. Sometimes as a token of putting suitors by, and refusing to hear their petitions and requests, seeking to them for mercy and pity.
4. Sometimes to express an angry mind, stirring up itself, either to the imperious commanding of a thing, or to revenge, whether by the gesture alone, or accompanied with menacing expressions. signifying thereby a purpose to put our power in execution. Speaking vanity, Heb. aven; it signifies a lie, or iniquity, as Psalms 5:5 6 8; and so the sense may be, If thou dost not proceed to indecent expressions in thy strifes, brawls, and threatenings with thy finger, which seldom is done without sin; and thus the counsel here may suit with our Saviour s, Matthew 5:21,22, viz. not only not stretch out thine hand against thy brother, but not so much as be lavish with thy tongue: so speaking vanity may be a meiosis, for not railing; the LXX. render it muttering, which is an incomplete kind of speaking, whereby we reproach another in low, unformed, undigested expressions. But it seems here rather to signify affliction, not only because the word used in this place doth properly so signify, but because it is most agreeable to the matter discoursed of, and the Chaldee render it violence; and then the sense is, speaking words of affliction, or that will vex and grieve, like those words of Nabal to David's servants, 1 Samuel 25:10,11 Pr 18:23. And thus it relates to their harsh and unjust commands, wherewith they were wont to burden their servants; a synecdoche of the kind.