And they said, Arise, &c.— There cannot be a more infallible presage of the ruin of any people or nation, of the immediate destruction of a city or a kingdom, than when they dwell quiet and secure, when they are careless, as if nothing could befal them; when the magistrates are as careless as the people, or care not to put the people to shame for any thing. As good to be without any magistrates, as to have such as will neither instruct nor punish those who do amiss. They who were sent from the children of Dan to spy out the land, and to search out an inheritance to dwell in, (Judges 18:1-2.) thought that they need go no farther, when they had found in what condition and manner the people of Laish lived; that they dwelt careless, quiet, and secure, and that there was no magistrate in the land that might put them to shame in any thing: there was no more to be done, than to return to those who sent them, with the advertisement, Arise, &c.
Note; (1.) If there be no magistrate to bear the sword, or negligence let it sleep in the scabbard, barefaced iniquity will quickly walk in triumph. (2.) Shame is a great restraint on sin; when that is lost, men grow utterly abandoned. (3.) The security of sinners is their ruin.